The topic I have chosen to do my research paper on is “Discrimination Against Women.” Discrimination can be based on race, color, and religion. But the most significant one is gender discrimination. Women are the most targeted ones. My research will be about the reasons for discrimination, the effects that it has, situations that have happened, and support that was given.
Discrimination exists from a person gender to ethnicity, from their condition in society to preferences in dating. These are the types of discrimination that have similar segregates in one radical from another. People discriminate when someone is different just because they are poorer, smarter, overweight, too short, looks homosexual, or have different beliefs. All these are types of discrimination, but the most publicized forms of discrimination are racial, ethnic, and gender. Racial discrimination has occurred since the late 1800s with bondage, which issued racial tension between blacks and whites that are well-known. Ethnic discrimination, such as, against Chinese and Native Americans, occurred afterward, when minorities emigrated to European lands. Gender discrimination transpired when women wanted to be treated equally to men, such as that of being able to vote.
Suffrage is the term used to describe the right to vote. When people are without it, they work hard to have it. Without the ability to vote, one cannot have a say in what goes on around them. The most influential period for women and their fight for voting rights was from the 1890-1920s. Women felt that if they had the same independence as men had at that time that all of their problems would be solved. Problems occurred and, without being able to vote, they felt incapable of changing the future for themselves and their daughters. American women did not have the right to own property, keep the money that they earned, vote, get an education, or get custody of their children. Once divorced from the husband or if he dies they are expected to continue the rest of their lives as a widow, while men had many chances to marry as much as they wanted. If a female marries more than one time, she is looked down upon and called a disgrace. (Mundy10)
The women’s rights movement started back in 1848 when Elizabeth Stanton commenced the fight for her rights in addition to all women’s rights. Stanton held a convention to discuss all the areas where women remain discriminated against. That inspired other women to follow in Stanton’s footsteps by holding conventions to seek their justice. They saw many speakers, lobbyists, and political strategists to reinforce their fight and achieved actual results. In 1980, violent acts against women who sought abortions became prominent. The government did little to prevent this and seemed not to care. The struggle with abortion remains a major issue today.
Before 1970, millions of abortions were done every year, only one of ten thousand were legal. Violent acts toward women who sought abortions became common and the government was unsympathetic to the victims. Abortion is a highly controversial issue that has been constantly argued over for the past few years. The most radical formulation of the anti-abortion or ‘pro-life’ side of the debate views abortion as the murder of unborn children. Florynce Kennedy (1916-2000) said, ‘If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament.’ Abortions are harder today than ever, the workplace makes it that women should be ‘Guilty Of Pregnancy.’ Pregnancy discrimination is a type of employment discrimination that occurs when expecting women are fired, not hired, or otherwise discriminated against due to their pregnancy or intention to become pregnant. Many employees feel that pregnant women are a burden to the company and that dealing with the pregnancy would result in a reduction in productivity. The employer will want to refuse to hire the woman because of her pregnancy-related condition or give her an unpaid leave. Women should not be forced to choose work or bearing a child. (Covert15)
The only thing that should be taken into consideration for financial rewards in a workplace where the performance of a person, whether they are women or men. The gender, race, religion, or anything else should not matter. Women are contributing more than ever before, but they still can not seem to break through that glass ceiling of equality. The more educated and independent a woman happens to be, then the more likely she is to face some form of discrimination. Women are not seen as contributing individuals or employees, but a tool ready to be used in selfish ways. 1 out of 10 women are still threatened with their jobs if they don’t accept the sexual advances and contact that their co-workers, supervisors, or managers are throwing their way. Discrimination against women starts at birth and continues throughout childhood. Even in school females are treated differently than males; due to this, they are subjected to stereotypes.
One of the largest gender gaps is income. In the U.S., 42% of working women with the same jobs, meet the same goals and perform the same task as men continue to do less than them. Women in the U.S. who work full time, year-round are paid only 80 cents for every dollar paid to men — and for women of color, the wage gap is even larger. Many people believe that since women are entering the workforce in increasing numbers, discrimination against them no longer exists, but this has not been the case because wage discrimination continues to exist. Women of color are more likely than white women to be shunted into the lowest-earning occupations in the service sector and sales and office jobs. This trend is particularly pronounced for Hispanic women. (Milligan5)
Discrimination Against Women Isn’t Unique To Any One Religion. Observing from a male perspective, it’s difficult to notice how women are treated less equally than men in numerous aspects of their lives. Obvious ones are the gender pay gap that lower levels of representation in public life that no-one could miss. Religious custom can be embedded for so long that many men fail to recognize it as an inequality. From declaring that women cover their heads, to refusing to shake women’s hands, women have been, and still are treated as less than men by most religions. Women from certain racial or ethnic groups are vulnerable to trafficking or targeted by traffickers. Women refugees and migrants are also more vulnerable to violence, lack of representation, and limitations on their freedom of movement. Rape and other forms of violence have been used as weapons against women throughout history.
Although many countries and states have developed and accepted the changes in society today many continue to discriminate. Denying basic care—such as birth control and emergency contraception, not having equal rights to divorce, child custody, or even the way women dress. In many countries around the world, women’s choices are restricted by government laws, policies or regulations. Wearing ‘Religious Attire’ is a must and failure to comply can lead to harassment or acts of hostility(PewResearch13). Some of these countries are India, Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Yemen, and Nigeria. (GlobalCitizen14)
The problem of violence towards women rages all around the world and is a crisis in societies today. In the past, this problem was known as domestic violence, but has recently been modified to violence against women since home violence does not indicate that the majority of cases of domestic abuse are men injuring women. In 1994 the U.S. government surpassed a law known as the Violence Against Women Act to fight this problem, and in 2000 the Violence Against Women Act became enacted once more to reinforce the existing Act. The United international also has a set of legal guidelines and policies that the countries within the US must abide by to protect women. As I have demonstrated, governments and agencies have attempted to make laws and policies to protect and assist women, however, the violence continues. We need to not only bring awareness of the problem and ramifications, but also on how to prevent this problem from occurring in the first place.
The Violence Against Women Act is a juridical tool to combat violence against women and provide protection to women who had suffered violent abuses. Besides changing statutes, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was notable for calling attention to the issues of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. The VAWA initially included civil rights remedies for victims of gender-motivated crimes, which are hate crimes, allowing individuals to sue in federal court. However, the U.S. Supreme Court declared this part of the act unconstitutional under the Commerce Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment in the case, the U.S. v. Morrison (2000), in a 5 to 4 decision. Authorization of the act in 2013 was strongly opposed by conservatives, because of the expansion of the act to include American Indians and same-sex couples and increased protection for victims of sex trafficking.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on sex, particularly regarding women. One of the issues that arose from this Act was how this particular Act applied to pregnant women. To address the issue Congress drafted the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) in 1978 for the pursuit of employers to treat pregnant women equally and fairly. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 and the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993 work alongside one another and should protect a working woman who chooses to bear a child from pregnancy. The Family Medical Leave Act will then enable her, if she is eligible to take twelve weeks of family leave after the child’s birth without fear of losing her job.
The Supreme Court’s decision in the 1972 case of Roe v. Wade was — and is still — the most important decision affecting abortion in the United States. Roe made it possible for women to terminate their pregnancies for almost any reason within certain time limits. A heartbeat bill or fetal heartbeat bill is a controversial form of abortion restriction legislation in the United States, which makes abortions illegal as soon as the embryonic or fetal heartbeat can be detected. The bill was signed by Governor Kemp on May 7, 2019.
The “Me Too” movement was founded in 2006 to help survivors of sexual violence, particularly Black women and girls, and other young women of color from low wealth communities, find pathways to healing. The phrase ‘Me Too’ was initially used in this context on social media, MySpace, by sexual harassment survivors. The vision for this movement is to discuss both the dearth of resources for survivors of sexual violence and to build a community of advocates, driven by survivors, who will be at the forefront of creating solutions to interrupt sexual violence in their communities. Tarana Burke began ‘Me Too’ with young Black women and girls from low wealth communities. She developed a culturally informed curriculum to discuss sexual violence within the Black community and in society at large. (METOO2018)
There are many cases where women or children are discriminated against one of these cases being Cleveland Board Of Education v. Lafleur (1974). Eliza Lafleu is a teacher, and she’s just found out that she’s pregnant. She wants to keep teaching, but someone told her that she has to take maternity leave. She was told that she had to take unpaid maternity leave; this leads up to suits in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. The impact of this case marked a milestone in the legal status of women in the workplace. With mandatory maternity leaves, not to mention the arbitrary firing of employees who became pregnant, rendered effectively unconstitutional. (FindLaw2019)
LaShonda D. v. Monroe country Board Of Education (1999) is a case where a Petitioner’s minor daughter, LaShonda, was allegedly the victim of a prolonged pattern of sexual harassment by one of her fifth-grade classmates at Hubbard Elementary School, a public school in Monroe County, Georgia. The petitioner filed suit against respondents, a county school board (Board) and school officials, seeking damages for the sexual harassment of her daughter. (FindLaw2019)
