Discrimination against men in the workplace

 Men experience discrimination in the workplace all the time. Stop it, that can't be true, right? I'm going to prove to you why it is.

Discrimination against males is more common than most realize due to societal expectations and stereotypes given to men. The average person may believe that men are too "strong" or otherwise unbothered by these things that it couldn't be a real issue. It is also looked at as embarrassing to be a male and report an incident like this. 

Many men may feel "unmanly" or fearful to report gender discrimination, or they may feel stigmatized by making a report like that. These things could mentally effect those who experience it as well, with low self esteem and depression being lasting effects. Many men then deal with these mental challenges on their own, still fearful of judgement.

According to research, 37% of men experience work discrimination, with 22% of it going completely unreported. These numbers are way too high if you ask me, and no one, men and women alike, should be affected by discrimination.

Man looks distressed / gettyimages

According to the APA, research shows that some men will purposefully not pursue certain career paths because they do not feel like they belong. Two very prevalent examples are early education and nursing, with men even reporting bullying within the nursing space.

Grown women bullying men in the workplace? That doesn't even sound like it could be remotely right, but it is, and it is a growing problem within all different spaces of work.

A report done by the American Sociological Association says “It’s an unusual case when we really can show empirical evidence for how gender stereotypes can disadvantage men,” Thébaud said. “In this instance, the men who happen to be coming into a role that is female-stereotyped are experiencing a real penalty. That is eye-opening and important because we often think, ‘Oh, gender stereotypes are bad because they disadvantage women.’ Well, no, they disadvantage everyone, and let’s think about ways that we can ameliorate that.”

Another research project done by Harvard's Women and public policy program found that "Men who work for women in stereotypically male dominated fields (or work for men in female stereotypical fields) are accorded less status, and in turn, a lower salary. There is no difference for women."

They went on to add statistics as well, finding that "Men who worked for stereotype incongruent supervisors received lower salaries, with a mean salary of $53,371, than men who worked for stereotype congruent supervisors, with a mean salary of $72,173. In contrast, there was no salary difference for female subordinates, who worked for stereotype-incongruent vs. congruent supervisors."

I experienced workplace discrimination myself. my bosses were not so amazing. Over the course of me working there, several instances occurred that made me feel as if I was being singled out. At this gym, it was an entirely women staff, with me being the exception. It eventually got to the point where I nearly was fired and blamed for something I hadn't done. 

My boss looked at me and said, “Have you done the bathrooms?” to which I replied “Yes I have.” He then said, “Go do them again.” Now this is right after I had just done them a second time, so I said, “I just did them a second time.” He then replied “Are you refusing to do them? Are you really talking back to me right now?” and of course, I responded and said, “No, I am not trying to be disrespectful in any way, but I have cleaned them twice already.” To which he responded “ Go do the bathrooms or leave.” So I did.

Weeks pass by and I do not get scheduled to work again. Of course, I reached out to my boss who handled schedules and asked why I hadn't worked and she said she had been told not to schedule me anymore for refusing to do work. This is just not what happened. None of the female employees ever got treated in any way like this. I was the only person they ever tried to frame to be fired.
 

They were always nicer to the female employees, and it made me feel like a sort of ugly duckling within the workplace, which eventually made me leave the job to find work elsewhere.

This guy clearly was just discriminated against / gettyimages

a counter argument may be that these types of issues do not truly affect men, and women still deal with it more and in a worse way. Women do experience slightly more, but that certainly doesn't make it okay to discriminate against men. 

There is also proof of men being discriminated as mentioned above, so the argument that it doesn't happen and doesn't affect men is just quite frankly, stupid. Some men make less than their position does on average because they are male, with some who hire in elementary school admitting to wanting to hire women over men.

In conclusion, men experience discrimination very often, it just may not seem like it as it does often go unreported. discrimination against anyone is wrong, and it is true that it certainly affects women more, but it should be talked about for both genders, as men are not immune. There is a reason why the suicide rates of men are so high, and that goes beyond workplace discrimination. Men in general are scared and embarrassed to speak up about mental health, and that needs to change. It is not fair to continue to put men in their own bubble to deal with their mental challenges alone.