Discrimination In The Workplace

Introduction

Discrimination in the workplace has a negative impact on many people due to the fact they are either denied work or are suffering from unequal treatment in the workforce. There are different types of discrimination such as: disability discrimination, pregnancy discrimination, and gender discrimination regarding equal pay and occupational segregation. Discrimination occurs everywhere in the world, but there are many laws and legislations that are put into place to prevent discrimination from occurring. Discrimination can be defined as treating individuals differently based on their properties such as race, age, sex, disability or mental condition (Lippert-Rasmussen, 2006, p. 168). Discrimination will be addressed by subheadings

Unfavorable treatment of pregnant workers became a norm in the early 1970’s (Vogel, 1990, p. 12). Nevertheless, females are victims of pregnancy discrimination because pregnancy is a moment in the human reproductive process specific to women (Siegel, 1985, p. 942). Pregnancy in the workplace has a negative impact due to the fact that employers could and did fire workers because of pregnancy and that they also refused to hire female applicants on the basis of her pregnancy (Vogel, 1990, p. 12). Employers had power over pregnant employees as they addressed when they can return back to work and that a new mother that was ready to go back to work would have to wait for the employer to call (Vogel, 1990, p. 12). Pregnant employees didn’t receive benefits or any income from their absence of work and that the only way to receive income was to go back to work, which was very difficult, since they had to wait for someone to tell them when they are ready. For example, to some employers pregnancy can be viewed as evidence that females are less committed and have less desire to achieve (Gueutal, Lucianco & Michaels, 1995, p. 156). The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 marked the first major step towards protecting the rights of the pregnant employees (Gueutal et al., 1995, p. 159). Furthermore, the PDA extends the 1964 Civil Rights Act to cover

Discrimination is defined as treating individuals differently based on their race, gender or sex (Lippert-Rasmussen, 2006, p. 168). Discrimination exists everywhere in the world, there a lot of legislations, rules and regulations to prevent mistreatment of individuals and help them sustain equality in the world. The types of discrimination that I will be focusing on will be disability discrimination in the workplace, pregnancy discrimination regarding women in the workplace and gender discrimination regarding equal pay and occupational