Reading Reflection #8

"The Civil Rights Act of 1964 says that a person cannot be denied a job or fired from existing employment simply because of his or her gender, race, religion, or ethnicity." p.290

It's too bad this this Act is not something that can be upheld perfectly.

This chapter was filled with statistics! As much as I enjoy statistics, I feel that Newman has a tendency to overuse them. It is just hard to pick out the important statistics and what I should be taking away from this chapter.

As I read the opening paragraph of Gender Discrimination on the Workplace, for the first time, I found myself disagreeing with Newman. He tells us that by a boss asking for extra hours, going to conferences, attending business meetings which one has to travel to, and training programs are examples of discrimination because "women, especially mothers, still tend to have the lion's share of responsibility at home, they have more difficulty making time for these activities than male employees do," p.301 Perhaps I somehow read this wrong, but to me this sounds silly. I would hope that my boss (even if I have children) would ask me to attend meetings and trainings. If I wasn't asked, I would be offended because is is discrimination to assume that because I have children, I am unable to keep up with my professional life. If I want a specific position in an office, I will be willing to do what it takes to be the best at my job, even if that means asking the babysitter to stay an extra couple hours.

This part of the chapter also noted some challenges that women do in fact face in the workplace such as the fact that a male will be chosen 25% more often than a female in many job positions, even if they have the same qualifications. Also, Newman talks about men making more money than women. This is something that absolutely infuriates me. I plan to become a lawyer and to think that the man sitting in the office next to me is on average making $200 a week more than me is hard to swallow. It makes me realize how hard it is going to be to rise above my own disadvantages and become equal.


Comparing my personal feelings about gender discrimination in the workplace to other discrimination, I have trouble with the thought that much discrimination is not protected against on a national level. If there is a discriminatory law against being homosexual, it is a state law because it has been left out of our federal discrimination laws. For instance, if a person is working at a place where health care is offered for you and your spouce, you could be fired simply because your partner is of the same sex as you. There is nothing protecting homosexuals in federal laws.
I find it wonderful that there is some action being taken towards making discrimination in the workplace illegal. However not all the bases have been covered, nor have they been covered to the extent they should be, and there are too many ways to legally discriminate.