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Female discrimination in employment
Gender bias in the workplace
The effects of gender discrimination
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Sheryl Sandberg is the chief operating officer of Facebook and is ranked on Fortune’s list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business and as one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. Sandberg chooses Lean In to examine the reasons for women’s progress being stalled in achieving leadership roles. It provides deep insight into root causes while also offering compelling and commonsense solutions which can empower women to achieve their full potential.
While this book by the COO of Facebook is ostensibly about women in the workplace, it's really about subconscious cognitive biases. A majority of Americans may consider women and men to be equal on the surface, but the fact that women still lag significantly behind men in both pay and leadership positions points to the fact that there is something else going on.
The primary audience for Lean In is young and middle class working women. The below quote on the book is the primary selling point of this book.
”When a girl tries to lead, she is often labelled bossy. Boys are seldom called bossy because a boy taking the ...
In Sheryl Sandberg’s essay “Lean In: What You Do If You Weren’t Afraid?”, she talks about how women are afraid to strive for leadership that men pursue for. She mentions how women are afraid to be leaders even though they outperform men academically in their degrees. Women are discouraged to enroll in leadership in the workforce because “they are less valued in the workplace” and “overwhelmingly stocked with men”(Sandberg 646). More importantly, Sandberg points out that the reason women don’t seek for high positioned jobs is that they aren’t “ambitious” as much as men. Not being ambitious allows women to not show themselves that they don’t have a strong desire to obtain the highest leadership. Women aren’t as ambitious than men because they
In her 2013 article featured on The Feminist Wire, “Dig Deeper: Beyond Lean In” bell hook describes “the feminist movement based on women gaining equal rights with men” (661). This essay is a response to Sheryl Sandberg’s book “Lean In: What Would You Do If You Weren’t Afraid?” which encourages women to aim for positions of leadership and power. Sandberg’s definition of a feminism is gender equality with an existing social system. Hook contrasts Sandberg’s definition of feminism and makes it her own “one that does not conjure up a battle between the sexes” (662). Since men and women are both greatly influenced by sexist social norms and ideals, it is important
Sandberg, S. (2013, August 11). Leadership roles in workplace: Are women not “ambitious enough”. Retrieved from http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-08-11/news/41295742_1_job-authority-men-sheryl-sandberg.
While the median weekly pay for women rose in the past decades, it is still largely inferior to the median weekly pay of men employed in the same jobs. This difference of pay also puts an additional burden on women who are expected to stay home when emergencies arise. They cannot in some cases pay for daycare or rely on their companies’ understanding that someone has to take care of the family obligations. In result, they are penalized when comes the time to find candidates for promotion and are seen as not as dependable as their male counterparts. Finally, women face a social bias against them that encompass gender, appearance and race. It effectively punishes them for reasons that are out of their own control and not related to their job performance and skills. Laws against gender-based discrimination, more flexible workplace arrangements and a change in our culture regarding women may help fight discrimination and help women reach their full potential in the workforce. By starting to allow for more flexibility, paying women on a comparable scale than the one used for men, and support women in their desire to take care of their families, corporations could set the tone for a fairer treatment of women in the
They frequently have a hard time simply being hired because of their gender. Gender discrimination leads to the management hiring or promoting a man over a woman, even if the woman has higher qualifications (Andres). This bias occurs in part because of lack of female leadership in corporate settings. Men make up an overwhelming majority of leadership positions in business and politics. While the results of one study found women to make up 53% of entry level employees, they found that women only made up 19% of top executive positions, such as CEO or CFO, in the same company (Harvard Business Review Staff). These statistics reveal that women are getting cut off at lower level positions with no basis for the actions of those making the decisions other than gender. Known as the glass ceiling, this phenomenon plagues working women. Not only are women denied high-level jobs, but they are also denied the same payment as men for the same work. This wage gap continues to rage on. For example, the Harvard Business Review reports that, in insurance, “saleswomen make only 62.5% of what their male colleagues earn.” Additionally, mothers are offered, on average, $11,000 less than childless women as a starting salary (Harvard Business Review Staff). This is undeniable evidence that women continually face imaginary barriers that prevent them from receiving fair wages. In a fair job market, whether or not a woman has a child would have nothing to do with what she is offered for her starting wage, and she would be offered the same pay as an equally qualified man applying for the same job. Tragically, differences like these are even more prominent in STEM fields, which have been male-dominated for
In the American society, we constantly hear people make sure they say that a chief executive officer, a racecar driver, or an astronaut is female when they are so because that is not deemed as stereotypically standard. Sheryl Sandberg is the, dare I say it, female chief operating officer of Facebook while Mark Zuckerberg is the chief executive officer. Notice that the word “female” sounds much more natural in front of an executive position, but you would typically not add male in front of an executive position because it is just implied. The fact that most of America and the world makes this distinction shows that there are too few women leaders. In Sheryl Sandberg’s book “Lean In,” she explains why that is and what can be done to change that by discussing women, work, and the will to lead.
Wilson, Marie C. Closing the Leadership Gap Why Women Can and Must Help Run the World. New York: Viking Adult, 2004. Print
Women have been treated unfairly and discriminated in the workforce for too long. The discrimination that these women face is unjust and unwarranted. It is sad that as a society in the twenty-first century we are still trying to combat these issues. In Developing Women Leaders was published in The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist July 1, 2012 it discusses possible solutions and how stigmas and stereotypes are starting to change. Women should not have to face discrimination in the workplace as a society there should be an equal standard for all individuals no matter the race or gender.
Gender discrimination in the workplace is something that both men and women experience, women more than men. For instance, the current gender pat gap is 21 percent. This means that women are currently making 21 percent less than what their male counterparts are making. It has decreased over the years, but it is still a significant gap. In the workplace, women do not only experience discrimination in pay, but also in opportunities. An article states that, women are deemed less communal than men and that makes them less suited for certain careers (Miner, et. al, 2014). This thought alone puts women at a disadvantage when they are entering the labor force.
Besides that, the negative stereotype that depicts women as incapable, less intelligent, and uneducated adversely hinders job opportunities for women including the process of hiring, promotions, and wages. These negative perceptions about women are implanted in our society, causing potential employers to have the same stereotypical perspectives about women, and not wanting to hire or promote them to a higher position. According to the statistics from “Today’s Workplace,” less than sixteen percent of Fortune 500 corporate officers are women, and less than two percent of Fortune 500 and 1000 CEOs are women (Dodds). This statistic vividly shows these deep-rooted stereotypes pose serious challenges to women’s career advancements. Employers are
Also, the majority of women have been able to secure employment from traditionally female occupations such as teaching compared to male-dominated careers like engineering. Moreover, democratic country like the United States of America has recognized gender inequality as a fundamental issue and espouse equal right between men and women in contributing to social, economic and cultural life. Despite this improvement, gender inequality persists as women are not represented and treated equally in the workplace (Michialidis, Morphitou, & Theophylatou, 2012). The increasing number of women in the workplace has not provided equal opportunity for career advancement for females due to the way women are treated in an organization and the society. Also, attaining an executive position seem impossible for women due to the glass ceiling effects which defines the invisible and artificial barrier created by attitudinal and organizational prejudices, which inhibit women from attaining top executive positions (Wirth
Lean In: Women, Work and The Will To Lead, by Sheryl Sandberg, addresses how women can achieve professional achievement and overcome the lack of leadership progress that has been absent over the past few years. Sandberg uses personal experience, research and humor to examine the choices that working women make everyday. She argues that women can achieve professional goals while still being happy within their personal lives. She argues this by going into detail about what risks to take, how to pursue certain professional goals and how to overcome struggles such as balancing a family and a career. All through Lean In, Sandberg uses the fourth dimension of interpersonal effects through a Narrative to show her indicated stance on gender construction, she includes examples of marked forms as well as cultural gender expectations within communication.
Sexism is a major factor in the workforce.Today male and female have a hard time breaking into the opposite gender dominated fields. This has happened because of the media, it has showed us that male have certain “right” jobs, as well as female. Female still dominate traditional female professions like cosmetology jobs are 92.9 percent women working them(Wolfe). If a man were to get into cosmetology they would most likely be judged for having that job, because we stereotype that they can't have a feminine job. Women have a harder time getting into high level positions. “Women make up only 21 of the S&P’s 500 CEOs,” (Berman). This has happened because the media has set in place stereotypes that it is wrong for women to have high level positions. It is getting better, in 2013 women chief financial officers increased 35 percent at large U.S. companies from 2012 (Frier and Hymowitz). The job market for men and women is still unfair but it is starting to get equal.
Gender bias has a long history and continues to occur in the workplace today. Research indicates that women remain significantly disadvantaged and mistreated compared to men in the workforce. How do the disparities of hiring, promotion, and salaries affect women in the workplace?
Women leaders have the crucial soft skills of empathy, innovation, facilitation, and active listening (Masaoka, 2006). They also have first-hand life experiences that bring technical skills and experiences from the street level to the workplace (Masoka, 2006). Women often build stronger relationships with clients and outside contacts than their male counterparts. This relationship building skill, provides a key aspect which helps to move businesses forward (Giber et al., 2009). Fortune 500 companies with a high percentage of women significantly outperformed those with fewer women. Companies with the highest representation of women showed higher returns on equity than those with fewer women employees (Giber et al., 2009). Thus, future organizations may have a higher percentage of female leaders than we have experienced in the past. Future leaders must ensure that there is equality among the workforce and that women are accurately represented among the