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chapter_17.pptCopyright © 2012 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Chapter 17
Civil Rights, Women,
and Diversity
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The Employment Non-Discrimination Act
Brooke Waits worked hard and her job was part of her
Away from work, Waits was open about being a lesbian, but at work she sensed that revealing herself would estrange her from the others
After being fired, Waits testified before Congress
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The Employment Non-Discrimination Act
Since the 1970s, supporters in Congress have tried to pass a law extending workplace protections to victims of bias such as Waits
The Employment Non-discrimination Act of 2007 seeks to make it illegal to take any adverse job action based on sexual orientation
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A Short History of Workplace Civil Rights The Colonial Era
Employment discrimination in America can be dated from 1619
In the Declaration of Independence, “unalienable” rights are natural rights
Natural rights: Rights to which all human beings are entitled
The unalienable rights statement in the Declaration distills a body of doctrine know as the American Creed
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Civil War and Reconstruction
In the United States, the issue of slavery rose to a crisis in the Civil War
In 1863, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation
Following the war, Congress passed three constitutional amendments designed to protect the rights of former slaves
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Civil War and Reconstruction
These amendments were supplemented by a series of civil rights acts passed by Congress
With little enforcement of these laws, southern states adopted segregationist statutes called Jim Crow laws
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Other Groups Face Employment Discrimination
Native Americans were widely treated as inferior
When Mexico ceded Texas, 90,000 Hispanics became U.S. residents, but were victims of a range of discriminatory actions
In 1851, Chinese laborers began to enter the country to be met by economic and racial discrimination
The earliest Japanese immigrants found similar inhospitality
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The Civil Rights Cases
The Civil Rights Act of 1875 was passed to prevent racial discrimination.
There was still widespread discrimination against freed slaves by business and soon a series of cases reached the Supreme Court
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The Civil Rights Cases
These cases were consolidated into one opinion by the Court in 1883 and called the Civil Rights Cases
The Civil Rights Cases so narrowed the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment that it became irrelevant to a broad range of economic and social bias
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Plessy v. Ferguson
The Separate Car Act was passed by Louisiana in 1890
On June 7, 1892, Homer Plessy, who was 7/8 Caucasian and 1/8 African, was asked to move to the “nonwhite” coach
Plessy refused and was taken to a New Orleans jail
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Plessy v. Ferguson
Plessy brought suit, claiming he was entitled to “equal protection of the laws” as stated in the Fourteenth Amendment
The Supreme Court disagreed
The ruling completed the destruction of the Fourteenth Amendment as a mechanism to guarantee civil rights
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Long Years of Discrimination
Southern legislators were emboldened
by Plessy
Jim Crow laws spread
Black workers faced blatant discrimination
These customs spread to the north
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The Civil Rights Act of 1964
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, a new civil rights movement arose
The pressures of this movement led to many social reforms, among them passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Its Title VII prohibits discrimination in any aspect of employment
Title VII created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
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Disparate Treatment and Disparate Impact
Title VII enforced a legal theory of disparate treatment
When Title VII went into effect, employees could no longer engage in outwardly visible displays of discrimination
The flaw in Title VII was that it contained no weapon to fight disparate impact
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The Griggs Case
In Griggs v. Duke Power, the Supreme Court held that diploma requirements and tests that screened out blacks or other protected classes were illegal unless employers could show that they were related to job performance or justified by business necessity
The Griggs decision, and the legal theory of disparate impact it created, was necessary for Title VII to work
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The Griggs Case
In 1978 the EEOC defined illegal disparate impact for employers with a guideline know as the 80 percent rule
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Affirmative Action
Policies that seek out, encourage, and sometimes give preferential treatment to employees in groups protected by Title VIII
The origin of most affirmative action in corporations is Executive Order 11246
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The Supreme Court Changes Title VII
The first high-profile challenge came from Allan Bakke, a white male denied admission to medical school, claiming reverse discrimination
The Supreme Court ruled in his favor
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The Supreme Court Changes Title VII
A white laboratory analyst, Brian Weber, brought suit against Kaiser Aluminum claiming a promotion selection procedure violated Title VII
The Court ruled against him saying Kaiser’s affirmative action plan embodied “the spirit of the law
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The Supreme Court Changes Title VII
These rulings established important criteria for judging the legality of subsequent affirmative action programs:
A plan must be designed to break down historic patterns of race or sex discrimination
The plan must not create an absolute bar to the advance of white employees
The plan must not require the discharge of white workers
The plan should be flexible and temporary
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The Affirmative Action Debate
Utilitarian considerations
Ethical theories of justice raise questions about the ultimate fairness of affirmative action
Affirmative action may be debated in light of ethical theories on rights
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Women at Work
Around the world more women work than ever before
In 2009 there were 1.3 billion women in the global labor force of 3.2 billion, making up 40 percent of the total
Participation rates are high in the least-developed countries, where poverty pushes women into paid labor
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Women at Work
Lowest participation is found in Arab nations
Wherever women work, they are more likely than men to be in low-productivity jobs in agriculture and services and to be paid less, even in the same jobs as men
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Gender Attitudes at Work
The new feminist perspective asserted that working women were entitled to the same jobs, rights, and ambitions as men
Men who believed in traditional sex-role stereotypes thought that women were too emotional to manage well; lacked ambition, logic, and toughness; and could not sustain career drive because of family obligations
In the U.S. belief in the traditional stereotype has eroded but proves durable
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Subtle Discrimination
Many workplace cultures are based on masculine values
In blue-collar settings, sexism may be blatant; some men will openly express biases
In managerial settings, sex discrimination is usually subtle, even unintentional
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Subtle Discrimination
Masculine cultures underlie many kinds of differential treatment
Men and women learn different ways of speaking in childhood
Later in life these conversation styles carry over into the workplace, where they can place women at a disadvantage
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Sexual Harassment
Many women experience sexual harassment at some time in their careers
Men use sex-based harassment to define and enforce gender distinctions
The EEOC guidelines define two situations where harassment is illegal:
Quid pro quo
Hostile environment
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Figure 17.2 - The EEOC Guidelines on Sexual Harassment
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Occupational Segregation
Women are more likely to work in some jobs than others
Within corporations and in the economy as a whole, female jobs are lower in status and pay than typically male jobs
Women have less occupational diversity than do men
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Table 17.1 - The Top and Bottom 10 Occupations in Percentages of Women
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Compensation
Although the gender wage gap is closing, it is persistent for three reasons:
Occupational segregation places women in female-dominated occupations that tend to be lower paying than male-dominated ones
Women pay a heavy earnings penalty for child bearing and child rearing, activities that interrupt careers
The gap reflects elements of sex discrimination
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Compensation
The pay gap between men and women is worldwide, although in most other nations it is lower than in the United States
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Figure 17.3 - The Narrowing Gap in Weekly Earnings
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Diversity
Diversity management: Programs to recruit from diverse groups, promote tolerance, and modify cultures to include nonmainstream employees
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Key Components of a Diversity Management Program
Leadership from the top is critical
Change in the organization structure creates focal points for diversity efforts
Training programs are very popular
Mentors can be assigned to women and minorities to overcome isolation in firms where the hierarchy is predominantly white and male
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Key Components of a Diversity Management Program
Data collection is needed to define issues and measure progress
Policy changes establish new rules
Reward systems encourage managers to achieve diversity goals
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Concluding Observations
The first national effort to end workplace discrimination began during the Civil War
This visionary effort was defeated by social values contrary to the laws
In the 1960s, a second effort began with passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Today the accumulated corpus of antidiscrimination law is massive, complex, and controversial but overall, it works
Yet, more needs to be done
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Figure 17.4 - Four Civil Rights Eras
