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Giselle Arredondo
Ms. Figueroa
November 7th, 2018
Senior English 3rd
Sexism in Business

“We need to make equal pay and equal opportunities for women and girls a reality, so

women’s rights are human rights once and for all” Hillary Clinton. Americans need to help

understanding their world more than ever. Most of what we are living through has multiple sides.

The world is not working the way it is supposed to be working; men in business are a superhero

who can do better and faster work and come up with better ideas to improve the business. On the

other hand, women are seen to be weak and apparently not smart enough to be involved in a

manage business. Sexism still exist everywhere, in the streets, in the family, in business, in

sports, in places where machism still exists and the ignorance of people who see it as normal,

even among the women themselves. This is affecting negatively, since decades ago, and it have

been expanded to conclude the oppression of any sex, including men and boys, intersexual

people, and transgender people. Women have been the target of sexism for years, it is well

known that people make people seem less. Both genders are mentally capable enough to manage

any business. This quote explains a part of how sexism has been affecting women in the business

industry, paying them less than men, making them feel uncomfortable with sexual assaults and

sometimes with verbal violence. Women should be paid equally because they work as hard as

men and must deal with sexual harassment and verbal violence almost every day. Business is not

something made for a specific gender in general, women now at day’s play a role as important as
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men’s in the business industry. According to the last point, women have demonstrated to be as

capable as men or sometimes even superior to them in business related stuff. Business industries

depending on what it produces are biased by men most of the time, leaving women out because it

might be to “complicated” for women to do, making them seem less than men which it is not

true. Women now at days run their own business, and no it is no always bakery, for example it

can be a factory where they produce airplanes parts or even engines for automobiles. In Mexico

as example, sexism is considered normal. They stick to the stereotype of men doing the hard

work and women the house chores, which it should not be that way because women can also do

hard work depending on their body and strength. Also, men can do the house chores, but society

would see it as if they were “homosexual” or considered feminine because they are not what

society think they are supposed to be doing. Sexism applies for everyone but is mostly seem

towards women than men. Sexism is a major issue for women in business and needs to stop

because it cad lead them to serious physical and mental problems which can affect the business

itself.

To begin, sexism should not even exist in business because men and women are both equal

and can manage working in the same industry and the same roles in that job. “Every time an

employee leaves, it cost a business money to recruit and train workers” (Agadoni 1).

Whenever a worker leaves a business, their gender does not really matter because the negative

effect on the business production will be the same. Furthermore, a business with a high

production will be equally negatively affected whether a female worker or male worker left the

company. “When a group say women, feels as if they are being discriminated against just

because of their sex, they are more likely to leave the company” (Agadoni 1). Woman who face

sexism at the end discrimination in the workplace tend to have less motivation which leads them
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to less productivity in their workplace. “Gender discrimination in the workplace leads to low

motivation, reduces performance and a tendency to withdraw from the workplace” (Agadoni 1).

Female workers must deal with sexism jokes by male workmates throughout the day in a

working shift, it can seem harmless for male workers but on the other hand women are suffering.

To prove this point, Adams uses this quote, “Sexist jokes and comments are tolerated; the female

workforce suffers the consequences” (Adams 1). In the USA, women make a big part of the

business workplace, woman who have reported that there is either more or less male workmates

they still must deal with sexism or sexist jokes. “Women make up nearly half of the U.S

workforce, but their ubiquity foes not protect them from gendered discrimination and sexual

harassment, especially in male dominated environments” (Adams 1). Women can be led to

mental and physical distress because they are not promoted or are not given a raise, female

workers feel they are useless in the workplace or that there is something wrong with them.

“Being discriminated against can lead to stress in the workplace, which can cause physical and

mental distress. This happens because when a group, such a women, are not promoted or are not

given raises, this group might not connect to the reason as gender discrimination and might have

instead internalize their reason” (Agadoni 1). Women and men are both equally needed in a

business workplace and have the same role in the work they do, despite how leaves the business

it will affect the same exact way.

While it may be true that women suffer from sexism every day during working hours, men

also suffer from it and can cause trauma that lead them something small like stress disorders.

Genders bias affects the way doctors see their patients, for example when a women report pain

they are given sedatives, but when men report pain they are taken and treated more seriously.

“Third, men and women experience different kinds of pain, but women report feeling more
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intense pain. However, when men report pain, they are treated more seriously. Doctors, for

example, are more likely to prescribe painkillers when they make a sex-based exams, having the

idea that all men, mostly white neb should be the representation for all humanity.”

Lastly, medical research continues to fail to take sex-specific issues into account, mistakenly

assuming that male, mostly white male, test subjects sufficiently represent all of humanity”

(Chemaly 1). Sexism could also affect men in positive way when they are experiencing pain,

when they go to the hospital they are taken care of a lot quicker than women. “First, people have

a difficult time recognizing women’s pain. Not in an abstract sense, but in an actual, practical,

‘Does that expression on her face mean she is in pain?’ way. People are much better at

reflexively decoding pain when a man’s face reflects it than when a women does.” (Chemaly 1).

Man can beneficiate from sexism because it can help them in the health care topic as an example.

It is more common for women to be the target of the sexism at work and out of it, but our society

does not care about gender when it comes to discriminate and sexism, men are also included.

Still in this argument is invalid because women on top of dealing with sexism, discrimination

and inequality they must deal with racism. “Black women face the same struggles as white

women; however, they have to face issues of diversity on top of inequality” (Hall 1). Women

who deal with sexism every day, also must hold in the frustration when they are facing this

situation. “Everyday sexism is frustrating but not worth throwing a full-blown tantrum. There are

gentler, kinder ways to re-educate the poor men who do not realize what women have to offer

outside of the bedroom or the kitchen” (Hudson 1). Women of any race have always earned less

money than men in any business work place. “The worst incident was when I discovered that I

was earning 75% of my male predecessor’s salary” (Hudson 1). When there is a meeting going

on women are expected to take notes and this can distract them from what the other male
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workers are taking about. "In addition to using up valuable time, taking notes during meetings

can cause women to miss opportunities, since it is very difficult for the person scribbling away to

also make the killer point"(Elkins 1). Women are also taken as men's personal maids; male

worker often ask their female mates to bring them coffee or any snack they want at the moment.

"Grant and Sandberg wrote that women are also asked to carry out more personal tasks, such as

getting coffee"(Elkins 1). In addition to be the office maid women have must do other chores that

men ask them to do such a bring cupcakes for whoever is celebrating their birthday in the office.

Women are much just a maid, they should be paid equally as a man who is working in the same

work rank in the office.

Giving women the same right opportunities among the same recognition at work is the best

way to end sexism in the business industry. Male worker can help female worker out so much by

doing so little, for example, giving them some advices on how to make people listen to what they

are saying in a crew meeting. "He praised her, then offered what he thought was a helpful

suggestion: Her tone should less conversational in the future, he said. Also she should use her

body language and voice to convey more authority."(Flora 1). Furthermore, more and more

women are entering the business industry at higher rates than men"." Although they are entering

and remaining in the workforce at higher rates than males, women are still largely represented in

female dominated, or as they have disparagingly been called, "pink collar" professions such as

teaching, nursing, and secretarial work, where wages are low"(Banett 29). Women are most of

the time the base of their family and often cannot support them, women have to obtain the same

benefits and the same pay." Families are growing vertically and shrinking horizontally. For

example, the four-generation family is now our current reality; the 85-year-old mother is cared

for by her 60-year-old daughter or son, who may be supporting a 40-year-old child aid that
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child's teenage children. Overall, there are fewer adults available to care for their

dependents"(Banett 25). To conclude, to end sexism in the world women and men of any age

should be treated the same way and respectfully, and most importantly paying women the same

as men.

Sexism has always been around, it is even found in education where teachers in schools were

more focused on teaching boys and their learning than girls. Sexism not only affects women,

affects society as a whole and it can start with kids at school with gender biased teachers. Most

of the school supplies were more oriented to male favorite characters, not only that but girls were

kept from taking classes that could lead economic mobility. In today's world, sexism affects

economy in the way that a lot of women cannot work in a business that makes profit for the

country because of stereotypes. Now, sexism is different than it was a couple of years ago. In

these days, we do not often hear that the place for a women is at home cooking, but it is still

around. A great example would be how women dress in today's world, they cannot wear

something they find cute because men would start harassing them in a sexual way. Sexism is a

very delicate issue that needs to be solved as soon as possible. Even if sexism is not present as

before it still affects a great number of women around the world in the workplace and their

everyday life, and we need to stop it because we do not know what kind of problems sexism can

cause in the future just because society has the wrong idea that women are less and weaker than

men. Society need to raise awareness of sexism became it is a delicate issue against women that

should disappear. Since it functions to maintain male domination. Such oppression harms the

integrity of women, through economic exploitation and social discrimination. People should

raise their voice to end with the belief that one sex is superior to or more valuable than another

sex. We can all take part in educating for gender equality and stereotypes everywhere. Some
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women are not even being treated as humans, solely because of their gender. There is constant

global movements to help women everywhere and this movements are the call to action that we

can all participate, paying attention, listening, speaking up and getting involved. “Equality is

important and liberation is a necessity.”

Work Cited Page

Agadoni, Laura. "How Does Gender Discrimination Affect The Workplace?" Your business,

April 13, 2018

Barnett, Rosalind Chait. 'Ageism and Sexism in the Workplace" Generation,

Vol 29, no. 3 Fall2005, p.25.EBSCOhost.

Chemaly, Soraya. "The Shocking Ways Sexism Affects Women's Health Every Day" AlterNet,

June 25, 2015.

Elkins, Kathleen. "6 Examples of Subtle Sexism That Women's Health Every Day" Business

Insider, May 27, 2015.

Flora, Carlin. "View from the Top" Psychology Today, vol, 50. No.1 Jan/Feb 2017, pp.62-83

EBSCOhost.

Hall, J, Camille. "Black Women Talk about Workplace Stress and How They Cope" Journal of

black studies, vol.4. No.2 Mar. 2012, pp.207-226, EBSCOhost, due:

101117/0021934711413272.

Hudson, Della. "Everyday Sexism in the Business World" Accounting Web, Sep.14, 2017.
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