The Difficulty for Women in the Workplace - Research Paper Example

The Difficulty for Women in the Workplace Introduction Women face major barriers in the workplace, and are often forced to rely on various coping strategies (McLaughlin, Uggen & Blackstone, 2012). Discrimination against women manifests in various forms including wage gap, sexual harassment, job segregation, poor performance of evaluations, denial of career development and lack of promotion opportunities (LaBeach, 2007). Being a woman and working outside the comfort of the home calls for alertness to the reality of workplace inequity. This paper reviews six current studies that elaborate on workplace challenges for women. The paper further provides the implication of research. Review of Literature LaBeach (2007) conducts a critical analysis of workplace challenges faced by women. The author further recommends strategies in order to address these challenges. The paper focuses on women in business and undertakes a literature review of gender disparities in compensation, employment and promotion. According to the author, women dominated industries should have less gender discrimination, improved pay equity and comprise a higher number of women executive than male dominated industries. LaBeach (2007) carries out a quantitative method to fill in research gaps identified in the literature review. Compensation data from a female dominated healthcare organization (the American Dietetic Association), is analyzed to assess if women dominated industries have improved pay equity. Compensation was measured by the total cash for registered dieticians employed full-time for a minimum of one year. The author notes that certain workplace behaviors and attitudes should change so as to ensure women achieve career satisfaction and salary equity. Further, the author recommends that the workplace should be protected from expressions of gender/sex bias and partiality. The recommendations are meant for businesses, policy makers and researchers. Newman et al. (2011) undertakes a study on gender discrimination and workplace violence. The author notes that workplace violence has been documented in many sectors. However, female-dominated sectors such as social services and health are at a particular risk. The article reexamines a set of study findings, which directly relate to the influence of gender or workplace violence and discrimination. In the study, 297 health workers (comprising 205 women and 92 men), were selected randomly. Newman et al. (2011) employed a utilization-focused approach and administered facility audits, health worker survey, health facility manager interviews, key informant and focus groups to collect data. In their findings, 39% of health workers had suffered some form of workplace violence in a year prior to the study. The study identified gender-based patterns of victimization, perpetration and reactions to violence. Negative stereotypes of women workers, discrimination based on family responsibilities, pregnancy and maternity affected female health workers. These contributed to the context of violence. Gender equality was found to lower the odds of workers experiencing violence. The researchers used the results to formulate recommendations in order to address gender discrimination through programs and policy reforms. Unnikrishnan et al. (2010) undertake a study to assess harassment among women at the workplace. The objectives of the study were to find out how harassment occurs among women at workplace. In addition, the authors also sought to determine the types and reasons for workplace harassment generally faced by working women. In order to achieve their objects, the authors carry out a cross-sectional study. The study participants comprised women working in banks, education institutions and hospitals. These establishments were chosen because they employ a considerable number of women. Data was gathered from a total of 160 participants. Questionnaires were used to assess the perception of workplace harassment, personal experiences, socio-demographic profile and their awareness with regards to anti-harassment policies. In their findings, 28% of women had experienced some form of workplace harassment. Younger women were more vulnerable to workplace harassment. Among these 28%, most were harassed within a year of being employed. The authors explain this by the fact that when women join new jobs, they are ignorant of their rights and are afraid to lose their jobs. Insecurity among the male gender was noted as a major reason for women harassment. Majority of the harassment is verbal (Unnikrishnan et al., 2010). McLaughlin, Uggen and Blackstone (2012) undertake a research to analyze workplace authority, sexual harassment and the paradox of power. The authors note that power is at the core of theories of sexual harassment. The power-threat theories imply that women in authority are frequent targets. The research objectives include analyzing the challenges of power in the workplace. In addition, the authors seek to delineate why and how gender nonconformity, supervisory authority and workplace gender ratios affect harassment. In achieving these objectives, the article analyzes qualitative interviews and longitudinal surveys data (quantitative). The longitudinal data consisted of 1,010 youths surveyed regularly from 1988, when most of them were 9th graders. In their findings, female supervisors are likely to report harassing behavior in the workplace. These supervisors are likely to label their experiences as sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is found to serve as an equalizer against women who are in power. Harassment is motivated more by domination and control than by sexual desire. The interview findings point to social isolation as one of the mechanism linking harassment to women’s authority and gender nonconformity, especially in the male-dominated work setting (McLaughlin, Uggen & Blackstone, 2012). The international labor organization (ILO Hanoi) (2013) undertakes a qualitative study in order to assess sexual harassment of women in the workplace. The research paper provides a general view of harassment of women in the workplace and develops recommendations for practice. In their methodology, the researcher also use a literature review on past research conducted in Vietnam. The authors conduct focus group discussions using key informants in two cities in Vietnam. The focus group discussions aimed to uncover more about the issues elicited from the literature review. Participants in the focus group comprised representatives of trade unions; state management agencies; representatives of employers’ organizations; and students from four universities. From their research, sexual harassment at the workplace is found to be rampant. The researchers develop several recommendations to the issue. The recommendations include enhancing awareness of employees and employers with regards to sexual harassment, enhancing training courses on the issue, encouraging legal initiatives, and involvement of trade union organizations and other mass organizations. Marsh et al. (2009) conduct a study to determine the prevalence of sexual harassment and workplace abuse among female staff and faculty. In addition, the authors also seek to determine the association between workplace abuse and symptoms of depression. A total of 387 females were enrolled for the study. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect information pertaining to mood and feelings, relationships, satisfaction and thoughts concerning the workplace and personal experiences of sexual harassment. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the patient health questionnaire. 39% of the women reported workplace abuse while 4.1% reported sexual harassment. This is nearly similar to the prevalence rates reported in other literature reviewed in this paper. The proportion of participants with depressive symptoms was significantly higher in the women experiencing workplace abuse and sexual harassment than the others. In their conclusion, workplace abuse and sexual harassment are widely prevalent, and are positively linked with depressive symptoms among female workers (Marsh et al., 2009). Application/Implications of research Gender inequality and discrimination leads to challenges in the workplace. Research focusing on workplace challenges should routinely measure the level of systemic gender discrimination at work. The study of workplace challenges faced by women will have an impact on the national policy environment. This will contribute to the revision of national laws regulating labor. Eliminating gender bias, inequality and specific forms of discrimination must be a special concern in the development of human resource and workplace gender discrimination programs and policies, including reporting systems. Intervention to prevent workplace challenges in women may be carried out at three levels. This may entail prevention, responses to sexual harassment and follow-up. On the prevention level, human resource and managerial policies should protect women from job segregation, losing seniority, promotion prospects or job loss due to family responsibilities or as a result of pregnancy. Sectoral strategies must challenge discriminatory behavior, gender stereotypes and any form of violence against women. Additionally, employers and managers should institute nondiscrimination policies in workplace guidelines and workplace codes of conduct. These should regularly be enforced and emphasized. Further, employers and managers should be trained on how to identify gender discrimination when it is occurring. This entails training managers and employers to be good stewards of the powers that have been vested in them. Effective training should go beyond male boss/female subordinate role-play exercises and better reflect inherent diversity of harassment experiences. On the responses to sexual harassment, employers and managers must ensure effective grievance procedures. This will enable the affected workers to come forward without any victimization or undermining of women in authority/power. For women bosses, their positions lead to a paradox of power in a gender system, which continues to subordinate working women. In taking such positions of authority, women are exposed to greater risks of sexual harassment; hence, the need to develop special grievance procedures in this group. Follow-up is also necessary after an investigation of a complaint of work related discrimination or sexual harassment. There are two major issues which may be focused in this stage. These include rehabilitation of those involved in investigating these claims and how to prevent a backlash. The main focus is the complainant, and rehabilitative procedures must be implemented so as to ensure a quick return to working life. If possible, counseling or psychological support may be offered. Procedures must be put in place to prevent backlash against the complainant and others involved. In addition, an organization should regularly revisit their preventative measures to determine whether they need any amendments. Gender discrimination, sexual harassment among other challenges, should be seen as a form of “organizational violation”. This calls for a change in organizational culture. Managing the challenges faced by women in the workplace should be a cardinal priority in organizations. Taking such actions will go a long way in improving workplace conditions and ensuring gender-equitability in the workforce. Most importantly, it will increase the enjoyment of human rights at work. Work productivity will in turn increase. Reference List ILO Hanoi and MOLISA Vietnam. (2013). Sexual harassment at the workplace in Vietnam: an overview of the legal framework. International Labour Organization Report, Vietnam. LaBeach, P. (2007). A Critical Analysis of Gender-Based Workplace Challenges Facing Women: Gender and Compensation. Forum on Public Policy: A Journal of the Oxford Round Table 2007. Marsh, J., Patel, S., Gelaye, B., Goshu, M., Worku, A., Williams, M. & Berhane, Y. (2009). Prevalence of workplace abuse and sexual harassment among female faculty and staff. J Occup Health 51, 4, 314-22. McLaughlin, H., Uggen, C. & Blackstone, A. (2012). Sexual Harassment, Workplace Authority, and the Paradox of Power. American Sociological Review 20, 10, 1-23. Newman, C., de Vries, D., Kanakuze, J. & Ngendahimana, G. (2011). Workplace violence and gender discrimination in Rwanda's health workforce: Increasing safety and gender equality. Human Resources for Health 9, 19. Unnikrishnan, B., Rekha, T., Ganesh, K., Reshmi, B. & Sanjeev, B. (2010). Harassment among Women at Workplace: A Cross-Sectional Study in Coastal South India. Indian Journal Community Med 35, 2, 350-352. Read More