Achievement Gender Balance in Organizations - Essay Example

Tipping the Scale to Achieve Gender Balance in Organizations Introduction The perennial issue of gender inequality surfaces in most situations wheremen and women come together. This is especially palpable in work places or organizations where conflicts are likely to be rooted in accountability and the gender of the person accountable. Most circumstances show the inherent dominance of males over females not only in terms of physical strength, but of intellectual and social strengths as well. Gender Inequality Many researches have investigated the problem of equality rights and gender prejudices in the workplace. Many claim that because of the established dominance of males in the vast number of areas of public life, women are often placed in a disadvantaged position from the very beginning. Studies have revealed that such gender inequality have grave effects on women’s perceptions of their efficiency and motivation. Some women fall into the trap of giving in to bleak self-fulfilling prophecies that they are not as good as their male co-workers and eventually prove the expectations to be right. Working women are usually faced with a multitude of challenges. On top of balancing their duties and responsibilities as members of their families, they need to be efficient workers and competitive in their chosen professions. One main challenge is the issue of proving themselves as worthy employees to gain equal opportunities with men. Some work places may not be too accepting of the empowerment of women in employment and may strip them of their dignity to make them realize that they do not belong there. Due to the significance of equal opportunities to citizens the world over, laws have been passed to ensure that they are available to everyone. These laws have been designed protect anyone from being discriminated against by reason of sex, marital status, ethnic or national origin, color, race, nationality, age, disability, religion, and differing terms of employment, including pay for jobs of equal value. 1 In the United Kingdom, the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (amended 1986 and in the Employment Act 1989) makes it unlawful to discriminate in terms of gender who is offered the job; opportunities for promotion, transfer and training. (Equal Opportunities Management Guidelines) The Gender Equality Duty, which is included in the new law, requires public bodies to eliminate sex discrimination and promote equality throughout their services, policies, and employment and recruitment practices. The monumental world-wide response to the Platform for Action for the resolution of women’s issues delivered in the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women still reverberates until the present time. Much of the initial initiatives regarding this Plan of Action include creating new mechanisms upgrading existing structures and energizing participatory processes. The movement against discrimination of women, particularly those who are disabled either temporarily (by pregnancy, illness, etc.) or permanently has likewise been strong.On October 15, 2003, the Honorable Stefania Prestigiacomo, Minister for Equal Opportunites of Italy read the Statement on the Advancement of Women to the Third Committee, on behalf of the European Union. She states that “The European Union appreciates the efforts by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and urges States to accept the amendment to Article 20, paragraph 1, which would allow the Committee to enjoy a greater flexibility. “ (Prestigiacomo, 2006) There appears to be a constant conflict between mutually beneficial relationships and contemporary situations, where males dominate the social, political and professional spheres (Taylor, Kemeny, Reed, Bower, & Grunewald, 2000). Many women claim that they have fewer opportunities to succeed in their work than men do and have to exert greater effort in order to be promoted in their jobs. Men are more readily employed and more supported by their employers than women (Bergman, 2003). . Within each occupation, a considerable hierarchy can be seen. Vertical segregation implies that women quite seldom occupy top posts in management in the European Union and in the rest of the countries (Equal Opportunities Policy and Statements). The Career Development Group maintains that there is social disadvantage due to the fact that there exist particular social roles which influence the public lives of both genders. These roles were established in patriarchal societies and are therefore strongly influenced by social power, which usually belong to men. Being influenced by the rules of society conduct people yield to these stereotypes (Equal Opportunities Policy and Statements). Many critics claim, that in exerting all their efforts to advance themselves in the professional sphere, women become unable to perform successfully as mothers, wives and life partners. However, the latter are among primary duties of all women. The question of motherhood arises when making career decisions. These days, women usually postpone a decision to marry and have children until their careers are established. Work-life balance concerns persist throughout a woman’s family life. Other job characteristics of typically female jobs are not particularly compatible with family roles. For example, job flexibility and unsupervised breaks when workers can call home were less common among female than male occupations. Women were more likely than men to value jobs with characteristics that mothers would find convenient (Reskin, 1993). Men for the most part have less family duties and women bear the greater responsibility for their families, children upbringing and domestic duties. (Lundberg, Mardberg & Frankenhaeuser, 1994). To ensure that women continue to be effective in the work force, some benefits are due them to relieve them of their anxiety in raising a family while maintaining their careers. One example is “paid maternity leave”, which, on one hand, strengthens the institution of marriage and family and on the other hand provides job security regardless of the possibility of pregnancy or childbirth. Maternity leave enables a woman to depart from the workplace temporarily and return to the same position after having a baby. Pregnant women needing and rightfully availing of her maternity leave, are not to be treated unfairly or discriminated upon. New legislation concerning maternity leaves establishes that every woman has a right for 24 days off after giving birth and 18 weeks maternity leave. The employer is obliged to provide this maternity leave regardless the length of employment or wage paid. In case a woman’s employment under her current employer has run for about a year, she has a right for additional 11 weeks of maternity leave before the last week of childbirth and 5 weeks on the expiry of the 24 weeks ensured after the childbirth. The other security service for pregnant women and mothers is the right for paid time off for afterbirth care, protection against the work in dangerous conditions and dismissal (Aherne, 2003). Organizations have found that many women who take maternity leave from a company do not return. Companies recognition of this expensive waste of talent, has helped focus company effort on improving ways to recruit and retain women. However, research suggests that companies are slow in providing practical or financial help to get mothers back to work. (Hammond & Holton, 1993). Equal opportunities legislation proposes to establish and develop the practice of paternity leave and pay. Under these new laws, fathers also receive the opportunity to care for their new-born offspring during his/her first weeks of life. This benefit supports the integrity of family values and encourages work-life balance. The issue of equal rights and family priority indicate that without neglecting their basic duties to family, women can still get an education, which is equal to the education of men. The majority of job placements should be available to women. Presently, women now can occupy positions even in professions considered male-dominated. Many researchers try to prove that women are more responsible and hard working and can perform with more efficiency than their male counterparts. The problem of pay gap was well studied by the Women and Equality Unit and the Equal Opportunities Commission. These units aimed to improve the position of women in the workplace and to increase their wages (Advancing Women in the Workplace, 2004) They studied the employers’ actions and other factors which determine the lower payment of women’s wages. Research funded by the European Commission showed that generally women who work full-time, receive only three-fourths of the hourly earnings of men. This holds true in the European Union in all professions with equal qualification levels and ages of men and women (Equal Opportunity, 2006). The pay gap is partly explained by the fact that women are much more likely to be in lower-grade, lower-paid occupations than men. Another factor contributing to the pay gap is that women in management have less seniority and are rewarded at a lower rate. The pay survey of women in the City of London found a clear age-related factor in that salaries for men and women diverged during their mid-twenties and the gap increased with age (Wren, 1990). One of the researches, conducted in 2002 in the USA studying 500 companies showed that women occupied not more than 15.7 % of corporate-officer positions and only 5.2 % of women were top earners. The other characteristic feature is that the greatest part of all women, who occupy top positions, take not line but staff positions (Hymowitz, 2003). Staff positions are less prominent and therefore women are less likely to receive promotions and attain the very top of job hierarchy. Despite all the attempts and policies made by governments, there is still much to be done to uphold equality promotion between men and women. Numerous researches have shown that there persists an obvious segregation between men and women in certain professions. Job segregation is a work practice that includes sex-role stereotypes and other cultural values including occupations sex labels, the distributions of occupations and industries, government policies and their implementation, and the actions of the sex-typical workers. Obviously, occupational sex labels influence both employers notions about appropriate workers and workers ideas about acceptable lines of work.(Reskin, 1993) Among the male-dominated professions are the following: engineering, plumbing, construction, ICT, etc., usually, jobs where male physical and mental strength are required. Female –dominated professions are far less numerous and for the most part less prestigious. They remain in childcare and education (for the most part primary)(“Investigation..”, 2005). According to official statistics, ¾ of all working women are still occupied in only 5 profession groups, which are called “five “c` s”: cleaning, catering, caring, cashiering and clerical (“Investigation…”, 2005). It is interesting to note that jobs initially viewed as female, pay less even if they require just the same qualification levels than inherently male ones. Even after several decades of equality legislation this job segregation is clearly apparent and deeply entrenched in the public mind. Slow progress has allowed women to gain job positions in the sphere of accountancy, law and, partially, medicine. Nevertheless, in spite of these changes one cannot observe the same progress in the sphere of science or Engineering (“Investigation…”, 2005). Studies have shown that workers’ job efficiency have much to do with how they perceive their responsibilities and significance in their particular job positions. Valentine (2001) indexed a variety of research studies on how perceptions of own jobs and expectations of other people in the workplace of one’s job efficiency may create self-fulfilling prophesies. Findings in these researches show that despite their managerial competencies, women must unfortunately deal with negative stereotypes that can impair their job mobility and advancement. As leaders, women may be viewed as passive, overly relationship-oriented and emotionally unstable. The masculine task-oriented styles of leadership highly favoured by management are not always exhibited by women. Many of the negative ideas about women in management may affect how they are treated and accepted at work. Despite representing almost half of the workforce, womens presence is much less noticeable in positions with executive responsibility. Even worse, women are frequently given assignments that are excluded from social and professional networking concluded that women reported greater career barriers and greater importance of performing well on the job than did men using matched samples of male and female executives. These negative ideas unfortunately lead some women to question their own supervisory abilities, to evaluate themselves harshly on performance appraisals, and to set low performance expectations. They experience more motivational problems and career uncertainties compared to men, and this could be attributed to their negative work experiences (Valentine, 2001). On the other hand, men perceived their abilities, contributions and successes higher than they rate women’s characteristics. Sex stereotypes may also afford men many employment advantages. White males are perceived to be the most efficient supervisors and skilled workers, and quite often are the highest compensated demographic group in many industries. Previous research indicates that employees often treat men and women supervisors differently. Some studies have shown that subordinates show a preference for male leadership. Some have concluded that female subordinates trust male supervisors more than they trust female supervisors and others show that subordinates are more likely to blame female managers for negative work outcomes. Managers perceptions of their own supervisor responsibility also positively affected job satisfaction and employee monitoring, which implies that empowered managers, both male and female, tend to be more satisfied with their current employment situation and are more likely to direct their employees activities. Monitoring typically involves assessing employee performance, providing employee feedback, and implementing control mechanisms that enable employees to succeed in their jobs. Monitoring can therefore be considered a critical aspect of supervision because it enhances employee performance and productivity. In this regard, women perceived less supervisory responsibility in their jobs than did men. This finding is not unusual considering womens negative work experiences. (Valentine, 2001). Achieving Gender Equality Employers are in a position to support workers in the workplace. Such support should be available both for men as well as for the women in the organization to balance off prevailing gender inequality. Unger (2002) reports identified support needs culled from her study as categorized in four areas namely: employee training, career advancement, employee benefits, and workplace culture. Employee training needs focused on an individual’s ability to learn and perform the job and encompassed activities such as skill acquisition, completing regular job duties, performing independently, and other activities. Career advancement needs addressed an individual’s ability to advance within or between jobs and included activities such as learning additional duties, pursuing opportunities for promotion, and other related needs. Employee benefit needs focused on enabling the individual to take advantage of benefits provided by the employer, such as sick leave, pay raises, or other benefits. Finally, needs in the area of Workplace Culture focused on the ability of the employee to assimilate into the culture, social structure, and routines of a specific work setting.” (Unger, 2002, p. 185) Professionals are traditionally considered to exhibit masculine communication behavior such as rationality, power, decisiveness, and objectivity rather than so called feminine communication behavior (Bradley, 1981). Professional women are seen as less powerful in terms of communication. When they exhibit assertive language in the workplace, their image is transformed to one who is more aggressive or “out-of-role” and if this may jeopardize their effectiveness especially when they manifest their assertiveness above accepted levels (Kennedy & Camden, 1983). Apparently, the use of language may be specific to the situation at hand. Women generally use non-assertive communication, as they were raised to be that way. It is no wonder that they tend to use more tag questions and disclaimers. However, when they feel more self-confident, they use more assertive communication (Stake & Stake, 1979). Also, although early research findings suggest that men interrupt more often in conversations (Thorne & Henley, 1975; Zimmerman & West, 1975), more recent research, such as the one by Smeltzer and Watson (1986) suggest that highly educated women surpassed men in the number of interruptions they made. However, interruptions are not necessarily indications of dominant communication styles (Kennedy & Camden, 1983). Women in the workplace need to be aware of their use of tag questions, disclaimers, interruptions and the like, and should learn to use more assertive communication skills to overcome gender discrimination and make themselves heard and acknowledged in male-dominated situations. In organizations where men mostly dominate, more specific strategies are employed to tip the balance in women’s favor. Supporting women workers towards management positions entails more technical support strategies. These include networking, career tracking, mentoring, succession planning and the adoption of a comprehensive approach. (Wirth, 2001). Women who show much promise in leading a company usually outshine others in terms of skills and personality. However in reality, women often have to work harder than men do to achieve the same levels of responsibility. Being part of a network of equally competent workers brings a lot of benefits. It provides invaluable information, visibility and support, especially when job vacancies spring up. Visible women who exhibit the right qualifications may be easily recommended by members of the network. Employers may also “career track” female employees of high potential towards higher positions they qualify for. They can help these women gain visibility and experience by giving them challenging and high-profile assignments that can prove their worth. These women prospects may be provided special training in addition to mentoring by high-level managers who can provide useful advise and contacts. Employers need to monitor and report these women’s progress in the organization. “Mentoring involves the pairing of younger potential managers (sometimes referred to as “high flyers” of “fast trackers”) with older, experienced and more senior managers who provide coaching, support, advise and visibility.” (Wirth, 2001, p.128) It goes without saying that mentoring relationships depend much on the individual’s sincere desire to acquire and develop new skills and gain additional competencies. Some companies devise succession strategies to prepare deserving workers of managerial positions. Should a woman be chosen to be a successor in the future, then she must be provided with opportunities to gain the experience and skills necessary to merit the eventual promotion. Adopting a comprehensive approach in improving women’s career opportunities in the workplace will be effective if strategies are fully implemented and sustained in the culture of the company. Employers need to consider and examine women’s issues and barriers that hinder them from attaining success. Employers may look into the following to guide them in choosing the right strategies to support their promising women workers: gender and family issues; reasons why women leave their jobs; flexibility in working time arrangements; attributes women may bring to management; communication styles; work relationships with peers; prevention of sexual harassment at work; including women in training programmes and establishing part-time management positions to enable women with family responsibilities to take the management route. (Wirth, 2001). Conclusion It is inspiring to know that in spite of prevailing gender inequality in favor of men in employment situations, there are still women who prove to be survivors. On top of management being more supportive of women workers, women themselves should be empowered to assert themselves to attain their rightful positions as equals of men. According to those that have already climbed high on the ladder, the outlook is promising for women who are willing to work hard and break down any barriers that may exist (Higgins, 2004). References Advancing women in the workplace. Labour Market Trends. 2004 Aherne, A-M. (2003) “Women and Workplace Discrimination Trial.” [Online]. Available from: < http://www.oxbridgecareers.com > 9 April, 2008. Bergman, B. (2003) The validation of the women workplace culture questionnaire: gender-related stress and health for Swedish working women. Sex Roles: A Journal of Research Bradley, P.H. 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(1983) “Interruptions and Nonverbal Gender Differences”, Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 8, 91-108. Lundberg, U., Mardberg, B., & Frankenhaeuser, M. (1994) “The total workload of male and female white-collar workers as related to age, occupational level, and number of children.” Scandinavian Journal of Psychology.1994. Prestigiacomo, S, (2003)EU Presidency Statement - Advancement of Women, Retrieved on April 8, 2008 from http://europa-eu-un.org/ Reskin, B. (1993), ‘Sex Segregation in the Workplace’, Annual Review of Sociology. Volume: 19. Smeltzer, L.R. & Watson, K.W. (1986) “Gender Differences In Verbal Communication During Negotiations”, Communication Research Reports Volume 3,1986/ Stake, J.E., & Stake, M.N. (1979). “Performance--Self-esteem and dominance in mixed sex dyads”, Journal of Personality, 47, 23-84. Taylor, S. E., Kemeny, M. E., Reed, G. M., Bower J. E., & Grunewald, T. L. (2000) Psychological resources, positive illusions, and health. American Psychologist. 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Pp. 105-29 in Language and Sex: Difference and Dominance, edited by B. Thome and N. Henley. Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Read More