Essay Example on Gender Inequality in the Workplace: The Unfortunate Reality

Introduction

Throughout history, the most prevalent issue facing workplace settings have always been gender inequality. Much more often, men have been given more power, resources, as well as the status and other privileges than women (Hideg & Wilson, 2019). Palpably, women have been greatly disadvantaged since they have bee underrepresented in the labor force, apart from being the prime victims of domestic abuse as well as sexual harassment. In most cases, job discrimination based on marital status has forced women to be financially reliant on their husbands because they are discouraged from working after they get married (Hideg & Wilson, 2019). Women face a discrete disadvantage when being considered for male-typed jobs, which makes the workplace to be an inhospitable place for women due to multiple forms of gender inequalities as delineated in this paper.

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Managerial Influence on Gender Inequality

The beliefs and attitudes of managers in organizations greatly influence the gender inequality issue in the workplace (Carnahan & Greenwood, 2018). A primary source for these beliefs and attitudes of the managers is the political ideology they have. Political ideology is defined as the set of beliefs regarding a suitable order of the society, together on the ways of achieving it. Studies about political psychology associate political ideology to the beliefs as well as attitudes on gender roles, stereotypes, and inequality (Carnahan & Greenwood, 2018). The political ideology of the managers in organizations is categorized into the liberal-conservative continuum, which makes the managers have the power of influencing gender inequality when it comes to hiring, promotion, together with the selection processes. All these roles are crucial in deciding who will enter an organization, get opportunities, and who eventually gets the status, recompence, or authority of managerial ranks.

Since conservative managers differ from more liberal ones, they exhibit more gender inequality in the workplace due to their traditional beliefs regarding the women's roles and their selection in work teams (Carnahan & Greenwood, 2018). The main reason for this is the believes they have that women do not have the right temperament for succeeding succeed in leadership roles and think that women will ultimately detract from the firm roles to undertake family responsibilities. Also, conservative managers are less likely to accept that amelioration of gender inequality is an organizational imperative (Carnahan & Greenwood, 2018). As a result, they are likely to evaluate female job contenders together with the subordinates more negatively than liberal managers. They are also more likely to implement policies more discriminating towards female subordinates but conducive to the candidates.

While referring to gender roles in the family and how they bring about gender inequality, the conservative managers mostly put more emphasis on the discriminating traditional division of household labor. In this setup, men are supposed to work in jobs that are outside their homes, while women are left home to raise children. Sometimes, managers think and feel that children might undergo suffering, which is an unanticipated negative outcome when mothers work outside the home. When personality traits are considered, the gender stereotypes in the traditional beliefs describe men as decisive, firm, and impulsive, while women are depicted friendly, cooperative, and weak. Managers who have conservative political ideology mostly adhere to these traditional stereotypes. When suitability for leadership is considered, conservative managers select leaders who have an agentic leadership panache. Since agentic qualities are mostly seen in men than women who are regarded as having communal qualities, men are thus at a greater advantage in the workplace than women.

Organizations that have conservative managers will thus have a low percentage of women among the hired subordinates since gender inequality is rampant, and women are less advantaged. The reasons for the inequality are based on the fact that managers hire based on the future behavior of where the candidate's gender becomes a thing to consider (Carnahan & Greenwood, 2018). The meaning of this projection is that the expectations of the manager regarding the male and female future behaviors frequently replicate the manager's preferences on how they will behave. Although studies by Lean in and McKinsey show that women and men are hired to the workforce in considerably high numbers, gender inequality results in women being given fewer promotions from the first step in the management ladder (Fuhrmans, 2018). For instance, in the senior-manager level, the same study revealed that men are twice women, wherein C-suite, there are only 22% women (Fuhrmans, 2018).

Workplace Gender Inequality in Top Leadership Position

There is always a heterogeneous nature of progress when it comes to gender equality in top positions in organizations. Developments in the realm of female underrepresentation in top leadership exist together with continuing gender inequalities, like the gender pay gap, which is very rampant even in advanced economies (Georgeac & Rattan, 2019). For example, on October 24, 2016, a huge number of women employees in the entire workplaces of Iceland stopped working and protested against the existing 14% wage gap they had in comparison to their male counterparts (Georgeac & Rattan, 2019). The subject of the protest, the enduring gender pay gap, got wider media coverage internationally, which it strappingly concurred with Iceland's reputation in terms of gender inequality. The gender pay gap issue in Iceland undeniably was equivalent to the majority of other Western countries.

In modern society, gender inequality in the workplace is very apparent where women are taken as inferior to men. Women receive less payment than men, and there is an increase in male dominance in the top positions in the workplace. An example is in the US, wherein 2015, women had a pay of 79.6 cents on each dollar a man got, which matches to only 0.4 cents annual average improvement since 1995 (Georgeac & Rattan, 2019). Women are greatly segregated despite being intelligent as men. There are gender prejudices that are wrong assumptions, and they should be withdrawn since women are efficient and capable in all tasks, including top managerial positions. Women should, therefore, work hard without giving up on equality. Some stereotypes indicate that women are not strong and that they are very emotional in being able to reach the point of making the same amount of money as men, enjoyed by individuals in top leadership positions. They are seen as week creatures in handling stress in a stressful environment as men. They are also taken to bring less money than men and hence less retirement money. The tenacity of gender-based wage inequality is challenging since it is detrimental to women's distinct economic results.

Despite the truth that there are many forms of gender inequality persisting in the workplace, only several areas discernable as the underrepresentation of women witnessed in the top corporate levels. It has persisted prodigiously as male dominates even in establishments and organizations where there is a notable gender balance in entry levels. Many studies attempt to echo this issue in various perspectives. Some studies state that circumstances for all women can be better only when more women are positioned in leadership roles, which will give them stout and influential voices regarding their needs and concerns. Likewise, universal bodies like U.N. have anticipated that empowering women to the top of the occupational ladder is a primary step that is essential for achieving utilitarian gender equality within the dimensions of the broader society (Georgeac & Rattan, 2019).

Another issue as a result of gender inequality in the workplace is that women are denied the chance to hold executive positions. Women fail to speak for themselves concerning this equality despite knowing it is illegal (Scarborough et al., 2019). Even though they are educated and qualified, they do not access high positions because of being female. For example, many women do not vie for the presidency, and when they do so, they fail due to a lack of enough support with the claim of not able to handle such critical responsibility. Though women possess advanced degrees and statistics show how they do better in their work, they still not offered those executive positions (Scarborough et al., 2019). They are believed as not smart and strong enough to tackle the required duties effectively. The less representation of women in top leadership is now a central indicator of gender inequality in the workplace, as well as a vital policy objective.

Gender inequality in workplace top leadership drop-off is even more impulsive for women of color, whom the studies show that they are only four percent of the top-level jobs. Interestingly, even in organizations where women expressively are more than men, like in health care as well as retail, men are still prevailing at the topmost leadership positions. Many women reveal that they are the only women in the room or a meeting. They also reveal that women in those conditions suffer a bigger risk of harassment and are highly susceptible to other forms of discrimination. The discriminatory experience is the most prevalent for the few women who are in top positions since there is more than 40% who testify that they were the only women in the meeting.

Also, in political offices, there are forms of gender inequality since women are seen as being too emotional to be effectively in-charge of those political offices where men mostly dominate them. They lack a suitable opportunity to prove themselves that they are capable of doing those things and possibly better than men. If they were given a chance to show their capability, gender inequality would be abolished, and advocation for equal treatment would be enhanced. Many women are talented in the whole world, and they can do better than men but still lack the opportunity to express their strength.

Again, gender inequality in workplaces has made some companies fail to hire the right people in the executive positions since they put unqualified men leaving strong women due to the stereotypes affecting the success of the company. The society tends to strongly believe that men are the ones supposed to hold those top positions making women work harder so that they may be recognized. Myths are suggesting that women cannot handle executive jobs leading women to have difficult times in attaining prestigious jobs in the market. These myths also suggest that when women are given those executive positions cost the company a lot since women separate their career and family's attention. A good example is that of pregnant women who are mostly not treated fairly in the workplace since the employers think that they are too emotional in handling some pressures. They are also seen as having many priorities resulting in them denied promotions where they are offered fewer desirable works due to their state. Pregnancy is viewed as a big hindrance in offering quality services in the company.

Women Sexual Harassment in the Context of Workplace Gender Inequality

Sexual harassment for women has always been associated with workplace gender inequality in organizations. The extent of the issue has resulted in the "MeToo" movement that has sent a conspicuous spotlight on the gender gap inequality in the workplace (Ansley, 2018). In recent years, there has been a cooperative nationwide reckoning regarding the sexual pressure which many women have been encountering in workplace perv...