Gender Discrimination in the Present Days - Research Paper Example

People and Culture and Section # of Section I Definition of problem Defining gender discrimination Discrimination is a sociological term. We shall first define the term in order to clarify its meaning and scope for the present study. We can define the word discrimination as referring to the treatment that is taken toward or against a person of a certain group with a concern based solely on class or category. It is in real the actual behavior towards another group. According to Wadhwa and Vivek(2006) The act involves the exclusion or restriction of the members of one group from opportunities that are accessible and offered to other groups. The United Nations explicates the term as "Discriminatory behaviors take many forms, but they all involve some form of exclusion or rejection." By gender discrimination we mean that women are thought to be inferior to men. Gender based discrimination can be defined according to the United Nations definition as adverse action or differential treatment against a person that would not have occurred if the person had been of another sex (United Nations definition of discrimination). Here specifically we are talking about females as a victim of gender discrimination. The main cause of gender discrimination is that women are treated less favorably than men. There is variety of forms of gender discrimination. It may happen in the very start as during the process of hiring when men are hired instead of women with equal abilities and experience. It can come in employment benefits where the amount of training or vacation a male or female employee receives. Here women are given less chances to improve their professional skills than men. This type of discrimination at workplace results in a serious form of employment discrimination as well. This discrimination becomes a source of demotivation for the suffering employee and also become a very painful thing for the employee. It can also cause damage to the company. Therefore gender discrimination cannot be overlooked in any case. Definition of problem The present study also deals with the problem of gender discrimination as the problem has become widespread and deeply rooted in our society. The purpose of this paper is to observe the effects of discrimination in the workplace with respect to motivation of female employees. According to Trentham, Susan; Laurie Larwood (1998) Female employees are reported continually to face subtle forms of discrimination. Most of the studies found workers perceptions of discrimination as to be positively associated with increased stress, de-motivation, intentions to seek new employment positions, and decreased satisfaction, commitment and citizenship behaviors. Literature review Gender discrimination is one of the biggest challenges faced by today’s industry. Many organizations are facing this problem and still many are trying to find ways to fight against it. Gender discrimination is done in many ways. Following are some of the types of gender discrimination. Hiring when a woman applies for a job as an executive consultant. Although they have experience and excellent qualifications, they are not hired because some of the company’s prefer men over women. Firing The employees are told that they are laid off due to company cutbacks and reorganization. It is observed that men, working in the same job and with less seniority, keep their jobs. Promotion women who work as a sales clerk at a retail store or at some other organization for ten or more years but have been repeatedly denied the opportunity to advance. Men with less experience, including men that the women trained and/or supervised, receive the promotions instead. Job Classification when a woman works at a company. Their responsibilities are increased over time, but the job classification and pay is kept stagnant. Whereas male colleagues have their job classification and pay adjusted to reflect their increased responsibilities. Benefits women are required to use sick and vacation leave to take time off for their pregnancy because their employer doesn’t provide long-term disability leave for pregnancy, but does cover other health conditions. Contrary to this male co-workers are given leaves for their normal ailments. Pay usually this happens that women are given less pay than the male members with the same abilities and qualities the women have. Role of motivation in performance improvement People do happily a work which they love to do, or otherwise they have to be motivated. Mostly people who are shown right path to progress along incentives and external stimulus that create motivation to excel in a work excel in their career. Motivation does not come by its own. There have to be some incentives to create it. Motivation is a skill which should be learnt by people. Usually the motivation that is created by instrumental reasons shows more effective performance. This is essential for both individual and business to survive and succeed. Performance is assumed to be a function of ability and motivation, and subsequently, can be written as: Job performance =f (ability) (motivation) The factor of ‘ability’ in turn has its dependency on factors such as education, experience and training and its enhancement is a gradual process making itself slow and long. However, motivation can be improved rather quickly. Researches reveal that the employees that are more motivated tend to be more productive. The validity of this statement also stands valid in terms of vice versa. Hay Group is a U.K based organization that works and conducts researches for working women. According to its one of the researches (2006) named Women’s Work?, “women may be suffering the legacy of the male-dominated workforce”. This report reveals that men and women show a considerable gap in motivation and ambition levels, as well as fundamental differences in what drives the sexes in the workplace. The same study also reveals facts that for example, men tend to describe themselves as highly motivated at work comparatively against women, while more than 50% of men describe themselves as ambitious, compared to just 42% of women. According to Emmanuel Gobillot (2006), the Hay Group Director behind Women’s Work?, the workplace is no more a place for men in the current time period. According to him the tradition of a male-dominated employees circle would definitely affect the future of changing this ratio. The research reveals that the how the job roles are created and how their values being prized and training being provided does not work in motivating women as they motivate men. This results in women being de-motivated and thus has negative affect on the productivity of the system. Not to forget that women are almost half of the workforce. The research, Women in Management: Delusions of Progress, by Nancy M. Carter and Christine Silva (2010) also illustrates that at the workplace male and females have varying opinion related to power. It depicts that women counting to double the number of men, assume that empowerment is a motivational tool, while the same result can be reversed when it comes to directing others.” Following are seven strategies that researches Nancy M. Carter and Christine Silva (2010) have concluded to motivate the workers in a workplace. Positive corroboration / high expectations effectual discipline and penalty Dealing people fairly Satisfying the needs of employees Setting targets related to work Reformation of jobs Rewards on good performance in job The Third Bi-annual European PWN Board Women Monitor 2008 presented its statistics as that the female candidates are purportedly passed up for promotions, which are based on a conscious or unconscious belief which states that women do not have what it takes to lead men. A survey of women in corporate leadership positions by the research, Women in Management: Delusions of Progress, by Nancy M. Carter and Christine Silva (2010) an organization that works toward the advancement of women, found that 41 percent of respondents cited "exclusion from informal networks" as a barrier to their overall advancement. It shows that the male-dominated world can be disorienting and worrying. A study of women doctors in academe found that, found in the same study "women who do persevere and advance face the extra challenge of surplus visibility. Because the higher they go, the fewer they are, women become ever more exceptional by their mere presence on the academic scene and visible to the point of inviting critical scrutiny. " The research, Women in Management: Delusions of Progress, by Nancy M. Carter and Christine Silva (2010) makes the statistics clear in the following way First Post-MBA Jobs Even after adjusting for years of work experience, industry, and region, Catalyst found that men started their careers at higher levels than women. And the reason for this is not that because women don’t wish to the top—but the finding holds when you include only women and men who say they’re aiming for senior positions in an organization. The reason behind this is not the parenthood, either. The women and men without children at home, men still begin at higher levels. .Types of Gender Discrimination at Workplace Gender discrimination can take place at work in many ways as discussed above. In the following, Sabitha, M. 2005, gives some detail of the four ways in which gender discrimination can occur at workplace: Direct discrimination: At times we find people treating someone differently at workplace. This type of discrimination includes difference in salary based on gender when both are doing the same job, or promoting someone because they are single instead of an equally qualified person. Indirect discrimination: Cases where people are indirectly discriminated against include examples where a certain set of rules or laws are made which indirectly imply that people of a certain gender cannot qualify those laws or rules. Harassment at work: Sexual or verbal harassment or inferior treatment owing to gender is included under this category. This discrimination may cause psychological and emotional trauma in the victim. Victimization: When an employee is treated unfair or biased only because of her gender is known to be victimization at work. This is a type of employee discrimination. Low wage discrimination: Some of the enterprises exhibit gender discrimination by giving less wages to the women employees than the male ones. Here is a diagram showing this discrimination. The above diagram shows that in every occupation and at every level of profession women earn less than men. This implies they are given less wages and salaries than men. This happens as sometimes this discrimination is done in the laws and regulations of the enterprises. The situation becomes difficult for women specially who are single parents. To keep your requirements of life fulfill in small wages becomes difficult for some of the women who are earning alone for their family. This thing also becomes a big source of frustration in such employees. For this reason they cannot pay much attention to their work and improve their professional skills. This creates a threat to their job and harm to the enterprise as well. Section II analysis of the problem Research methods used for the study Present study is a case study. In order to collect data from the subject we have used open ended questionnaire and unstructured interview. During the interview her mental condition was also observed through her facial expressions and body language. Subject This study shares and tries to analyze the problem of a female professional who works in a governmental organization. Our subject is a 30 years old young woman who is single parent of a five year old kid. The General Director of the organization does not allow women to work in his organization. The director general is a cynical type of person who is very much prejudiced against women. Research investigation We wanted to know whether the attitude of gender discrimination at workplace has any impact on the motivation of the female workers. Secondly, does it affect progress and development of professional skills of women? Our subject when asked questions that how she feels when she and her skills are not given due importance because of gender discrimination, responded that she faces many problems at her workplace. First of all she told us the whole story of her recruitment. She told that she was told about the job opportunity by her friend. They were six girls who applied for the job. The interview call came to only four of them. However all of them were highly educated from reputed colleges. She further told that the interview was passed by only two of them. They were informed about their success in interview. But they kept waiting for the appointment call. After two months they went again to the organization office where they come to know that male appointments have started working over their and the orders for female recruitment have not reached yet from the authorities. They went up to the general manager who after some questioning told them that the director general of the company hesitates to keep female workers. It was because he observes reservations on the abilities of females. They were told many other things which she does not shared with us. But the whole idea was that the general director was reluctant to keep them at his office. They afterwards, consulting some people found that they have to consult law. How they got their jobs is another big story. In the end they got their places in the job, but the behavior of the general manager was very hurting worrying for them. He always preferred male workers over the female. Because of his disappointing behavior the second girl left the job. Our subject was also suffering from the same pain. She is not being given any type of promotion or any other skill building chances since she started the job. She said that she felt very de-motivated from the behavior of authorities over their. It seemed that this job was not polishing her skills but deteriorating them. She told us that she was under the fits of frustration and de-motivation. It was all because of the gender discrimination she was facing over their. Section III Statement of alternative solutions and/or courses of action Here are some practical suggestions to avoid de-motivation when you are feeling that people are not doing right things with you: At first place the sufferer can contact the seniors and make this thing in their notice that gender discrimination is taking place under their nose. Tell them that it hurts the victim’s emotional and psychological feelings. Tell them that it de-motivates them up to the level that their abilities and working skills are affected. If the higher authority is not willing to look into the matter or himself is a source of de-motivation then try up some other strategies. It is to be sure that in any organization not all the people are bad. We find different types of people every where. If the authorities are not helpful then keep good relations with your colleagues who are positive towards you. They will help in keeping your moral up. Good and helpful senior people can also work for you in this situation. They can tell you how you can deal with the prejudiced people in the organization. There are several organizations like trade unions or even employment tribunals that support employee rights. If a woman cannot get help from them then there are many NGO’s and different people working for the rights of women. Any active NGO or such an individual can be accessed for consultation. They can be of much help in this case. Fourthly, law is there to protect such victims from any kind of wrong things done to women. In almost every country laws are formulated to protect the women and their rights. Law is equal for everyone and can safely be trusted. Such victims shall resort to the law for help. Victims can also suggest their authorities to conduct different workshops within the organization in order to create awareness among the employees about gender discrimination. This will not only lead to a good working environment at the workplace, but will also be beneficent for the organization. There are some other things which can change the unfavorable situation to favorable situation. These are, more education and awareness in the professional people, coupled with changing managers and employees attitudes, and perceptions and behaviors in todays organizations. Bibliography Nancy M. Carter and Christine Silva (2010) “Women in Management: Delusions of Progress ”Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation Pager, Devah (2009). Marked: Race, Crime, and Finding Work in an Era of Mass Incarceration. University of Chicago Press.  Papa, Michael J.; Tom D. Daniels, Barry K. Spiker (2007). Organizational Communication: Perspectives and Trends (5 ed.). SAGE.  Sabitha, M. 2005. Sejauhmana bilangan lelaki dan wanita boleh mempengaruhi persepsi gangguan seksual di tempat kerja. (The numerical effects of gender and perception of sexualharassment) Jurnal Akademik, 1 , pp.99-112., Sabitha, M. & Mohd. Na’eim, A. 2006. Improving Delivery System in Organization through Training: A Case of Sexual Harassment. Proceedings of the the International Conference on Local Government: Enhancing Service Delivery by Local Authorities, 22nd -23rd August, Sabah. Trentham, Susan; Laurie Larwood (1998). "Gender Discrimination and the Workplace: An Examination of Rational Bias Theory". Sex Roles 38 (112): 1–28. Springer Netherlands  Wadhwa, Vivek (6 June 2006). "The True Cost of Discrimination". BusinessWeek Online. http://www.joaag.com/uploads/1_SabithaFinal3_2_.pdf Web links http://www.equalrights.org/publications/kyr/sexdiscrim.asp United Nations CyberSchoolBus: What is discrimination?PDF http://www.pitchengine.com/haygroup/Bloomberg%20BusinessWeek.com/Hay%20Group%20Study%20Identifies%20Best%20Companies%20for%20Leadership%20/45882/ Read More