Gender Equality in the Workplace - Essay Example

Gender Equality in the Workplace By Student’s Name Code + Course Name Professor’s Name University Name City, State Date Gender refers to the differences between a male and female individual in their cultures. In the society, gender is designed and structured from a long period of contributing factors which arise from either past advertising or through old past traditions. Since time immemorial, the women gender, women in particular have always been an integral civilization component. Indeed, there is no particular nation or society in the world that can be capable of progressing without the active participation of the female gender or women in its development plans (Williams, et al, 2010). The position of women in different societies has actually differed from one culture to another and the only common similarities among all the cultures lies in the fact that women have never been considered to be equal to their male counterparts. In most societies, women are viewed as being meek and submissive and are required to act subserviently to the husband, father or even son. Women as mothers, single-independent women and as daughters face a lot of difficulties and challenges in the course of their lifetimes. Gender equality is deemed to have been achieved when individuals are capable of both accessing and enjoying the same resources, rewards and chances regardless of their gender (Scott, 2011). There have been significant strides in gender equality in the recent decades especially in the education field but however, women still continue being paid less and less promoted than men. In addition, few women stand a chance of advancing in their specific careers while also men have found it difficult to gain access towards flexible working arrangements and family friendly policies, which are similar to the ones that are presented to women (Scott, 2011). Many nations, with the inclusion of Australia have made great strides gender equality in the recent past specifically in areas like education (Williams, et al, 2010). Despite of this, women at the workplace have been earning less pay as opposed to their male counterparts, are prone to spending their final lives languishing in poverty and are actually less likely to advance in their work as compared to men. At the workplace, the major objective of gender equality is to achieve equal outcomes for both men and women. In order to ensure that this is achieved comfortably, and then various requirements need to be met (Scott, 2011). Chief among them include ensuring that places of work are able to offer equal remuneration for both men and women for work, which has the same or comparable value and barriers towards equal and full participation of the female employees in the workplace, are removed. In addition, workplaces should ensure that there is genuine and full access to all the job vacancies in the industries, which should also comprise of leadership positions for both men and women. To ensure that gender equality is achieved at the workplace, then all forms of discrimination, which are based on gender especially regarding the family, and responsibilities for both men and women should be eliminated in totality (Fox, 2012). The achievement of gender equality is not only important for organizations or companies since it fair and right but rather, it is also crucial to the bottom of any business entity and to the productivity of a given nation as a whole. Gender equality at the workplace is important not only in Australia but in the world as whole (Williams, et al, 2010). This is because the achievement of gender equality at workplaces can attract top talent because it will provide an equally appealing work environment, which will appeal both men and women and thus offering business entities with a pool full of various talents. In addition, the achievement of gender equality at the workplace in Australia and in other parts of the world is capable of reducing expenses since research conducted has shown that the replacement of an employee in any given organization can actually cost approximately 75 per cent or more of such an individual’s yearly wage. Given the fact that both gender will prefer remaining with a company which they view as being “fair”, then employee turnover for such an entity having gender equality in its midst is bound to reduce thus generally reducing the costs of recruitment. Research conducted has indeed pointed out that organizations or companies having gender equality practices performed better as opposed to those that did not (Scott, 2011). This is attributed to the fact that there was a strong link between both gender equality and enhanced organizational performance. This attributed to the major reason that diversity is capable of bringing together different perspectives thus leading to the production of a more holistic and critical analysis of an organization’s pressing issues which ultimately results to greater effort and enhanced decision-making (Figart, et al, 2013). Australia’s competitiveness and national productivity can be greatly enhanced if the country’s organizations practiced gender equality. According to the World Economic Forum, it was found out that there was a strong link between a nation’s competiveness and how it uses and utilizes the talents of women (Scott, 2011). The World Economic Forum further asserts that women empowerment implies that there is a more efficient use of a country’s human talent and thus the reduction of gender inequality actually enhances both economic growth and productivity (Williams, et al, 2010). Consistently, a country’s competiveness depends among other factors: on whether such a country utilizes and educates the talent of its female populace. In the Australian perspective, arguments have been placed by the Grattan Institute that the removal of women disincentives so as to enable the women populace to penetrate the workforce should actually be one of the major economic reforms that the country should uphold dearly. The Institute further asserts that increasing of the Australian female workforce by atleast 6% can potentially result in an addition of approximately 25 billion US dollars in a year to the country’s (Australia) economy (Scott, 2010). Despite the fact that Australia is not the only nation in which inequality is persistent, the role that women are able to contribute to the economy coupled with numerous years of investment in higher education of women is being put to waste (Williams, et al, 2010). Indeed, research has pointed out that Australia is continually failing in the bid to absorb the economic contribution of women having tertiary education because despite the fact 58 per cent of women graduates are women, only 67% of them are absorbed on the payroll as compared to the 78 % of their male counterparts. It is only through balancing the equality scales that both Australian men and women will be capable of getting an opportunity of contributing both at the workplace and at home thus enhancing not only their individual well-being but also of the society as well (Bank, 2011). Too many countries, Australia included, the achievement of gender equality is a critical issue that cannot be resolved easily. However, in order to ensure effective and efficient work and management practices in the nation’s organizations or companies, then workshops should be held to help organizations to assist /improve and manage equal remuneration for both men and women. According to the “Workplace Gender Equality Agency”, organizations are now able to obtain data of their gender composition from the data forms while the “Women on Boards” have indicated that only 8% of the organizations have embraced gender diversity principles in their organizations. Instead of telling the women at the workplace to become more ambitious and confident, it will be better of if workplaces were designed with a view of adapting to the whole individual of both men and women. This will enable each and everyone to be capable of striking a better balance between both spending time with their families, friends, the community and working (United Nations, 2009). Despite the fact that no problems has arisen as far as women achievement is concerned, challenges have arisen when eventually young women make attempts of balancing both their work or careers with their respective families since the women end up carrying almost all the burdens emanating from care-giving responsibilities. Gender stereotyping has been pointed out as being the major cause of gender inequality in the workplace (Scott, 2011). Thus as a society, it is prudent to continue encouraging individuals both at the workplace and at home to move beyond the stereotypes and ultimately realize the contributions that can individual whether male or female can make towards relationships and towards the workplaces (Roth, 2011). The biggest known obstacle for women in the places of work in the contemporary society lies in the fact that many of the Lucretius or prestigious vacancies or jobs actually require the input of long working hours thus leaving more mundane life aspects like for instance shopping, cooking and picking kids to other individuals. This generally implies that most of the women are putting more of their time in the household chores as opposed to men (Scott, 2011). This ultimately places the women at a disadvantage as opposed to their male counterparts in the workplace. It is therefore very unrealistic and impossible for the society to expect gender equality at the places of work if such environments really demand that the women should be available on a fulltime basis. Gender equality has therefore been complicated due to the lack of quality and affordable childcare options (Kersley, 2013). Gender discrimination actually occurs in various forms within an organization like paying individuals of different genders differently. Yet they perform the same work, employing and training only one gender for a specific form of work because it has the reputation of either being only a woman’s or man’s work, refusal to promote a pregnant woman just because of her status and even sexual harassment. The practice of gender equality in any given organization is beneficial to both men and women since it leads to job satisfaction. Promotion of gender equality at the workplace is not a difficult task since it only takes the management’s commitment to implement the necessary actions, put in place guidelines and ensure that they are enforced (Mahick, 2008). In order to ensure that gender inequality is avoided at the workplace in Australia and other parts of the world, then it is highly recommended that organizations or companies take positive actions aimed at promotion of gender equality at the workplace. This includes provision of gender training to top management to ensure that they are educated regarding the subtle and obvious discrimination that occurs at the place of work (Scott, 2011). This will also aim at empowering the management to be capable of identifying any form of discrimination that may occur among the employees and how to handle the situation. In addition, organizations should ensure that their employees or workers are provided with on site child-caring facilities for both fathers and mothers and the human resources department should ensure that family leave is availed to both women and men. Promotion of gender equality at the workplace can be achieved through showcasing an organization’s successful women (Scott, 2011). This is due to the fact that there is nothing as demonstrative as efforts of promoting equality through women who have succeeded by holding top management positions. Organizations should also publicize their efforts aimed at promotion of gender equality at their workplaces through advertisements, websites, editorials, newspapers and other forms of media as this will make such organizations to become role models to others (Williams, et al, 2010). The promotion of gender equality at the workplace will lead to both efficient and effective work and management practices in various companies in Australia and the rest of the world. This can thus be well achieved through establishment of policies by organizations which will ensure that both women and women are equally compensated for performing similar tasks and apart from providing equal work for equal pay; organizations should also ensure that both men and women are equally treated in the recruitment, training, promotion and hiring within the firms. In addition to that, companies should ensure that there is establishment of policies aimed at ensuring both genders are capable of balancing their personal lives with their work lives. This will make it possible for management to support their workers’ pursuit of higher education to enhance their careers while also ensuring that the employees are able to maintain positive and healthy family relationships. In order to ensure that gender inequality does not exist in organizations, top management should come up with policies aimed at ensuring that sexual harassment at the place of work is strictly forbidden. This can be achieved by outlining the professional consequences that will be meted on individuals found guilty of such an offense in the organizations. Employees should also be provided with clear and easy channels for reporting such offenses to the human Resources Department without any fear of being re-tributed. Apart from that, companies should also ensure that policies aimed at non-discrimination not only apply to the organization’s employees or workers but also apply to all levels of an organization’s management. This is due to the fact that gender equality will imply nothing at the places of work unless it is strictly followed to the letter by all and sundry including all the management personnel. Managers should indeed act as role models of non-discrimination in organizations (Ridgeway, 2011). In conclusion, the achievement of gender equality in any given organization is not the responsibility of the employees alone, but rather, it should be a collective responsibility of all the concerned stakeholders. The achievement of gender equality in any particular organization makes it possible for it to grow economically and socially and thus ensure it becomes possible to achieve its set goals and objectives. This is due to the reason that the success of gender equality in an organization implies great success in its general operations and growth. Organizations should therefore ensure that gender inequality is never allowed in their midst so that they can be able to succeed in all aspects. Bibliography Addabbo, T. 2010. Gender Inequalities, Households and the Production of Well-Being in Modern Europe. New York: Ashgate Publishers. Bank, B. 2011. Gender and Higher Education. New York: JHU Press Figart, D. et al. 2013. Handbook of Research on Gender and Economic Life. 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