Gender Discrimination

Gender discrimination is the unfair or unequal treatment of individuals because of their gender, resulting in disadvantages in employment, pay, education, politics, health care, and everyday life. It may be direct, as when women are refused jobs, or indirect, when apparently neutral rules disadvantage one gender, and it can be individual or built into institutions. Simone de Beauvoir analyzed women’s position as the second sex, and Rosabeth Moss Kanter showed how tokenism and unequal proportions disadvantage women in organizations. Joan Acker argued that organizations are gendered, with jobs built around male norms, and Barbara Reskin and Paula England documented occupational segregation and the devaluation of work done by women. Shelley Correll’s research found a motherhood penalty in hiring and pay, and Alice Eagly and Steven Karau’s role congruity theory explained prejudice against women leaders. Susan Fiske and Peter Glick distinguished hostile from benevolent sexism, and Kimberle Crenshaw showed how gender discrimination intersects with race. Gender discrimination also affects men and gender minorities, including transgender people. Legal frameworks such as equality legislation address it, though enforcement varies. Gender discrimination remains central to research on inequality, work, law, organizations, and social justice.