Gender Discrimination In The Workplace Essay - 2,123 words

Gender Discrimination in the workplace The main issue of the work is gender discrimination in the workplace, which is closely
connected to women, their careers and lives. Much has been said about this problem, but it seems there is still much to be done to
solve it. To my mind, this problem can hardly be ignored; there are a lot of means of softening and minimizing it, as much as it is
possible. The work is devoted to the discussion of the theoretical items, concerning the problem of gender discrimination, and the
present situation in the society in terms of this problem. The work touches main theoretical aspects of gender discrimination in the
workplace from psychological and ethical points of view. The main idea of the work is the following: 1.

Gender discrimination in the workplace has now acquired a concealed form, thus it is very difficult to fight with it. 2. The main reason
of gender discrimination in the workplace is the existence of human stereotypes. 3. Theoretical approaches, which will be later
described in the essay, look at the subject from the narrow point of view, not taking into account social and historical backgrounds of
workplaces. So, it is better to start with the facts. Though many people believe that gender discrimination is no longer relevant, it
should be noted, that still among the 500 Fortune best companies, only five are headed by women, and other 495 are managed by
men. In some job categories there are $10,000 differences in salary between men and women. Though the portion of women in the
labor force is growing each year, and now equals to 48 percent of the total labor force, in some areas, as law, the sums women earn
constitute only 59 percent of men's salaries in the same area for the same type of work.

A bright example of appointing a woman as the president and chief executive officer of the Hewlett-Packard Company may seem to
be the final victory of women in their fight for careers, but the problem is not yet solved, and there are different theoretical issues,
which explain, why gender discrimination exists in the society. There are some stereotypes which exist in the society towards
working women, and here are some of them: - women don't want to work; - women are not strong enough to survive in the modern
business world; - women are unwilling to work in extended hours, because they have children; - women are too passive, and not
aggressive; - women are too emotional. While studying the theoretical basics of the problem, it should be admitted that there have
been outlined a number of so-called ' forces', that is the characteristics of human nature, which contribute to the existence of the
'glass ceiling'. There are social stereotypes, which contradict with professional interests. This factor is very bright in engineering
industries. Those women, who support their female style, may be considered to be incapable workers, and those, who try to support
their masculine image, won't be respected. Social stereotypes at work may lead to managers being too protective of women, and thus
giving them no hard or ambitious assignments.

This ultimately deprives women of any possibility to make career. When the problem of gender discrimination is studied from the
psychological point of view, it appears that opposites are not attracted here. On the contrary, if management is mostly constituted by
males, they will tend to cooperate with other males, as those, who have similar professional experience and similar look at work
perspectives. One more psychological factor is that humans tend to generalize mental models, based on specific examples. In simple
phrase, if the person is surrounded by managers, who are mostly white Catholic men, he unconsciously thinks that successful
manager should be a white Catholic man. Male-like behaviors in the team, where men prevail, may lead to the decrease of women's
self-esteem.

These are only some of the arguments, which are given by men, who suppose that a woman can't work effectively. A theory of
'rational bias' was created, which was an attempt to justify the refuse of some managers to give jobs to women. This theory is based
on the assumption, that the refuse to give a job to a woman is based not on some gender prejudices, but on the preference of clients
to work with men, rather than with women. Thus this is considered to be a rational approach, directed at the increase of the firm'
profits. Another interesting theory of male female relations at work is called 'pipeline theory'. It implies, that to be a senior manager,
twenty-five or more years of practical experience are required, and women usually don't have such an experience, or, as it is said,
'they have not been in the pipeline' for so long. Of course, no matter how many theories can be created to justify gender
discrimination, it is clearly seen, that women are becoming more educated than men, they already get more than one half of all
bachelor's and master's degrees. These women will be better qualified at work, and thus they will seek legal solving of the
discrimination problem. Some people tend to think that this is not the discrimination that keeps women from making career, but their
personal choices, which are made outside work, and which later conflict with work interests.

The problem of gender discrimination, is that this action is well hidden by those who provide this discrimination, and thus other
workers may mistakenly think that gender discrimination is absent at their workplace. All such decisions are covertly implemented.
It should be pointed out, that according to the World Bank research, economies, which minimize the gender gap between men and
women, allowing both equal rights for careers, grow faster than other economies do. One of the reasons for the fact that gender
discrimination in the workplace still exists, is that women are rarely willing to make the case public and go through litigation. Some
women don't feel the effect of discrimination on their careers, some don't want to risk their family responsibilities, some are afraid of
losing their job; some can't afford hiring a good lawyer. Thus discrimination towards women finds little response in judicial systems of
many countries, and though there many acts and bills concerning women's rights, they are not frequently applied.

Though most employers today believe, that gender discrimination is illegal, immoral, and inappropriate, this item remains prominent
with many workplaces in the country. Companies often fail to adopt the appropriate anti-discrimination policies. Another reason is
that many comp
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