新视野研究生英语_读说写1Unit 9 What Does Gender课文原文

新视野研究生英语_读说写1Unit 9 What Does Gender课文原文

UNIT 9原文

What Does Sex/Gender Have to Do with Your Job?

by Jeffrey Bernbach

Labor lawyer Jeffrey Bernbach is Specializing in discrimination and sexual harassment cases. Since he graduated from Cornell law school, Bernbach has practiced law for more than 25 years and is called a workplace warrior.In this acticle,he describes the workplace sex/gender discrimination and analyzes the underlying reasons for this phenomenon.While reading,please consider about the topic and see if you are for his view.

1 Although there have been laws against employment discrimination for more than a hundred years in the United States, they varied from state to state.

Not until some thirty years ago did Title VII ( in addition to prohibiting discrimination based on

race, color, religion, and national origin) establish federal uniformity, making it unlawful to discriminate against females-or, for that matter, males—on the basis of their sex.

On-the-job gender discrimination occurs when an employee is treated differently from a person of

the opposite sex under similar circumstances for reasons based solely on the employee’s sex.

2 More Are Less Equal Than Others--Wage Bias

Historically,the most obvious example of sex bias has been paying women less than men for doing the same work.

Although unlawful,the practice is pervasive,and even now,after years of strong feminist efforts to correct this inequity,women still earn only seventy cents for every dollar earned by men.

This is wage inequality,not to be confused with the glass ceiling,which denies women the opportunity to advance up the corporate ladder(which also,of course,impinges on wage increase).

Let's say you're a woman working as a publicity director for a large corporation,and you earn ＄35,000;your male counterpart,publicity director for another division of the same corporation,is earning ＄50,000.

You and he have almost identical curriculum vitae-in fact, you went to the same college,worked together at another company,and then each of you got your"dream job."

3 Although you are worth as much as your male colleague in terms of employee value (or conversely, maybe he is worth only as much as you),

nothing will be done to correct this unfair (read that unlawful) situation for two reasons, both very related:

A) Understandably, you don’t want to quit your jobs-you love it, and protesting could lead to dismissal or, at the very least, rocking the corporate boat to your detriment,

and B) your company knows it can get away with such inequities.

4 So there you are: making seventy cents for every dollar your colleague makes.

This goes on at every level of employment, from factory workers to upper-echelon managers.

It’s sad, unlawful truth of life in the workplace.

And, until recently, most women didn’t challenge it because they wanted to keep their jobs.

5 Among the women who do take on such challenges, the most feared by any employer is a minority female over forty years old.

This is enough to make executives at even the grandest corporations quake in their boots because

such plaintiffs fall into three categories protected by federal and state laws: age, sex, and race.

6 While women are victims of sex discriminations far more often than men, remember that if a male

worker is treated less than his female colleagues because of his sex, he has just as much a right to challenge this inequity.

Here’s a hypothetical example : A man is hired as an editor at a fashion magazine where all the

新视野研究生英语_读说写1Unit 9 What Does Gender课文原文

other editors are women.

Although he has similar editorial experience and a similar position, on the organizational chart ,the

female editors are making more than he is simply because he’s a man. So, workplace discrimination based on gender (sex) can work both ways.

7 those who do fight for on-the-job equality may find themselves in double trouble:victims first of

sexual discrimination and later of sexual harassment.

8 Ironically,some of the most frequently cited sources of gender bias occur in professions where women not only do the same jobs but also wear the same or similar uniforms as men:the military,police and fire departments.And often,female protests have less to do with wage inequities and more to do with the way they are perceived,or treated by their peers.

9 One New Jersey policewoman, for example, reported that in over five years with a local police force, officers on the midnight tour watched pornographic movies at the station house while she patrolled the town-alone. Another policewoman reported that although she outscored two men on physical tests, and tied with another man on written tests, the men were hired promptly, while it took her five years( and a lawsuit) to gain her rightful place on the force.

10 Similar news reports show that women in the military are struggling for acceptance in what still seems to be a man’s world.

Two hundred officers in the air force, along with their supporters, have formed a group called WANDAS Watch (Woman Active in our Nation’s Defense,their Advocates and their Supporters ).

One target of their protests was the recently retired air force chief of staff , who had vocalized his opposition to women assuming increased roles in the air force.

A few years ago he reportedly told a Senate panel he would “rather fly with a less-qualified male pilot than with a topnotch woman aviator” .

11 Last year,when the first female astronaut to pilot a space shuttle successfully linked up with a Russian space flight,a group of former female pilots,thirteen women who called themselves FLATS(Fellow La …… 此处隐藏：5756字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……