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Gender Bias: Inequality of Women in the Workplace

Gender bias is a term that refers to the unfair treatment of women in the workplace. For women, these biases exist because of society’s definition of gender roles as it relates to both men and women. As a result, women experience all kinds of obstacles, barriers, and challenges in the public sector.

Taking in consideration the gender roles that are given to both women and men from the time of birth, we also see how that translates into the workplace where women are underrepresented in leadership roles and receiving unequal pay in comparison to men. Gender should not be a determining factor in a woman’s salary or her ability to take on any given role, that is the purpose of education and experience which should deem one qualified or not.

Gender Roles and Society

The model of male and female behavior, showing the relationship to each other, to society, the peculiarities of psychological and cultural behavior is usually called gender roles. Representatives of the stronger sex and the weak half can see the world around them in the opposite direction. Often, these differences are so significant that two loving people do not find mutual understanding. Often it is the social society that dictates to the man and the woman the right behavioral attitudes, forcing to make the necessary decision. Personal opinion of a person is pushed into the background. With this approach, people cannot become happy (Schilt& Connell, 2007).

Gender roles in society are usually interrelated with religious, cultural, economic views on life, which directly affect the stereotypes of the behavior of men and women. The functions of men and women in family life are distributed according to the gender type. Quite often for the boys to make a final decision, but the true leader of the situation is a girl. The inability to understand each other and to agree leads to ridiculous quarrels and scandals. If a wife or husband feels unwanted and unloved, this provokes disharmony in the relationship. Since ancient times, a biological algorithm of actions has been laid down, which represents the gender role of men as a hunter, a warrior. He has the qualities of a leader, strength, aggressiveness, the habit of taking risks, the speed of decision making. The evolutionary process divided the development of people into two periods. The first is natural selection, which has developed the function of adaptation to the joint existence and taught to accept the state of things. In the second period, the pace of social transformations has significantly accelerated, where the mechanisms of natural selection have become irrelevant. The biological development of Homo sapiens, which corresponded to the condition of primitive existence, was suspended at this stage (Karsten, 2016).

The gender role of a woman in an imperfect society consisted in preserving the focus, raising children, femininity, compassion, caring, and gentleness. With the development of society, the ladies no longer agree to put up with a limited range of duties and rights, so they are gradually fighting for gender equality, increasingly capturing the territory of the stronger sex. Thus, they force to reconsider the views of others around their female destiny radically. Slow biological evolution accelerated development and began to move forward swiftly, supporting first of all masculine qualities. Therefore, it should not be surprising that society still lives by male laws and rules that resemble competitions. In this game, there is a beginning, an end, rigid rules that cannot be changed, a winner and a loser (Schilt& Connell, 2007).

Modern relations in society are characterized by a shift in gender social roles due to a change in the social significance of boys and girls, although in the majority traditionalist remains. Women increase their participation in political activities, doing business, and serving in the armed forces. The number of socially significant roles in which it is involved has increased several times over the last century. Men tend to be more stable in their preferences, rarely going beyond the emotional and personal space, and therefore remain within their original gender role. It is still not possible to reach a consensus on the issue of fair distribution of duties and rights between the sexes. The arguments of feminists with adherents of patriarchy look like empty conversations, which cannot be substantiated in detail(Howard, 1978). The stereotype of a modern gender role presupposes the presence of such signs as stability, clear consciousness, the transfer of genetic inheritance to the next generation. Men find it difficult to change these concepts, long established and established in society. Focusing on the cause and effect relationships in the society, it is recommended to carry out educational work in collectives and married couples, as well as the introduction of a gender approach to all life spheres in the society (Karsten, 2016).

How are women viewed in these roles?

Traditional gender roles of women are the keeper of the home, mother, and wife. Society expects that the woman will be kind, patient, modest, soft, caring, understanding, home. However, how many women in our time is socially active, active, working on a par with men, often earning more men? The miner is not He, but She. In a woman is valued not only beauty, kindness, and economy but also the ability to earn, businesslike, purposeful, stress-resistant, courageous. The most common gender role of women in our society has no name (Heilman, 2012). This role, characteristic of women who are representatives of the working class, has appeared in our society and entrenched in it in the twentieth century. You can call this role Universal Soldier. From the woman, it is required to be the wife, mother, the mistress, the worker, the earner, and the defender – ideal always and in everything and thus everywhere succeeding.

The struggle of women for gender equality, which began at the end of the previous century, resulted in the fact that many women now work for themselves and men, and men take off part of the responsibility for raising funds for the maintenance of the family, while not considering themselves obliged to help women at home and in the upbringing of children. A modern woman takes on too much and, turning into a man, complains: There are no normal males anymore (Alkadry& Tower, 2014). The gender role of men also undergoes significant changes in our day. It becomes closer to the traditional gender role of women, just as the gender role of women to men. Gender roles merge (Karsten, 2016).

There is another trend. Men and women change roles! For example, today more and more popular (especially in Western Europe) is the withdrawal of maternity leave from males (and they do it voluntarily, at their own will). It was after women got equal rights with men that non-equality began to be observed, and roles changed. A man and a woman legally have equal rights, but in fact, they remain unequal. A modern woman more often is the Keeper of the hearth (the traditional role of women), and the Giver (the traditional role of men), and the man more often either the Giver or the Keeper of the home. This is what the movement and the struggle for equality of the sexes led to – a new inequality. But the fact is that man and woman cannot be equal because nature has made them different! No matter how strong a person’s mind is and how much his personality is developed, he is also a biological being; nature also determines the gender role (Heilman, 2012).

Even if a woman chooses a traditionally male gender role, and her man is feminine, there will come a time when their system collapses. This moment will be the appearance of the child. No matter how feminine a man may be, no matter how he manages to lead a household and take care of children, there is something that will never allow him to realize himself in the female role fully – he cannot become pregnant and give birth to a child (Karsten, 2016). If both spouses have the same rights and responsibilities, they will be completely equal; there will be no family! Who will take care of the children, if both work? Who will bring money to the house if both are unemployed? Women solve this problem by charging a double burden of responsibility on their shoulders, but by the number of unhappy women, unhappy families, divorces, and children growing up without a father; it is not difficult to guess that such an approach to solving the problem is ineffective.

How are women underrepresented on all levels in public service?

By 2015, the sector with the largest number of employees in the world economy has become the service sector, moving agriculture from the first place (Stamarski and Son, 2015). It employs slightly more than half of the world’s working population (50.1%). The share of women in this sphere has increased since 1995 to 61.5%. Regardless of the level of economic development of the region, women are practically not represented in the industry and skilled agricultural labor. At the same time, among the employees, service and trade workers and unskilled workers, that is, spheres with low wages, women are disproportionately large. Gender differences in the distribution of unpaid domestic work and work related to care

Care of the house and family is traditionally considered a woman’s business and is not considered to be a work activity (Karsten, 2016). Thus, women still spend fewer hours on paid work and 2.5 times more than men on unpaid work. In sum, the working day of women in developing countries lasts 1 hour 23 minutes more than men’s, in developed countries – for 33 minutes. The need to engage in unpaid domestic work leads to the fact that women are much more likely to fall into the category of part-time workers. The analysis of 100 countries shows that more than a third of all workers (34.2%) are employed less than 35 hours per week, compared to 23.4% of men. At the same time, 25.7% of women are employed more than 48 hours per week, which is especially true in Eastern, Western, and Central Asia, where excessive hours of work are common for both men and women (LeanIn, & McKinsey &Company 2015).

Unequal Pay Women vs. Men

In this section, the paper discusses inequality in the wages of men and women focusing on an approach to solving the problem in Europe and the United States. In the US, is the Day of Equal Salaries? Mojazarplata.com.ua has learned how in Europe and the United States draw attention to the problem of gender inequality in wages (LeanIn, & McKinsey &Company 2015). In the US is the Day of Equal Salaries. Mojazarplata.com.ua has learned how in Europe and the United States draw attention to the problem of gender inequality in wages. The Day of equal wages has been celebrated in the USA and Europe for several years already. In this case, the next date for the Day of equal salaries is not chosen by chance. In 2015 in the United States, the Day of Equal Salaries is on April 8. This means that a woman on average should work for 98 days more to earn the same amount for a year as a man. If the man completed his work on December 31, then the woman would have to work until April 8 for the same annual salary. Therefore, this day was the Day of equal wages in the US in 2015. The National Committee on Pay Equity calls on women to wear red clothes on the Day of Equal Salaries to show how great the wage gap between men and women is.

The day of equal salaries in the countries of Europe is held on different dates, depending on the number of free days: from February 21 to April 25, 2015. On average, European women are forced to work for 59 days a year more to get equal to men’s remuneration. These data are presented in the report of the European Commission Overcoming the wage gap in the EU.

According to Wage indicator in The USA, the average hourly earnings of men, calculated by the median method, are 18.73 $, women – 15.14 $. The nominal gender difference in total is 3.6 $ or 19%. Fill out the Jo Questionnaire and use the Salary Calculator to find out what salary the women and men of your profession receive. The difference in pay in% is determined as the ratio between the average hourly wages of men and women.

Hiring, Pay, and Promotion

The participation of women in the labor force, that is, the number of those who can and wants to find employment, declined from 52.4% to 49.6% between 1995 and 2015, and the woman’s chance of becoming a participant in the labor market is 27% then the chances of a man (Stamarski and Son, 2015). Traditionally, the lowest chances to enter the labor market, that is, to claim economic independence, among women in the Arab countries, and the highest – in Europe, North America, and East Asia. These insignificant improvements observed in Europe and North America is attributed by experts to economic problems and, as a result, to a decrease in the level of employment among men, rather than to an increase in employment among women.But even among women who became participants of the labor market, the unemployment rate in virtually all regions remains higher than that of men, reaching an average of 6.2% worldwide (compared to 5.5% among men). The narrowing of the gap in recent years is also associated with the economic decline in industries traditionally dominated by male labor, as well as the need for married women to enter the labor market to compensate for the decline in family income (LeanIn, & McKinsey & company 2015).

In most cases, work for women implies an informal nature of work – and therefore does not provide for social guarantees. This applies not only to female workers of family enterprises and self-employed but also to hired workers. Almost 40% of the world’s women, being hired workers; do not participate in social protection systems. Their share reaches 63.2% in sub-Saharan Africa and 74.2% in South Asia, where informal employment is the predominant form of employment (Center, P. R. 2017).

Lesser employment, shorter working hours, lower wages and informal employment doom women to low social guarantees, such as insurance payments and pensions. Globally, 65% of the numbers of persons of retirement age who do not receive a pension on a regular basis are women, which are 200 million people (against 115 million men). In some regions, such as the Arab countries, the countries of South Asia or North Africa, pensions receive less than 10% of women (Schilt & Connell, 2007).

The social payments for maternity protection are no less a problem. Although such payments exist in one form or another in almost all countries, almost 60% of working women (about 750 million people) cannot enjoy the right to maternity leave. And because of problems with the realization of this right, women’s lack of knowledge about their rights, insufficient amount of accumulated contributions, discriminatory practices, labor relations and social isolation, researchers estimate that only 330 million working women (28.2%) in the world receive conditional and non-contributory cash benefits for the birth of a child (Schilt & Connell, 2007).

Conclusion

The study showed that the global gender gap in wages is 23%. In other words, women earn 77% of what men earn. Even with consideration of hourly wage rates, given the shorter duration of the women’s working day, the wage gap will still be 10% or more, depending on the region (Center, P. R. 2017). This gap, the researchers believe, can only be explained by the systematic underestimation of work, in which women, their professional skills, discriminatory practices and the need to perform a large amount of unpaid work are predominantly involved.

According to the authors of the report, to overcome gender inequality in the world of work, it is necessary:

  • revision of existing perceptions of gender roles that limit women’s ability to participate in socio-economic processes and decision-making processes on an equal footing;
  • the anti-discrimination policy with the setting of targets, targets or quotas, implemented by governments, states, organizations, and companies;
  • the introduction of educational programs and training programs that help men and women develop non-stereotyped areas;
  • policies to promote a more even distribution of unpaid domestic work, its redistribution between a man and a woman, family and society;
  • The rejection of the principle of equality of opportunity and the transition to the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value.

Economic development alone does not guarantee gender equality and equitable distribution of material wealth between men and women. Discrimination can also flourish in advanced economies. But unemployment and the reduction of social guarantees only strengthen discrimination, so the fight against gender inequality cannot be separated from the struggle for social and economic equality of both men and women.

References

Alkadry, M. G., & Tower, L. E. (2014). Women and public service: barriers, challenges, and opportunities. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.

Center, P. R. (2017). In many countries, at least four-in-ten in the labor force are women. Retrieved from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/03/07/in-many-countries-at-least-four-in-ten-in-the-labor-force-are-women/

Falck, F. Y. (1980).Women in the workplace, the issues.American Industrial Hygiene Association Journal, 41(3), 157–160. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298668091424537

Heilman, M. E. (2012).Gender stereotypes and workplace bias.Research in Organizational Behavior, 32, 113–135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.riob.2012.11.003

Howard, L. (1978). Civil Service Reform: A Minority and Woman’s Perspective. Public Administration Review, 38(4), 305-309.doi:10.2307/975810

Karsten, M. F. (2016). Gender, race, and ethnicity in the workplace: emerging issues and enduring challenges. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, An imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC.

LeanIn & McKinsey & Company. (2015). Women in the workplace 2015. https://doi.org/10.1111/0045-3609.00002

Schilt, K., & Connell, C. (2007). Do workplace gender transitions make gender trouble? Gender, Work, and Organization, 14(6), 596–618. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0432.2007.00373.x

Stamarski CS and Son Hing LS (2015) Gender inequalities in the workplace: the effects of organizational structures, processes, practices, and decision makers’ sexism. Front. Psychol. 6:1400.doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01400

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