Men & Discrimination in the Workplace
Discrimination in the workplace, once primarily experienced by women and minorities, increasingly is being claimed by men. According to a 2006 survey by the global employment-opportunities firm Kelly Services, 34.8 percent of men believed they had faced discrimination in their job over the past five years, compared to 33.3 percent of women. Allegations of bias include denial of parental leave and being passed over for promotions.
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Identification
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Gender or sex-based discrimination occurs when an employer uses the sex of an employee to make decisions regarding hiring, pay rates, promotions and any other employment benefits. In 1964 Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, which under Title VII prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender (sex) as well as race during the hiring, promoting or firing process. The law also prohibits employment decisions to be made based on sexual stereotypes, which may include beliefs about traits, abilities and performance potential of individuals based on their gender. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was created to enforce Title VII.
Men in the Workplace
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The economic recession that began in 2007 has been harsh on the male workforce, with more than 3 million jobs lost in manufacturing and construction alone, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data cited by USA Today. As of June 2009, women held nearly 50 percent of the 132 million jobs in the United States, that same data showed. On average, men still put in more hours, hold fewer part-time jobs and earn more than women, an economist for the Institute for Women's Policy Research said.
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Features
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Gender discrimination against men in the workplace can take on a number of forms. Men might get all the evening-hour shifts in a high-crime area or be selected for harder, dirtier, more dangerous job duties. In the white-collar world, having different criteria for men to move up the corporate ladder could mean men are more severely judged on their job performance than women of the same status. As of 2006, men worked an average of an hour longer each day in a full-time job than a woman in the same position, according to the Department of Labor.
Effects
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EEOC data shows the number of gender-based workplace discrimination complaints rose steadily from 2005 to 2008, with a slight decline for 2009. A story for Newhouse News Service by Katherine Reynolds Lewis found a growing number of men have to fight for workplace accommodations to support their bigger roles at home as parents. Several working dads told Lewis their requests for such consideration have been met with opposition ranging from malicious remarks and negative behavior to outright discrimination, as well as significant consequences including loss of employment.
Gender Bias Case
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Michael C. Ryan, a computer specialist with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) at the William J. Hughes Technical Center in New Jersey, filed a discrimination lawsuit against the agency. Ryan claimed that he had been passed over for eight promotions -- despite his 28-year career -- because he is white and a male, and that seven of those eight promotions went to minorities or women. Ryan was awarded a promotion with a higher salary and eight years of back pay with interest. As a result of the case, the FAA instituted a policy change to abolish unlawful affirmative-action practices.
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