Discrimination in Business World

Table of Contents

Introduction3

Discussion4

Major Outcomes and Consequences5

Glass-Ceiling: An Invisible Barrier6

Affirmative Action in the United States7

ILO's Response to Gender Inequality8

Conclusion11

References13

Discrimination in Business World

Introduction

Workplace discrimination is a violation of human rights, resulting in wastage of human talent and undermining productivity and economic growth. It creates socio-economic inequalities that undermine social cohesion and solidarity, while hindering the fight against poverty. In recent months, millions of women around the world have begun to resist attacks on their labor and social rights. Discrimination can occur at every stage of employment, from selection and recruitment to training and remuneration, occupational segregation and the time of termination of the employment. Men and women have a tendency to work in different sectors of the economy and occupy different positions within the same occupational group. There is a tendency for women to be employed in a narrower range of occupations than men, and are more likely to work part time or on short-term contracts (Platt, 1994). They also face more obstacles to the promotion and career development. The conclusion is overwhelming- inequalities remain in terms of salary, rank and promotions.

The fight against discrimination is part of the tasks of a democratic society. From 1789, the recognition of equal rights in humans leads to proscribe any form of discrimination, merits and abilities comparable to the access "to all public dignities, places and employments." Equality and seemed to require the abstraction of the differences between social orders, genders, ages, ethnic groups. This choice to abolish the privileges and does not consider between the citizens of "other distinction than their virtues and talents" corresponded to a highly integrative concept of equality (D'Angelo & Douglas, 2011). Two centuries later, the rejection of discrimination remains the heart of the democratic idea. During the economic boom, we witnessed some opportunities for employment and social guarantees, which gave relative economic independence to the countries. Now, in times of crisis, the authorities tend to pay the costs of bankers and big property owners at the expense of social spending. Already, many governments, including the United States and Russia, converted to self-sufficiency education, medicine and other budgetary areas. More than 80% of workers in these sectors are women; which means a spending on the commercialization through which the government is dooming them to unemployment or reduced wages and working conditions. On the other hand, such innovations are forcing women and mothers with children to stay at home, or use the services of expensive private kindergartens.

Discussion

There have been much work carried to provide for the inclusion of women in labor markets; one of the main reasons for attention to the problem is the exploitation and workplace discrimination observed against women in the business world. Such discrimination occurs when in the process of recruitment, performance and promotion, individuals of certain social groups are treated differentially according to criteria that are not based on their qualifications to perform productively (Berdahl & Moore, 2006). Discrimination is not attributable to psychological characteristics of an individual, but it is a social phenomenon ...