Abstract
This is about a research that investigates the inequality that exists in workplaces and to what extent it affects an individual.
Inequality at workplace
In what ways race, gender and language play a role in employers hiring practice? Workforce expectations in the United states varies in many different ways which is sensitive to many people because of the extent it affects individuals because applying to jobs not only require experiences but there’s more aspects into that. Race, gender and accents is highly involved in this matter when it comes to employers hiring practices because someone who is white is more likely to get accepted in the job than someone who comes from a different cultural background. In addition, a man is more likely to be hired for jobs than a woman because even in this generation women are still viewed weaker than men. This has become an issue where woman have spoken up many times about this inequality at workplace. Not only the gender inequality but also accents can be a barrier for an individual getting accepted in a job. Most people in this country comes from a different background; some has an American accent, and some doesn’t. The accent also gets judged in work practices; for example, someone with an accent are seen as unqualified, unintelligent or sometimes they think the person won’t be able to communicate with others because of the accent he or she has. Gender, race and accents plays huge and negative roles in employers hiring practices.
An individual’s race is another aspect that plays a negative role in an employee’s job stance during hiring practice in a workplace. According to the article, “Minorities Who ‘Whiten’ Resumes Get More Job Interviews” by a faculty member of Harvard Business School research team, Dina Gerdeman presents how and why monitory job applicants are whitening their resumes by not revealing their race to be qualified for a job interview. Gerdeman claims that applicants who let their guard down about their race ended up inadvertently hurting their chances of being considered. This demonstrates that applicants are preferred and most likely to be hired if they don’t put their race on the job application. This includes people of all the races, except the “white” race because it is the only respected race and not seen as a “violent” race in our society compared to others. People are less threatened by the “white” race as they are by the “black” race. For example, in today’s society you would expect a black young student to commit a crime more than white young students. In an article, “FOR BLACK STUDENTS, STEREOTYPING STARTS EARLY” by a veteran journalist and former staff writer, Tom Jacob reveals racial bias towards African American students. In Jacob’s study, he proves his claim that black students experience more suspensions, exclusions and bans more than white students for the same behavior. This is occurring because of the skin color which is biased and ignorant as a society to carry this kind of bias within ourselves. This stereotyping of being threatened by black students or expecting crime attempts from them affects those students negatively and takes away many opportunities from them. Moreover, as the author Gerdeman claims, not mentioning their race on the resume made their chances higher for acceptance is the way how race plays a negative role in employer’s hiring practices. Garden also states that, “Asian applicants often changed foreign-sounding names to something American-sounding…like substituting ‘Luke’ for ‘Lei…and they also “Americanized” their interests by adding outdoorsy activities like hiking, snowboarding, and kayaking that are common in white western culture.” This shows that applicant is choosing to cover up their actual name on the resume, an important part of their identity in order to be accepted or called for an interview. These applicants want to sound as white as possible to not be labeled as a minority group because it reduces their chances of getting into the job. Garden indicate that even names have a lot to do with getting called for a job interview and even getting accepted. Therefore, whitening resumes is becoming a way for young students to get hired in a job even if it means to seem as “white” race because they don’t want to get rejected or risk their chance of getting the job. It also shows how black and white race in this case is viewed in our society. However, this act of whitening the resume is wrong because it is making those people think what they are doing is right, but it is discrimination of race. This is how negatively race play a role in employers hiring practice because people hiding their race on a resume and sounding American in order to get called for a job interview is sad and an eye opener for people to realize race inequality at workplaces. Likewise, the professor of sociology, Donald Tomaskovic-Devey in his book, “Gender and Racial Inequality at Work,” addresses the topic of Gender and racial inequality in the workplace. As Tomaskovic-Devey mentioned about “white women, black women and black men tend to earn substantially less than white men.” This should be taken seriously because it is unfair, a “black” man also should get paid the same as a “white” man if they are both doing the same kind of job. A person’s skin color and race shouldn’t define what their salary should be. The authors, Tomaskovic-Devey, Gerdeman and Jacob connect to each other’s argument about racial inequality at workplace which they prove throughout their study that this discrimination of race doesn’t happen directly, but it happens indirectly which is always not visible. However, Jacob hints that mostly black race is often targeted and discriminated compared to the other monitory races because they are portrayed as harmful in our society. Hence, Race does play negative roles in employers hiring practices.
Gender inequality has been practiced in workplaces for many years. In workplace, men would get paid more than a woman regardless of what the position is. When a woman and a man is being interviewed for the same position at a job, the chances of getting in for the men is higher than a woman because they prefer and believe a man would be successful than a woman.
In the article, “Gender Discrimination at Work: Connecting Gender Stereotypes, Institutional Policies, and Gender Composition of Workplace” by Donna Bobbitt-Zeher who is an associate professor with a PhD, asserts how important gender discrimination is for women’s experiences at work. Bobbitt-Zeher reveals women are viewed as unintelligent, hormonal, and overly emotional. As stated in her article, “Rhonda Patterson, a sales agent, described how the company owner viewed women as unintelligent:‘[He] had signs posted stating that ‘no girls [are] allowed’ in the 1200 Club…[he] told me that ‘no girls will ever reach the 1500 Club because girls are too dumb.’” This shows how dominate the male gender is when it comes to workplace regulations. Even though the law says to view and treat women and men the same, gender stereotyping and inequalities are still going on in many companies and organizations. They are still practicing these behaviors where they think women are not as intelligent as men are. Therefore, this stereotype causes many women from getting a good job position and keeping them away from receiving the same rights as men. When females are constantly being put down by men about their capabilities, it could make females accept that they are weak and not strong enough to handle business or certain positions which are held by mostly men. In addition, if men don’t change their perspective on women’s capabilities then this inequality of gender practice in workplace where a women don’t get hired for a position over men will continue because no matter how much a female prove herself strong and capable of handling such positions, it won’t make a change. Similarly, in another book, “Gender & Racial Inequality at Work: The Sources and Consequences of Job Segregation” by Donald Tomaskovic-Devey, gathered different perspectives from reliable authors and constructed parts of the book expressing the issue gender discrimination at workplace. Tomaskovic-Devey states that, “They tend to ignore, or at least downplay, the important role of sex and race in sorting people into jobs. Since jobs can have typical gender or race expectations, the process of sorting people into jobs can also involve the exclusion of women and African-Americans from desirable positions.” (Page 5, line 15). Tomaskovic-Devey claims women are not given their desirable positions at work because of their gender. They are being sorted into specific positions which is only created for them by the organizations. This shows that African American women and women in general are seen and viewed differently when they are being hired for a job position. This hiring practice at workplace demonstrates inequality of gender because organizations and companies are excluding women from the desirable positions and they have specific position only for women, there’s not enough position types available for women as for men. This hiring practice in the workplace is neglecting women’s intertest and capabilities where the pattern where they were mistreated in the past, when they had no rights and were dominated by men is continued. Therefore, during their hiring practice of employees, there is gender expectations that exist in which women get trapped. When those people are sorting out employees based on their specific needs, African American women and other women can’t get their desirable job positions as they are not thought to be good enough for the position. Tomaskovic-Devey also mention that, “white women, black women…tend to earn substantially less than white men…white men tend to have profound advantages in their access to the most desirable jobs. jobs that have high prestige and power over other workers, that are relatively autonomous, and that provide career ladders and skill training are all more likely to be filled by white men.” The author reveals gender inequality, where white men are getting paid more than other racial women at workplaces. They also have access to the most desirable positions as well as a ladder which takes them to the desirable positions and skill straining which women don’t get or offered. Tomaskovic-Devey and Bobbitt-Zeher both are targeting the society’s biased structure and perspective on genders which means the way male gender are viewed strongly in both aspects, physically and mentally that women lack. The points both authors made about the negative roles gender plays in an employer’s hiring practice is accurate because women are not physically nor mentally weak. Therefore, gender does play important and negative roles in employers hiring practices.
Accent is another aspect of an employer’s hiring practice because only standard American English is the accepted dialect in our society. Most people in this country come from a different background, for example, someone with an accent is seen as unqualified or sometimes they think the person won’t be able to communicate with others because of the accent an individual has. In the article, “The effect of English accents on hiring recommendation: Is “ABC” accent more preferred in Hong Kong?” by CHUI Tsz Shan and LEE Yin Ting presents the issue whether an applicant’s accent have an effect on hiring decision and provides results from experiments. From their study the authors reveal the applicant with native English accent was rated more positively and with higher scores and represented an advantage in the job suitability than the applicant with Hong Kong accent. This shows how accents plays an important role in getting hired for a job position because the American native accent is considered and preferred more than any other accents. Someone with an accent is viewed as less qualified and mostly misunderstood in many ways. This accent barrier often lead to many employees loosing opportunities as well as job positions because American accent is given more importance and respect compared to other accents. Similarly, in the sociolinguist Walt Wolfram’s essay, “SOUND EFFECTS Challenging Language Prejudice in the Classroom” represents the misconception of the English language and how and where the prejudice of the language is coming from. Wolfram states that “… Steve spoke Standard American English and Kenneth spoke African American English. The interviewer played the same message from the different boxes, followed by questions such as ‘Which box has nicer presents?’ and ‘Which box sounds nicer?’… ‘I like him ’cause he sounds nice. I don’t like him [pointing to Kenneth].’ ‘I think I want my present from Kenneth, if he doesn’t bite.’ Cause Steve is good, Kenneth is bad” (Page 27, paragraph 2). Wolfram claims that the experiment in the classroom where the student chose “standard English” which is the “white English” over black English which is the “African American” English. Even though the child was unaware of how both of them looked like, the child chose “standard” English because TV cartoons and shows uses characters to portray “black” English as the bad one and “white” (standard) English as the good one. Also, it is indicating that only standard English is acceptable not the other kinds of English. This is another issue in the workplace because employees who don’t speak standard English are taken not qualified for the positions and don’t get hired due to the kind of English they speak or even their accent. Ting and Shan’s text connects to Walt Wolfram’s essay somewhat because they both presents the idea about the same American standard “white” dialect in our society. Ting and Shan’s article somewhat agrees to Wolfram essay but presents a different argument on how accent discrimination occurs and practiced in workplace. From all the points the authors, Ting and Shan makes in their article is accurate because there are many jobs that still exists today where minority groups are discriminated and can’t get a job they desire or even qualified to get because of their accent. Lastly, the way someone speaks or the level of English someone is speaking doesn’t determine their intelligence or even their quality of work since we all come from different places which is normal for people with accents because we all come from different places with different dialects. Hence, accents should not be a barrier to an individual’s path in getting and receiving the same opportunities as people who speaks “Standard” English.
In conclusion, gender, race and accent plays its negative role in an individual’s hiring decision because during their hiring practice of employees, these expectations that exist which minority groups get trapped in. White men getting paid more than women and African American women’s, is not acceptable if they are both are capable of doing the same level of work. Also, White race having open door to opportunities than the other races are also unfair because race shouldn’t stop anyone from receiving opportunities. Having different accent shouldn’t stop an individual from getting into their desirable job position because their accent being different creates their identity as different. We should all be different in our own ways because it’s what will make us stand out from everyone else. In addition, the dominance of white power is still visible and it’s not giving the other races same freedom and opportunities as they are receiving ever since the past history. Therefore, race, gender and accent play huge role in employer’s hiring practices and affects them to a large extent.
Works Cited
BOBBITT-ZEHER, DONNA. “GENDER DISCRIMINATION AT WORK: Connecting Gender Stereotypes, Institutional Policies, and Gender Composition of Workplace.” Shibboleth Authentication Request, 5 Dec. 2011, https://journals-sagepub-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/doi/pdf/10.1177/0891243211424741.
Gerdeman, Dina. “Minorities Who ‘Whiten’ Resumes Get More Job Interviews.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 18 May 2017, https://www.forbes.com/sites/hbsworkingknowledge/2017/05/17/minorities-who-whiten-resumes-get-more-job-interviews/#7e176c8b7b74.
Shan, Tsz, CHUI. “The effect of English accents on hiring recommendation: Is “ABC” accent more preferred in Hong Kong?” Semantic Scholar, Supervisor: Dr FUNG, Lucia P. S. (Department of Management), April 2015, https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/3eee/49f672eba990e4a3f5ed7a047bd5260d27ac.pdf
Tomaskovic-Devey, Donald. “Gender & Racial Inequality at Work.” Google Books, ILR Press, Ithaca, NY, 1993, https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=UzEhGqQ1oygC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=work+hiring+practices+inequality+&ots=SJuKQTCS27&sig=nAav5c4PbeBCma5HvLR3iC2gqdM#v=onepage&q=work hiring practices inequality=false.
Wolfram, Walt. “SOUND EFFECTS Challenging Language Prejudice in the Classroom.” Teaching Tolerance, September 2013. Jacobs, Tom. “For Black Students, Stereotyping Starts Early.” Pacific Standard, 6 July 2018, https://psmag.com/education/for-black-students-stereotyping-starts-early.
