Gender Discrimination: Personal and Organizational Ethics Essay Example
Gender discrimination refers to unfair or unjust norms as regards to treatment of human roles in life. In recent years, discussions on gender discrimination have grown to create significant social changes. Despite the many discussions, the problem of gender discrimination is still persistent today, as it was in yesteryears. Some of the discrepancies in the workplace that amount to gender discrimination include a lower salary and fewer promotions for women in the business world. The previous paper analyzed gender discrimination and its effects.
The paper argues that gender discrimination is not only found in business but also in the other circles of everyday life. Starting from schools, the opportunities for ladies to go to school are less (World Bank, 2001). From the discussion, it can also be seen that discrimination based on gender mainly stems from con
...ventions carried forward from earlier generations, such as the progression of lineages through males (Cleveland et al, 2005).
Different genders have different capabilities, especially physical ones. Thus, they cannot carry out tasks in exactly the same way, but both should be given an equal opportunity to try. It is also important to note that men and women are often brought up differently, thus are not tailored for the same tasks later in life. It is not appropriate to blanket a gender group as being better than another in an area than the other due to this difference in upbringing. Gender discrimination should also be curtailed by providing social amenities that are appropriate for each gender working in the organization. companies should, for instance, have a policy that young mothers are provided with space and time to breastfeed their young ones. Suc
a policy will also make sure that everyone is comfortable in the organization and increase output.
The paper concludes that providing equal opportunity to both genders is the fairest way of ending the vice. The provision of equal opportunity should start from hiring, recruitment, and promotions (Kuhn et al., 2013). In continuation, both genders should be treated fairly while working so as to provide a comfortable environment. Through this, each worker will be able to realize their maximum potential.
The current paper postulates that the existing approach to gender discrimination is not appropriate since it does not consider the changing nature of bias based on gender in the workplace. With time, gender discrimination has slowly shifted from women being the target group to include even men. Thus, the tactics used to combat gender discrimination in the workplace also need to be updated so as to ensure all the workers have an equal opportunity.
The case of affirmative action is also fallacious, since it assigns automatic positions to women without taking into consideration that not all men have an advantage over their female counterparts. Instead, affirmative action should consider a more extensive level of almost individual cases instead of the generalization that women are at a greater disadvantage than men when it comes to employability. The current affirmative action if continued with, will just lead to a reversal of the current picture; women will be at an advantage in comparison to men. Thus, gender equality should consider cases whereby men are at a disadvantage due to their backgrounds. Gender equality should strive to give an equal employment opportunity to both men and women, regardless of their gender. Furthermore, affirmative
action has led to most women victimizing themselves in order to take advantage of the rise of feminism and gain positions over men.
The best way to end gender discrimination in the workplace is by first dealing with it in the society where it stems from, especially in the religious, cultural and educational institutions. If not dealt with at this stage, gender discrimination flows into the workplace. The family is the basic unit, and even though the man should remain the head, it does not mean that he is more important than the woman. The roles played by a man in building a family should not be seen to be more important than those of the female or vice versa. A child growing up in such a family, whether a boy or girl, will grow up feeling important and learning to respect the roles of the opposite sex.
Gender discrimination hurts the productivity and progress of an organization. Tension often arises between workers in cases where the male employees are paid more than the female ones, yet the work done by both is the same. Such unequal treatment makes the women resentful and men uncomfortable, creating discord and lowering the productivity levels due to lack of unity and teamwork. A company that uses gender to discriminate on salaries risks being sued as is seen in the case of Ledbetter versus Goodyear. For the time Ledbetter had been employed by Goodyear, she had been evaluated poorly and given a lower salary due to her gender. The plaintiff successfully sued for accrued payroll (Cornell University Law School). To avoid such cases, a company should have a clear remuneration policy
that is based on educational qualifications, experience and work mandate, not gender (Fieser, 2015).
In leveling out gender discrimination, it is also good to consider the advantages young women have over men due to their sexuality and looks. Often, men in the lower ranks find themselves overlooked for their more beautiful feminine counterparts yet their qualifications and experience might be the same. A level playground can be created by ensuring that the recruitment and promotion policies are clearly laid out. The decision to recruit or promote should also be carried out by a committee that is made up of both genders.
Gender discrimination also leads to lack of job satisfaction. The workers lose interest in their jobs and may end up looking for better ones. Despite the salaries being high and other variables being satisfactory, the employee wants to feel fairly treated and valued in an organization. Gender bias demoralizes workers and also tarnishes the name of the firm.
The curve of gender discrimination is slowly reshaping and it is no longer the women who are at a major disadvantage. In today’s society, it can be either the man or woman who is faced by gender bias, which should be a big consideration to look into, for anyone wanting to deal with the vice. Applying the old rule of the woman always being the victim and the man the victor only leads to more gender bias. In this light, the techniques used in approach to gender discrimination need to evolve to make them more effective and avoid recycling injustice or unnecessary side effects.
However, the thesis can be rebutted on the basis of existing societal structures that have given
men power over women. Since time immemorial genders have been discriminated against on the basis of their strength, capability and capacity to undertake various tasks. The inequalities in gender can be felt in both the workplaces and at home. At home, and in most patriarchal societies, the parents have played the role of gender discrimination by treating the boys as being more important than the girls. The bias is carried from home and into the workplaces. Gender discrimination causes a society to remain backward because jobs are not given according to merit or qualification (World Economic Forum, 2015). It also discourages the gender discriminated against from working hard. If women feel discriminated against in the workplace, they are less likely to work hard in order to get that promotion in the workplace. Similarly, girls in schools are also likely to work hard to compete with boys since they feel they will be defeated anyway.
Gender discrimination is inherently found in traditional societies, making it hard to stamp it out. It exists in the structuring of families, mode of dressing and cultural practices. In most societies, women are given domestic and aesthetic roles, rarely leadership roles. However, this discrimination drags society behind since women have certain qualities such as understanding and creativity that lacks in males. Thus, they should be given an equal opportunity to use their abilities for the benefit of the society. Gender equality prescribes that even though men and women have different abilities according to their physical capacities, they should be given equal opportunities to serve and grow. Failure to which, the abilities of the group that has been discriminated against are used in
negative ways.
The strategies used to combat gender discrimination need to be updated so as to stay abreast of current issues. Most importantly, the traditional man versus woman and girl child empowerment approach needs to be dropped so as to have a more level playing field for both genders. If the current trend is not reversed, it is likely to lead to a reversal of the current gender discrimination whereby women will be favored over men (Clarfelt, 2015). Over the years, men have been cultured not to speak out about their issues and thus are more likely to be oppressed in silence, unlike women. However, the dominance of women is still far from sight as the system is still largely against them. Marriage and motherhood tend to tie down a woman as she attempts to advance in her career. A large debate still exists on whether women should be given based on their family roles. But this should also mean that men should be given since they also have family roles that into their careers.
In conclusion, it is hard to determine what exactly constitutes gender equality since both men and women are wired to carry out duties differently according to how they are educated and their biological traits. Despite this difficulty, measures should be put in place to bring gender discrimination to its minimum. As has been elaborated in the above discussion, the strategies used need to be updated in order to embrace the emerging issues in gender discrimination. The management also needs to be updated on new techniques. But this would amount to nothing without first changing the education institutions that provide the workforce, including
schools and families. The government also should step in and provide guideline policies that can be referred to in case of any disagreements on how to tackle gender discrimination. These policies should be provided to all organizations. In addition, laws should also be provided for extreme cases of gender discrimination. The laws should be accompanied with avenues of reporting so as to rogue managers, who tend to misuse their power, accountable for their actions.
References
- “World Bank. 2001. World Development Report 2000/2001 : Attacking Poverty. World Development Report;. New York: Oxford University Press. © World Bank. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/11856 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
- Clarfelt, A. Struggling to be a Real Man: Young People’s Perspectives of Gender Inequality and Gender Based Violence. Retrieved from: http://restlessdevelopment.org/news/2015/01/02/boys-don-t-cry-how-sexual-based-violence-affects-young-men-in-south-africa
- Cleveland, J. N., Vescio, T. K., & Barnes-Farrell, J. L. (2005). Gender discrimination in organizations. Discrimination at work: The psychological and organizational bases, 149-176
Cornell University Law School. Ledbetter versus Goodyear. Retrieved from: https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/05-1074.ZS.html - Fieser, J. (2015). Introduction to business ethics Electronic version. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu
- Kuhn, P., & Shen, K. (2013). Gender discrimination in job ads: Evidence from china. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 128(1), 287-336.
- World Economic Forum, 2015. How Men and Women See Gender Equality Differently. Retrieved from:https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/02/how-men-and-women-see-gender-equality-differently/
