Gender Inequality in Workplace Research Paper

Introduction

Gender inequality refers to discrimination especially in a workplace because of gender difference; in the modern world women tend to be the victims of discrimination as compared to men.

Gender is the main reason for inequalities in the workplace; this is because nowadays there is a steady increase in the number of women in workplaces in the world. Female employees are currently found in almost all sectors of economy which include; business, IT, politics and media irrespective of their position, they still face their male colleagues in the workplace.

In workplaces, some men have problems working with women and sharing offices and information resources with them. More so, some men have difficulty communicating with their female colleagues because of their ego.

In some instances, female workers tend to be perceived as part-time workers and thus not as productive as their male counterpart. There have been a number of cases in the employment sector that men believe that women workers were employed because of their attractiveness and not their qualification.

Justification of gender as the main reason for workplace inequality

Workplace inequality is mainly fostered by gender discrimination as it has been witnessed in many organizations. Male employees are usually the majority and frequently in the top management. Male tend to favor their male colleagues regardless of their race because it is always easy to communicate to a fellow male.

Some female employees find it difficult to fit in many organizations especially when the department when the department that they are deployed to is male dominated, females in such departments tend to be more isolated and overlooked (Gottfried, 2004).

In the United States women in workplaces are poorly paid compared to their male colleagues despite the affirmative-action. Male earnings are still between 23 to 54 % more than female counterparts around the world. In the year 2004, the average annual income for male employees was $38,000 while female employee’s income was $26,000 (Karsten, 2006).

In some instance, male employees may team up against female employees because they feel intimated by their presence. Women also face sexual harassment in their work place, in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia few girls are enrolling in schools compared to boys meaning that women in these countries lack the necessary skills to be placed on the job market.

In some countries, women are forbidden from doing certain jobs due to culture, religion and male chauvinism. This deprives women the opportunity to work despite their educational qualification. In developed countries, women are stereotyped into service employment.

When women have children and choose to bring them up, they are forced to work part-time in order to have adequate time to take care of their children. As a result of this, most women are paid poorly as compared to their male counterparts who can work long hours in the service industry (Gottfried, 2004).

According to Karsten (2006), there is a 41% male-female gap when all issues such as education, experience, occupation and job-related qualification are taken into account. This remains unexplained because it disadvantages women as it supports male employees in the employment sector. The consequences of gender bias has led to imbalanced wages in favor of male.

Conclusion

As discussed in this essay, gender discrimination has mostly affected women as compared to men especially in the workplace. This has always been the case all over the world, but gender inequality tends to be experienced more in developing and poor countries. It is also experienced in the Middle East as a result of religious beliefs that considers women not fit to work.

References

Gottfried, H., & Reese, L. (2004). Equity in the workplace: gendering workplace policy analysis. New Jersey, NJ: Lexington Books.

Karsten, M. (2006). Gender, Race, and Ethnicity in the Workplace [Three Volumes] [3 Volumes]: Issues and Challenges for Today’s Organizations. New York, NY: Greenwood Publishing Group.