Gender Discrimination in Employee Assistance? Although EAPs Often Help Employers and Employees Address Gender Discrimination Issues, It Is Debatable Whether the Industry Is Better Than Many Other Professions in Opening Doors for Women Leaders

Beginning of article

A woman in the United States can take advantage of an astounding array of vocational opportunities. She may seek employment as a television producer, frantically organizing stories for the evening news. She can progress through the ranks of a law firm or medical practice. She may work as a traveling land surveyor, on the road for weeks at a time and coming home once every two or three months.

With this vast array of choices available, it would seem that gender discrimination would be nearly absent from the workplace. Yet evidence suggests the opposite--that gender discrimination in the workplace is alive and flourishing. The facts are familiar and compelling. On average, women make $0.72 for every $1.00 earned by men in equal positions with similar experience. (1) Women remain concentrated in "pink collar" jobs such as health care support, personal care, and administrative support, (2) and head only two of the 500 largest businesses in the United States. (3)

Perhaps as a means of avoiding possible gender discrimination, some women are choosing to become entrepreneurs rather than work for others. From 1997 to 2002, the number of women-owned businesses in the United States grew by 14.3 percent. (4) Evidence indicates, however, that ownership opportunities are not immune to the impact of gender discrimination, nor is the recent growth in women's businesses as significant as it may appear. Women may lack invaluable business networks and the necessary capital to finance their businesses. Further, many of these women-owned businesses are established as sole proprietorships and thus …