Gender roles and workplace changes in the modern era

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.

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.

It is ironic to say that even females tend to look down upon the females who are performing these activities which are considered as low cadre. A female customer at restaurant tends to speak rudely to the waitress assuming her an inferior being as she is hired for the service of customers. The female managers of the organization look down upon the receptionist of their own organization. It is no exaggeration to state that even females determine the level of respect to be attributed to person based on the position enjoyed by the individual. Gender alone is not the reason of regard for females. In order to end the prejudices of gender, rank related stereotyping should also be combated so that society and workplace may grow in its true sense.

Keeping in view the need of increasing workplace productivity, the management needs to think beyond the centuries old prejudices and establish a fair system which provides development opportunity to every individual regardless of his gender. The focus should be on talent and not the gender. If there is a male with persuasive personality and excellent communication skills, he can be appointed at customer services desk. Likewise, if a female has strong analytical skills and cognitive abilities, she should be given decision making position. There should be no prejudice on the basis of gender and fair chance of growth should be given to everybody. It can help organizations win competitive advantage (Zadek 334) and become an employer of choice for workforce.

The number of females is increasing in the labor market and there are many females who have unprecedented achievements in their educational background. Inclusion of these exceptional females can help organization grow at rapid speed. Particularly speaking in the context of modern business environment where proactive approach is desired to the maximum (Covey), this initiative can pave way for strong competitive advantage. It can also lead to fulfillment of corporate social responsibility in a manner that organization is offering job opportunities to a deprived sector of society.

Organizations through their leadership styles and strategies can increase the level of acceptance of females as valuable employees who have equal capabilities like men and are able to play their role effectively (Schein 365). These effectiveness can be found not only in the organizational development but also in their personal lives in which they are regarded as the best managers to handle various activities simultaneously. Men employees should be trained to obey the boss without the prejudice of his gender and follow the commandments as per organizational policies.

Conclusion

The sum and substance of this discussion is; there are gender biases in the organizations and no workplace is free of them. These biases and prejudices reduce satisfaction level (Igalens and Roussel 1003) of female employees and they tend to conceal their talent which can be used by organization to develop and grow. In order to get maximum benefits from the available workforce, it is necessary for organizations to break these glass walls for females and promote them to use their talent at workplace. Many initiatives are taken in this regard, few of them are fruitful but there is still much to do. It is expected that diversity considerations will be incorporated in real and true sense so that the goals of new century can be achieved.