Employment Search Information

As most of the employable people in the United States are already aware, any kind of discrimination in the workplace is illegal.  Some kinds, like sexual orientation discrimination, is only prevented by state law in California and is not covered at all by Federal law; other types of discrimination, like sex or gender discrimination,  is prevented by Federal law, particularly the Title VII law.

Sex or gender discrimination, simply put, is when an employer or company will not hire a person, passes over a person for a promotion, or fires a person based on their gender.  In fact, any unfair treatment by the employer of the employee because of their gender is defined as discrimination under federal law.  This kind of discrimination is considered illegal when it affects a person’s “terms or conditions of employment”; for example, if the person in question is not given vacation time because of their sex, that is discrimination.

It is unfortunate that there are so many preconceived notions about gender roles in this country.  But these beliefs are established and the only thing that can be done is to prevent them from permeating the workplace.  Some of the gender roles that are common are the belief that women should not work outside the home when they have children.

A good example of this type of gender role-based workplace discrimination involves both of these gender role stereotypes.  There was a time when many employers were men; as men, they harbored incorrect thoughts that women with young children should not work outside the home; therefore, these employers would not hire women with children who were under school-age.  Of course, there are still people who believe this, and some of them are women; but these beliefs need to be kept outside the office.