Alexis Turnage, Chapter 5, Question # 4

When Wheelan talked about a small law firm interviewing two job candidates which one was a male and one was a female. The two candidates graduated from Harvard Law School and they were highly qualified for this position they are trying to fill. The small law firm is trying to hire the one that will make the most money for the firm. Wheelan thought the "best" choice to hire would be the man. His reason for choosing the man was that the female will eventually want to start a family and take maternity leave and then eventually will quit their job and stay home with their child. The law firm will rack up cost for finding, hiring and training the new hired person. This was interesting to me because I think this statement will raise quite a bit of controversy. Not all women want to have a family and not all women will leave their jobs to take care of their child because they don't want to be dependent on their husband. My mom has always working and held her on position and never intended to be a stay at home mom because she had too much invested in her education. By leaving her position she felt everything she had achieved would go out the window and she wanted to set an example for me when I grow up. You don't have to be dependent on your spouse or someone (parents, siblings, cousins, etc.), you can have some independence in a relationship. Some companies nowadays don't offer pay maternity leave which is a controversy within itself. It is the assumption that women in relationships will become parents and if working at some point will need to take maternity leave. If their employer doesn't offer them payed maternity leave then they have to depend on their husband or someone to help them and then eventually they may have to quit their position.  Companies need to ask women and men specifically what is their future plans because not all women and men have their minds set on having children. Some men might take many days off of work due to having a child, so it's not just women. I believe that whoever is the best candidate whether male or female should get the position. I don't think that the man should get the position just because the female might start a family. There are many ways to work now. She could possibly work from home or something to that effect. This could be a likely occurrence of gender discrimination.