F2F Class Notes (Lily) [S/R]

Pronunciation

discriminated= dis CRI mi na ted

paid= pay d (letter a sound)

world= wor rold (not word)

http://www.english-online.at/society/gender-equality/gender-equality-women-on-workforce.htm

In industrial countries of the developed world they have become more than equal to males. In the past four decades the proportion of women who have paid jobs has gone up from below half to 64 %. There are, however, differences from country to country. While in Scandinavian countries almost three quarters of all women have a job, the number of females on the labor force in southern and eastern Europe is only about 50%.

The role of women has changed drastically during the 20th century. In the early 1900s female workers were employed mainly in factories or worked as servants.  In the course of time they got more educated and started working as nurses, teachers, even doctors and lawyers.

In the 1960s, women, for the first time, were able to actively plan their families. Birth control pills and other contraceptives made it possible for women to have a career, family or even both. Many went to high school and college and sought a job. In the 1970s women in developed countries started to become a major part of the workforce.

More females in the workforce have brought along many advantages for industries and employers. They have a wider variety of workers to choose from and women often have better ideas and make positive contributions to how things are done.

Many women wish to start a career and search for fulfillment outside family life. However, in most cases it is harder for them to get to the absolute top than it is for men. Only about 3% of the top CEOs are women.

While the situation of women in developed countries may have come to a standstill, females in Asian countries, like China, Singapore or South Korea are experiencing a boom in good job offers. More and more of them are reaching top positions.

One of the issues that still are hard for a woman to manage is child care. Not only do they spend more on education and baby sitters, especially single mothers who raise a child alone find it nearly impossible to reach a top position at the same time.

Even if a woman has a working husband, men are not keen on taking leave to care for the baby. Most men still consider this a woman’s job.

It’s obvious that our law firm also has the problem with gender inequality. We have 93 partners and including only 5 females partners. Even though we tried to change such kind of position, it’s not possible to get rid of it. In fact, we have more female associates than male associates, but somehow, it seems like all the partners prefer to choose male associates to be the new partner rather than the female associates. They will think women are always very emotional, men are always very reasonable. So many of the female associates just choose to leave the company after three years of work.

It’s obvious that our law firm also has the problem with gender inequality. We have 93 partners and including consist of only 5 females partners. Even though we tried to change the situation, it’s difficult to increase the proportion of women partners. In fact, we have more female associates than male associates, but somehow, it seems like all the partners prefer the male associates to be the new partner rather than the female associates. They will think women are always very emotional, men are more rational/logical. As a consequence,  many of the female associates just choose to leave the company after a few years of work.