Running Head: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Human Resource Management

Gender Gap

Name.

Institution.

Date.
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 2

Gender gap is the disparity between men and women and is expressed in sociological,

cultural, political or economic attainment towards a certain goal or objective. It acknowledges

that this disparity affects the living experience of individuals as men and women are not equal.

The distinctions that arises from cultural, psychological or biological norms are considered to be

grounded empirically which is affects the social well-being of individuals. This gender gap may

involve different payment of wages or involvement in different political candidature or parties.

From my perceptive the voting gender gap, which is a certain percentage of men or

women voting for a particular gender, is one of the common forms of gender gaps existing in the

society today (Zhang, 2019). Various causes has resulted to high voting gender gap, for example

partisanship and issue positions. The society today prioritize religion more than qualifications as

major reasons to why many men or women involves themselves in politics. This has disregarded

political knowledge or education purpose as a way front to politics. Various researches have

been conducted and show that over 43% of candidates, who are women, are chosen as a result of

partisanship or being more religious than men.

The wage gap is also a common form of gender gap which runs in the society (Verge &

Astudillo, 2019). Women are considered to be paid less more than men. Various studies

conducted show that men are paid more than women as a result of authoritativeness. Men are

considered to be more authoritative as many are considered as the head in family hence they

need to be paid more. Women from the cultural beliefs are considered as home based workers.

The salaries they earn are usually less than men in a pay day. This results to a higher wage pay

gap between the two genders. From the two major examples, it is upon consideration that gender

gap is an issue to both men and women in the society today. This could result to forms of

discrimination and inequality in opportunities that may arise.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 3

Closing the gap.

Gender gap is still a big issue in the society with many factors contributing to lower wage

pays as well as lack of opportunities in certain gender. From a study conducted at the American

Association of University women, the survey showed that women who had graduated from the

school a previous year earned a 79.8% opportunity than their male counterparts in grabbing job

opportunities in the job market (Verge & Astudillo, 2019). Factors such as geographical area,

school performances as well as marital status were considered in this study. However despite

earning more credits in grabbing opportunities their wage pay was still relatively low. This could

be as a result of disparities in earning degrees. A study from the American Progress Centre

shows that women need to grab another degree in order to reach the wage pay of the male

gender. It is considered that a woman should earn a doctorate degree in order to have her wage

pay be equal to a male who has graduated with a Bachelor’s.

Despite education, there ar other factors which lead to gender gap. They include;

Occupational segregations, discriminations, family related issues, cultural as well as religious

beliefs. This factors could lead to an inequality issue at a specific gender hence making it

difficult for the male or female to grab opportunities that may exist in the society.

Legal Provisions

The 1964 Civil Rights Act bans racial inequality with a view to addressing gender

differences in the job market (Bergmann, Scheele & Sorger, 2019). Therefore, no gender at work

can be discriminated against by an employer, which resolves issues of gender disparity at work.

At the other hand, legislative regulations have failed to close the gender gap, as a result of laws
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 4

that promote gender disparity. Laws serves as a constitutional obstacle to the laws battling to

reduce gender inequality in the job market.

Ethics may play an important role in future changes in combating gender gap by

developing moral codes which imply that gender gap is immoral. Awareness is definitely

knowledge, and if people are made to realize gender disparity is unethical and negative way, then

everyone will stop endorsing it.

Recruitment planning.

Various plans need to be formulated by the HR professions in order to shun gender

disparity. Employee compensation depends on various internal and external factors. Wage level

is an external factor where the employee cannot control the payment wages. They are controlled

by the firm. If a particular company maintains its pay level higher than others in the industry, the

cost to its employees becomes heavier, which may increase the end cost of the products (Cole &

Geist, 2018). Other external factors include the economic stability, government controls as well

as the market conditions. Internal factors are the factors which probably the HRM could not be in

a position to notice. This factors occur in the employee’s privacy life for example employee’s

affordability or worthiness of a job.

The HRM should consider these factors, especially external factors in compensation to

avoid any gender gaps that may exist in between.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 5

References.

Bergmann, N., Scheele, A., & Sorger, C. (2019). Variations of the same? A sectoral analysis of

the gender pay gap in Germany and Austria. Gender, Work & Organization, 26(5), 668-

687.

Cole, W. M., & Geist, C. (2018). Progress without progressives? The effects of development on

women's educational and political equality in cultural context, 1980 to 2010. Sociology

of Development, 4(1), 1-69.

Verge, T., & Astudillo, J. (2019). The gender politics of executive candidate selection and

reselection. European Journal of Political Research, 58(2), 720-740.

Zhang, Y. J. (2019). Culture, institutions and the gender gap in competitive inclination: Evidence

from the communist experiment in China. The Economic Journal, 129(617), 509-552.