How do American women strive for equality in the workplace?

In 1960s, the American Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, which had a far-reaching impact on the change of women's working environment. 1964 although the original intention of the civil rights act was not to protect women's rights and interests, it did send a weapon for American women in the workplace to strive for equality in the workplace. Gillian Thomas, a senior lawyer of the American Civil Liberties Union's feminist project, included ten landmark cases in this book entitled Gender: A Law, Ten Cases and Fifty Years that Changed the Fate of American Women's Work, which made the provisions of the Civil Rights Law vivid and powerful.

A law

Nowadays, most American professional women may not be able to imagine that they want to thank a stubborn racist who outlawed gender discrimination in the 1980s. 1964 On February 8th, a congressman named Howard Smith walked into the hall of the House of Representatives, which changed the fate of American working women.

This is the eighth and last day that the House of Representatives debated the civil rights bill, which is about to become significant. Smith, a Democrat from Virginia, like most southern lawmakers, resolutely opposed the civil rights bill and tried his best to prevent it from passing.

Therefore, when discussing the motion, it is suggested to amend Chapter VII, which mainly deals with equal employment opportunities.

At that time, the draft already prohibited discrimination based on race, skin color and country of birth. The clerk read Smith's suggestion aloud. "Add the word' gender' after' religion' on pages 68, 69, 70 and 7 1 of the motion."

Of course, this is not difficult to understand. At that time, the supporters of the gender equality rights amendment were mostly white, and they kept less hidden racist radical ideas. As early as more than a century ago, they openly opposed the expansion of legal protection that benefited African-American male citizens but women could not enjoy. Smith is one of them. Moreover, Smith is closely related to the interests of the southern manufacturing industry. A deep understanding of abolishing state laws that restrict women's working hours and allowing women to work the same hours as men will release a lot of human capital.

A few hours later, Smith's proposal entered the voting stage and was finally passed with the result of 168: 133. Most of the votes are from Republicans and Democrats in the southern United States. When the bill entered the Senate voting session, Smith's gender amendment was also completely retained. 1On July 2nd, 964, President lyndon johnson signed and passed the civil rights law, which explicitly prohibited "gender-based" employment discrimination. Although historians are still debating Smith's motives for proposing the amendment, this law is regarded as a milestone for African Americans to fight for civil rights and an important moment for gender equality. Chapter VII of the Civil Rights Law opened the curtain of the women's revolution.

Ten boxes

Although Chapter VII stipulates that "gender-based" discrimination is illegal. But this simple statement didn't make sense until ordinary women began to fight for justice in the workplace with Chapter VII of the Civil Rights Law as a weapon.

These ladies who walked all the way to the Supreme Court through twists and turns are not very famous:

Among them is Ida Phillips, who is blocked by the status of "mother wall" and is not considered by her employer because she has preschool children at home; Rawlinson, who has worked hard to become a prison guard, has entered this field of work that has always been regarded as exclusive to men; Vincent, who suffered sexual harassment, filed a lawsuit when "sexual harassment" was not recognized by the academic community; Hopkins, with outstanding ability, was not given the partner status by the accounting firm because he "needs to learn how to attract women more"; Sheila White, who was punished for reporting sexual harassment at work, was transferred. Recently, Peggy Young, a truck driver, was forced to take unpaid leave during her pregnancy because she was temporarily unable to lift heavy objects. In johnson controls's case, women's physical condition is no longer closely related to the fate of society.

Thanks to Chapter 7, women regain the right to decide their own health, at least they can choose how and where to earn their wages: "It is no longer appropriate for courts and individual employers to decide whether a woman's reproductive role is more important to herself and her family than her economic status. Congress left this choice to women themselves. "

They won a historic legal victory and benefited countless people. Many rights created by these cases have penetrated deeply into people's real life, so that we are completely unaware that not long ago, they did not exist at all. Most of them are middle class or working class, and they often have to pay huge personal costs when trying to correct the injustice they have suffered. However, it is precisely because they bravely stood up and laid a new legal foundation that Chapter VII was endowed with real meaning, enabling people today to use these precedents as the basis for claiming rights.

Fifty years

The victory of these unsung heroines disintegrated the era of "Mad Men", in which women were only in a weak position, most professional women engaged in less jobs, low salaries, frequent sexual harassment and pregnancy meant dismissal.

For a long time, many litigants have to struggle not only with biased employers and indifferent judges. Even in the early days of the establishment of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, it was not entirely on the side of women. Although they were responsible for enforcing the law, they, like most of Smith's audience at that time, thought the gender equality amendment was absurd. The idea that all jobs should be oriented to both sexes has been ridiculed by the officials of this institution, which has formed a widely circulated joke, that is, Chapter 7 has created a "bunny problem"-playboy magazine should also invite men with thick legs to be "bunny girls".

Fortunately, there is a small group of determined female defense lawyers on the Committee. In addition, in 1966, some social activists were dissatisfied that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ignored the gender clause in Chapter VII and established the National Women's Organization.

Organization of

Women) and protested against the Committee. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission finally formed a more active and tough stance. It ruled that those gender-specific job advertisements violated the law; Airlines that prohibit flight attendants from marrying illegally belittle women as sexual objects; The "protection law" of the state that restricts the carrying weight and working hours of female workers has been stopped by Chapter VII, so it is invalid. 1972 After the amendment of Chapter VII of the Civil Rights Law, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was given the power to file lawsuits in its own name, and those lawsuits became an important supplement to hundreds of individual rights protection lawsuits in China.

Today, 60% of women work outside the home, accounting for about half of American workers, and 70% of professional women have children. There are women at the highest levels in politics, business, medicine, law, journalism and academia. One-third of the Supreme Court judges are women, and even a female president is not impossible. Sexual harassment, once ubiquitous in the workplace and considered normal, has a new name. Women can also work normally in the third trimester, and most of them can return to work after giving birth.

Unfinished business

The victory celebrated in the book does not mean that Chapter VII is a panacea for solving gender inequality at work. First of all, the civil rights law does not apply to employers with fewer than 65,438+05 employees. It is estimated that nearly one-fifth of employees (male or female) will not be protected by this law.

Millions of working women in the United States have not helped them out of poverty. Some of them still endanger their health, do not provide any old-age insurance or welfare benefits, do not consider women's pregnancy or childcare responsibilities, and even occasionally take a sick day. Even for professional women, pregnancy and motherhood will still be extremely destructive to their career development, leading to harmful stereotypes and affecting their sense of loyalty to work.

Sexual harassment is still widespread, especially in male-dominated fields and some low-income workplaces; E-mail, articles and social media allow harassers to express their unwelcome concerns in new and sometimes frightening ways. Wage inequality still exists, and it is still strange to see a female construction worker or a female firefighter (or a male nurse or secretary). For a long time, the representation of women in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and finance is far from enough, and the number of women in the top management of the company is very small.

Although it is easy for us to be discouraged by the obvious inequality around us, at least we have made some progress compared with the worst period in the past. It is precisely because of those women who bravely stepped forward and paved the way for the rest of us that the law of equal protection of women's employment in the United States has been perfected. Of course, the solution of these problems requires not only the further improvement of the legal system, but also the renewal of social consciousness and cultural concepts.