The concept of gender equality and equal opportunity has been debated for decades and been part of the community’s key principle. This essay will be discussing issues on gender inequality and other forms of discrimination in the workplace in Australia concentrating particularly on Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ). This essay will also be discussing on what implications have been done by ANZ Bank to solve the discrimination that has been a major concern in not only Australia but also around the world. Australia is ANZ’s largest market through a network of 800 branches, 115 business centres and employing over 47,000 employees with 200 different cultural background worldwide ( ANZ 2014 ). As we could see the different cultural background among the employees, ANZ Bank actually values the diversity in terms of ethnics and cultural backgrounds. Since the olden days, the employment of female in banking industry has been the unfavourite but things have changed since Second World War as more females are involved in banking industry (Crompton 1989 : 144). ANZ Bank and other financial institutions around Australia has been working towards combatting the gender inequality in terms of pay equity, promotions and opportunities to all employees across the organisation. The following content in this essay will discuss 3 main points of discrimination on how and what implication ANZ Bank has done and also financial industry as a whole. The following content will discuss gender equality, employment of indigenous people in banking industry, age discrimination and discrimination against disabilities people.
According to Workplace Gender Equality Agency, ANZ Bank positions itself as a women's employer of choice (ANZ 2014). In fact, 54 pe...
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...e off 55 years of age and they too, provide equal opportunity to the younger generations. Moreover, ANZ Bank has it’s own Disability Action Plan (DAP) aiming to recruit disabilities people into their organisation. By providing disabilities people an equal opportunity, this will also enable them to motivate themselves to improve and in long run it will make Australia a country of fair and equal treatment to every single human. By employing people regardless of gender, cultural differences, age and disabilities will decrease the unemployment rate within the country as well. Therefore through all the points discussed above, ANZ Bank is doing their best to fight against all forms discriminations in the workplace through the implications and plans they have been carried out to ensure an efficient, effective work and management practices as a transnational corporation.
Gaze, G (2009) ‘The Sex Discrimination Act after 25 years: What is its role in eliminating gender inequality and discrimination in Australia?’, Insights, vol.7,p.13-17, viewed 5 October 2011, .
...in the form of part-time work, which has limited entitlements. In addition, the amount of violence directed towards women decreased from 7.1% in 1996 to 5.3% in 2012 (abs personal 2012). However, discrimination against women is still prevalent highlighting the fact that gender equality is still present in Australian Society. Gender equality is a contemporary issue, although growing, is still present in Australian society. Gender equality will not continue to grow simply because there is an increase of women in the labour force and the amount of violence towards them has decreased (human rights online one). It is complex and requires a shift in the attitudes and norms that lead to inequality (human rights online one). Therefore a commitment is required from all Australians to promote an egalitarian society that does not encourage injustice (collective identity 167).
Today, women share the same equal rights and opportunities as men; nevertheless, that has not invariably been the case. Before the Jazz Age era, gender discrimination between men and women in society was considerably popular. Women were seen as inferior to men. Their jobs were to care for the home, children, and other domesticated duties while men were able to work, get an education, and become doctors or lawyers. Many women like Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Ida B. Wells, Sojourner Truth, Zora Hurston, to mention a few, seen the unfairness in women's rights and fought for equal rights for women through different movements, efforts, protests, and even marches to abolish women’s rights. As a consequence, women now pursue not only higher education and higher paid jobs/ businesses, but their rights. One of the world’s most controversial issues among churches of today is the role of a woman. Many people are confused about the duty of a woman and how she is supposed to serve God because of history. History taught us to never deny someone of gender, race, or even diversity since he or she has human rights. However, this issue should not be viewed as men versus women because this is not a political issue; instead, it should be viewed as the structural of a church. Women should not be priests, pastors, or even rabbis for God condone women for being priests, pastors, and rabbis as well as proscribed.
Laura Bassett, a reporter from the Huffington Post, explains that in today’s society women are paid 77 cents for every dollar that a man earns, resulting in women being paid an average of $37,800 a year compared to men who are paid an average of $49,400 per year in 2012 (Women Still Earned 77 Cents On Men's Dollar In 2012: Report). Also, when a man and a woman apply for the same job, the man will almost always be chosen. This has resulted in the amount of full-time working males increasing by 1 million within a years time, and the number for full-time working women remained nearly the same. To this day, females are not treated equally to males even though almost a century has gone by from 1920 when women gained their deserved suffrage rights and other rights of equivalent importance. Both men and women are standing up to spread the awareness of the meager changes to women’s rights throughout the years. One way to raise awareness is to write a book, and many books have been made about the lack of equality rights for women. In the novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, the main character Lily witnesses several equality rights between men and woman in the way that females are treated by males, which has become a major social issue in today’s society.
Being a feminist today has altered from a political position to a more general position. Contemporary feminist is shaped by the past, but now is integrated in popular culture by popular figures. The definition of feminism is the belief of social, political, and economic rights, especially with regards of equality of the sexes. There are many dimensions to being a feminist and we have a tremendous number of people supporting the feminist movement. The need for feminist movements is because gender inequality still exist. Gender inequality is very broad and complex topic. Both men and women are unequal in various ways. However, the big question is why? The purpose of this paper is to understand gender inequality in the sociological framework of
Social inequalities are present in our contemporary society. This essay contends that there are two main sources of inequality; ethnicity and gender. The discussion of ethnicity is contended rather than race because the focus will be on the socially constructed differences between individuals based on shared cultural values, as opposed to their biological differences (Cornell & Hartmann 2007, pp. 20-21). Additionally, gender is analysed in the context of inequality between men and women. This essay acknowledges the broad range of dimensions impacted by both ethnic and gender inequality, but for the purpose of this essay, the scope is narrowed down. For gender, this essay focuses on the representation of women in the Australian
Gender, what is gender? Where does it come from? How long has it existed? These are all very good question and questions that are asked a lot in today’s modern society. Most people think of gender as the physical features of a man and a woman, but it is not just physical features that define gender. There are obvious biological differences between a man and a woman, but is that what gender is defined by? There are many different theories on gender and how it is defined. How is gender inequality present in today’s world?
What is the real difference between men and women? Is sex merely an anatomical difference, or are gender roles based on actual mental and emotional differences? Regardless of whether gender roles are socially constructed or naturally inherent, they exist and have since Adam and Eve.
Do we truly understand how the meaning to equality among men and women affect society. Jobs, health, and education are affected by what transpires from the meaning to gender equality. Throughout history equality has been debated. Equality is defined as getting respect and giving respect regardless of gender or culture through fair treatment and maximized happiness. Balance and harmony are developed from the application of ethical theories to aid society in defining the meaning to gender equality rather than debating the issue. Therefore, defining gender equality should be the role of society by utilizing ethical theories. The theories can be consequentialist or nonconsequentialist acts that develop and maintain good morality and ethical
The idea of separate sexes has been around since humans began constructing civilizations and has progressively worsened over time. The world has mostly consisted of patriarchal institutions since then, and has oppressed women in the sense that they are less than men in status and civility. Because of this women are forced to take on specific [often times inferior]roles in society, many of those roles being; taking care of the homestead, child care, and maintaining a kosher dwelling while men assume the more prestigious occupations. “A son in all sorts of trouble finally seeks out his father for advice during a particularly bad crisis. But when he finds his father wearing an apron while washing dishes in the kitchen, the son recoils in disgust… The parents of an 18-year-old girl describe their fear that their daughter will be an old maid because she is so terribly bright and independent. They decide that the mother will have a “talk with her” (“Changing Gender Norms” Eliman-Taggart)” An analogous philosophy is introduced in the novel A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. In the series, Arya, daughter of Lord Eddard Stark has grown up along with her brothers who trained in the art of swordplay and her sister who was training to become a lady. Despite constant reprimanding, Arya dejected the concept of evolving into a lady and aspired to become a knight alongside her brothers. She is mocked throughout the story for her “boyish” manner. She is surprisingly encouraged by her father to pursue what she wants regardless of what is seen as socially acceptable behaviour for a girl.
The “Politics” section, from the UN’s 2008 report of the progress of the world’s women, discusses in detail how women’s roles in government and politics in general have expanded and can continue to expand. Moreover, it also explores different challenges and obstacles women may encounter when it comes to politics, and how these obstacles can be overcome. In discussing these issues, the author describes a “cycle of political accountability”. This so called cycle is a process by which women’s engagement in politics results in a positive “feedback loop” whereby a more gender-balanced political system may arise. According to the report, there are five stages: mobilization, representation, legislation & policy, implementation, and transforming politics. Of course, the cycle can also go backwards leading to the loss of rights for women.
Women face the combat of being asked to leave when breast feeding or banned from exposing their chest at beaches, the same as any man. As a country we are ranked 24th when it comes to global index measuring gender equality. We have moved down the list by 10 places in almost 10 years. Gender discrimination within Australia creates something called the Glass ceiling for women. Within The Working Woman Report, by Gay Bryant the concept was first a topic of discussion. The glass ceiling refers to the invisible barrier that keeps women from advancing in their careers and opportunities. The glass ceiling prevents women from reaching pay equality and equality within the workplace. The reference to glass highlights the fact that this barrier was rarely seen or spoken on until recent years. Even in this day and age the glass ceiling is still debilitating for women within Australia and the world. These barriers socially exclude women from society and allow them to only for fill societies expectations for a modern day women. Within the society of today there has been a lot of change directed toward the way women are meant to act in the professional
We, human beings, have formed a society based on certain rules that govern our actions and behavior. We share mutual resources and while building up our lives we commit innumerate amount of decisions everyday that lead us to differing paths. Some of us are more successful than others due to various reasons. Many people question whether the success someone has experienced is due to hard work and entitlement or simple luck. Success itself is a vague concept and has its own connotations for everyone. It may mean love, power, resources or anything else. A centuries old debate for societies has been whether the ‘success’ is distributed fairly across its members. If it is due to luck, then why is person A more privileged than person B who would result unhappy. Person A obviously replies that he/she is worth it and has worked hard for the followed success. Person B, on the other hand, is unsatisfied because he sees that he was not at the right place at the right time when the ‘success’ happened demanding a compensation, in other words, equality.
The issue of gender equality, whilst improving, still remains a prevalent contemporary issue in Australian society. Gender equality refers to equal access to rights and opportunities regardless of an individual’s gender or sex. Many often think that gender inequalities affect women more than men, however in reality it affects both genders on a daily basis. Whilst legislations have been introduced such as equality of sex and discrimination legislation (Egmond, Baxter & Buchler, 2010), inequalities are still prevalent. These inequalities are closely tied with the gender stereotypes and gender role attitudes embedded in Australian society.
Equality is a concept mankind never is able to grasp correctly. Of course humans will always search for different solutions to create fairness, but factors such as human greed, ignorance of mass populations, and even biological aspects stagnates the process of equality. The oldest and most relevant discussion on equality lies with the difference of sex; man versus woman. Initially, men, because of their physical superiority, were given the prospects many women never even dreamt to have. Conversely, as time has progressed, women have fought this unfair treatment with demands of suffrage and similar rights to those of their male equivalents. Greatly enough, this generation has done an exceptional job in the challenge of overcoming sexism and inequality. However, will this search for equality ever end? When can we say we have created an equal race of men and women? The fact of the matter is that it is truly impossible to have equality between the sexes because of predisposed circumstances that are not easily controllable in the slightest bit.