Gender roles and sexuality in the workplace

Gender Roles and Sexuality in the Workplace

Gender study is an important topic in the modern era as the world is moving towards the phase where manpower is required to the maximum. No doubt, machines have replaced labor but there are certain situations, in which manpower is required. In order to gap the deficit of manpower, policy makers invite the deprived sector of society to play its role in the development. Organizations and countries both are concerned about the use of talent available to them and focus on the need of unleashing the potential wherever and whenever it can be found.

Nature has assigned certain roles and responsibilities to different genders and it is assumed that both the genders can play the role at their best which is assigned to them by nature. However, it is no surprise to mention that there are unlimited skills which human beings can enjoy hence shuffling of roles and responsibilities takes place on regular basis. There are certain benefits of changing roles between men and women; however there are certain challenges as well. Both genders can perform the majority of tasks but their specialization always remains limited to certain jobs they have developed expertise in and have natural talent for.

The last decade of 20th century has exhibited a great impact on the roles and responsibilities held by the genders. As a result of this, several issues have surfaced which are closely linked with the field of sociology. This paper will analyze the roles of gender and sexuality at workplace in the modern age. The paper will take into consideration the changes that have occurred in this regard.

Before elaborating the changes in the gender roles, it is important to discuss a few terms which are related to the role of gender at workplace. These include: roles, norms, stereotypes, sexism and patriarchy.

A role is a desired attitude linked with a status and the norms are the common values that provide guidance to people about how they should behave in certain situations. Norms regulate duties and rights that an individual possesses in a society. For instance, a mother is supposed to look after the affairs of households whereas a father is supposed to earn for the family and take the major decisions concerning the home.

Due to the rapid changes in the society, these roles and responsibilities often undergo a change. Sometimes the roles change so drastically that it is difficult to predict how the status is going to change. For example, this decade has seen a radical change in terms of the increase in the number of working women which means that women are now also earning, paying attention to their office and household chores. Consequently, there has been a change in the previously assigned roles of fathers and mothers.

The other important term to be discussed is about stereotyping. It means that people have strong beliefs that people belonging to certain status have particular characteristics. The negative effects of stereotypes result in sexism which means that a particular gender, more commonly women, is considered to be inferior. This issue is faced by women when they are paid less for the same work as their male counterparts.

Sexism further gives rise to patriarchal system in which male dominated ideas are given importance and those presented by women are oppressed. In a patriarchal system, it is believed that the role distribution is done naturally and cannot be changed in any way.

Gender Biasness in Terms of Pay

Talking in the perspective of workplace, it must be taken into consideration that workplace is the official vicinity or facility allocated to workforce so that organizational functions can be performed therein. Much literature is available on the need to have favorable workplace environment so that employees can perform their duties with relaxed mind and play an effective role in the development of their organization. The modern 21st century has led to creation of diverse workforce in which people belonging to different backgrounds are hired and organizations are responsible to satisfy them all. Background is a vast term that includes religious affiliations, caste, creed, nationality, educational qualification, lifestyle, gender, age and preferences etc. There are many factors which distinguish an individual from the other, leading to increase in diversity at workforce.

As diversity is on continuous rise, the employers need to evaluate their policies from two perspectives. The first one is to cater for the needs of individuals as employees of the organization and the second one is about focusing on employees' needs particularly the ones which are different from others. In other words, organizations need to have a fair system of remuneration depending upon the work performed by the employee regardless of his gender, age and other preferences. At second level, organization needs to have a strong system to identify the differentiating needs of the employees which can help them perform better. The former factor is more important as organizations mainly hire people for their likely performance in the organization and not on the basis of their other qualities which are personal to them. In case an organization manages to cater for the latter requirements, the essence and importance of the first issue is not reduced. It remains the core responsibility of organization.

In the context of gender issues and the basic remuneration they get, ideally speaking there must be the uniform statement in the policies and procedures of the organization for both men and women. The remuneration offered to the employees must be on the basis of works assigned to them and not on the basis of gender. Unfortunately in many organizations it is not the case.

In industrial settings male workers are paid more than female workers. As the issue is criticized in literary circles, organizations tend to attribute certain justifications with it. One of the justifications is related to the role of women played in the house management. Organizations support their action by stating that male workers are responsible for managing bread and butter for their families. They have dependants hence they need to earn high amount. On the other hand, females usually earn for themselves only and have no dependants. Hence, it is justifiable that they are paid less.

This argument is not valid on the grounds that in a society where male and females are independent and every one earns for him, females deserve to get right return for the job performed by them. Furthermore, it is important to say that there are uncountable cases in which females are responsible for upbringing of their kids. In a society where family system is weak and the number of unmarried couples is perhaps larger than that of married couples, fathers usually run away after they come to know that their girl friend is pregnant. Consequently, all responsibility is shifted to mother and she needs to work hard to earn bread and butter. In case, she gets the baby aborted she faces certain health issues which hinder her from doing the jobs which are performed by normal women.

In the light of these arguments, it is unfair to offer lesser remuneration to females as compared to male workers especially when both of them are performing the same task. Organizations should focus on the performance of employees and ignore the fact of gender while determining their pay packages. Hence bonuses and other incentives should be rewarded on the basis of performance and not the gender. There should be fair standards for monetary benefits and gender biasness should not be considered as a reason to formulate policies related to pay and packages.

Gender Biasness in Terms of Work Assigned

Another important point related to gender differences at workplace is about the roles and responsibilities assigned to both the genders. It is an interesting topic and people hold different views about it. The discussion revolves around whether females should be assigned the similar duties as men. Many experts support the view of equality while there is a big group which favors equity (Bolino and Turnley 29).

It is important to take into consideration that male employees are not equal to female employees. There are many differences which exist between them based on their gender. The first and foremost point is related to physical structure and differences which do not allow females to perform duties which are easily performed by males. In addition to tenderness in their organs, females have reproduction system hence they feel weak because of certain processes which are obstacles in the way to lift weight.

The difference in physical activities does not imply in any manner that females are inferior on the grounds of mental capabilities as well. There are many cases in which women are appointed on physical tasks only as they are not supposed to perform the duties requiring mental abilities. At times, the duties assigned to females are not suitable to them. Many of them are asked to lift weight in construction areas or help in transportation of items. Many females are loaders at airport and perform long duties.

The industry experts believe that there is vague idea about the responsibilities which can be assigned to women. Because of their physical structure, they should not be given physical tasks and because of perceived inabilities at mental part, they are not given decision making jobs.

There are arguments in favor of giving the female workers the same tasks which are given to male workers. The concept is rooted from the slogan of equity which is displayed for the same remuneration. Coming back to the previously discussed argument, when females ask for the same level of remuneration to be given to them for the jobs which are done by both females and males, people consider the vice versa demand in place. It means they start assuming that females should be given the same responsibilities as given to males. As females ask for equality in pay package, organizations and decision makers plan for the same tasks for women as planned for men. These include many tasks which females find difficult to perform but they need to do so to earn their livelihood. The chain continues and the issue of diversity is ignored on a large scale.

There are situations in which female employees have proved them to be as capable as men in various aspects. Particularly speaking in the context of team work, when female workers are in the same team as of male workers, their abilities are unleashed and people like to cherish them on their respective levels. Still, it is difficult to get recognition as there are many other factors which block their way.

Glass Ceiling

Even if female employees tend to perform the same level of job as performed by the males, there are certain factors which do not let them promote. These factors are mainly social and psychological in a sense that there is no calculated logic behind not promoting women (Chen, Meindl and Hui 115). It is important to mention that the concept of inferiority attached to females is centuries old and it is really difficult to eradicate from the minds of people. It is also interesting to mention that females may try their best to prove them as capable as men and at many occasions, they have performed even better than men, so they come out of inferiority complex yet males are not willing to accept them as equal to them. Men usually do not come out of their superiority complex hence situations become worse.

Glass ceiling refers to the ceiling which exists but is not visible. In organizational settings, it often happens that career growth of individuals is blocked but there is no defined policy or statement that justifies that blockage. Even people do not know that they have reached a career plateau and will not be promoted further. It is just like the case that they are not promoted for many years. Either there are no positions above the position held by them presently or their present qualifications do not allow them to compete for the next positions. The third and the most important reason is about the prejudices which do not let management to promote certain employees.

In case of female employees, the last factor plays the major role. Organization may have invited women to join the organization and serve it for so many years. The organization may have promoted them in their functional lines but a stage comes where females wish to be promoted (Roberson 421) but organizations do not let them grow. The female employees are competent; they meet eligibility criteria but are not promoted just because organizations do not want a female to serve at a leading position. There can be many reasons behind it. One of them is; people are not comfortable while working under the supervision of female bosses. Regardless of the levels of professionalism prevailing in the organization and open mindedness of employees, males are reluctant to become subordinates of females. The reason is the centuries old concept that females are inferior to them and they are not supposed to rule over men.

It is unethical in leadership practices that a female boss is suppressed just because of her gender. Organizations should inculcate the habits of professionalism and positive attitude among the employees so that they can learn how to play their role in the best possible manner (Caldwell, Hayes & Long 497).

Keeping in view the glass ceiling and innate prejudices, females are avoided to be promoted. Organizations hire them for low cadre jobs; most of them are clerical or require high physical energy. It is not possible for organizations to block female entry from job because the increase of diversity has imposed the restriction to have certain number of females in workforce as well. The slogan of equal opportunity employment is enjoyed by many organizations but hardly any organization follows it in spirit.

As the pressure on workforce diversity and its effective management is increasing, organizations are looking for the ways to accord with the corporate requirements. In order to remove female from physical tasks, organizations have adopted the strategy of hiring them as front desk staff members who are mainly responsible to communicate with the customers. It is again the psychological concept that males enjoy the company of females and are attracted towards the places where females are found. Hence, waitresses at restaurants are females, counter staff mainly consists of females, aircraft cabin crew has more females than males and telemarketing staff members are also females. Even the medical healthcare industry requires females as nurses so that patients are consoled and are psychologically satisfied that there is care taker for them who is inferior to them and they can boast of being superior to her.