Gender Equality in Workplace: Revising the Issue

There is a common misconception that the phrase “workplace diversity defines under employee race or gender categories'. In fact it’s a broad concept. Here are some examples of diversity issue in workplace like: respect in the workplace, is a key component of diversified workplace. Sometimes there is a lack of respect and acceptance because people are belonging to different communities but acceptance is more important because it leads to respect and ultimately opportunity. There is a chance of conflicts due to racism, discrimination and lack of respect. Even there is a problem of lifestyle acceptance. Moreover, people are judge by color, cultures, ethnicity or religism, sometimes these prejudice is non- tolerable. This is gender equality in workplace essay in which the topic of lack of equality at workplace will be considered.

To continue, many more issues are occurred in diversified company like generation gaps, communication, disabilities, harassment. And most oldest and common diversified issue in workplace is male and female topic. In relation to the lawsuits in the Keaton v. Anderson-Wiley and Ward v Polite cases, this shows that sexual minorities have been deprived of the opportunity to provide counseling services. In addition, people believed that if they consulted them, they were not following their religious practices. Microsoft has had an issue with unfair treatment of employees and a case of a pregnant woman. Although various steps have been taken to reduce the diversity of the workforce, there are still some other problems related to physical and mental disabilities, although a person with disabilities has good knowledge and communication skills, but recruiters are trying to recruit people without such restrictions. Sometimes a language is also a problem of diversity that people feel when choosing those in their own language so that they can communicate easily and reduce the likelihood of mistakes. Unfortunately, there are still problems with ethnic and cultural differences in the workplace. There are still people who have prejudices against people of different ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds, and these prejudices or discrimination then lead to an increase in diversity problems.

Although it is seen that many diversity issues still persist in economy but gender diversity issue seems to be much prevalent. It can proven in this news by world today by Peter Ryan posted on 26th November 2015 that gender inequality is still a big issue in Australian workplaces. As Federal Government’s workplace gender equality is found that men on average earn 24 percent more which is $27,000 a year than women. Key findings are that only 15 percent of chief executives are women and women work part time at three times the rate of men. Most annoying thing is this that in Australia 30 top companies have no women is working at all. Furthermore there are major challenges still faced by gender inequality in the workplace like unequal pay. For decades women earned more bachelor degrees, master and doctorate degrees than men but still earn less than male. To help this discrepancy, experts new policies are needed, including more paid parental leave, support for child care and other pro family policies. 

Another problem is sexual harassment, according to one survey conducted in January 2018 by the non- profit stop street harassment found 38 percent of females still face sexual harassment and 81 percent reported experiencing this in their lifetime including verbal or physical assault. Sometimes women are also pay by their race. Institute for women’s policy research found that Asian women have highest earnings as compare to native American and Hispanic women. Moreover women usually promoted less often than men. Despite of this, women are more educated than men but still promoted less than men. One reason for why women aren’t moving into higher up executive types roles is the lack of female role models in the workplace. Nevertheless women always have a fear of asking to be paid what they’re worth. While related to the issue of unequal pay, fear of discussing money is a separate issue that affects women more significantly than men. According to the new research from glass door found 70 percent of women accepted the salary as they were offered without arguing, while only 52 percent of men did the same thing. From all of the above situations it is easily seen that Women are treated unfairly and denied from the full organizational membership.

Here are some ways in which organization improve gender equality in workplace like drive skills development equally. It means while investing in developing skills of team don’t rely to the people who consider to doing the hardest or riskiest job. This approach leads to gender equality. In fact develop the skills equally and doing it equally. Secondly by creating role models for women which influence them to work harder. Another solution is eliminate gender based roles.

There are many organizational approaches which can help in tackling the diversity issues. Because having a diverse group of employees can help in organization in achieving their target goals so it is very important for organization to improve their diversity levels in their workplace environment. By studying, here are many ways in which organization improve diversity issues like measuring issues are very important, of course measuring itself is not enough but by measuring organization look at it objectively and start to put more focus on their action. Secondly always remember that diversity is about more than race, it’s a just example of diversity issue. Additionally by expanding the geographic scope of their recruiting, organization will able to reach more potential organization. Other way is to solving the issue by focusing on retention it means some firms find that they able to attract a diverse set of applicants, but by the time organizational culture remains homogenous, so focus on retention efforts. Most importantly paying attention to organizational culture is very important, it is possible by promoting inclusiveness. Another helpful approach is proving diversity training, it can help people understand the benefits of having more diverse workforce. Additionally don’t forget to foster diversity at all levels, not just in hiring.

If there are challenges, there are also solutions for that problems. For example to avoid miscommunication, choose one common language, hire a staff with advanced bilingual abilities, especially for an international organization. Encourage the employees if they don’t understand the matter. Due to diversity if there are so many opinions, choose a high performing executives who will hear each opinion and make final and effective decision which helps in betterment of firm. To overcome the problem of hostility, hire managers who recognize the signs of hostility and train the employees and also helps to educate and remove any bias. Another barrier is bad talent, If someone is not performing well, let them go and replace with a highly skilled worker. It means never sacrifice the success due to bad talent.

In conclusion, diversity is growing all over the world, so it is very important to address the diversity issues in the work environment by which organizations produce better performance. It is very important for organizations to learn diversity and how to address the issues relating to it. Also there is a need of diverse workforce because diverse workforce can produce better results with having different types of people. There are number of reasons why diversity in workforce is important like it increases the revenue, grows the talent pool, it drives innovation moreover it promotes creativity. So for the sustainable organization success, diversity is very important and at same time, its important to overcome its challenges.

References

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• Keeton v. Anderson‐Wiley, 664 F.3d 865 (11th Cir. 2011).