Introduction
This essay explores the issue of gender discrimination at workplace and the impact it can have on employee performance. Gender issues have been a part of human civilization since time immemorial but were only brought to attention around the 1980s. Historically, gender discrimination has been thought to be most obvious in the everyday workplaces and continues to be so. Many factors such as the gender based stereotypes as well as the organizational structures have been considered as the factors behind such discrimination. It is obvious that the working environments differ greatly for men and women in the developing as well as the developed countries of the world. Many spheres of this discrimination have been documented which include disparities in wages, differences in opportunities, sexual segregation and much more. Though statistics often vary due to the difficulty of getting accurate results, it is estimated that at least four to five percent of workers face discrimination every year (Bobbitt-Zeher). This discrimination may be experienced at various levels such as in job descriptions, hiring procedures, promotions, and sexual harassment and performance evaluations. The challenges however remain to understand the unfolding of this discrimination at workplaces and control it in the best possible way.
There are two main types of gender discrimination, horizontal discrimination of vertical discrimination. In horizontal discrimination, the jobs given to women are different in nature to those being done by men. On the other hand, in vertical discrimination, the jobs assigned to women are of a lower level than men in the organizational hierarchy.
Socio-cultural foundations of gender discrimination
According to most researchers, gender discrimination at the workplace is greatly rooted in the traditional concepts regarding gender. Through stereotyping, the discriminatory behavior is transferred from one individual to another and one generation to another. Instead of deciding on the activities an individual should perform, based on their status or role in the society, it is usually based on their sex (Patterson and Walcutt).
Discrimination at the workplace
The Gendering of jobs
Around the world, women have greatest access to employment opportunities which are related to care-giving and service jobs, such as waitressing or flight attending services, which continues to add to the exploitation and sexualization of the women working at these positions. At such positions, it is often the attractiveness and sexuality of a woman which makes her fit for the job. On the other hand, if women are employed in the traditionally male-dominated areas, they are almost always supervised by men and the position women get is at a low pay and status, as compared to the men working at similar positions to them. The issues related to sexual harassment are often not reported by these women, in the fear of losing their jobs, and even if reported to higher authorities in the organization, they are silently ignored. Moreover, in male working cultures, a heterosexual environment has been observed, which often leads to promoting the sexualization of women, even if those women are their coworkers. As a result of these differences, it has been observed that our world is greatly marked by occupational segregation. Men and women have devoted themselves to separate occupations, industries and even departments. For example, the industrial sector is a male dominated one as more than 85% of its labor force is male, while on the other hand, more than 65% of workforce in the retail distribution and repair industry consists of women (Kleiner). Though many changes have been seen over the last few decades in attempts of ending gender discrimination, and women are now able to be a part of the organization’s management or policy-making, they are in most cases restricted only to the lowest levels of management.
Gender Wage Gap
It has been observed that almost all employers prefer employing men over women in the similar jobs or jobs which have traditionally been male dominated. Nonetheless, research and statistics mostly fail to explain the tremendous gap in wages of both sexes. This inability may be attributed to a number of reasons such as limitation of data or omission of variables and this leads to the uncertainty on the actual cause behind this wage gap. It has been observed that the gap in wages mostly increases with age of the employees. Another observation which may be linked to the wage gap is that women usually work for lesser hours as compared to men in the same positions, particularly in case of married women. So it may be assumed, that women are often forced by their circumstances or family obligations to limit their working hours, thus compromising their work experience. However, another assumption may be that the reason behind women having less work experience is the unfairness with which they are treated at work, as well as the denial of opportunities and promotions. No matter what the real reasons are, it remains clear that great wage gaps do exist, which are bound to compromise the production abilities and motivation for women (Patterson and Walcutt).
Work-family conflict
Historically, women have been limited to their role as the ‘home-makers’ and ‘care-givers’ and even today, this role is often found to be in conflict of their interest or a result of discrimination at work places. Many women right activists have argued that women are often discriminated against solely on the basis of their family obligations. However, the more important question is as to how exactly should caregiver discrimination be defined and what the solution to this problem should be. This discrimination has also lead to a different take of men and women on job selection. While men decide on the jobs they want based on the salary, women give more value to time flexibility and ability to multi-task. Many employers have been reported as forcing women to choose between their home and work responsibilities which leads to lower work satisfaction and compromises their performance, thus influencing the gender wage gap. There are several ways in which this problem may be addressed, for example, by allowing women to work from home whenever possible or by provision of informal support by organizations to working women with family responsibilities. Such support would be beneficial for not just the working women but also for the organizations, as it would lead to greater job satisfaction and increased employee turnover rate and other unnecessary expenses.
Gender Inferiority
It is often observed that employers and co-workers have certain types of assumptions about women, their behavior, and their presumed lower intelligence and so on. Such assumptions are likely to cause negativity within the work environment and also affect the productivity of any women workers. Such assumptions usually arise from the stereotypes about women, such as women being the weaker sex, hormonal, emotional and unproductive.
There are also certain prescriptive stereotypes about women, such as those defining or restricting the way women should act, dress or talk that may lead to discrimination at workplace.
Politics and Legislations
Over the last few decades, the issue of gender discrimination one has been an immensely highlighted one and is now turning into a legal and political issue of great significance. Women in many countries, particularly in the developed ones have raised their voices for their rights and have put forth the demand that they should be given the same pay as men when they are doing the same amount of work. In many countries, including the United States and Canada, women have sued their employers and coworkers for discrimination. It is not uncommon in these countries to hear of cases in which judges have ruled in favor of women who have been discriminated against, be it in matters related to wages, harassment or others. These countries also have laws in place to ensure that women are treated fairly in workplaces, though most organizations have been able to find their ways around these laws. For example, in the U.S, many organizations opt for segregating women to avoid having women perform equal work to men and thus avoiding laws such as the ‘Equal Pay Act.’ Such acts of exploitation lead to worsening the situation instead of solving them.
Comparable Worth Approach
The comparable worth approach is an important step in the way of solving the gender discrimination issue at workplaces. It refers to the concept that two different jobs are of somewhat similar or comparable worth if they can be compared in terms of four different factors. These factors include the skills required for the job, the responsibilities of the employee, the efforts made by the employee at work and the conditions in which the employee works. The skills may refer to the training or educational background required for the job. If two different jobs, when compared are similar on all four of these factors, then the employees doing both jobs deserve a somewhat similar pay.
Possible Solutions
As proved by the above discussion, the performance of any organization is greatly dependent on employee satisfaction and thus gender discrimination is bound to have a negative impact on the organizational productivity. So a significant relationship exists between gender discrimination and employee performance. Apart from effecting productivity, discrimination is likely to promote harassment and workplace violence. They may also cause organization losses in the form of law suits. The human resource department must be extremely careful and ensure the fair hiring and promotion of its employees, providing equal opportunities and facilities to all its employees and introducing policies which help avoid gender discrimination. The importance of women in the working environment must be realized and respected. In most countries there are state or federal laws which aim at controlling gender discrimination but there is a need to ensure that these laws are truly enforced.
It is also the responsibility of the employers, to educate themselves about the norms, values, culture and policies of an organization before accepting a job. In case an employee is subject to gender discrimination, she must be aware of the channels through which she may fight for her rights. It is also the responsibility of the state to educate women in this regards and help the victims in filing cases and punishing the wrong doers (HEILMAN and EAGLY).
Organizations wishing to address the issue of gender discrimination can introduce training workshops or seminars for their managers and employees, so they shall have a better chance of controlling discrimination before it becomes a part of the organizational culture.
Diversifying is also a preferred solution for discrimination as it increases productivity and decreases discrimination. When people of different backgrounds, gender, race and ethnicities are working together, it brings about a culture of mutual respect amongst employees. An improved performance is seen as more creativity is observed and attains greater client satisfaction. Another way to control gender discrimination at workplace is by organizing regular assessments for employees, for example through job satisfaction surveys or interviews. This method also allows employers to know about the employee needs or expectations. The employees in turn shall respect the management for their concern and in the long run, this may help an organization retain its employees, have a good pool of applicants for future, raise organizational morale and lower absenteeism.
The problem is a complex one and the currently available solutions have not been able to address the issue, so it is important to continue research into this topic in the future.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that the centuries old issue of gender discrimination still exists to a great but varying extent in the world. It is an extremely complex and complicated issue, which poses problems to not just women but societies as a whole. Women suffer from a discriminatory attitude at work, in term of the jobs they are hired for, the wages they are paid and the opportunities they have for betterment once employed in an organization. Though the 21st century has seen a diminishing level of this issue and an increase in women participation, the issue has not ceased to exist as yet and has persistently existed. The issue of gender discrimination does not just hinder the progress of an organization but of a country as world, since in today’s globalized world, every country strives to build its self-image. The most unfair form of gender discrimination at work are sexual harassment, and unequal treatment of employees who are working for the same position and in a similar manner and yet receive different wages and treatment by their employers or supervisors. Women by their nature are also more family oriented while men are career-oriented, which has often lead to exploitation of women and a subsequent increase in the gender wage gap. So it may be concluded that women facing work-family conflict are more likely to report gender discrimination at workplaces and so employers wishing to avoid such problems or suits need to take action in this matter. It is a matter of fairness, that this discrimination be ended and the first step in this matter may be ensuring the provision of equal pay for jobs of comparable value. Though this may not be a long term solution to the problem, it unarguably is a part of the solution.
Works Cited
Bobbitt-Zeher, D. 'Gender Discrimination At Work: Connecting Gender Stereotypes, Institutional Policies, And Gender Composition Of Workplace'. Gender & Society 25.6 (2011): 764-786. Web.
HEILMAN, MADELINE E., and ALICE H. EAGLY. 'Gender Stereotypes Are Alive, Well, And Busy Producing Workplace Discrimination'. Industrial and Organizational Psychology 1.4 (2008): 393-398. Web.
Kleiner, Brian H. 'Age, Sex, Colour And Disability Discrimination In America'. Equal Opportunities International 17.3/4/5 (1998): 3-119. Web.
Patterson, Louise, and Brandon Walcutt. 'Explanations For Continued Gender Discrimination In South Korean Workplaces'. Asia Pacific Business Review 20.1 (2012): 18-41. Web.
Patterson, Louise, and Brandon Walcutt. 'Korean Workplace Gender Discrimination Research Analysis: A Review Of The Literature From 1990 To 2010'. Asia Pacific Business Review 19.1 (2013): 85-101. Web.
