Context of Gender in Corporate World
For a long time, gender equality has always engrossed and troubled the corporate world. Gender equality efforts aims at eradicating the barriers of stereotypes and prejudices to enable both sexes equally contribute and benefit from social, economic, political, and cultural developments in the society. In the past, the society had a misconception on the ability of women to balance work and domestic roles (Benshoff and Sean 32). However, this has changed in the wake 21 century many women have dedicated themselves to the growth and success of various corporations. The corporate has felt the presence of women and their contribution as leaders is essential for the prosperity and success of nation across the world. Despite these improvements in the workplace, males continue to dominate senior positions as women remain discriminated against based on their gender. Women face problems such as sexual harassment, inequitable pay, and balancing work and family life. This paper discusses the problem of gender bias in the corporate world.
Research indicates that gender inequality remains a popular issue in the society and the work place is not exempted from this old menace. By definition, gender bias refers to a prejudice or preference toward one gender over the other. Such biases can be conscious or unconscious, and may manifest in various ways, both obvious and subtle. Some countries have enacted laws, including those that govern workplaces, family courts, as well as the voting booth. Over the past six years, seven countries have passed legislation requiring female board members and nine have set non-mandatory targets ().
There are types of gender discrimination, which include disparate treatment and disparate impact. Disparate treatment simply refers to treating an employee different from other because of his or her gender. For example, an employee may experience such type of treatment during a job interview when asked discriminatory question, when an employee does not receive promotion or wrongfully terminate an employee based on gender, or when an employee receives unequal pay based on gender. Disparate impact on the other hand refers to a more complex concept. It concerns practices or policies that exclude individuals of one gender from a promotions or a job although the practice or policy did not specify such actions. An example of such policy includes the policy requirement of strong personnel in the fire department that far exceeded the strength needed to work efficiently as a fire fighter. Such outrageous strength requirements excluded women from pursuing such jobs. Even though many had strength to work efficiently as a firefighter, they could not meet the requirements of the department.
Discrimination at the workplace can emanate from either side of the employee or co-worker. Discrimination from co-workers usually happens to new employee. These may include sadistic stares or constant digs directed at them by their co-workers during the initial period. However, persistence of such habits for an extended period cannot only affect the employee but also the employer.
Current thinking
Although effective management does not favor any gender, but effective management may require women to work like men. Women in managerial situations often confront some situations and issues that are unique to their sex. In most cases, men usually resent being held accountable to women. In some cases, either deliberately or subconsciously ignores the author of their women seniors in favor of male bosses. On the other hand, research indicates that female workers prefer male managers to females. However, this attitude should not cause a major concern because, traditionally, males have dominated majority of management positions. Consequently, women who accept the position as a female manager, similar to their counterparts, resent the presence of a female supervisor. Many female subordinates believe that taking orders from another female lowers their status.
Both males and females have certain responsibilities towards each other to ensure prosperity and success of an organization with minimum difficulty.
Some male managers hold the opinion that female managers require some special treat, which in most cases is never the case. Nevertheless, male managers should support such women in accomplishing their responsibilities. American government placed emphasis on eliminating all the gender and ethnical differences in the corporate world and ensures a society where all have equal rights. Many women are leaving their jobs in favor of self-employment, for example, the U.S. saw a 21.1 percent of women exit the corporate world between 2001 and 2006, and 34.6 percent exit between 2006 and 2013 (Lester 2013). Research show that the major issue leading to decision of women to exit the corporate world in modern day is gender issues.
Causes of Gender Inequality in the Workplace
Gender inequality in the corporate world results because a number of factors including sexism, lack of qualifications, glass ceiling, and networking. Stereotypes can have harmful effect in the workplace it motivates a person to mistreat other based on misconception or preconceived notions that are not true. Research indicates that majority of people fail to notice how stereotyping automatically influences their thinking, therefore, believe that their perceptions draws from objective observation (Goodman-Draper 72). For example, the American culture promotes the belief that women are best suited for jobs that emphasize service, housekeeping, and nurturing. On the other hand, Americans believe that men perform well in careers that require high level of decision-making and authority. This has led to the inability of women to hold top positions in organization because collogues and employers believe that they cannot perform efficiently in such positions. This also gives men the advantage to hold senior positions that require authority.
Another cause of discrimination is the lack of qualification, which usually affects women negatively. Typically, men usually have more education and job experience compared to women. According to Nelson and Laurie (159), 28 percent of men above the age 25 have completed their college education compared to 27 percent of women. This gives men the advantage of attaining work experience long before women can complete their college education. In addition, men usually have more job experience because women loose time during pregnancies and childcare. Gender inequality finds its way once a female enters the job market. Averagely, a woman earns only 80 cents for every dollar a man earns (Nynäs and Andrew 25). Today, women are performing better in education than their male counterparts are, and they definitely have equal qualifications as men. Despite the huge achievements women have made in the education system, they still face discrimination in the workplace.
Another cause of gender bias in the corporate world is the glass ceiling. It refers to subtle and unconscious discrimination that deters women from reaching higher and better-paying position within the organization regardless of their skills. The American government has tried its best to eradicate discrimination from the American society. According to Karsten (142), the glass ceiling does not simply bar an individual based on their incompetency to handle a higher-level position. Rather, the glass ceiling applies to a group of women and minority groups who are forced to stagnate because they are women. Women constitute only 30 percent of middle managers in the United States and less than 1 percent of chief executives. This indicates that women face numerous barriers on their journey to top positions in the working place.
Lastly, women do not have various avenues to engage in social activities and form networking groups that can enable the advance their careers. On the contrary, men engage in many activities such as golf clubs, and other recreational act ivies, places where women are traditionally discouraged from visiting (Sadker and Karen 28). Even if this was not the case, women still, find it hard to attend social functions and recreational activities because they have family duties to complete during their free time. This gives women less chances of interaction with the corporate world outside the working place, which makes it hard for them to form network groups aimed at advancing their careers.
Many would agree that women have come a long way to in almost every aspect. Some of these barriers remain real, but this does not imply that women cannot achieve their dreams in the corporate world. Men still dominate the sciences and math, wield more power, and earn more money. Nevertheless, the achievements that women have made in academics over the past few years is an indication that they can still achieve such progress in the workplace.
Works cited:
Benshoff, Harry M, and Sean Griffin. America on Film: Representing Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality at the Movies. Malden, MA, USA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. Print.
Goodman-Draper, Jacqueline. Global Perspectives on Gender and Work: Readings and Interpretations. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Pub, 2010. Print.
Karsten, Margaret F. Management, Gender, and Race in the 21st Century. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2006. Print.
Lester, Jaime. "Performing Gender in the Workplace." Community College Review. 35.4 (2013): 277-305. Print.
Nelson, Teresa, and Laurie L. Levesque. "The Status of Women in Corporate Governance in High-Growth, High-Potential Firms." Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. 31.2 (2007): 209-232. Print.
Nynäs, Peter, and Andrew K. T. Yip. Religion, Gender, and Sexuality in Everyday Life. Surrey, England: Ashgate Pub, 2013. Print.
Sadker, David, and Karen Zittleman. "Gender Bias Lives, For Both Sexes." Education Digest 70.8 (2005): 27-30. Research Starters - Education. Web. 5 Mar. 2014.
Whaley, Mary. "Making Diversity Work: Seven Steps For Defeating Bias In The Workplace." Booklist 100.1 (2003): 34. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web. 5 Mar. 2014.
