Introduction
There has been a lot of controversy concerning the position that should be held by women in the labor market. Apparently women tend to be side lined when it comes to management and leadership roles. However, this notion has, from time to time, been scraped out of people’s perception, and it has been seen that gender and equality balance has become dominant principle among many organizations. On the other hand, many organizations tend to lean on the traditional side of leadership roles, where a woman was supposed to be a follower but not a leader.
Discussion
Primarily it was a tradition that women were nowhere to be seen in the leadership positions. Traditionally women were, in the past, required to take care of the homestead while men acted as the head of the family. This perception still exists and is evident in the modern labor market. Women have been denied leadership and management roles in many organizations as a result of this notion. However, with education been offered equally to both the boy and girl child, the competition for high level jobs is currently being centered on the professional skills and competence and not gender.
However, on many occasions, women have always been choosy when it comes to management roles. It has been observed that many women tend to lean on jobs which are less demanding. This has been the major reason why they have been inferior to men in the labor market. In most cases, women leave men to do the hefty and demanding jobs and as a result of this, men have acquired great skills that have made them more competent than the women. The norm of women neglecting difficult or hefty jobs has significantly led to the neglect of women in management positions of many organizations.
Education is another factor that has caused women to be deprived leadership roles in organizations. Depriving the girl child from accessing education has given many men an upper hand over women whenever applicants from both genders are seeking top managerial positions within an organization. The fact that many girls tend to drop out of school to get married has also significantly contributed to the fact that most women in the society remain to lack education. However, this has not been the case in modern days. The proportion of the girl child acquiring education has been increasing with time.
Analysis
The struggle to overcome the inferiority of women in management positions has come a long way. It can be traced back to historical times where women had no leadership positions in the society. Initially women used to stay at home while men assumed leadership positions and took the responsibility of being the bread winners for their families. The notion of women inferiority has, therefore, been maintained over years from one generation to the other. It has been observed in the labor market that women tend to be given the subsidiary jobs while men have always had the management positions. This has been from the idea that women do not possess the leadership skills and are neither competent in leadership roles.
This traditional view of women has also caused a negative impact on women. Women have become reluctant to pursue top positions and have instead allowed themselves to become to be led by men. This norm can be evidenced by the fact that, women tend to neglect certain jobs on the grounds that they are too much demanding. In addition, this acceptance that men should be the leaders has made women lack the passion and morale to seek leadership positions.
The fact that women have had no role model to imitate has also significantly caused them to be denied managerial jobs. However, many women are currently rising to assume top leadership positions. Many women are now getting challenged by fellow women who have succeeded in assuming top leadership positions, that they too, are capable of holding such superior positions.
Conclusion
Women should also not be choosy in the type job they can do, since this has led to a scenario where many jobs are being crowded by men thus discouraging women from engaging in such kind of job positions. The fact that women lacked role models also significantly contributed to their inferiority in the work environment. This is, however, not the case in current times since we have seen women assume very crucial and important leadership roles round the world. Nevertheless, women should be encouraged to take up more leadership positions in order to have gender balance in the working environment.
Reference
Maarten van Klaveren, K. T. (2012). Empowering Women in Work in Developing Countries. palgrave macmillan.
