Gender Inequality In The Workplace Essay

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Gender inequality is defined as “the disparity in status, power, and prestige between people who identify as women and men” (Trust Women PAC). The argument presented by people who believe that there is gender inequality in the workplace is that when young women enter the workforce, it is hard to find balance between family and their work. Even though women have surpassed men in terms of educational achievement, the gender wage gap has barely been reduced. Gender inequality is deeply rooted in gender stereotypes and stereotypes are already extremely hard to break, especially because everybody will engage in some type of stereotyping. According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report of 2010, the United States was ranked nineteenth in terms of gender equality, behind countries such as Sweden and Iceland. Although great strides have been made to close the gender gap, more needs to be done. How does gender discrimination in the work place affect women in regards to hiring/promotions, wage disparity, and occupation choice? Traditional theories about workplace inequality focus on the fact that women bear children and take maternity leave. Having and taking care of children is the root cause as to why women are being held back. Sheryl Sandberg raises an interesting point about how men and women work differently, causing different results (Waber). However, in a call center study, where participants were tracked with tags to see how they were interacting with people at the office by location, over email, and over phone calls. The study concluded that overall, women were more productive than men. There were no other differences observed in either performance or collaborative styles. Yet, in the end, women seemed to get the s... ... middle of paper ... ...d retention of employees, and increasing economic competitiveness. According to the World Economic Forum, “low gender gaps are directly correlated with high economic competitiveness”. Everyone benefits, especially the women. The wage gap of women not only hurt the women themselves, but it hurt the ability of women to support their entire families. If women’s wages are lower, due to gender discrimination, their families’ incomes are often significantly lowered as well which can affect the children and their futures. This issue has widespread implications and does not only affect the women themselves. It is going to take plenty of time to find a solution to close the gap, to end gender discrimination, but the benefits certainly are worth the efforts. This could mean helping out not only women, men, and their families, but it could help the world and its economies.

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