Equality in the workplace
People get jobs every day that are completely undeserving
of them. These decisions are made by people who have authority positions. Any
person in an authority position can make whatever decisions they would like
based on their views and opinions. This causes some underqualified people to
get jobs that they do not deserve. We need to get over the stereotypes and
consider everyone our equal.
There are a multitude of reasons for people choosing underqualified
people for different careers. Some of these could be, race, gender, and or
political reasons. All these reasons should not be considered when deciding who
is most qualified for the job. Some people would argue that some genders or political
views would be more likely to perform different jobs at a higher level.
Examples of these would be the tradition of women being nurses and men being presidents.
Both are extremely outdated stereotypes. Our America should do everything it
can to ensure that every position is held by people who are most qualified to
do these jobs.
Female nurses take up a staggering 87
percent of the nurse population. There are qualified male nurses that are
not getting jobs in the field due to their gender. This is often backed up by people
saying that most patients often feel more comfortable when dealing with a female
nurse than a male nurse. This is a blasphemy concept; the most qualified nurses
are the ones who we should be sending to the front lines of the hospitals. These
stereotypes are a huge problem in society as men and women alike should be equally
considered for any job title despite what the long-lasting stereotypes tell us.
This goes for any given job in the United States.
Females tend to have a higher chance of getting jobs
such as nursing but there are even more examples for jobs that men have a
higher chance of getting. For example, a president of the United States role of
even a manager or CEO of a company. These stereotypes are backed up by the ideologies
that men are better leaders than women and have a higher chance at being
affective communicators and having higher levels of assertiveness. Stereotypes
like these prevent the most qualified people from getting jobs at these extremely
high-level positions. This not only affects the companies and associations who
are passing on higher qualified females, but it also affects any women who
would like the obtain a job in a higher position of authority.
Stereotypes can be hard to overcome as we are using these
stereotypes to read people on an everyday basis. Written by Melanie Steffens
the article Positive
and Negative Stereotypes of Gay and Heterosexual Men Affect Job-Related
Impressions explains how often people use stereotypes, “Much research
in social psychology has demonstrated that as a rule, it is hard to ignore
group membership when judging individuals, even though people may try to arrive
at impressions of individuals that are unbiased by social-group membership.”
This quote is very powerful stating how much research has been done to explain
why these social stereotypes have become such a large part of our everyday
lives. Although stereotypes have been planted in the back of our heads since
the day, we were born we need to put our full effort on not judging a book by
its cover. We should rather judge people on their actions and who they portray
themselves as a person.
This problem does not only stay at the problem of ability
to get jobs. This problem extends to the fact that women on average make less
money than men. The wage gap does currently exist in the United States. According
to BalanceCareers.com
it is calculated that women make around 82 cents for every dollar that a male
makes. This fact is simply unacceptable. Women in the same jobs deserve the
same respect and pay that a male in these same jobs would obtain.
Unqualified professionals are one of the biggest flaws
in our current American society today. This means people who are
getting jobs based on stereotypes, connections or in any other way that gives them
a higher chance of receiving and maintaining a job over someone who is more qualified.
We need to focus on picking the most capable person for every job regardless of
age, gender, or any other beliefs that may prohibit a well-rounded, top tier
qualified applicant from receiving a job. This is a call to action for the
entire country to step up on their everyday choices and give every person they
meet an equal playing field. As a wise Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr one said, "I have a dream that my four little
children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the
color of their skin but by the content of their character." This has been a problem in the United States for way too long. We too should
have a dream where the world can see everyone as equal. In order to grow our
society, we must have the best possible relationships with each other which is
not possible without seeing everyone as your equal.
Comments
Post a Comment