Society Debate: Are women and men treated equally at work?

In this society, yes! Discriminating against women at work is a thing of the past. The world has changed and most of the archaic taboos and laws that were openly sexist no longer exist. As you can observe, both men and women have the same aspirations, compete for the same opportunities and even eat the same food. But still there is a perception that women are treated unequally. I don’t see where it comes from. Basically, what I believe is that some people failed to move on from the past. Particularly, a few women, even when offered special treatment, will still find some fault because they somehow believe that they deserve more. Have you ever worked in a place and there is a lady who always complains about being discriminated because of her sex? She may earn the same salary as you, if not better, and shares all the same benefits, but continuously blames her colleagues for discriminating against her. Even when she is rightly criticized for something she did wrong, she will blame it on her sex. There are people with that habit and will stir the belief that perhaps there is unequal treatment. Of course we cannot find a perfect society; we are bound to find pockets of discrimination be it based on sex, religion or color. But it is easily noticeable that women have got what they rightly deserved and we are tired of the unappreciative few. If anything, someone can argue that in this age of strong women power groups like the feminist movements, men are in real trouble! While you may find many of their demands amusing, some men are shocked and scared for their future roles. Whereas most extremist feminist movements are led by lesbians who detest anything male, some women are manipulated into believing that all roles are interchangeable. In my opinion, that is completely ridiculous! There are jobs that women can’t do because they are naturally designed for men and the opposite is true as well. That is why even at family level, something is wrong when a wife starts to think that her husband must do the cooking and diaper cleaning. To get support for my argument, I carried out a mini survey of what random people around me think. When I asked whether men and women are treated equally at work, six of them said yes they are, two said women get better treatment, one said men do and one said it varies from place to place. From that little but conclusive research, I urge both sexes to be proud of the huge stride made towards real equality at the workplace. There may be inequality in other walks of life, but on the job, it’s very clear that equality exists. When people are applying for jobs, there are no prescriptions that one will earn less or more if you are a man or woman. You go for interviews and the best one takes the job. If one loses out, they should congratulate their competitor and then work harder to sharpen their skills, rather than blaming their failure on sex. mugishaivan@yahoo.com