Double Standards in the Workplace - Essay Example

Double Standards in the Workplace The American Heritage Dictionary defines a double standard, with respect to gender, as “A set of principles permitting greater opportunity or liberty to one than to another, especially the granting of greater sexual freedom to men than to women” (p. 156). In the workplace, women have long been and often continue to be victims of a double standard. This double standard, the unequal distribution of workplace benefits and opportunities, is manifest in many ways.

This essay will demonstrate that women are, in fact, commonly the victims of a double standard in the workplace. It will also address disingenuous attempts to cover-up or explain away this double standard. As an initial matter, “existing national statistics support a view that Corporate America is not a gender-balanced playing field” (Murphy, 2001). Women today constitute more than half of the workforce, but they don’t even account for five percent of all business executives. In terms of compensation, women managers, on average, earn only 68% of what similarly qualified and employed male managers earn.

In addition to these huge disparities in terms of upward mobility and compensation, women are also quite commonly the victims of sexual harassment; in fact, statistics indicate that nearly 75% of women claim to have been sexually harassed at the workplace. There is also a qualitative double standard in operation. Women managers, for instance are more often burdened with non-management administrative tasks than are their male counterparts. In short, there is plenty of statistical evidence to support the proposition that a double standard based upon gender is real and substantial.

Some have argued, however, that these statistics are misleading. The National Organization for Men, to cite a well-known example, has argued that women have used this double standard notion as a political tool to gain the upper hand in workplace negotiations involving matters such as compensation and promotion (2005). They cite a recent censure of Harvard President, Larry Summers, who was justifiably attacked for suggesting that men are superior to women in science as his rationale for preferring men to women in the field of science.

Strangely enough, the issue isn’t free speech. President Summers is free to offer his opinion. The issue is double standards in the workplace, and the Harvard President gave his explicit reasons for this particular double standard at Harvard University. This double standard has also been supported by several studies that have found a causal relationship between the physical attractiveness of women and their chances of promotions, increased salaries, and other benefits (Can Sexy Women Climb, 2005).

The quality of work is not the sole consideration. The lesson for women is that is better to look nice than work well. In addition, “A new study on women in the workplace finds that people are likely to feel negatively toward a provocatively dressed businesswoman in a position of power. But as long as shes the secretary, it seems most people wont mind” Can Sexy Women Climb, 2005). The implication is that women should be secretaries, that sexy fashions are fine for secretaries, and that for women to climb the corporate ladder they must, in effect, become more masculine.

They must become more masculine by dressing more conservatively and by, in effect, hiding their feminine nature. A woman, in this way, and as the studies demonstrate, must become more like a man in order to escape certain limitations imposed by the double standards in the workplace. In the final analysis, the double standard is real. Women are very often denied the same opportunities as men. Overcoming this double standard requires behaving more like a man. Women still face significant challenges in the workplace.

ReferencesEllig, J. (2004). Sex in the Workplace, Still a Challenge for the Corporate Woman. OMENS Media.com The place for Working Women. http://www.womensmedia.com/new/business-Ellig-sex-workplace.shtmlMurphy, Thomas M. (2001). If Men are From Mars, How on Earth Does a Woman Get Promoted? Gender Bias in Corporate America. The CEO Refresher, brain food for business. http://www.refresher.com/!genderbias.htmlNoe, E. (2005, Dec. 2). Can Sexy Women Climb the Corporate Ladder? ABC News Money: Original Report.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Science/story?id=1362956&business=trueThe American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company: New York.The National Organization for Men Opposes Harvard Presidents Censure. (2005, March 18). eMedia Wire. http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2005/3/emw219600.htm