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Sunday, June 18, 2006
Lim: Bias in employment
By Melanie T. Lim
Sadly, it is not only our educational institutions that are guilty of discriminatory practices, so are our corporate employers. Although many in the corporate community have of late, taken the higher road and chosen to reject discriminatory hiring practices, others continue to perpetuate hiring practices that are patently discriminatory.
Scan the newspaper ads and you will see what I mean. Why would anyone applying to be an "auditor," have to be female and between 22 to 28 years old? What would a 22-year old woman have that 42-year old woman not have? Well, just on top of my head, I would say---a smaller waistline and firmer breasts.
Other than that, I just can't think of why a qualified 42-year old woman would have to be rejected in favor of a 22-year old woman of exactly the same qualifications simply because she can't make the age cut-off. And why would a 42-year old man of exactly the same abilities be summarily dismissed as a qualified candidate simply because he is of the wrong age and gender?
To refuse employment to a qualified candidate because of personality or behavioral problems is NOT discrimination. But to refuse employment to a qualified candidate on the basis of age, gender, marital status, religious or political affiliation IS discrimination.
A few years ago, a big corporate player with nationwide operations innocently put in openly discriminatory recruitment qualifiers in their newspaper ads for salespeople. Nothing shocking really---just the usual discriminatory qualifiers like female, 18-24 years old, fair complexion, at least 5 feet 2 inches in height.
What shall we do then with the rest of the female population below 5 feet 2 inches tall and dark-skinned? Have we forgotten that majority of the Filipino female population actually looks this way? If we don't like how the people in this country look like, perhaps, we should move our operations elsewhere---some place where the majority of people are above 5 feet 2 inches tall and fair-skinned.
Many people in the business sector will argue it is for practical purposes that they put in these screening qualifiers as they will not hire candidates that do not pass these preliminary criteria anyway. I do understand why these qualifiers are there. What I don't understand is why these qualifiers have to be there, at all.
This is not about semantics or political correctness. This is about re-evaluating our hiring practices as a nation. It is not unreasonable for businesses to want to hire attractive people. But perhaps, it is time for us to open our eyes to broader standards of beauty. Remarks like "Guapa pero itom," (Beautiful but dark-skinned.) tell us that despite how far we have gone as a nation, we remain parochial in view.
The plethora of "whitening" products lining our supermarket shelves symbolizes in so many ways, how our colonial masters continue to enslave us. Even as we march in the streets to denounce US imperialism, we sadly carry with us still, the colonial mentality we so deeply disavow. Each time we reject ourselves and others for the shadow of our Caucasian colonial masters, we disappoint and render generations after us, a great national disservice
(sunstarcebucolumnist@yahoo.com)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (June 18, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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