The Time Of Equal Rights And Gender Equality

Women have been fighting the fight for women’s rights for a long time. In fact, evidence can be traced back centuries of women’s desire for equality. Specifically, women have fought for their rights in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

In the United States, study after study continues to show that women have fewer opportunities to advance in the workplace than men. These disadvantages are a result of society’s views of women in leadership positions and how women may view themselves in these roles. Women have been making progress in terms of equality in pay and job positions, but significant gaps remain. Women who strive to be promoted into higher levels of responsibility in their companies often meet resistance that prevents them from achieving the goal of a senior or executive level of management. This barrier is referred to as the “glass ceiling” and it is a controversial issue in our country today. The glass ceiling called this because women are able to see the higher level positions, but can reach them because of an intangible barrier. One can look at the Fortune 500 companies, which are the most successful companies in the U.S. in terms of revenue to see how few women are in leadership positions. Clearly, women are significantly underrepresented in these companies, as less than 5 percent of these companies have female chief executive officers (CEO) today (Dockterman 105). Providing the opportunity for women to move into management positions, like CEOs, would bring a unique talent and a new perspective on how the company can operate to perform better (Buckalew 147). The “glass ceiling” is a real obstacle that creates an intangible barrier that puts women at a disadvantage in advancing in a company.

It is easy to make a case to pass legislation for a quota for women on corporate boards. There is statistical data showing a difference in pay between men and women. Women often hit a ‘glass-ceiling’ when it comes to promotions in the workplace; and even when they are able to progress, it is often more difficult than men. Women lack a female mentor in the workplace to sponsor them because women who are in a position of power are afraid of losing that position. According to the text, “women who have achieved positions of power in male-dominated environments may fear competition from other women and actively work to undermine them” (Allard & Harvey, 2015). Lastly, on a global scale, four prominent countries (Norway, Finland, France, and Italy) have already passed legislation involving quotas for women in corporate positions (Allard & Harvey, 2015).

Organisations are a key to understanding gender inequality. gender inequality within organisations has been debated for several years and yet still today is a touchy subject with organisations being discriminative right from the interview stage. Some organisations prefer to hire a man rather than a women because women are more likely to take maternity leave and days off to look after sick kids they are considered 'weaker' than men even though women may perform better than men at certain tasks within an organisation and yet still may receive a lack of encouragement from men. Formal rights have now been put in place in certain country's though not all countries have these rights in place In certain countries they have laws in place thats state that women cannot own land or property and in certain institutions and organisations they go through terrible actions such as violence and sexual harassment. In Australia we have the violence against women's act and the civil rights act for women so that they are treated equally but these certain acts don't stop women from being discriminated against at work where women earn 81c to a mans

This myth has been perpetuated throughout history and in result; we have barriers such as the glass ceiling in existence. If we were to pull up a list of the Board of Directors for any given company, the probability of it being a predominately male group is high. This notion alone shows how companies have continued to dwell in olds days where men are considered more capable than women. The Glass ceiling effect has continued to place barriers against women endeavor in achieving success in their careers and participation in their work place. Women have not been able to realize their potential in their work places since they are not offered equal chances as compared to their men counterparts who enjoy great opportunities in organizations. The fact that an organization is ran by men, may cause an adverse effect on the performance of men. Obviously, a man thinks differently than a woman. It is likely that a decision made by men only is likely to ignore the interests of women in the organization. This creates a domino effect because it affects the woman’s performance in business since they only get limited chances to learn, and limited job assignments that will enhance their skills. Hence, low or limited skills and experience will lower their overall

“According to the Center for American Progress, women “are only 14.6 percent of executive officers, 8.1 percent of top earners, and 4.6 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs.” And even though they comprise the majority of the labor force in the financial services and healthcare industries, not a single woman in these fields is head honcho of her company“(Hawaii Free Press, page 1). Women have less authoritative power when it comes to the employment field. More women than men are employed in the labor force, yet majority of the most powerful employers are men. This gender gap seems to be more than just a coincidence. This is one of the results of sexism in the America. Gender gaps in the job market are not the biggest problem of sexism because violence against women still lingers around the United

Currently, women hold only 4.8% of CEO positions, which makes women limited to a choice of jobs. Women are so underrated, even though they can do so much more. These women have never gotten a chance to prove how hard they can work and how much work they can do for a company. Women work the same jobs, the same time, and do the same amount of work, but yet there is still a gender wage gap. Many CEO’s pay women less, acknowledging that women are not hard workers and men work harder.

Women have been fighting the fight for women’s rights for a long time. In fact, evidence can be traced back centuries of women’s desire for equality. Specifically, women have fought for their rights in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The 1920s, known as “Roaring Twenties”, were an age of prosperity and changes, it’s one of the most special and colorful decade in the America history. Numerous exciting and unprecedented events happened during this decade, it was full of opportunity and remarkable people, the economic was blooming, new arts were formed and brand new ideas appeared, the national confliction emerged in large numbers, multiple changes showed up in sports…… To the American women, the Roaring Twenties were especially meaningful. It was the turning point of the women’s role in history, the 19th Amendment, the post-war effect, and the revolutionary fashions all contributed to this.

As a woman, don’t you want a job? Don’t you want to be the owner of a large business? Don’t you want to be the CEO of the largest company in the world? Being a woman can stop these dreams from becoming a reality. As stated by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA, 2015), in Australia only 12% of women hold chair positions, 17.3% in CEO positions, 23.7% in directorships and only 26.1% as the key management personnel. As seen by these statistics, men have taken over 70% of leadership positions in Australia and leading on from this, women result in having lower pay

Growing up girls are raised to believe women are not equal to men in the real world. Do women have equal opportunities as men to hold higher working positions? Are there reasons women are not running more businesses than men? Is one gender better leaders than the other? While men still hold more executive positions than women, there is less women in the work force for logical reasons. For example, men cannot stay home and have a baby. Despite the common belief, the glass ceiling is a myth. Men have always been kings of business, but I know that women can be just lead a business just as well as men.

The seriousness and scope of gender discrimination lies in the fact that although studies have shown that companies with greater gender parity perform better both internally and financially, women are still significantly underrepresented in all levels of employment, notably senior leadership.

“Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders” by Sheryl Sandberg talks about the inequality in job profession for women. The different in percentage is not even close to being half. There are only 15 or 16% women that are CEO’s while men hold the rest. Women don’t reach for opportunities as much as men do. When a man succeeds, “they arrtibute their success to themselves, when a women succeeds, “they attribute their success to other external factors” because they believe they got to where they got by the help of someone else and not their own ability/effort (Sandberg).

In conclusion it has been proven that inequality still exists within companies. If women want to be paid based off their skills and not their gender, they need to become aware of the fact that this problem is still around and fight to get rid of it. Carol Hymowitz’s article reflects on the need to make a change in businesses around the world to offer diversity and equality. The change has to start with women coming together and taking a stand against discrimination. With constant change and growth within our country, there is no reason

“The wage gap has narrowed by more than one-third since 1960”(Hegewisch, 2010) and “the share of companies with female CEOs increased more than six-fold” (Warner, 2014) since 1997. As well as the truth that men and women’s earnings differ for many other reasons besides the presence of sexism. “Discrimination in labor market, in education/retiring programs, unequal societal norms at home and the constrained decisions men and women make about work and home issues” (Hegewisch, 2010) are also factors that can contribute to the unequal treatment of man and women in the workplace. Yet even with most of these variables removed women are still being paid less than men, sexually harassed in the workplace and hold very little managerial positions.