Gender Discrimination in Workplace
The workplace has sometimes been referred to as an inhospitable place for women due to the multiple forms of gender inequalities present (e.g., Abrams, 1991). The discrimination of gender arouses through and at several HR (human resource) policies, where women doesn’t obtain the same resources as men get. Most of the HR follows has refused to provide women training, hiring, paying, promotion, etc with the thought of dropping them out of the organization. The gender discrimination comes to play vitally when the marital status of a women changes from single to married as most of the people are having rumored that married women have to make commitments to family and not work around for organization which creates the gender inequality vibrant.
Female business graduates also earned 19% less than their former male classmates (£6,500 pounds annually). Similarly, 8 years after graduation, the income of U.S. male MBA graduates had increased faster than female MBA’s (O’Neill & O’Reilly, 2010). Women gets educated as similar as men to receive equal professional opportunities in the industry, but then gender which has taken the dominion in some HR policies are not willing to provide the match, not even the position of work but also the wage paid is dissimilar from men. All the facts that an organization are not dependent on the level of education, ethnicity or any other sometimes it’s the gender that had matter. This so-called gender discrimination is referred to as “Paradox of equality” which is a principle of justice, and it recognizes that equality is not merely about being treated the same. Rather, the paradox reveals that equality as a matter of law is not only about treating two things equally because they are the same or share a quality of sameness (Emon, 2011).
On discussion of the gender discrimination an evident illustration is how people are reluctant of get their country rule by a female President or a queen than a male president or a king. The conviction of male dominant world has been co created by the people itself with the past and present action of the society. This diverse inequality of gender has created many breaches in recruitment processes that is handled by organizations.
The workplace inequality massively contributes on women’s lower socio-economic status. This discrimination at workplace will step down women from making decisions in HR process and other HR related decision makings. Both the objective disadvantages of lower pay, status, and opportunities at work, and the subjective experiences of being stigmatized, affect women’s psychological and physical stress, mental and physical health (Goldenhar et al., 1998; Adler et al., 2000; Schmader et al., 2008; Borrel et al., 2010),job satisfaction and organizational commitment (Hicks-Clarke and Iles, 2000), and ultimately, their performance (Cohen-Charash and Spector, 2001).
References
Abrams, K. (1991). Social construction, roving biologism, and reasonable women: a response to Professor Epstein. DePaul Law Rev. 41, 1021–1040.
Adler, N.E., Epel, E.S., Castellazzo, G. and Ickovics, J.R., 2000. Relationship of subjective and objective social status with psychological and physiological functioning: Preliminary data in healthy, White women. Health psychology, 19(6), p.586.
Borrell, C., Artazcoz, L., Gil-González, D., Pérez, G., Rohlfs, I. and Pérez, K., 2010. Perceived sexism as a health determinant in Spain. Journal of Women's Health, 19(4), pp.741-750.
Catalyst. 2022. Women CEOs of the S&P 500 (List). [online] Available at: [Accessed 28 March 2022].
Emon, A., 2011. The Paradox of Equality and the Politics of Difference: Gender Equality, Islamic Law, and the Modern Muslim State. SSRN Electronic Journal,
Gelfand, M.J., Nishii, L.H., Raver, J.L. and Schneider, B., 2005. Discrimination in organizations: An organizational-level systems perspective. Discrimination at work: The psychological and organizational bases, 104.
Goldenhar, L.M., Swanson, N.G., Hurrell Jr, J.J., Ruder, A. and Deddens, J., 1998. Stressors and adverse outcomes for female construction workers. Journal of occupational health psychology, 3(1), p.19.
Haile, G., 2012. Unhappy working with men? Workplace gender diversity and job-related well-being in Britain. [ebook] Bonn: Elsevier B.V. Available at: [Accessed 28 March 2022].
Hicks‐Clarke, D. and Iles, P., 2000. Climate for diversity and its effects on career and organisational attitudes and perceptions. Personnel review.
Powell, G.N., 2018. Women and men in management. Sage Publications. Schmader, T., Johns, M. and Forbes, C., 2008. An integrated process model of stereotype threat effects on performance. Psychological review, 115(2), p.336.
Stamarski, C. and Son Hing, L., 2022. Gender inequalities in the workplace: the effects of organizational structures, processes, practices, and decision makers’ sexism.
Figure 1 (8 charts that show the impact of race and gender on technology careers, 2022)
A study conducted by the World economic forum has concluded the results shown in Figure 1 where both men and women are inquired about the gender discrimination. The graph depicts the responses which is noticeably proven with 57% of women has agreed in the fact that they are facing workplace gender discrimination while 73% of men has answered “No”.Female business graduates also earned 19% less than their former male classmates (£6,500 pounds annually). Similarly, 8 years after graduation, the income of U.S. male MBA graduates had increased faster than female MBA’s (O’Neill & O’Reilly, 2010). Women gets educated as similar as men to receive equal professional opportunities in the industry, but then gender which has taken the dominion in some HR policies are not willing to provide the match, not even the position of work but also the wage paid is dissimilar from men. All the facts that an organization are not dependent on the level of education, ethnicity or any other sometimes it’s the gender that had matter. This so-called gender discrimination is referred to as “Paradox of equality” which is a principle of justice, and it recognizes that equality is not merely about being treated the same. Rather, the paradox reveals that equality as a matter of law is not only about treating two things equally because they are the same or share a quality of sameness (Emon, 2011).
On discussion of the gender discrimination an evident illustration is how people are reluctant of get their country rule by a female President or a queen than a male president or a king. The conviction of male dominant world has been co created by the people itself with the past and present action of the society. This diverse inequality of gender has created many breaches in recruitment processes that is handled by organizations.
Figure 2 Gelfand et al. (2007)
The Effect of Organizational structures, processes and practices on HR that will lead personal discrimination is depicted in the Figure 2. Inspired by the work of Gelfand et al. (2007) that demonstrates Leadership, Climate, Culture, HR Policy, Strategy and structure are inter related and play a major role in gender discrimination.The workplace inequality massively contributes on women’s lower socio-economic status. This discrimination at workplace will step down women from making decisions in HR process and other HR related decision makings. Both the objective disadvantages of lower pay, status, and opportunities at work, and the subjective experiences of being stigmatized, affect women’s psychological and physical stress, mental and physical health (Goldenhar et al., 1998; Adler et al., 2000; Schmader et al., 2008; Borrel et al., 2010),job satisfaction and organizational commitment (Hicks-Clarke and Iles, 2000), and ultimately, their performance (Cohen-Charash and Spector, 2001).
References
Abrams, K. (1991). Social construction, roving biologism, and reasonable women: a response to Professor Epstein. DePaul Law Rev. 41, 1021–1040.
Adler, N.E., Epel, E.S., Castellazzo, G. and Ickovics, J.R., 2000. Relationship of subjective and objective social status with psychological and physiological functioning: Preliminary data in healthy, White women. Health psychology, 19(6), p.586.
Borrell, C., Artazcoz, L., Gil-González, D., Pérez, G., Rohlfs, I. and Pérez, K., 2010. Perceived sexism as a health determinant in Spain. Journal of Women's Health, 19(4), pp.741-750.
Catalyst. 2022. Women CEOs of the S&P 500 (List). [online] Available at:
Emon, A., 2011. The Paradox of Equality and the Politics of Difference: Gender Equality, Islamic Law, and the Modern Muslim State. SSRN Electronic Journal,
Gelfand, M.J., Nishii, L.H., Raver, J.L. and Schneider, B., 2005. Discrimination in organizations: An organizational-level systems perspective. Discrimination at work: The psychological and organizational bases, 104.
Goldenhar, L.M., Swanson, N.G., Hurrell Jr, J.J., Ruder, A. and Deddens, J., 1998. Stressors and adverse outcomes for female construction workers. Journal of occupational health psychology, 3(1), p.19.
Haile, G., 2012. Unhappy working with men? Workplace gender diversity and job-related well-being in Britain. [ebook] Bonn: Elsevier B.V. Available at:
Hicks‐Clarke, D. and Iles, P., 2000. Climate for diversity and its effects on career and organisational attitudes and perceptions. Personnel review.
Powell, G.N., 2018. Women and men in management. Sage Publications. Schmader, T., Johns, M. and Forbes, C., 2008. An integrated process model of stereotype threat effects on performance. Psychological review, 115(2), p.336.
Stamarski, C. and Son Hing, L., 2022. Gender inequalities in the workplace: the effects of organizational structures, processes, practices, and decision makers’ sexism.
It is obvious fact that globalization has created environment empowering women but yet women represent about 19 per cent of the international assignee community (De Cieri, 2009) and also researches suggest that women are highly represented among self-initiated expatriates than in the corporate expatriate sector. However it seems grooving awareness of problem associated with under utilization of this valuable human capital pool.
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ReplyDeleteYes, It is a timely topic to discuss. Specially when women apply for the jobs typically held by men they have faced discrimination mostly.(Davison and Burke, 2000).Researchers have found that construction field is one of the working field that women had to face injustice mostly.(Zaidi, 2018).Since the moment women step in to the business world they are undervalue compare to the men with same qualifications. Usually Interview process and outcomes both are biased against women(Sylvester, 2000) Researchers have found that although most of men refused the factor women agreed that they had to face unfairness at work places.
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ReplyDeleteWomen experiencing gender reassignment in the workplace were more likely to experience depressive symptoms, regardless of the type of discrimination, including hiring, promotions, assignments, pay, and dismissal. These associations were consistent with the recruitment, promotion, pay and dismissal of young women under the age of 40, and did not apply to older women over the age of 40 Kim.et al. (2020).
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Kim, G., Kim, J., Lee, S.K., Sim, J., Kim, Y., Yun, B.Y. and Yoon, J.H., 2020. Multidimensional gender discrimination in workplace and depressive symptoms. PloS one, 15(7), p.e0234415
Gender discrimination in the workplace is a timely and valid topic to be discussed because as clearly mentioned in this article, women throughout the world experience discrimination every day at different levels. According to Kim. et al. (2020), this has a huge impact on women’s mental health and leads them to end up with huge depressive symptoms. The study further highlights that younger women are the once at higher risk. This impact hugely on women lacking to use their capabilities and knowledge to become a highly engaged employee in the organization
ReplyDeletePringle and Scowcroft (1996), show in their research that women do not have the opportunity to be in senior positions. They have given less decision-making power in the organizations. Pringle and Scowcroft (1996), further discuss that the organizations do not give priority to this topic. Even the few seminars and programs organizations have regarding discrimination were organized upon request from women but not included in their strategic planning. In a world where gender equality is highly valued, gender discrimination in the workplace should be a top priority in all organizations and strategies should be created to improve the women’s power in participation to become highly-engaged employees in the organization.
Gender discrimination can occur at any time and in any place but has far-reaching effects on employees in the workplace. Employees who have experienced the effects of gender discrimination may have the right to file a claim.
ReplyDeleteNo one should ever feel obligated to tolerate workplace discrimination on account of her gender. you are entitled to certain protections to ensure equality and equity in the workplace relative to your fellow coworkers, regardless of gender.
This is a timely topic and as correctly said can be seen mostly among marrid women and women return after maternity leave. HR should play a vital role in protecting the rights of the women who return after maternity leave as they are undergoing through tough period of time. HR strategies should be plan in order to remove all sort of discriminations prevailing in work place.
ReplyDeleteTo mainstream the concepts of equal employment opportunities and inclusion in their strategies and business-as-usual operations, SAIs can:
ReplyDeletedefine their gender equality and inclusion goals in their Strategic Plan
incorporate gender equality and inclusion in their core values
develop a gender equality strategy, policy and an action plan on how to achieve specific targets
ensure their HR Strategies, policies and processes reflect the above
report on progress towards achieving gender equality targets and use gender disaggregated data in their annual reports and
create an inclusive culture in which all staff feel valued, recognised and appreciated, fostering a true sense of belonging and purpose.
This is a vital topic to be considered at this time. As we can see most of the developed countries has given equal opportunities to men & women. The gender discrimination problem started from day one when they entered professional offices, factories, businesses, institutions, and other organizations. Despite strict regulations and laws, gender-based discrimination can be seen in almost all working places. However, its types and gravity may change with the place, sectors, or development level of a country. The complaints and protests of affected women roar severely about humanity’s failure to solve this alarming problem consistently. This issue may remain invisible or limelight through discriminated actions during job recruitment, assigning duties, salary packages, benefits, performance assessments, promotions, communications, behavior, trusts, and responsibilities. The women promoted to managerial level always remained lesser in number. Even the fellow women at senior positions discriminate their gender. This reveals the peak of the problem. Therefore, women’s discrimination is a prioritized issue that concerted efforts of all stakeholders must tackle.
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