An example of discrimination relating to equal pay is theComputer SciencesCorporation scandal, wherethey were sued by a former high-level female executive who was fired afteridentifying and complaining about pattern and practice gender discrimination andsexual harassment.
CSC routinely paid women less than men and denied themhigher-paying and more prestigious positions. According to the Complaint, CSChas a practice of retaliating against women who complain by demoting orremoving them from their positions, withholding their pay, and/or firing them (POGO, 2012). An additionalcase relating to pay discrimination is the tech giant Microsoft was also beingsued in the Seattle federal court by Katie Moussouris during 2015, who workedat the company for over seven years. She alleged that female technicalemployees like her earned less than similarly qualified men because of genderbias. She also claimed that the company promoted men over equally or morequalified women and that its managers gave woman lower performance reviewscompared with their male peers (Rao, 2015). Sexual harassment is another form of discrimination;sexual harassment discrimination occurs when someone can no longer able dotheir job because their workplace has become permeated with sexual innuendo andother inappropriate behaviour.
An example of sexual harassment relating storywas on Ms Phillips. The politician, who chairs thewomen’s Parliamentary Labour Party, said she was attacked by her boss in hertwenties before she became an MP. She said: “I was working in a bar and Iremember going to a party and when we went back to someone’s house and my bosswas there. I had fallen asleep on the sofa and when I woke up he was undoing mybelt and trying to get into my trousers.
I was absolutely paralysed with fear”(Kate Proctor, 2017). A study fromPew Research Centre found a stark difference of opinion between women and menabout whether or not sexism still exists. Where 63% of women believe that therecontinue to be major obstacles for women to get ahead, only 41% of men feelsimilarly (Warrell, 2016).
This already shows the big problem. But notonly do we fail to recognise latent sexism in the people around us, we’re oftenunaware of our own. Studies have found that it’s not just men whohave implicit bias against women; women can also hold unconscious bias towardtheir own gender. Doublestandards are so embedded in our culture we often don’t recognise when we’rereinforcing them. the idea we have about boys and girls “natural” capabilitiesand in the workplace, where men tend to be promoted more on potential and womenmore on performance (Olga Khazan,2014; Warrell, 2016; McKinsey & Company, 2017).
A third of managers would rather employ a man in his 20s or 30s over awoman of the same age for fear of maternity leave, according to a new study. Asurvey of 500 managers by law firm Slater & Gordon showed that more than40% admitted they are generally wary of hiring a woman of childbearing age,while a similar number would be wary of hiring a woman who has already had achild or hiring a mother for a senior role. A quarter said they would ratherhire a man to get around issues of maternity leave and child care when a womandoes return to work, with 44% saying the financial costs to their businessbecause of maternity leave are a significant concern.