Race, Ethnicity, Gender Identity - Term Paper Example

RACE, ETHNI GENDER IDENTITY Introduction The world today has shrunk into one small family where people belonging to different communities, race and ethnic backgrounds have come to settle in new communities under one single roof. The advancement in technology along with other factors such as globalization, industrialization and development of economies as a whole has facilitated the companies today to hire talents across the globe. This has led to a global working environment where people belonging to various countries, religions, faiths as well as gender share a common work place. Moreover the large number of Asian and Hispanic immigrants migrating to the American sub continent, which is perceived as an alternative avenue of economic attainment, has led to an emergence of an ethnic economy. Besides, the availability of cheap labor and better knowhow at substantially lower prices has led the companies to hire people from every corner of the world. Also the jobs that were initially considered as a “man’s domain” no longer exist. Companies today do not shy away from hiring the fairer sex in areas where men were given more prudence, as talent is what counts in this fast paced world. The gender gap too has narrowed leading to a culturally diverse work environment. However, this has brought along with it several far reaching repercussions. In a bid to hire cheap and efficient labor several companies today, are increasingly hiring people from all corners of the world, sometimes replacing foreigners in place of the indigenous workforce. This, in turn has led to discrimination on various grounds including gender, ethnicity and race. Race, Ethnicity and Gender Disparities in Work Environment In spite of the fact that the work environment is increasingly becoming culturally diverse, many organizations still look for the heterosexual male worker usually belonging to the culturally dominant group, as an able candidate for the job. The rest of the work force, who do not conform to the said definition, are subjected to discrimination on various grounds, including age (senior citizens), gender, race, ethnicity, sexual preference, as well as physical disability. In the United States and several other developed countries, there exists widespread discrimination against women especially of the African American descent. They are often subjected to restricted occupations and their occupational mobility is seldom high as regards their positions or levels in the organization. This could be attributed to the popular perceptions about their competence, among their white counterparts, which apparently isn’t too encouraging. Such workers are subjected to stereo typing on account of their cultural, racial and ethnic backgrounds, added to the absence of proper mentoring and the loss of self esteem on account of being ignored and excluded from the work cliques make them highly apprehensive about their security issues and their acceptance as equally if not more, skilled as their white counterparts.. (Yanick St. Jean, Joe R Feagin, page 41) Moreover, the hiring process followed by several organizations, inadvertently presents a complex set of racial barriers, especially in case of workers belonging to different cultures and ethnicity and even if the employees falling under culturally oppressed group, do manage to work their way past the hiring barriers, their discrimination within the work place cannot be ruled out. Their abilities are always questioned, which is a typical characteristic trait of the stereo typing minds of the culturally dominant group. Even today most occupations remain surprisingly static as regards their gender composition. This could be attributed to the gender stereo types that exist in the society even today. The dearth of women employees in computer, research and scientific areas bears testimony to the fact that some occupations are governed by gender centric behavior. Gender disparity in work environment, exists in several sectors of the industry and is apparent from the fact that the salaries drawn by women have been consistently lower, compared to men, across all sectors of the industry irrespective of their experience, qualification or type of job (full time / part time). This wage gap is partly because of the fact that women do not get promoted as frequently as men. Statistics on Composition of Work Force according to gender, race, and ethnicity Table 2.5. Race/Ethnicity and Gender of FY 2002 Active Component NPS Accessions, by Service, and Civilians 18-24 Years Old (Percent)   Army Navy Marine Corps Air Force DoD MALES White 69.6 61.6 71.4 74.7 69.0 Black 14.6 17.1 9.7 13.6 14.0 Hispanic 11.2 12.1 13.6 6.9 11.1 Other 4.6 9.2 5.3 4.9 5.9 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 FEMALES White 53.0 55.2 63.5 63.9 57.3 Black 28.3 21.2 13.7 21.9 23.8 Hispanic 13.3 13.7 16.0 8.3 12.2 Other 5.4 9.9 6.8 5.9 6.7 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 TOTAL Male 81.5 82.6 93.2 76.0 82.7 Female 18.5 17.4 6.8 24.0 17.3 White 66.5 60.5 70.8 72.1 67.0 Black 17.1 17.8 10.0 15.5 15.7 Hispanic 11.6 12.4 13.8 7.3 11.3 Other 4.8 9.3 5.4 5.1 6.0 NON-INSTITUTIONALIZED CIVILIANS 18-24 YEARS OLD White 65.1 Black 14.2 Hispanic 15.6 Other 5.1 Total 100.0 Male 49.8 Female 50.2 Source: Civilian data from Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Population Survey File, October 2001 - September 2002. Statistics on gender – wage ratio of full time workers (source: Institute of Women’s policy research, August 2006) Effect of discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity or gender at the work place The discrimination at work place in any form irrespective of one’s gender, race, ethnicity, age, sexual preference or physical disability has several repercussions, creation of a hostile work environment, to name one. Segregation of an employable work force on these accounts renders the organization incapable of hiring the right candidate for the job, by opting for race over merit. Besides, such discrimination at the work place may, sometimes, lead the organization to pay dearly in terms of costly lawsuits, loss of an able, cheap and better informed employee, and a sharp decline in the company’s productivity. The costs associated with losing a discrimination suit can set a company back for years. Recent settlements cost State Farm $157 million, Coca-Cola $82.8 million, Publix Supermarkets $81 million and Mitsubishi $45 million (source: Management Issues, Dec 9, 2005) The social image and credibility of the organization is also at stake, as its public image could get tarnished and the company as well as its owners could be subjected to wide spread public criticism and resentment, as well as loss of employee morale. All this could spell trouble for the company with potentially disastrous effects. The present workforce, who is witness to such unfair and unethical treatment of their fellow employees, might resort to violent means, or collectively boycott such organizations. From the employee’s point of view, such unfair treatment and alienation might render them dysfunctional and push them towards a culturally oppressive environment. Solution to Such Disparities Elimination of racial, ethnic and gender disparity at the work place needs an affirmative action on the part of the organizations as well as the government, in the form a policy or program to protect the rights of the socio – culturally oppressed minorities, who are part of a major chunk of an employable workforce. One of the several alternatives at the disposal of the employers to combat such unfair practices include, formation of written policies on discrimination and harassment on the basis of race or ethnicity as well as gender segregation. Those at the helm of affairs need to take conscious and decisive measures to ensure implementation of such policies on a timely and regular basis and any discrepancy in terms of violation of the rules laid down in the policy should be immediately reported to the appropriate authority. There are several laws and regulatory bodies in practice to protect and safeguard the interests and rights of the minorities, such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that was set up in April 2006, which entrusts responsibilities on the employers to ensure the implementation of proper framework that checks such occurrences by reviewing hiring practices. Setting up of unions, or redressal cells that addresses the issue of work place discrimination can be set up so that the victims of such unfair practices could seek help in a more legitimate and orderly manner. The organizations can also set up employee networking groups, especially in cases where the discrimination is on account of the customer’s specific preference about hiring the services of employees belonging to a particular race / ethnicity. The formation of employee networks as an in house focus group which could be divided into several smaller groups on the basis of the employee’s race, gender, preference etc and ultimately linked to the parent company helps a great deal in increasing and improving the productivity of the company as well as reducing stress and dissentment among the employees as well as customers alike. Benefits of the measures taken to prevent such discrimination A culturally diverse work environment facilitates the accumulation of a multitude of perspectives and embraces the diversity that it brings along with it. The benefits of such diversity in work place includes increased employee motivation, improved customer satisfaction, competitive and world class management practices, as well as increased productivity. Employees belonging to different cultures and ethnicity bring along with them their own baggage of ideas and perceptions typical to their culture and traditions, which translates as a wider range of probable solutions to a given problem in the organization. Their diverse yet relevant insights and approach to solve a problem can spell increased profitability for the business and result in better decision making and policy development. Many organizations today that employ people from diverse backgrounds can vouch for the fact that diversity does make good business sense. Moreover, employing people belonging to a particular race / gender / ethnicity is not such a viable option as their customers could be belonging to diverse background themselves and would prefer working with or hiring the services of the people belonging to their own community or gender. In such a situation the organizations that hire people from only a particular community could face loss of business. The United States, today, has become a melting pot of diverse cultures and ethnicity with immigrants from Asian and Hispanic origins settling in large numbers. In such a case, a culturally diverse work place environment could lead to better employee satisfaction. Also the employee satisfaction results in a better work environment and increased productivity for the business and also retaining employees becomes relatively easier, as the growing dissatisfaction among the minorities could be curbed by taking necessary preventive measures. Structural Functionalism The theory of Structural Functionalism, developed by Talcott Parsons, seeks to analyze the society and its components and focuses on its mutual integration and interconnection. It is often referred to as the theory of mutual consensus as it emphasizes the role of a common consensus on morals, between various members of the society in maintaining social order. The central idea of this theory is to explain and evaluate the stability and internal cohesion among the diverse societies which plays a significant role in ensuring their mutual co-existence over a sustainable period of time. It is hence; essential to ensure their mutual consensus about the morals of the societies they belong to in order to achieve a mutually peaceful co-existence of such diverse workforce.( Earl R Babbie, page 37, Part 1: Paradigms, Theory and Research) Conflict Theory The conflict theory examines the role of coercion and power to achieve control over others in order to produce social order. Studied in comparison to the pyramid structure where the culturally dominant group is at the top of the ladder and enjoys power to dominate and oppress the relative minority. In a culturally diverse society, people belonging to various cultures, traditions, race or ethnicity strive to maximize their benefits while those in power, i.e., who enjoy racial, cultural or religious majority exercise power to remain at the top. This theory basically stems from the fact that people belonging to different communities and societies struggle to compete for the necessities of life and the differences caused due to it leading to conflicts (David B Brinkerhoff, Lynn K White, Suzanne T Ortega, Rose Weitz, page 14, Chapter 1, Study of Society) Symbolic Interactionism Symbolic interactionism is one of the most significant theoretical perspectives of sociology. It refers to the distinctive interactions that take place between human beings. It describes the ongoing interaction between individuals that help in creating a social consensus, and derive and assign specific meanings out of such interactions. The social interaction among the diverse workgroup of an organization could lead to better understanding of one’s perspectives and help eliminate the race, ethinic and gender disparities to a great extent as exchange of ideas lead to meaningful conversations and elimination of stereo typical perceptions about a particular race or ethnicity (David B Brinkerhoff, Lynn K White, Suzanne T Ortega, Rose Weitz, page 15, chapter 1, Study of Society) REFERENCES Source: Civilian data from Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Population Survey File, October 2001 - September 2002. June 10, 2008.Available from: Gender Wage Ratio of Full Time Workers, Institute of Women’s Policy Research, August 2006, Available from: < http://www.iwpr.org/pdf/Updated2006_C350.pdf> Management Issues: “One in six Americans claim workplace bias” December 9, 2005. Available at Yanick St. Jean, Joe R Feagin, Double Burden: Black Women and Everyday Racism, David B Brinkerhoff, Lynn K White, Suzanne T Ortega, Rose Weitz, Essentials of Sociology, Thomas Wadsworth Publication, 2004 Earl R Babbie, An Introduction to Inquiry, Thomas Wadsworth Publication, 2004 Read More