Abstract
Gender disparity at the workplace in the USA has been largely described as one that favors the male gender over the female gender. This paper presents statistics in the labor market of the USA discussing the differences between jobs dominated by males and females. Further, it analyses the role of the manager in allocating gender-related responsibilities at the workplace. The findings of the discussion are such that the female gender in the United States of America is well known for working in jobs that are majorly clerical and in education. On the other hand, the results indicate that men are most suited for operative and craft related jobs. The discussion also finds that the best management practices in allocating roles considered to be dominated by one gender is through the evaluation of individual qualifications, talents and skills. The discussion is a comprehensive analysis of gender diversity in the workplace particularly in the United States.
The labor sector in the United States is characteristic of gender differences that present a few issues of concern. According to the international labor organization (2011) by the end of the year 2010 65 million women totaled the workforce of the USA. Most of them were concentrated in sectors such as education, health services, transport and local government. Centrally, their overrepresentation was in sectors such as health and social services and the education sector. Other sectors such as professional, scientific and technical services sectors were dominated by men (ILO, 2011).
The disparities in gender employment patterns in the US have been persistent in the United States where a few sectors are dominated by the male gender while others are dominated by the female gender. For instance, traditionally male-dominated sectors include operatives and crafts while women have been found to dominate clerical and educational jobs in the USA (Gabriel & Schmitz, 2007).
The most worrying trend in the US labor market is however on the disparities between the earnings of the female gender workforce as compared to the male gender in the USA. The year 2010 statics indicate that women in the United States on average earned 81 cents on every dollar that was earned by their male counterparts. These figures are projected to remain constant towards 2018 as there are no indications of female earnings increasing beyond the male counterparts’ earnings in different sectors within the labor industry. Notwithstanding, there are isolated cases in which the male gender earn less than their female counterparts in different sectors of the labor market although various factors come into play (Dozier, Sha, & Shen, 2012).
Concerns have been raised in the management of different gender in job categories especially those that are dominated by one gender over another. In most instances, many jobs are dominated by men and women are often a minority in particular job categories in the USA. In this regard, the management of the organization is faced with the difficulty of ensuring gender parity despite the differences that may arise in the workplace. In this regard, certain roles are considered male while others are considered masculine. This is occasioned by the traditional inculcation which has often defined the different roles that different gender can be said to be better in performance than their counterparts (AAUW, 2013).
As a manager, the choice to either allocate duties in regard to the expertise that different genders may present in the completion of the tasks purely depends on the evaluation. In this sense, a manager should evaluate circumstances, qualifications and talents that different individuals have around a certain job or task. Through this evaluation, they can then make appropriate decisions on how to ensure that they can effectively address the issue of role allocations (AAUW, 2013). Hence, not necessarily those roles that are considered feminine should be reserved for females. In the same respect, not all roles that are considered masculine should be reserved for men. This is because either of them can take part in the roles depending on their experience and expertise which, as a result, produces the best results.
References
AAUW. (2013). The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap. AAUW. Retrieved 6 30, 2014, from https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CE0QFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.prsa.org%2FIntelligence%2FPRJournal%2FDocuments%2F2013DozierShaShen.pdf&ei=TiixU83FAcKL0AWBw4CoCQ&usg=AFQjCNF1LFgBfNZposIjDRhxMxSD91kQBg&sig2
Dozier , D. M., Sha , B.-L., & Shen , H. (2012). Why Women Earn Less Than Men: The Cost of Gender Discrimination in U.S. Public Relations. Public Relations Journal, 7(1), 1 - 21.
Gabriel , P. E., & Schmitz , S. (2007). Gender Differences in Occupational Distribution Among Workers . Monthly Review , 19 - 24 .
ILO. (2011, November 23). Gender Inequality and Women in the US Labor Force. Retrieved 6 30, 2014, from International Labour Organization: http://www.ilo.org/washington/areas/gender-equality-in-the-workplace/WCMS_159496/lang--en/index.htm
