| I had a similar conversation with some (female) coworkers a while back. One, who's on her way to her JD, remarked how it upset her that she'd always have extra baggage because she's a woman -- that no matter what the people hiring her would always factor in the chance she could become pregnant once, twice, or even more times. Before I get off on the wrong foot, I think that maternity leave is a small price to pay if you have a good employee and anybody who turns down a woman for a petty reason like that should rethink how they're running their company. That said, is it really sexist or is it just life? By that I mean is factoring in all potential issues the same as a hiring manager who thinks women are, by default, worse at X than men? I almost want to liken it to my car insurance, as weird as it sounds. I have to pay a fair amount more simply because I'm a male and in my 20s. Sure, it's a form of discrimination, but it's also just life. A high enough percentage of us do cost the companies more money, so they charge us more. A job is more important than car insurance, but my point isn't to compare the two and say they're of the same importance or argue in favor of discrimination. It's late and I don't think I'm making my point clearly enough, but I kind of wanted to get it down on paper. Sometimes I feel there are parts of life that you can't really change or blame people for taking into consideration. Whether the fact that women produce babies is something that should be taken into consideration, that's (obviously) something we as a society need to figure out. |
> I almost want to liken it to my car insurance, as weird as it sounds.
It's a little bit weird because we have so much information telling us that young men are much more likely to be involved in an accident. I don't think you're saying that we have a lot of evidence to show that women are going to be terribly costly hires. And in some places (the EU) insurance companies can't use gender.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12608777