Position of Gender in Employment - Essay Example

?Position of Gender in Employment: Inspection and Evaluation What is gender? This question may have many widespread and ordinary retorts to it. Polesapart responses may vary from ‘gender being the distinct genus of a species’ to it being ‘the specification of the kind of attributes related to males and females’. But, these classifications may or may not be psychological or biological, but without vexing the description further, it is necessary to provide the sociological outlook of what gender actually is. Therefore, in my perspective, with reference to sociology; gender can be defined as ‘the pattern of social order in which males and females are born with predictable, allowable and esteemed responsibilities and opportunities with reference to social processes like; decision making, socializing, learning, teaching, planning and development, and prioritizing’. Thus, with reference to sociological study gender is the division of the above mentioned cataloging aspects of the society, this is due to the fact that people never think about other people as neutral; it is always either man or woman verifies Holmes (2007, pp.1). Hence, this specified categorization in the society plays a vital role in the life of human beings and it affects all the aspects of their lives which include; education, agriculture, business performance, citizenship behavior, medical circumstances and most importantly the employment sector. The importance of gender can be easily understood with the example of the survey conducted by the Gallup surveys, more than 50 percent of people believed that women have to live a difficult live than men. Why so? This is due to the fact that the society is constructed in such a way that they believe various true and untrue attributes of women, the most important of all is that they are more ‘emotional’, or about men that they are always ‘strong’. It is due to the universal dimension of gender specification that status differences are advanced. Thus the important of gender in the society and the people it composes cannot be closed the eyes to. The most important question under discussion is ‘how gender affects or is positioned in employment?’ Thus this paper puts forth the current arrangement of gender in the employment division and the positive and negative effects that it is causing. According to a report presented by Shah (2009, pp.5-6) the discrimination percentage in the employment sector has went from being 70% in 2006 to 80% in 2008-10. The important factor to keep in mind while understanding the position of gender in employment is that there is a wide difference between gender and sex. The term ‘sex’ is referred to while studying biological concepts of attributes whereas, gender is the social phenomenon which defines how an individual is prescribed with roles and features while specification to society and culture. It is also necessary to be aware of and comprehend what a work place actually is and how it related to a society. With reference to my standpoint a work place is the platform, on which an organization provides to its employers and employee, such an atmosphere which is suitable enough to their needs to comfortably produce the required effort and results. As, Linley & Harrington believe that such a place that values and respects its workers is an ideal workplace (2010, pp.295), hence we can specify that an ideal workplace makes sure that no problems prop up in the environment let them be related to gender, race or color. It is believed that the pillars through which the position of gender can be specified in employment include; Requirement quota, limited seats, pre judgments during interviews, salary variation, work load and time patterns, inadequate facilities, rewards and motivation, work environment and job satisfaction. These pillars have been described in detail which at the end shall help in the provision of what position actually does gender hold in our society with reference to the employment sector. 1) Requirement Quota: It has been elucidated that when job offers are advertised and publicized the most important label that they carry includes that of a gender specification when it comes to the quota. This means that many job offers can be seen labeled either as ‘Male applicants required’ or ‘Males shall apply more’ etc. This puts forth both the positive and negative sides of the situation. Either that such an organization does not provide a suitable environment to women workers or that the omen workers may not be able to qualify for the posts which are empty. In both the cases we are led to the term of gender division which specifies that such an organization is processing through beliefs which are more discriminating that logical. This provides a larger ratio of women unemployment than that of men. It is researched by Kamiran and Calders that such organizations are biased also in other forms of their functioning such as trainings etc. (n.d, pp.1-2) 2) Limited Seats: Similar is the case when it comes to the employment opportunities that in many organizations men are provided with less number of seats as compared to women, while in other organizations women are provided with limited number of seats as compared to men. But it does not necessarily mean that the either of the gender is being considered over the other one. Thus, this situation plays a small role in creating hurdles in the way of social order. But the above mentioned problem obviously disturbs the social organization and can be proved as a threat to social control and moderateness. 3) Pre-Judgments during Interviews: This pillar is mostly labeled as a boondoggle in the field of employment, but this is a fact that many organizations try to avoid and shun. The truth is that whenever an organization arranges an interview, the interviewer starts judging the applicant as soon as he or she enters the room, but (most of the time) not on the basis of their representation, gestures or behavior but more on their gender. But once again there are positive as well as negative aspects of this scenario. The positive and the most rare aspect is that the interviewer tests the capability of the applicant with not with reference to the cognitive believes or social conditions but more on the responses and qualifications. On the other hand the negative part includes that the interviewer putting forth the social conditions and cognitive stereotyped thoughts, judges the applicant based on the gender. Such judgments are elucidated by Duque and Black to be “biased and illogical” (2007, pp.359-360). 4) Salary Variation: During the employment procedures it is most of the time verified that the salary which is provided to the applicants varies. Even though this division of salary is common in situations where there is a differentiation of position or task distribution. But with reference to gender in most organizations salary provided is different for men and that for women. In this society it is believed that women due to their inability to reach the level of work as compared to that which is created by men in any organization shall be provided the salary in alignment to their work capacity. According to Reinert, Rajan, Glass and Davis (2009, pp.519), this is due to the misconceptions of gender stereotypes. Even though the scenario seems to be righteous but the problem occurs where organizations do not provide enough salaries to women who are working harder than men or to men who are working harder than women that the wage which is fixed for their gender specification. 5) Work Load and Time Patterns: Gender also plays a vital role in the specification of how much of the work an individual has to do for an organization. Although, gender specification in this aspect is somewhat controversial as it can be seen that when it comes to preferences no one has to argument but when it comes to the tough side people always agitate. This is again due to the social conditioning of individuals, women are provided with less work load at many ideal organizations as compared to men, this is somehow a negative point if pondered upon as it labels the judgment that women cannot perform better if the work load is greater. But on the other side it can be seen that the time patterns which many organizations provide to women workers are far more relaxing that those provided to men. This again is a negative point of consideration with reference to that of men. Similar is the case when it comes to the provision of pensions to the workers; women are paid more in some organizations whereas, men are paid less. But in many organizations the situation is contrary, men are paid more pensions and women are paid less. Marier and Skinner stated that ideal wage and pension provision regardless of gender or immigration basis is provided after the reforms brought in Canada. (2008, n.p) 6) Inadequate Facilities: With reference to the facilities that the workers are provided with it can be elucidated that organizations are providing women workers with a large number of facilities which are greater than that provided to the men. In China, female workers are provided with such facilities like the continuity of payment during maternal leaves and free access to baby centers inside the organization they work. This again proves that the stage on which gender has been specified is of great importance when it comes to employment. 7) Harassment: Women in any work environment are mostly targeted for sexual harassment. This pillar is holding the inadequacy of the employment sector. It is believed by Abrams (2006, pp.1197) that such discrimination based on gender has three phases. These phases include the recognition phase, the response phase and the adjustment phase. The former phase directs the recognition of the harassment in the work environment or the employment sector. This phase labels any organization as an ideal or a wretched organization. The second phase labels the state in which the harassed individual is responding in various ways to the harassment, the third phase includes the adjustment phase in which 89% individuals have been reported to have left the work place. This results in an increased percentage of unemployment specifically among the women. This has to end believes Haines, as many work forces now have minorities, immigrants and women (2007, pp.41). Thus it has been verified that the position of gender in the work environment is one of a significant importance. This has lead many organizations towards a downfall and many good organizations towards havoc. According to many researchers it has been explicated that the positive sides of gender differentiations have been proven to have lead towards the success of many organizations. These positive attributes include provision of suitable environment for both men and women and provision of better facilities to both the genders in accordance to their needs. These factors have been leading organizations towards successful future enlightenment. When Crosby, Stockdale and Ropp (2007, pp.7) addressed such organizations they referred to the main reason behind their success being such strategic planning in which the workers and the employees both defend gender discrimination. But when it comes to the failure of organizations the basic reasons were the gender specifications in their employment processing and evaluation. As a result it can be seen that in the employment sector the most important point which matters at the end is ‘job satisfaction’. This factor decides whether an organization let it be educational, economic, political or religious, is going to succeed or is going to be a mere malfunction. It is very important for any organization to have the label of providing job satisfaction to its employees, but as we can see that gender is something that has been controlling this factor for almost always now, thus it is important to for any organization to eliminate it so that this factor can be achieved. Through this such an organization will be able to play an important role in the society by bringing down the rates of unemployment. This puts forth us the factual current position of gender in the employment sector. References: Abrams, K. 2006. Gender Discrimination and the Transformation of Workplace Norms. HeinOnline. 42, p.1183. Crosby, F.J., Stockdale, M.S., Ropp, S.N. 2007. Sex Discrimination in the Workplace: Multidisciplinary Perspectives. Oxford: Wiley. Duque, D.F. and Black, S.E. 2007. Metacognitive Judgment and Denial of De?cit: Evidence from Frontotemporal Dementia. Judgment and Decision Making, 2(5), p.359-370 Haines, G.A. 2007. Job Satisfaction among High School Principals in Mississippi. Ph.D. University of Southern Mississippi. Holmes, M. 2007. What Is Gender?: Sociological Approaches. California: Sage. Kamiran, F. and Calders, T. n.d. Discrimination Aware Classi?cation. [pdf] Eindhoven University of Technology Available at: [Accessed 1st December 2011]. Linley, P.A. and Harrington, S. 2010. Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology and Work. New York: Oxford University Press. Marier, P. and Skinner, S. 2008. The Impact of Gender and Immigration on Pension Outcomes in Canada. Canadian Public Policy, 34(4), p.59-78. Reinert, K.A., Rajan, R.S., Glass, A.J. and Davis, L.S., ed. 2009. The Princeton Encyclopedia of the World Economy. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Shah, D.K. 2009. Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Employment Discrimination: Overview of State Statues and Complaint Data. Washington: DIANE. Read More