Discrimination Based On Gender and Disability

Hate crime is an issue that has been in debate for centuries, with frequent complaints of discrimination from the marginalized groups. Discrimination can be defined as treatment, proposal to treat an individual unfairly because of personal characteristics such as gender and disability among others as protected by the law (Wang, 2009). Hate crime came as a way of this minority groups developing a sense of shared solidarity, these communities found their strength in the campaigns and fights for equality together. Gender and disability discrimination are two concepts that fall into the hate crime concept. Gender discrimination has particularly been brought about as a result of unequal powers between men and women with the patriarchal society.

Discrimination based on Gender

Gender inequality is an insult to human pride, a trial to the decree of law and an hindrance to growth. Gender discrimination happens when an individual is treated unpleasantly and viewed negatively because of their sex and most especially when it comes to women (Abendroth et al., 2017; Arekapudi, 2018). Denying women their equitable places in the society and denying them equal right of entry to education, justice and livelihood is wrong, it means depriving the societies of the abilities and potential of half of their members (Kaur & Singh, 2017; Dixon, 2014). On a global measure, women are the main preys of rape, domestic abuse and violence in the male-controlled societies where they are often marketed for sexual abuse.

Traditional gender roles reduced women to be just mothers and properties of men hence making them to be viewed as less intelligent (Abendroth et al., 2017; Arekapudi, 2018). Today, women have proved that they are just as intelligent and capable as the men by taking up male dominated careers and excelling in them. This has however not reduced the issue of discrimination on women, at the work places women are forced to deal with discriminative actions such as being passed over for promotion because of pregnancy (Verniers & Vala, 2018; Dixon, 2014).

Discrimination of women is viewed in regard to wage gaps, the median annual women earnings are about $ 10.086 less than that of the men’s. The proportion upsurges for the female personnel who are between the age group of 25 and 34 years thus demonstrating that the older and the younger women go through worse situations in matters of pay inequality (Arekapudi, 2018). The females in this age gap earn 90% of the men’s incomes though this is still a lesser amount than equal (Kaur & Singh, 2017; Wolfe, 2018). The saddening fact is that women earn less even in the child care job categories that are predominantly occupied by the women, with most of them earning about 95% of the men’s wages.

2010 Equality Act section 2 illustrates that it is wrong to discriminate against an employee on the basis of gender. A case example of gender discrimination is that of Tesco that is currently facing a discrimination lawsuit based on claims that the company pays more for male dominated roles. The female workers accusing the giant supermarket claim that they are normally paid, 3 Euros less than their male counterparts doing the same jobs which is against the 201 Equality Act (Britton, 2018). The male workers are said to earn about 11 Euros per hour while the female workers earn 8 Euros an hour. Tesco is currently running to a 4 billion Euros bill for the lawsuit (Britton, 2018).

Discrimination based on Disability

It is estimated that about 470 million working age population in the globe have some form of incapacity (Kruse et al., 2018). These forms of frailties vary in the nature of deficiency as well as the grade of harshness, issues such as sexual characteristics, age and monetary status all effect on their position in and admittance to the employment market (Koepke, 2018; Kruse et al., 2018). disability as defined by the law includes; total or partial loss of bodily function or a body part, people with HIV or hepatitis C, people with mental disorders and other conditions that may cause one’s learning to be slow. It is against the law to discriminate an individual because of disability that one has or is thought to have. In general, people with incapacities grieve and experience common forms of judgement. They tend to agonize high redundancy rates and they are often confronted with biases concerning their output and they are often barred from the employment market (Koepke, 2018; Wang, 2009).  In the UK, it is estimated that 52% of the all the people with incapacities do not partake in the employment force (Ameri et al., 2018). In Australia, the typical staffing cost of an incapacitated worker is 13% higher than that of a worker devoid of disability which means that most firms prefer not to employ people with disability to avoid these extra costs.

The income gap of the women with disability is Australia is 44% greater than those without incapacities, for the men with infirmities; the gap is 49% greater than those of the non dis-abled men (Kruse et al., 2018). This indicates that disability greatly factor in low earnings which is unfair and illegal according to laws against discrimination. They tend to face discrimination at the hiring stage, where most of the people that mention having a disability in their CV do not get called to interviews even when they are fully qualified for the positions that they apply for (Ameri et al., 2018). Discriminations worsen with age as well as gender, women with disabilities have fewer chances of finding jobs as compare to the men and they are more likely to agonise both bodily and sexual exploitation.

Section 15 of the Equality Act 2010 illustrates that it is wrong to discriminate against an employee because of a disability. A good case example of discrimination against persons with disability is In the case of Sadeghi v TJX UK. The claimant Mr Sadeghi accused his employer of unfairly dismissing him based on his disability from his duty because of a minor mistake that he had done (‘Redman Solicitors’, 2014).  It was held that Mr. Sadeghi was wrongly dismissed and discriminated against on the basis of his disability. Though the clamant had done some wrong, section 6 Act determined that his employer was wrong to dismiss him as a disabled person (‘Redman Solicitors’, 2014).

2010 Equality Act

There are laws that have been amended to help protect against gender and disability discrimination including the 2010 equality Act, which is against any form of sexual or disability discrimination. Under this legislation, it is termed to be illegal for people to discriminate, victimise and harass other people on the basis of gender or physical ability (Equality Act 2010). The act goes further to illustrate that at the work place people should be treated equally irrespective of their gender or abilities in all aspects of their work. The Equality Act 2010 requires employers, educational authorities and service providers to make the necessary adjustments to allow persons with disability to do their job, participate in education and access goods and services that they require (Equality Act 2010).  A good illustration of this is where schools are always to make voice recognition software packages for the student computers in order to help students with physical disabilities to cope effectively.

 There are some exemptions that have been included in the Equality Act 2010 in regard to discrimination against people with disability. It may not be termed to be against the law if an individual with disability was deterred from participating in some activities that a real risk to their health and safety (Equality Act 2010). It is also not termed to be discriminative if one’s job contract was terminated because they could not adequately perform their job even after reasonable adjustments to the work situations were made.  All people irrespective of their genders or abilities have the right to equal opportunities in education and job opportunities.

Deterring people with disabilities and women from getting proper education greatly affects their living standards as well the economy because these people do not get the chance to excel. When it comes to job opportunities, not giving these people equal job opportunities deters development. Economies grow faster when more women work because they always work extra harder to prove that they can do it and hence better results (Wolfe, 2018). A gross abuse of power, sexual abuse and other negative energy directed to women and people with disability can greatly undermine their economic empowerment and career prospects.

Conclusion

The issue of discrimination based on gender and disability is something that needs to be greatly looked into to help change the biased society. International and national actors have over the decades tried to show a commitment to increasing employment, job retention and return to work opportunities for people with disabilities but more still need to be done. National approached to combat discrimination based on gender and disability need to be better implemented because they greatly reflect on the shift from moral model to a right based approach, focusing on the social inclusion and the removal of structural inequalities while at the same time providing access to the labour market.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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