Women Discrimination at Work Place
Women’s discrimination in the workplace has significantly increased in the past decade in the United States and other parts of the world. A recent research study stated that women in the United States continue to face greater challenges when it comes to advancing their professional careers. While women in the world have been entering university in equal proportion to men, research evidence states that women still have not made the same progress in high leadership and partner positions as men. Gelfand Michele and Choi Virginia, the authors of “Women Don’t Just Face a Pay Gap at Work. They’re Also Punished Far More Than Men” and Skye Schooley, the author of. “Facing the Gender Gap in the Workplace”, agree on the fact that women faced a lot of discrimination at the workplace based on a huge pay gap as compared to men. Gelfand and Choi demonstrate further that women are subjected to far worse penalties compared to men. Meyers and Alex et al., the authors of. “Can we build a better man”, states that men have to play a role in solving women discrimination by ending this epidemic, and divorcing themselves from the toxic masculinity that underlies this behavior. All three authors agree on the fact that women face gender discrimination in the workplace but they give different factors causing the issue and how this can be solved.
Concerned with how many women are discriminated at the workplace, both Gelfand, Choi, and Schooley dig deeper into various issues that result in this form of gender discrimination. According to Gelfand and Choi, from their study of 159 participants, they found out that women and other groups of minorities encountered more unfair penalties in the workplace. This kind of inequity in organizations has subjected men to greater powers and latitude to deviate from rules. Skye Schooley acknowledges that despite the increase in publicity facing inequality of women in workplaces, there is still a lot of tremendous work that needs to be done to close the gender gap. Moreover, Skye agrees that “The research shows that women are underrepresented at every level, and women of color are the most underrepresented group of all, lagging behind white men, men of color and white women.” (Skye Schooley) He claims that the main reason for gender inequality in the workplace is due to a lack of education or wear and tear rates. Yet “Can we build a better man?” by Meyers believe that “If we want to have less-toxic men, then one thing we can do is create spaces for them to be vulnerable and have access to healing.” He offers a solution to gender inequality by demonstrating how men can play a role in shifting the culture that crutches up sexual violence through listening to how much damage it can cause to women. Men have a chance to support the #Me too movement as a way of supporting their women. To sum, women face gender discrimination at work, specifically harsh penalties by men have a chance of ending this form of discrimination by supporting the #Me too movement to help their women.
Ultimately, Skye and Staff state that “women are less likely to be hired into entry-level jobs than men, even though they currently earn more bachelor’s degrees and have the same attrition rate.” According to him, a lack of women to be hired at entry-level positions results in few qualified women for promotion within an organization. This is the critical cause of gender inequality in organizations. Gelfand and Choi in their article emphasize that “Female advisers, despite being equally productive as their male peers on the job, were found to be 20% more likely than male advisers to get fired for engaging in any transgressions” (Gelfand and Choi 2019). This demonstration proves that women are treated unfairly in workplaces compared to their male counterparts resulting in many of them losing jobs. Hence, as stated by the authors, this results in gender inequality in organizations. Meyers agrees with Gelfand and Skye that is why he offers a solution through a claim that “I think men on the whole need to cultivate the art of listening” (Meyers & Alex et al.). I agree with Meyers that men need to cultivate a deeper relationship with their women by breaking down their toxic masculinity. The culture of men and women sitting down to communicate needs to be cultivated because it will enhance men defending their women in every circumstance, including in workplaces. To sum, the gender inequality gap results from organizations hiring fewer women in entry-level positions, however, this gap can be closed by men cultivating a deeper relationship with women to support them.
Therefore, “Facing the Gender Gap in the Workplace”, state that companies should focus on cultural and organizational changes to reduce gender inequality. For instance, “McKinsey’s statistics show that men currently hold 62 percent of manager positions, with women only holding 38 percent. In the C-suite, only 1 in 5 executives is a woman, while fewer than 1 in 30 is a woman of color” (Schooley). According to Schooley, to reduce the gender gap, organizations need to invent the culture of hiring more female employees in the senior positions and also promote women within the organizations. Meyers and Alex agree with Schooley but they seem to put more focus on men and how to build themselves into better persons. They state that “And so it’s essential that men take a key role in holding other men accountable for their actions, which are sexist, misogynist, and patriarchal in nature” (Meyers & Alex et al.). In other words, men should stop the habit of putting their needs and desires before everyone else because it will end toxic masculinity without patriarchy. Altogether to reduce gender inequality in workplaces, companies should focus on employing more women on the senior level, and also men should take the role of holding other men accountable for their actions, which are sexist and patriarchal.
Moreover, companies should create a culture where each employee feels a sense of acceptance and belonging to an organization. Schooley states that “Women can also benefit from working with other women. According to McKinsey, 1 in 5 women said they were often the only woman, or one of the only women, in the room at work” (Skye & Staff). I agree with that because this will increase employee inclusion and engagement experience. Meyers and Alex agree with that by supporting that creating a sense of belonging for employees in an organization enhances gender equality and also fosters employee’s innovation and they can be able to retain valuable talents. To sum, organizations should focus on improving their culture to enhance a sense of belonging for every employee to reduce gender inequality.
Both Skye Schooley, Gelfand, and Choi have the same views about how gender discrimination in workplaces affects women. Though they have the same standpoints, Schooley gives solutions on how organizations can reduce the gender gap at workplaces. They both have good intentions about women and their focus is to educate its audience on how to improve the situation. Even though Meyers & Alex et al. agree with both Gelfand and Schooley, his focus is on how men can be built themselves by ending toxic, masculinity the possess to support their women. His men focus is how men should support the #Me too movement to enhance the experience of women.
In conclusion, women and other groups of minorities face gender discrimination at the workplace but it is the responsibility of companies to improve their culture to reduce the gender gap. Organizations should invent a culture that enhances a sense of belonging and acceptance for every employee. More on that, organizations should also employ more women on senior position and support those that are within organizations. Additionally, men have a role to play in ending this epidemic and divorcing themselves from the toxic masculinity that underlies this behavior of the gender gap.
Works Cited
Gelfand Michele, Choi Virginia. “Women Don’t Just Face a Pay Gap at Work. They’re Also Punished Far More Than Men” African Union; Times Magazine, April 2019 https://time.com/5562441/equal-pay-wage-punishment-gap/
Meyers, Alex, et al. “Can we build a better man? Yes! Solutions Journalism, Nov 12, 2019.
https://www.yesmagazine.org/issue/building-bridges/2019/11/12/can-we-build-a-better-man/
Skye Schooley, Staff. “Facing the Gender Gap in the Workplace” Business News Daily, 2019. https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/4178-gender-gap-workplace.html