Hotel, Restaurant and Travel Law
                         --Gender Discrimination in Workplace

Introduction
   I have learned a lot from this course that helps me to know how  I can be a  person of hospitality concerning law. In  this semester, the course made me have a good command of the legal fundamentals of the hospitality industry, in addition to negligence, the relationship with guests and other patrons, the liability and sale of food and alcohol, the rights and liability of travel agents and airlines and the law relating to the employment. The law issues are not that easy to analyze and they always depend on the real situation. I have been so interested in gender discrimination since I learned this lesson. 
   Gender discrimination generally refers to the following beliefs or attitudes:1） to believe in that one kind of gender is superior to the other; 2; to believe that there is difference between the male or the female; and 3)  to degrade men or  women.It especially refers to the  gender inequality or the unequal treatment between men and women.
   Discrimination happens frequently in people’s life, especially in workplace. I want to focus on gender discrimination relating to females in workplace in this paper and I will try my best to express my opinions.  Female employees are more than before. Their abilities, potential and skills of charming speech are not inferior to men. Some famous politic leaders show up on the screen through television and a few of them are females, like Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton, Michelle LaVaughn Obama who are holding very important positions in America to help their husbands to affect the whole community. However, not all the women are as lucky as either Hillary or Michelle. Sometimes they need to bear gender discrimination at their workplaces. They probably cannot get an important program in their company because of the gender issue; they probably lose their job when they are pregnant; they probably cannot show their talent because the male colleagues do not admit women’s abilities. There are many examples like these situations females have to face. Gender discrimination is such a complicated issue that we need to use specific law to describe and go further with discussions.
Gender Discrimination
   From the book “ Hotel, Restaurant and Travel Law”  written by Norman G. Cournoyer, Anthony G. Marshall, Karen L. Morris and according to the definition of chapter fourteen of the illegal job discrimination, we can know that “ Notwithstanding an employer’s right to terminate an employment contract based on the at-will doctrine, an employer cannot discriminate against workers on the basis of race, skin color, religion, gender, pregnancy, national origin, disability, age or union membership.” (Norman G. Cournoyer, Anthony G. Marshall, Karen L. Morris, “ Hotel, Restaurant and Travel Law, Seven edition) This is a simple general view about discrimination that can explain to people what it is. Moreover, this chapter gives us a further view about gender discrimination, that is “ An employer cannot refuse to grant women or men a benefit of employment based on their gender.” (Norman G. Cournoyer, Anthony G. Marshall, Karen L. Morris, “ Hotel, Restaurant and Travel Law, Seven edition) Those definitions show that the discrimination is illegal for people. I experienced something similar when I was an internship in Westin Hotel in China. I worked in the department of HR and most of my colleagues are men. They gave me the introduction and principles of Westin Hotel to read. I found that there are no breaks for pregnant women who need to work for seven months before they are going to give birth. The hotel will often give promotions and raise salaries for male employees. The boss will first consider married women when they are hired because those people can save time without objective causes. Actually, gender discrimination is a widespread case, which happens frequently in our society. “Bank of America agreed on Friday to pay $39 million to women who worked in its Merrill Lynch brokerage operation, another costly settlement of a discrimination case filed by its employees.” (Patrick Mcgeehan, nytimes, September 6, 2013) The gender discrimination still exists nowadays in the new century. Some women who want to get some rights as men in workplace need jobs to feed their children. However, the realistic situation always disappoints them. We cannot completely avoid gender discrimination because it will relate to many other reasons. I have some ideas to ease the gender discrimination issue. Assuming that I have my own restaurant and I need to face a pregnant employee and the competition between males and female employees, the rules of hospitality will work.
Restaurant Example one
   In pursuit of maximum profit, enterprises put efficiency first, and then take fairness into consideration, because female employees cost more than male ones. Bosses have to bear a lot of "social responsibilities" such as menstrual  period, marriage, pregnancy, maternity leave or lactation for female employees, so is is inevitable for enterprises to prefer men to women.
   I owned a restaurant and needed many women to serve as ushers, to wash dish dishes, to do the cleaning or to be cashiers. A pregnant woman will be trouble and causes my headache.
   She couldn't touch harmful substances, otherwise her baby would probably be a freak. The restaurant is a public place where all kinds of people come and go. Flu and infectious diseases threatened the mother and the baby. Once  the pregnant woman was sick, medicine  might affect the growth of the baby. Computers with electromagnetic field would make fetal harm exist. If she put her hands directly into cold water to wash dishes,  she risked of inducing abortion.　
   In my sight, the woman could do nothing, but I had to pay her according to the law. What was more, every now and then she asked for leave to have a check up in hospitals. Very often, I got her calls that she felt awful. Once or twice a month, she threw up badly when she worked. I had to call her family to take her home or some of us put her back.
   I really wanted to unilaterally terminate the contract with her, but was reluctant to open my mouth and worried about her accusation. How I wished she offered to cease the employment contract!
   Her maternity leave followed. She would be away for several months,  and I kept on paying her as the regulations listed. I hired another woman to replace her. That means I used one person but paid double salaries. Gosh! I grieved that I had had so many women. However, how could I show beauty and blandness to customers if  I employed all men?
   After  she had had a baby,  she seemed to be more busy than before. Feeding the baby and taking him to hospital when he was ill became almost her all. 
   Maybe I might find some excuses to deduct her payment. Nevertheless,  facing the matter of  my economic loss, I thought:  on one hand, the woman is protected by the law; on the other hand, I needn’t risk losing the lawsuit.
   If she accused me of breaking the law and bringing harm to her rights and interests, I would surely be defeated.
   As it’s regulated, no one shall unilaterally terminate the employment contract or reduce salaries with female workers who are in situations such as marriage, pregnancy, maternity leave or lactation.

Restaurant Example two
   On one occasion, I announced that in all the  employees, I'd appoint a general manager. Immediately they were excited like ants on a hot pan. The first question appeared: In the competition among men and women  for the  position of  the general manager, who will win?
   Some people thought that men have more advantages such as 1) being full of energy, without those troubles like women; 2) of rational thinking; 3) of courage and innovation; 4) of wide friends; 5) of resolute temperament; 6) daring to take responsibility and 7) with strong sense of direction.
   To my surprise, most people including some women thought that the above-mentioned men’s advantages just happened to be women’s disadvantages :1) being physically weak, with many chronic troubles; 2) of emotional thinking; 3) being timid and overcautious; 4) of confined friends; 5) of only tender appearance; 6) giving others the baby to hold and 7) without sense of direction.
   In my opinion,equality is the first standard to measure. Different standards meet various needs.Physiologically,my restaurant is not a unit that needs strong porters but people of management,without consideration of gender.Let a man spin on cotton.Surely he is inferior to women. Let women cast iron. Certainly they not equal to men. This is not equal.If you want absolute average, there is nothing to argue.
We needn’t waste time on the difference for that is the horse of another color.Each has its own advantage.
   Secondly, it is not power that customers enter a restaurant for. They want delicate service, delicious food  and good atmosphere. In their eyes, there are all girls.Men are staying back working as cooks. Females pass dishes, do cleaning and serve customers.Hard work belongs to men,but their products will speak for the success of cooperation between males and females stands for social equality.
   Thirdly, modern social division of labor is different. Men and women can make better social division of labor.That is beneficial to create more social value. If men and women  are beneficial to both sides, who’ll go on paying attention to absolute equality that is almost impossible?
   Guess what? In the end, one of  the women  sat in the position of general manager.
Conclusion
   We should have a consensus: since women belong to vulnerable groups, the whole society shall respect them. Otherwise, the world will cease to exist. There mustn’t be prejudice or discrimination. The relationship between men and women should be established on the basis of mutual respect. 
   We have to admit: Men can’t do what women can, and vice versa.