“Doing gender means creating differences between women and men or girls and boys, differences that are not natural, essential, or biological” (West & Zimmerman, 1987).
Women’s labor has been growing due to improved access to education and equity legislation for women in the world. Despite the fight for gender equity and transformation in many nations in the world, workplaces are still unsatisfactory for women. There is encouragement for females (supporting women financially in education) to reduce the historical domination of male occupations (England 2010). The issue women face in the attempt to persevere and penetrate a workplace that is historically dominated by males comes from traditional gender norms and hierarchies that prevail in society and family rather than the “essential sexual natures” of the human being (Goffman, 1976). Thus, this can depict the concept of doing gender, which means “creating differences between women and men or girls and boys, differences that are not natural, essential, or biological” (West & Zimmerman, 1987). Despite gender empowerment and equity, the household units have the structure and still make male dominant. Traditional opinion role that organizations should develop practices and policies that will maintain females’ marginalized roles, and this has become entrenched in the gender-biased culture of the organization. The organization should develop policies that would encourage working conditions for women to motivate female employees.
Initially, males were dominating policy development in institutions and organizations. They are still structured and functioning in a way that does not support the career of the women patterns, and there is a need to integrate those jobs with family responsibility. There are changes in the institutional culture to empowerment strategies for women, but still, women are marginalized. Therefore, according to (Cunningham and Fennimore 2005), males have predominantly documented the history of women, and they work through their eyes.
There is a need for governments to think of different means about the impact of gender on career aspirations and trajectories in male-dominated environments by males. The focus on women in male-dominated occupations will remain in concern in light of the studies that point out the negative social consequences women face at the hands of men. There is a need to be aware of the effect of work-family conflicts and also women’s responsibilities at home and at work on how they affect their health; this gives caution against the consequences of the problem in the family relationship.
Women in the world experience differently on how men take their responsibility in the workplace. Normally desire for power, status, and social comparisons always drive men to do their work. However, women are motivated by the good working environment and performance of the organization she is working in. Women have unique working experiences, which are coupled with the archaic role structure of working life based on gender. In this case, career-driven women are generally more focused on their jobs, but sometimes they are harassed by men.
When women and men are working side by side, they are tackling the same problems of business, walking similar hallways and sitting in the same meeting, both can perform relatively the same if they are given equal opportunity. New research on working women shows that the common ground ends there. Men normally win promotions, access to the top leadership roles and challenging assignments than women do. It is this way because men are more likely to feel more confident in their role assigned, and they are strong to undertake their responsibilities than women. The researchers suggest that many men can work in any environment despite weather conditions or situations, and they are easy in any environment than women. This is why many men dominate working in many organizational structures. Women’s responsibilities at home and workplace need consideration; some factors may affect their performance and health condition. The research illustrates that 30 percent more men are likely to be promoted than women in management roles. The continuation of this in the career leads to a large number of men moving up the ladder. However, women hold fewer leadership positions and management roles.
Women working in men dominated the environment, they are subjected to many challenges that are developed by men. Some of the issues they face are sexual harassment, performance pressure, coworker doubting their competence and low support from coworkers and management. As the issues persist, research shows that women will experience dysregulation in their stress responses, which leads to the creation of vulnerability for future illness and also raises the risk of mortality. Therefore, it’s important that this condition of the environment should change, which encourages women to work in this organization. To prevent this in the institution, the organization should reevaluate its structure and develop a smooth communication strategy that will enable easy reports of complaints from the employee and quickly respond to the complaint. This will help to reduce harassment of the women in their working environment. Women will continue exploring the fields that are mostly occupied by men, such as engineering positions, scientific fields, and tech industries if the environment is suitable for them. Therefore, everyone should change the way to respond to those women undertaking men’s dominant careers.
For the organization to encourage gender equity in their working environment, there should exist a strategy that assists the performance of the women. This may be possible if the women are included in the top management of the organization. Many women are good leaders, but the problem is that they don’t get the opportunity to practice it. Therefore it’s important for the management of the organization to encourage women leadership so that they can handle their issues in the organization. Women who are in executive roles should find ways to mentor other junior women to leadership roles by developing unions that will handle their issues. Women should be encouraged to take further education to have the required skills and knowledge like their male counterparts. This will give them a chance to compete equally with men in the top management position. Women can take same responsibilities as men if they are educated and encouraged. However, the main issue to the success of women is the traditional culture that hinders the progress of women.
References
Candace West, D. H. Z., 1987. Doing Gender. California: Sage Publications.
England, P., 2010. The gender revolution. Gender & Society. Career Development International.
Finnemore, M. &. C., 1995. Women and the workplace. Industrial Sociology.
Manago B, T. C., 2015. Occupational Sex Segregation and Physiological Stress Exposure. American Sociological Association Meetings.
Schein, V. E., 2006. Women in management: reflections and projections. Pennsylvania, USA.
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