Although women today outnumber men in higher education and work in a broad array of fields once dominated by men, they still experience discrimination in many forms in the workplace. Today, women still earn less than men who are performing comparable work, earning only 78 cents to every dollar a man earns. Women remain severely underrepresented among the heads of the country’s largest companies, with only 24 female CEOs of Fortune 500 companies (this number has been celebrated as an all-time historic high). Men and women continue to suffer harassment and discrimination in the workplace due to their failure to comply with gender norms in society. This panel will address a wide range of issues and challenges that negatively affect women in the workplace and that continue to hinder substantive workplace equality. The panel will discuss changes in the scope and theory of sexual harassment law, protections for expressions of gender and sexual identity in the workplace, as well as issues related to dress and grooming more generally. The panel will address intersectional forms of gender discrimination such as those involving race, class, and appearance. The panel will also address more structural issues related to work-family balance, caregiver discrimination, pay equity and the role of labor unions.
Porter Abstract