The following note is only an attempt to emphasize a specific type of examination of gender discrimination against women in the workplace and occupational environments.

Although it may seem insignificant for you to acknowledge any type of discrimination against women, do not speak of the systematic patriarchal discrimination that is prevalent in all spheres. However, this writing attempts to, while assuming that the different contexts and factors present in discrimination vary in terms of their impact and existing ratios in each system, focus on a specific type of discrimination that is more closely related to work and gender, and therefore owes its methodology to philosophers such as Marx; that is, in order to clarify one’s perspective on the issue of discrimination against women in the workplace, it utilizes the dialectical and historical materialism approach in reproducing economic classes in the capitalist system.

At first, we should briefly mention a specific reading of history that focuses on the formation of systematic differences and discrimination between men and women during a time when humans needed a workforce and were therefore forced to divide labor among individuals.

Some interpreters believe that during the agricultural period, humans were forced to create social roles and division of labor due to the need for workforce. During this time, due to their natural characteristics such as menstrual habits and pregnancy, women were given a lesser role in the division of labor for agricultural production and were instead turned into laborers in the household. Those who were once hunters and owners of their children became producers of new labor, and this beginning of construction was not only production-oriented, but also gender-oriented, and often these constructions of identity began to grow and become more complex from this introduction.

As time went on and societies grew larger, human relationships and even their needs became more complex. While in small tribes, the division of basic tasks and labor could determine each individual’s role in survival, as society grew and advancements in production tools and resources were made for the survival and fulfillment of the community’s needs, new relationships such as the management of society or different classes of humans had to be formed. These exact classes were the stumbling block for humanity’s pursuit of justice.

Over time, hidden differences in social classes became more and more pronounced, resulting in greater and more complex forms of discrimination in each period. The construct that was supposed to bring human societies together in a specific bond towards survival and shared prosperity became a site of conflict for the elimination of others and gaining more privilege. In each class, based on the identities that each had constructed for themselves, it was the women and non-male genders who had a lower status and were categorized into lower classes because of their gender. It didn’t matter if you were a master or a slave, a subject or a ruler, a commoner or a prince, from a military family or a commander; in each of these classes, it was these men who held power and women were placed in a subordinate position in each class.

There is no solution if we say that the roots of discrimination lie not in the limitations, deprivation, and marginalization of a certain group for specific reasons, but rather in our class-based understanding of humanity, which is based on differences such as race, nationality, ethnicity, gender, and other factors that shape human identity. However, the main source of this discrimination is the gender-based contract that history has shown to be flawed, as the initial assumption (that more work equals more benefits) is incorrect.

With the passage of time and the entry of women for various reasons, it became necessary for them to enter the field of production and become a workforce outside the home. Human societies realized that, given the level of effort and creativity of women, the idea that pregnancy and menstruation reduce productivity is not a myth. However, because this initial assumption had turned into a value of identity and defined power relations as a social construct, it became an inherent value and, like other discriminatory mechanisms, it remained in place to exploit others in each period. In fact, it can be said that gender discrimination, despite numerous factors such as race, nation, ethnicity, etc. changing with each rise and fall of power, has remained in place since the beginning until today. And it was women who, regardless of which social group held the dominant power and had the possibility of greater exploitation, were always counted as second-class citizens in their own classes.

With the industrial revolution and the emergence of factories, the need for labor took on a different form. The possibility of creating surplus production for greater profit increased the demand for labor by factory owners more than ever before. Feudal lords gave way to factory owners and the common people were pushed towards the outskirts of cities, becoming mere workers. It was no longer just land that held spiritual and sacred value, but goods also brought their own special spiritual values, and the pursuit of war for their production took on complex and terrifying forms. Profit became the first and last word in the new economic system (capitalism), and in the midst of this, capitalists did not only rely on their own labor force (men) for increased production and therefore greater profit, but also employed women and children. For women, this was a new opportunity and chance to escape the confines of the home and break free from the bondage of men. However, despite the discriminatory system of relations between men and women and the great barrier of

The capitalist system, in order to maintain its power and discriminatory class structure, considered discrimination against women as one of the most profitable ways to preserve and even expand its profits. These women and children, despite countless efforts and sacrificing their lives in factories, and despite their unfamiliarity or unwillingness to escape from work – as men workers were able to do – received lower wages and benefits, resulting in higher profits for the owners of the means of production. The situation reached a point where even punitive measures against factory owners (who often engaged in inhumane discrimination against women and children) were considered less valuable than the profits gained from exploiting women and children. Furthermore, the hierarchy in the household, which considered women and children as slaves to both working-class and wealthy men – who were the same owners of the means of production – allowed working-class men to sell their own slaves, who until then were only responsible for domestic work and reproduction, as labor to business owners. This in turn led to a great human

To better understand the angles of this tragedy, it is enough to take a look at the market for the sale of women and girls in war-torn countries like Syria and provinces like Nangarhar in Afghanistan today, to see how women and girls are sold by their fathers or Taliban men to fulfill their sexual needs, procreation, and also as a source of labor. This was a problem that has been greatly mitigated by the efforts of liberation movements in developing or developed societies; although it cannot be said to have disappeared completely, a significant possibility of liberation from these discriminations and violence has emerged; although there is still a fundamental problem that threatens the rights of women in all areas in countries that claim to support them. Gender discrimination, which is evident in the level and manner of employment, wages and benefits, vocational education rights, career advancement and obtaining higher positions, as well as equal rights in any field that is considered to be given or granted.

The reality is that the method of production in the capitalist system determines the mode of reproduction and, as a result, the relationships between men and women; in fact, it is this production that determines and serves as its own reproduction. One of the most important aspects of this method is creating competition and maintaining a certain level of unemployment. In this system, women and men are each other’s competitors and discrimination is used to maintain this competition, creating a sense of rivalry and a certain level of unemployment, which, of course, is mostly made up of women.

Every society has various methods to create competition and maintain unemployment levels, and in this regard, feminization of poverty is a common practice among many communities. Denying women access to resources, profits, and education leads to these disparities. Giving women less pay for domestic work, dividing household and outside work, and gendering work are all multiple ways to maintain competition and, as a result, gender discrimination in the workplace.

And another outcome of it is the formation of a family, which is seen as a way to compensate for all these problems. These rivals needed to form an emotional bond with each other in order to compensate and escape from any of these problems, so that they could overcome the deficiencies and material and spiritual needs imposed by the capitalist system. In this way, they would also generate more workforce and ensure the production of offspring to guarantee the survival of the capitalist system and the acquisition of fresh energy.

Alienation is another problem that, if we don’t want to say it’s a modern problem, we must accept that its dimensions and complexities are the result of the capitalist system. It is a problem that turns the workforce from human beings into emotionless and confused cogs in the capitalist system.

The feeling of alienation, which can be described as a sense of disturbance and deprivation, has resulted in many hidden problems. This issue is more prevalent among women due to the existing discrimination in the workplace. The workforce feels alienated by producing goods that they cannot afford to buy themselves, and also by the fact that some goods disappear from the market in order to generate more profit. Furthermore, with the specialization of jobs in the stages of production, they are only obligated to do small, repetitive and exhausting tasks, which leads to a loss of their sense of creativity and innovation. As a result, they do not establish a connection between the work they do and the product they produce. This is compounded by the moral and cultural values that consumerism has created, where it is no longer the human who controls the product, but rather the product that controls and dictates the human’s needs.

According to humans, consumerism is a sacred matter and the dominant power of goods, and this becomes more complicated when you feel a double sense of alienation and distance between yourself and others. Discrimination against women in work environments leads to even more isolation and separation, and as a result, women are even more affected by the current issue of human alienation and discrimination, and feel even more deprived.

In this journey, it seems that the first and most obvious path to liberating humanity from the path of women’s liberation from countless discriminations passes through one of the most important of them, discrimination against women in the workplace. Whenever all genders understand and experience each other’s struggles, such as self-alienation, to the same extent, they will find more solutions to overcome these problems and also have the ability to work together and unite to achieve justice and eliminate all forms of discrimination. Therefore, it is not futile to say that the path to saving humanity from injustice passes through the gateway of women’s liberation from discrimination.