Discrimination can be referred to the treatment taken toward or against a person that is taken into consideration based on the class or category. Gender discrimination refers to the attitude in relation to the gender of a person. It is an awful action against a person that would not have happened had the person been of another gender.
There have been clear roles defined for both the men and women in the society, since the beginning of time. Females are more inclined towards the domestic work due to their reproductive abilities, whereas, men tend to be the protectors of the family and this makes their tasks outside the home. But with the passage of time and advancement in the technology, the roles of both men and women have changed a lot. A large number of women now have entered the corporate world and this clearly shows that they are entering the male domain of work, but still at some point, women have to face gender discrimination.
Gender discrimination examples include, but are not limited to workplace discrimination, sexual discrimination, pregnancy discrimination, and wage discrimination ("Strengthening Communities By Putting An End To Gender Discrimination"). In some countries, the gender discrimination is very strict that women are not allowed to drive and not allowed to get the proper education as well. In some of the cases, even the clothes of the women are chosen by the local law. Such incidents are more common in the underdeveloped countries and the women are even punished with painful results.
Apart from being mothers and wives, women are now politicians and managers as well. Advancement in science has given the power to women to have a choice of when to have children. This gave them freedom to pursue their career for as long as they want. Changes in the economy and society have made the work to be less dependent on the males, thus favouring an increase in the number of jobs for women. The composition of the workforce has changed nowadays due to the large participation of women in the service sector. This composition change can be seen in all of the countries worldwide, especially the western countries.
Desperate treatment is one of the categories of gender discrimination that refers to the treatment of the employee differently at the workplace. An employee may be discriminated based on his or her gender. This treatment is commonly seen with the female employees as they are paid less and do not get the promotion easily due to the gender.
Discrimination at work can either come from the employer or from the employee/colleague side. The new female employees suffer from discrimination from other male employees. If it persists longer, it can seriously affect the employee and the employer as well. A female who is suffering from gender discrimination will not be able to concentrate on her work and it can lead to emotional and psychological disturbances, resulting in demoralization that can further lead to less productivity. It also brings down the overall performance level of the female as well, regardless of the position. There are many examples of discrimination at work. Here are few of them –
The employer may not hire or promote an employee due to the gender.
Some of the organizations fire the female employees as soon as they become pregnant, even though the employees are willing to continue their work.
The organizations pay less to the female employees than men in the same position.
Despite the progress and the advancement in technology, the gender discrimination is still one of the biggest hurdles that women are facing in every phase of life, especially in the workplace.
The responsibilities related to work and home is equally divided between males and females based on their physical differences. The reproductive abilities of women have made them the primary caretaker of the home and this has made the women to involve more in the household tasks. Men are considered to be powerful and traditionally been involved in the outside tasks. This has made both the male and female to adapt specific social behaviour.
Women have successfully acquired most of the male-dominated areas, but certain jobs are still segregated by the old gender lines. The rate of the proportion of women participation in jobs decreases at the managerial levels, which are still considered as the male-dominated positions.
Women have struggled for years in all parts of the world to gain high status, similar to their male counterparts, in the male dominated world. The struggle of women has evolved from difficulty obtaining the senior positions in the corporate world. As the employees progress through their careers, the gender lines become more highlighted and pronounced. Women have occupied around 50% of the jobs, but only 15-20% of the middle management positions and only 5% of senior management positions (Bernardi, Bosco and Reis).
The barriers that prevent the women from progressing to senior positions in large corporations have often been described by the metaphor “the glass ceiling”. It is a transparent or hidden barrier which prevents women from growing up the corporate ladder past a certain point (Oakley). This glass ceiling is not the only factor, but there are many more forms of gender bias that occur frequently in different ways. The ceiling is only visible to those who are badly affected by the results. The female chief executives can be very rarely seen in large corporations all over the world. In 1997, there were only two female CEOs that were listed in the Fortune 500 (Oakley). Oakley (2000, 323) further states that the corporate policies and practices in training and development of career and promotion are identified as the major components of the glass ceiling that prevent women from making it to the top levels in the organizations.
The under-recognition of women at certain levels has prompted some of the organizations to look at their policies again. Multinational companies are trying to promote women to senior positions in their organization as it is a necessity to maximize the human productivity as much as possible. The overall percentage of women at corporate levels crossed the 10% milestone for the first time in Fortune 500 corporations in the year 1996 (Oakley).
Nowadays, the government is also making efforts to promote the women position to senior levels. Actions have been taken by the government agencies to work towards having more women in the organizations. Most of the companies have reviewed their policies and offer flexible working hours to the women as well, in order for them to manage the family and the work. The main aim of this approach is to encourage more women to participate in promotion process and pursue their career to the senior positions. A lot of activities and initiatives are being taken in order to increase the equality at the workplace. These initiatives are not only benefitting the women, but also the companies as well.
Women too have the same knowledge and potential as men have in order to make the organizations successful. When the corporations broaden their criteria in considering both the male and female candidates for the senior positions, they get a much larger and qualified group of people to choose from. This approach also promotes more diversity in the workplace that facilitates more innovative and diverse solutions to the problems. Here are some of the benefits of having equality at the workplace –
Equal opportunity – workplace equality will lead to equal opportunities for both males and female in order to develop their skills. The organization will be able to review each and every employee’s potential towards his or her work.
Reputation – the organizations that are able to hold the workplace equality will be able to show their compliance to the public.
Full contribution – having equality at the workplace means that all the employees, including both males and females, will be able to contribute their potential and ideas in different ways at a diverse time period. This will increase the ability to show more talent and potential to the organization.
Less time consumption – making the job opportunities available for all (males and females) will give the employer a chance to choose the well- qualified employee from a wide range of candidates.
There are a number of barriers to the women’s advancement to top positions, but they are broadly classified into two categories –
Corporate practices – the gender inequality is mostly caused by the partiality towards males in cases of promotion and recruitment. Operations, manufacturing are some of the areas where women do not get experience or they are not offered the desired experience. And this line experience is an essential pre-requisite for the position of CEO or other senior positions. The corporate policies in the late 1960s did not include programs to promote the women to senior or top level positions. Women in the middle management positions often get less feedback remarks than their male counterparts and this serves as another obstacle for promotion to senior level. If the women reach the top positions, then another obstacle is less pay as compared to the male colleagues. Overall, the women are always paid less at every level in an organization. They even get fewer shares of stocks as well at senior positions as compared to the males. Women managers do not get same perks as the male managers get. By less earning, the women managers are not in a position to go to further top level position. The corporate practices in the areas of training and career development are not yet compelling for women.
Behaviour and culture - the situations caused by the behavioural and cultural issues of power, stereotyping, preferred leadership styles and the psychodynamics of relationship between male and female are another set of obstacles for women in order to reach the top positions. Women in top positions need to be tough in order to be taken seriously, but in reality, they are perceived as ill-mannered, if they act too aggressively. The linguistic style of women is often misinterpreted by male employees. Even less aggressive communication by the females is considered as an unacceptable form of communication in most of the organizations. Women do not feel comfortable in behaviours that are self-promoting as compared to males. This type of behaviour can cause a disadvantage for women who mostly work in the hierarchical systems that need a negotiating authority to be in action. The skills in negotiating authority are also necessary to be promoted to the senior positions. Males are more engaged in the behaviours that give them more power over the females in the situations of managing work. This makes the female managers as less self-confident and less emotionally stable. The leadership stereotype that includes the pitch of voice and tone and the mode of dress also serve as barriers for women to advancement.
Leadership has always been an important issue for the organizations and the concept of diverse management have shown the benefits of having a diverse workforce that includes both men and women equally. According to the traditional belief, both men and women differ in their approach towards management. They are seen differently in the way they lead. Women are considered as more relationship-oriented, whereas, men are considered as task-oriented. This is also one of the reasons that keep the women at lower positions in the workplace.
Gender-based differences and stereotyping are the strong social forces and are slow to change. In order to be successful, women can only do their best, in terms of voice, conversational style and all the other traits that lead to the CEO position.
The leadership stereotypes need to be challenged before designing the training programs at the organizations. This would help more women to participate and promote them to be successful. The absence of women in most of the senior positions is an alarming signal that tells the organizations that the whole process of selecting and recruiting needs to be altered completely. Even if the policies are changed, the processes of leadership also need to be changed in order to destroy the roots of gender discrimination. The stereotypic image of a leader is another barrier for women. The success criterions for leaders make the women receive a less favourable evaluation since they are not able to complete with men.
When it comes to leadership, female traits are closely related to incompetence. Women are not expected to be successful as leaders as they are judged on their feminine traits only. This is the reason that they have to prove themselves to a greater extent every time. The characteristics associated with females and a leader position is a barrier for women to succeed.
It is true that women will not be able to get the senior positions for the years and decades to come. But the changes in socialization will occur through the increasing number of women owning their small businesses, rather than making it to the senior positions. The basic reason for the exit of female employees from the corporate world is only the frustration and negative feeling towards the male employees that are not open to the female employees in the workplace. If the viewpoints of the female employees in highest positions are not listened properly, then there is very little chance that the working women will be either listened.
There is always a potential to address every problem in this world. It is also true that women have highly contributed to the economic development of the countries, but the recognition goes invisible in case of females.
If the gender rules are broken, then a strong reaction from the society can be expected and the women who try to take the position of men are seen negatively as they cross the communal norm set for them.
Despite the widespread changes in the role of gender all around the world, women continue to have less recognition and power than men. But it is rightly said that in order to get the best people for the organization, the employers need to look beyond the males. It is also true that if women are given a chance, they can outperform males to fill a senior position. Women always have to strive to achieve better and this makes them equal to the male counterparts at the top positions.
All the management of an organization needs to understand the discrimination and move towards achieving diversity at the workplace that includes leadership training in order to prepare the women for top positions.
References
Bernardi, Richard A., Susan D. Bosco, and Kate M. Reis. "Leadership In The Fortune 500:
Women At The Executive Level Of Corporate Management". Journal of Business & Economics Research (JBER) 2.12 (2011): n. pag. Web.
Oakley, Judith G. Journal of Business Ethics 27.4 (2000): 321-334. Web. 30 Mar. 2016.
"Strengthening Communities By Putting An End To Gender Discrimination". PCI (Project
Concern International). N.p., 2016. Web. 30 Mar. 2016.
