Maintaining Gender Equality In Modern Organizations - Tutors India

Maintaining Gender Equality In Modern Organizations

Maintaining Gender Equality In Modern Organizations

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Introduction

In the current day, there are increasing instances where women are disadvantaged at workas compared to men. Women occupying men’s position at work breaks stereotypes within themodern work sphere. The issue pertaining to gender policy and gender equality has now gainedmuch traction and warrants the need to be addressed. Though it is well-known within societyabout how a system of gender equality should function, but that’s often not the case as far aspractical application is concerned. Several challenges in gender equality arises from the systemthat we are raised in, attitudes that we acquire, existing stereotypes and perception of situationsthat only has a single viewpoint (Garg, 2020). In the current globalization era, there is a need toperceive things differently and widen our viewpoints. The crux of diversity management wouldinvolve incorporating the process and principle of diversity in day-to-day life managerialpractices and how learning takes place within an organization (Stamarski & Son Hing, 2015).

Organizational managers require results. Many a time, they are seldom focused onaesthetically appeasing general theories. With a view to realize organizational objectives andacquire an edge over competitors, it is imperative that they comprehend what kind of diversitywould offer a strategic advantage, or restrict their capability while realizing their objectives(Stamarski & Son Hing, 2015). Competitiveness within an organization largely hinges onperformance, quality, productivity and other abilities from human initiatives. The approach herewould be rather strategically and logically thought about while managing human resourceswithin an organization (Shrivastav et al., 2021). The key function of human resources is to createa balance between structure and number of jobs and job seekers, given that jobs would not onlyadhere to regulation but also to the capability of an employee too.

Getting an idea about the association among employee performance and motivation is acrucial step for ensuring success in an organization (Cera & Kusaku, 2020). Managers areinstrumental in influencing the capabilities, performance or motivation of employees. However,the actual performance of the personnel function is driven by an understanding about personalactivities without any disparity, advantage or disadvantage of the employee. This paper intendsto examine how gender equality can be maintained within modern day organizations.

Gendered Labour Division

Gender division at work which might appear to be natural to a common observer is anoutcome of historical procedures, and associated with the industrial revolution and contemporarywork organization (Cunha & Atalaia, 2019). Before the industrial revolution, women as well asmen took part in small level manufacturing work that was largely managed by a family. Workprior to the industrial era was split in terms of gender, where a few of such divisions continue toexist in the current day, for instance, the predominance of women in the textile sector.Nonetheless, both women and men executed their activities with some overlapping and women’swork was scantly or in certain instances not devalued at all. Hardly any division of labour existedwithin enslaved African men and women (Cailin O Connor, 2019). Industrial revolution withinthe United States and Europe swapped slave and family production with market basedproduction. To a large extent, the newly paid labour force driving mines and factories were madeup of men, while the women would do unpaid work within households like caring for the family(Kalev & Deutsch, 2018).

Manifestation of Gender Inequalities

According to women, the antecedents of gender discrimination can be traced to childhoodsocialization, and cultural pressure but not biology (Hoominfar, 2019). Women are of theopinion that are the same as the opposite gender and should thus be given the same treatment thatmen receive. Though, certain scientific communities are of the view that biological variationsmark the distinction between men and women (Ceci et al., 2021). Previously, women found itchallenging to acquire a proper job within an organization that was predominated by men. Theyalso had to confront resistance from their supervisors and peers, while being restricted to certaintasks. However, over the past few years, there has been much development and progress ofwomen in the workplace. Though resistance to women has witnessed a drop but gaps in rank andpay within an organization continue to exist (Macis, 2017). In the United Kingdom alone, therehas been an increase in women employment with around 71% of women occupying theworkforce as compared to 80% of men. The sector where women are known to dominate is thesocial and health sector that has accounted for around 21% of total jobs held by women. On theother hand, retail and wholesale is the second highest sector with 14% and the third beingeducation where women occupy 12% of the jobs. On the whole, women also dominate the sectorof health where they hold around 79% of jobs, and the sector of education is an emergent fieldfor monetary emoluments as women occupy around 70% of the positions (Parikh & Anjenaya,2012).

Studies have revealed that the style of living life among women and work culture variesin comparison with men, it is challenging for women to develop or advance in their careers as theonus of looking after the family and child rearing lies on them (Kapur, 2019).

It has been posited by Mussida and Patimo (2021), women are prone to experiencepsychological strain and symptoms of depression when they have to juggle between family andwork. Career of women generally take a backseat when they have a baby. Gender inequalityacross certain organization is a phenomenon that is highly complicated and the manner of suchinequalities is commonly observed in organizational structure, practice and process. Genderinequality can be witnessed across an organization’s topmost department (human resources – HR) practices. Decisions related to hiring, training and remuneration are taken by the HRGender inequality is known to exist across most organizations the world over which islargely founded on gender, race and class too. The difference here is social constructed amongtwo genders and beliefs which support inequality. A majority of managerial roles go to men,while low ranking jobs go to the women. A large number of jobs have been categorized on thebasis of physical traits, historical domination and culture, where it is believed by people that menpossess more leadership capabilities and robust physical traits. Gender inequality within certainorganizations in the US can be witnessed in the form of race as menial or low rank jobs alwaysgo to people of colour (Verniers & Vala, 2018).

Strategies to Eliminate Gender Inequality

Women in future are poised to take on higher roles as private organizations as well asgovernments are taking several steps to bring in equality within jobs and pay.

A large number of nations within the Middle East and North America (MENA) regionwhere high instances of gender gap have been observed have initiated steps by closing gap inhuman development, augmenting economic opportunities for women by eliminating restrictionsin taking part in higher roles and entrepreneurship (Dandan & Marques, 2017). Over the courseof the past several years, there has been massive increase in jobs within the healthcare sector,especially for aging individuals, and investments in energy and infrastructure. Women foresee atremendous opportunity in these domains where they can acquire jobs. As per a survey, it hasbeen revealed that by 2030 women would be able to acquire 20% more jobs than what they nowget. Akin to how the industrial revolution 3.0 has transformed the manner in which work is beingcarried out and spawned a techno-wave across the world, industrial revolution 4.0 would alsoconcentrate on associating people with technology. Technology could be a great way for menand women to acquire information and skill which will help them to gain more jobs (Madgavkaret al., 2019). Women need to make more investments in education while gaining new skills thatwould be instrumental in taking up senior roles within organizations.

Furthermore, performance evaluation periodically carried out tends to pave the way for alarge number of professionals. Though such procedures typically comprise of certain degree offormality (rubrics, review periods, evaluation, calibration meetings), eventually managers areknown to utilize their judgment in deciding how the tools for evaluation are applied. As a result,what mainly influence their outcome are their beliefs on how women should act or behave(Groysberg, 2021). The process of performance evaluation can undergo a de-biasing by focusingexclusively on measurable qualities.

As per recent research, it has been indicated that women do not promote theirachievements as much as their male counterparts working at the same level. This implies thatdepending on self-assessment of employees for informing performance rating tends to favourmen. In terms of compensation, the playing field can be leveled by organization by offeringclarity in information. The gender pay gap can be reduced when organizations clearly list out themedian salary for a position on their website. Women are also known to undervalue themselvestherefore, mentioning the median salary would help women to decide on how much they candemand from a particular job (Groysberg, 2021).

Conclusion

Gender roles are gradually changing with hardly any difference being observed betweenmen and women. In fact, women in the present day are capable of executing the same tasks that aman can execute. Therefore, being biased against women employees and ignoring them forsenior positions or challenging tasks only undermines their abilities. Given the era ofglobalization where women are making great in roads across diverse sectors, it is high time thatthe gender disparity within organizations be entirely eliminated. Gender disparity will onlycreate discord and disharmony while impacting the overall performance of an organization.

References

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