Gender Inequality Essay

The issue of gender inequality or discrimination has existed in the financial industry of the United States. This paper aims to present the existence of such practice in the financial world of some of the famous yet lawsuit-stricken Wall Street firms. In particular, a book written by Roth, which has studied and presented the many incidents of gender prejudices, will be critically analyzed. To make the public realize the need for such harmful organizational practice to be stopped is the ultimate goal of this paper. A Critical Analysis of â€Å"Selling Women Short: Gender Inequality on Wall Street† Many literary writings have presented gender inequalities in work settings. Each work has revealed to the public the many damaging implications of gender discrimination. These kinds of prejudices have been manifested in several forms, notable of which are the famous sexual harassment and unfair labor practice cases. Almost always in such lawsuits, the women employees of big business organizations always fall prey or are subjected to various gender-related unfair practices. Several factors are taken into consideration when gender biases occur in work places. While it is worthy to note that modern working women have slowly achieved a sense of work fairness based from their significant contributions in their respective industries, the ghost of the past sill haunts the society. These are evident with the unsettled labor cases having women as the aggrieved parties. These are but some of the main issues presented in many books. Despite the efforts, however, to clearly present the realities within an organization setting, the fact remains that there are still no appropriate responses which may address the issues concerning women employees. One of the many books which concretely depicted the said condition is the 2006 book of Louise Marie Roth entitled â€Å"Selling Women Short: Gender and Money on Wall Street. † In fact, a literary work such as the Roth book is a clear proof that gender inequalities, which beset powerful Wall Street companies almost two decades ago, have destructively affected contemporary work environments. This is because of the idea that only a few of high-profile gender discrimination cases are resolved in favor of the women victims while majority of these lawsuits are decided favoring the managements where the supposed injustices emanate or where the suspected male offenders acquired their influences. These celebrated criminal cases and the eventual out of court settlements have clearly indicated the previous existence of discrimination and continued practice of gender inequality in the professional environment. Despite the efforts of the Roth book to enlighten and rectify the perspective that women in Wall Street nonetheless have their fair share of success, the reality that women in work places are likely to be shortchanged or are â€Å"sold short† of their respective powers and potentials will never cease to exist. This situation will continue unless concrete actions and sincere efforts are made in order to alleviate, if not stop, gender discrimination in work places. â€Å"Selling Women Short,† an Overview As an educator, Roth presented the book in a manner of self-realization. The author learned how Wall Street companies, such as Smith Barney, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch, all of Citigroup, have provided and continued hostile work settings for their women employees despite the existence of many legal limitations. Based from a methodology using research questions and aimed at achieving an investigative design, â€Å"Selling Women Short† matched the male and female employees of Wall Street firms during the period of 1990s and at time when the market and chances were rich. In an era where the work setting was supposedly advantageous to women workers, Roth discovered the many forms of gender discriminations which hampered the female workforce to progress. In short, using thorough study procedures, the authors as presented by her book examined sex inequality on Wall Street and realized that deceitful prejudice is the outcome of people’s ignorant inclinations and injustices which manipulate how they regard other employees and their respective performances (Roth, 2006). The book specifically identified the Wall Street’s practice of performance appraisal system as the apparent cause of gender discrimination (Roth, 2006, pp. 36-37). The book further presented the various manners in which women employees of the said Wall Street firms have attained their respective success. In particular, the triumphs of women working in the security businesses involved searching for an influential male adviser but in the process, ultimately prevent them from joining team efforts where their inputs matter most. The book concluded by manifesting that work and family concerns do not go hand in hand. This is because of the reality that family-related issues could be the most difficult hindrances to gender fairness on Wall Street due to the fact that women workers desire and ultimately have their respective families. Appealing Components The book is most notable for its comprehensive and clear focus on gender-related emphasis, particularly the degrading reality of discrimination against women which was introduced by the Wall Street work settings and which has continued to harm the modern work place. Stunned by an outbreak of celebrated gender or sex inequality cases more than two decades ago, it was expected from Wall Street to sanitize its industries and the activities of its workforce. Interestingly for â€Å"Selling Women Short,† it has thoroughly and powerfully reflected on how Wall Street’s financial companies have cleared continuing discriminatory lawsuits. Roth is to be acclaimed for this fearless ability to research on the particular cases of gender inequalities and eventually share to the readers the results of her study as well as the appalling yet actual situations of discrimination involving women employees of the firms located at the financial capital of the United States. It is also interesting to discover from the book that Wall Street, which is regarded to be a fortress of untainted or wholesome economics as well as supposedly compensating employees according to their accomplishments and assessing their jobs impartially, is in reality nothing but deceptions. It was both an enlightening and enjoyable discovery that Wall Street was amiss with its supposed intention to equally pay employees, regardless of gender but who have the same qualities and achievements. The comparison made by Roth about the work experiences of the people who started their jobs at various Wall Street firms in the later period of the 1990s was truly appealing. This is because the author was able to unearth that aside from the reality that women employees are paid at a standard of 29 percent less than their male colleagues, they are likewise pushed to less rewarding career options as well as were deprived of promotion and worthwhile customers (Roth, 2006). Aside from the mentioned interesting points, the book has remarkably exposed the devious gender inequality in the Wall Street structure. Roth is again to be praised for her explicit revelation of gender discrimination when she wrote on the unwitting prejudices of the members of the management, colleagues of the women employees and the manipulation of the customers on the performance assessments, task allocation, and eventually compensation (Roth, 2006, p. 62). Simply put, the book, through the words of Roth, has effectively presented how employees behind Wall Street companies have portrayed realistically damaging components such as their penchant to relate with those of similar sex and how they have a say to the system of gender discrimination. Ultimately, the author is to be credited with her proposals to limit the practice of all gender-related inequalities. Though the suggestions seem to fall short of being real, such attempt by Roth implied her earnest intention for the public to realize the harms of discrimination. Conclusion Despite the above mentioned interesting attributes of â€Å"Selling Women Short,† the book itself is unfortunately similarly short of its suggestions on how gender inequality could have been addressed, if not stopped, even from its start of existence. While Roth’s writing job was generally appealing and informative primarily because of her efforts to deal with the issue of gender discrimination, it may be in a way perceived that the public was shortchanged of more concrete solutions. Nonetheless, what Roth has ultimately achieved was for the book to eventually sink into the organizational set-up of Wall Street firms where it is aimed at influencing the people who build the practice of gender discrimination to finally put an end to such prejudice. Reference Roth, L. M (2006). Selling Women Short: Gender Inequality on Wall Street. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.