Gender Discrimination in the Workplace

 Gender discrimination and inequality in the workplace is an area that has raised alarming concerns over the years across the world. One of the significant causes of gender disparity is the absence of rules and regulations and profit-maximizing objectives of any given corporation. Employers and other stakeholders are highly affected negatively by this form of prejudice. In the 20^th century and below,  gender discrimination was mainly associated with corporations looking down upon women. However, in the 21^st century, prejudice affects anyone regardless of gender. The concentration of most agencies agitating for gender balance on women has, in turn, resulted in societies pushing men to a vulnerable hedge. This study investigates the personal experience of gender discrimination in the workplace, the possible causes of the occurrence, ways to manoeuvre over these gender prejudice and amicable solutions to bring an end to all sorts of gender discrimination practices.

 

 

 

 

                              

Introduction

Gender discrimination essentially in the workplace is an alarming challenge that cuts across all ages, with its roots striking all genders. In the current century, gender discrimination manifests itself in all human aspects, but its roots are majorly felt within workplaces. Although the prejudice may affect anyone within the workplace, it is noted that employees at lower ranks stand vulnerable. Despite scholars like Heilman and Caleo (2018) finding that women face the highest gender discrimination in the workplace, the rising index of male discrimination in the workplace stands to be the highest. According to Keplinger et al. (2019), the rate of women's discrimination in the workplace has been going down by multiple indexes since 2016, while the rate of men getting discriminated against based on their gender is increasing with an alarming index. The issue of getting discriminated under the basis of my gender has forever been a minor concern I ever expected until I landed in my first workplace.

                                    Personal experience with discrimination

Until one experiences discrimination, one might keep assuming gender discrimination is a theoretical framework that some people use to justify their incompetence. Over the years, this stereotyping controlled my cognitive reasoning until I faced reality in my first workplace as an intern. As Heilman and Caleo (2018) argue, you can merely understand what employees are facing until you come face to face with reality. Despite my overwhelming qualifications, the interview panel dismissed my application as the company’s manager and ended up giving me the task of the cleaner to me. This, by all means, did not sound hilarious to me since every task is imperative for the company's best interest. However, their consideration of a female applicant who seemed friendly to the interview panel caught me unaware.

Promotion in the workplace is an area that raises alarming concerns regarding gender discrimination. As minute as the issue may seem, most seniors in any corporation tend to favour and promote people who got something to offer in return. According to Verniers and Vala (2018), men at a higher rank tend to favour women for promotion because they are mothers who need to cater for several bills. Additionally, Rosette et al. (2018) indicate that some men promote females in the workplace to expect sexual favours. While at a Mobile Marketing Company, the issue of women working mates getting promoted despite their poor performance was rampant. This highly crippled the motivation among male employees.

Ways to manoeuvre Gender discrimination in the workplace

Determination knows no barriers and is always the basis for outshining any challenge. Although someone may get favours in recruitment to any workplace, maintaining good performance depends on how skilled someone is and how well equipped they are for the prevailing challenges. According to Mara et al. (2021), any challenge in the workplace, especially those involving gender discrimination, can be solved only if someone is knowledgeable enough to understand the importance of humility and persistence. Despite getting deployed as a lower-ranking employee by the interview panel, I admitted the task and began it willingly and with good motives. I kept working for the company while facing discrimination and performing the task to my full potential. This, in turn, placed the company at a hedge in that its workability highly depended on my decisions and my hard work despite being a junior employee. Although my seniors felt threatened with an urge to get me fired, they were still left helpless, with their favourable counterparts bringing nothing but losses to the company. Therefore, this indicates that gender discrimination can easily be countered by one's willingness to stand against all odds.

   Creating rules and regulations to prevent gender discrimination in the workplace and ensuring no biasness in enforcing them is an excellent way to do away with this issue. This must be done by the corporation and state agencies to ensure everyone abides by them regardless of their rank. Referring to the study by Heilman and Caleo (2018), rules and regulations are the best means to curb workplace discrimination. In addition, these scholars point out that workers should be deployed under the company's guidelines, and their promotion should be based on their merits, not their gender. In my experience, immediately I got promoted, ensuring everyone abides by the stipulated company's rules, and regulations stood as the best means to curb the issue of gender discrimination.

                           Conclusion

 In summary, personal attributes are the key factor to coping, withstanding and successfully manoeuvre any challenging situation amicably. Despite the emphasis by most scholars and researchers that gender discrimination mainly affects women, multiple alarming indexes of men getting discriminated goes unnoticed. It is, therefore, vital for corporations and agencies concerned with the well-being of workers to look into this matter from an open-minded perspective.

 

 

 

References

Heilman, M. E., & Caleo, S. (2018). Combatting gender discrimination: A lack of fit framework. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 21(5), 725-744.

Heilman, M. E., & Caleo, S. (2018). Gender discrimination in the workplace.

Keplinger, K., Johnson, S. K., Kirk, J. F., & Barnes, L. Y. (2019). Women at work: Changes in sexual harassment between September 2016 and September 2018. PloS one, 14(7), e0218313.

Mara, L. C., Ginieis, M., & Brunet-Icart, I. (2021). Strategies for coping with LGBT discrimination at work: A systematic literature review. Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 18(2), 339-354.

Rosette, A. S., Akinola, M., & Ma, A. (2018). Subtle discrimination in the workplace: Individual-level factors and processes.

Verniers, C., & Vala, J. (2018). Justifying gender discrimination in the workplace: The mediating role of motherhood myths. PloS one, 13(1), e0190657.