Discrimination Against Women

To discriminate is to make a distinction in favor of or against a person based on the group, class, or category to which that person belongs. Women have faced a long history of discrimination, and only gained significant progress during the 20th century. Yet certain gender roles and gender discrimination remain in place even today. Discrimination is still rampant in terms of pay differences, in the work place, towards families with children, and in violence aimed toward women.

Before 1963 it was common for news papers to run separate help wanted ads for men and for women. It was also common for the same job to be posted in both the men's section and the women's section but with drastically lower pay for the women. In 1963 women earned only 59 cents for every dollar that a man made for the same job (Gibbs 25). When women get paid less than men for the same job, it can be the difference between a single mother being able to pay rent or not, or of being able to afford groceries or not. Laws trying to set equal pay are important, to both women and their families.

The Equal Pay Act of 1963 was designed to end this pay difference ("White House"). However, still today the average working woman makes 76 cents for every dollar that the average male earns, according to the 2001 Congressional Record for the 107th Congress. Women now have more options to dispute this difference and gain more equality in court. The Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by establishing that the 180-day statute of limitations for filing an equal-pay lawsuit is renewed each time the employee receives an unequal paycheck from their employer ("White House"). This act was a direct response to the Supreme Court case of Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., 550 U.S. 618 (2007), in which the Supreme Court ruled that the statue of limitations began at the date the pay was agreed upon instead of the most recent paycheck. This means that now every single time a women receives an unequal paycheck she has 180 days to file a law suit demanding equal pay, whereas the Supreme Court had ruled that she only had 180 days after she took the job when the pay was agreed upon (Grossman).

Some of the most blatant workplace discrimination was stopped when the 1964 Civil Rights act was put in place. However, the American workplace still reflects an unequal and sometimes hostile environment for women. Pregnant women suffer from discrimination in hiring, promotions, and in evaluations because of misplaced ideals about their performance (Luscombe). An important change in the law aimed at making the work place unbiased was the Work and Families Act of 2006 which is supposed to allow families to balance careers and care for children. Under this act the statutory maternity pay has been extended to nine months of leave and any employee will be entitled to additional maternity leave. Employees will also have the ability to "keep in touch", or go into work for a few hours each week, without losing their statutory maternity leave (Shepherd, and Wedderburn).

One of the reasons that women have suffered discrimination in the work place is because women have to have bear children and they are often the primary care givers. Several important acts passed by the Obama Administration deal directly with these issues as well as issues like healthcare. The most recent is the Affordable Care Act which was passed in March 2010 ("White House"). This act has numerous effects, and in its broadest sense it provides comprehensive health insurance that lowers costs and holds insurance agencies accountable. However it includes several clauses to help women gain equal insurance coverage. A study published in the New York Times by Robert Pear shows that women pay more money for the exact same coverage plans as men. This has been justified by the insurance companies asserting that women cost more in their childbearing years. Yet most insurance doesn't cover maternity costs, and require that women pay additional amounts added to the higher amount that they already pay. In 2014 the act will make it illegal to charge more or deny coverage based on gender or preexisting conditions. Access to care is also expanded for women, guaranteeing access to OB-GYN's and pediatricians ("White House").

A recent act passed by Congress in 2009 is the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which is another law to help mothers specifically. Two billion dollars for the Child and Development Block Grant, $1 billion for Head Start, and $1.1 billion for Early Head Start provided through the Act will help working mothers get quality child care. The Act encompasses unemployment insurance reforms, which include incentives for states to cover part time workers and those who reenter the work force ("White House"). This will particularly benefit women due to absences while having children and part time jobs while raising children. Women should be able to have children without discrimination, without having to compromise on health care or earn less than a man for the same work.

One of the major steps to stop discrimination taken by President Obama so far was the establishment of the White House Council on Women and Girls by an Executive Order. This council was created to provide a response to discrimination against women as well as making Cabinet and Cabinet level agencies consider how their policies will affect women (Macon). The heads of every federal agency and every major White House office are members and the Council is chaired by Valerie Jarrett. As said by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright the "responsibility for the advancement of women is not the job of any one agency, it's the job of all of them."

Discrimination does not occur just in the workplace, it is also evident by the abuse women face at a much higher rate than men. Women are ten times more likely than men to be victimized or physically abused. In a study conducted by the American Bar Association, nearly 25% of women and 7.6% of men were raped and/or physically assaulted by a current or former spouse in 1996. These statistics show how much of a gap there is between female and male abuse. Estimates of non-fatal domestic violence against women range from 1 million to 4 million a year with nearly 1 in 3 women experiencing