Gender Discrimination At Work : Connecting Gender Stereotypes, Institutional Policies, And Gender Composition Of Workplace

According to Metz (2011), women are being deprived of opportunities and being squeezed out of organisations due to preconceptions about their dedication to a long term role, based on outdated gender stereotypes. In general, women experience higher rates of harassment at work, compared to men(McLaughlin, Uggen and Blackstone 2012).

Gender stereotypes are one of the most common encountered on a daily basis. The infamous ‘Glass Ceiling’ still exists in many areas of the professional world, restricting valid promotions simply based on gender. This type of concept can be verified by looking at comparative weekly wages of other professionals in a variety of industries. Most people will generally see female dominated occupations, such as nurse, teacher and secretary as requiring feminine personality traits and physical attributes for success; whereas male dominated occupations such as doctor, lawyer, and business executive are seen to require male personality traits for success (Sanderson, 2010, p. 344).

Despite legislation for equal opportunities, sexism is still evident in the workplace. Women have made great advancements in the workforce and have become an integral part of the labor market. They have greater access to higher education and as a result, greater access to traditionally male dominated professions such as law. While statistics show that women are equal to men in terms of their numbers in the law profession, it is clear however, that they have not yet achieved equality in all other areas of their employment. Discrimination in the form of gender, sex and sexual harassment continues to be a problem in today’s society.

“Stereotypes are categories that constrain and shape what a person believes about, and expects from, other people” (Bartlett 1910). The workplace is one of the most active environments for women to be stereotyped against. Women are judged in ways such as being weaker than, and not as active as a man. This can be a problem for a woman in a male dominated occupation by making them feel, or seem, not as valuable as a man. For example, women in the police field will face the struggle of being seen as weaker, gentler, and to submissive to fight crime compared to men. This type of behavior leads to women not receiving much earned promotions, and having more struggles applying to male dominating jobs.

A research study on race and gender differences in employment typically assumes discrimination as an important causal mechanism (Roscigno, Garcia, & Zeher, 2007). The workplace has sometimes been referred to as an unwelcoming place for women due to the multiple forms of gender differences present (Stamarski & Son Hing, 2015). Examples of how workplace discrimination negatively affects women’s earnings and opportunities are the gender income gap, the scarcity of women in leadership, and the longer time required for women versus men to advance in their careers (Stamarski & Son Hing, 2015). According to Roscigno et al., (2007), Race and gender in the labor market have received considerate attention by researchers over the past twenty years. Researchers have also gained evidence to report that men earn more than women even when they are in the same occupation (Roscigno et al., 2007). In

Stereotype threats are negative consequences about one’s race, sex, nationality, or social group. Stereotype threats are used a lot more frequently than people realize. Gender is a powerful stereotype that affects many people’s decisions and actions. The stereotype of women in the workplace has come a long way even in the last twenty years. Many businesses tend to want to diversify their demographics by making the ratio of men to women almost equal. “Demographic projections anticipate that by the year 2000 women will exceed 50 per cent of the total workforce…” (Johnston and Packer, 1987). Women were able to make their way in to the workplace when men were off at war during the 1950s. During this time, women proved their ability to do the same kind of jobs men did. Many women worked as machinist, factory workers, and clergies.

The importance of these topics would increase awareness of racism, sexual harassment, and stereotypical situations happening to women in the workplace that need to be addressed. The overall state of what is known are the gender issues and inequality in the workplace. Some women like African American women have designed a strategy to cope with the issues present in the workplace, while others are trying to change the struggle of women hardly reaching upper

Gender, ethnicity, and race inequalities and the issues surrounding them in the workplace have been on the forefront of society’s mind for decades. The problem of inequality in the workplace has become one of the most important and vital issues in our society today. In order to understand fully the reasons for these inequalities, one must try to understand the factors that cause gender, ethnicity, and racial issues within the workplace, yet in this case, we will tend to focus mostly towards gender inequality in the workplace. One typically thinks locally

Gender stereotype have remained firmly over the years in North America that social norms pre-assumed the career of women and men in workplace traditionally. “The characterizations of women and men that comprise descriptive gender stereotypes are remarkably consistent. They have been shown to be consistent across culture” (Heilman 115). Heliman states that the gender stereotype did not change over time because the

Tracy, a female, could not walk down the corridor without a male employee making sexist comments. Moreover, Tracy’s statement of the organization hiring females and minorities shows that she disagrees with its plan. When she was hired, the organization focused on the best-qualified candidate not that she was a female, but her qualifications (Coman, & Ronen, 2009). Furthermore,

From the beginning of time the male and female have been expected to perform certain roles in society. Males have been expected to work and provide for their family while the female raises the children, cooks, cleans and keeps the house in order. Today many women have broken that tradition and are starting their careers and becoming more independent. Even though females today are braking away from that stereotype, they are being discriminated in the work place because there are still individuals out there that believe that women should play a certain role and that they are not strong enough to work in a cooperation or

A study on the implicit and explicit occupational gender types, Sex Roles, “Occupational gender stereotypes are activated when men and women are considered to be more suited for certain occupations based on stereotyped characteristics and temperaments” (White and White 2006). Matheus represented the following examples, “a stereotypically feminine job would be associated with attributes such as nurturing, caring, and being sensitive to the needs of others and a stereotypically masculine job would be associated with attributes such as decisiveness, coldness and toughness” (Matheus 2010). Nowadays, women are usually seen in the workforce as secretaries and nurses. Meanwhile, most doctors and construction laborers are men. In addition, Anker points out that “Occupational segregation by gender is prevalent in most if not all countries” (Anker 1998). “Women and men work in different fields and within fields at different levels” (Anker 1998). Diekman and Wilde explained that “men’s concentration in leadership and other high power roles led to the assumption that men have “agentic characteristics” such self-assertion and dominance and women’s concentration in subordinate and caretaking roles lead to the assumption that they have “communal characteristics” such as being kind and supportive (Diekman and Wilde 2005).

Some organizations mirror society’s idea about which group of workers are appropriate for certain types of jobs. Although hiring and promotion are supposed to be based on rational and universal criteria, they often express informal expectations about gender, race, and class of the people best suited for particular positions, producing race and gender stratified work forces. Men are thought to be more ambitious, task-oriented, and work involved; while women are considered less motivated, less committed, and more geared towards work relationships than work itself.

The concept of gender denotes the distinction between culturally driven and created roles of masculinity and femininity. These specific and normalized attitudes and behaviors transcend and effect how differently men and women live their lives. Based on society’s continual re-enforcement of such gender stereotypes, we see an on-going dilemma of gender inequality. Though some may argue that men experience gender inequality, this seems to exist on a much more invasive level for women. As of recently, the awareness of gender inequality in the workplace has increased. With the fight for equal pay and equal respect, society is already making strides towards the equality of women. With that being said, one aspect of gender inequality that seems

Unlike the majority of men, women are often over sexualized by their male coworkers and end up being treated in ways that are degrading and disrespectful. The sad truth is that if these women were in fact male they would have to put up with next no harassment, proving the unequal treatment of women in their places of work. Sexual harassment in work place first gained national attention in 19191 when President Bush nominated Clarence Thomas to US Supreme court. Thomas’s former assistant testified that he had sexually harassed her by making a series or sexually inappropriate comments, overtures and solicitations while acting as her supervisor. (Issues and Controversies) This is not the only sighted case of sexual harassment in the work place. It is reported that 81 percent of women are verbally harassed and 44 percent have encountered unwanted toughing and sexual advances (__) This form of harassment is degrading to women, putting them in a place that men perceive to be below them and shows the inequality that is present in the life of an everyday working