In today’s society it has become a necessity to work a minimum of 30-40 hrs. a week. We spend so much time at our jobs that we barely even see our own family at home. Therefore, it is important to build good relationships with our coworkers. This will help make the work week go faster and get the job done easier. One of the disadvantages of having to work with other employees is sometimes it can be hard to get along with everyone. This can be especially hard when it comes to different types of discrimination in the workplace.
One of the social conflicts that can occur in the workplace is gender discrimination. This can happen for men or women. If a workplace has more men in the workplace it has been proven to have more gender discrimination towards women and vice versa if there are more women in the workplace towards men. There was a survey conducted in 2017 by the Pew Research Center about gender differences in the workplace. The results revealed that workplaces with mostly men had a higher rate of women reporting gender differences compared to results when mostly women were in the workplace (Parker, K. 2018). Gender discrimination is more common to happen towards women because “The U.S. workforce overall is majority male by a narrow margin – 53% of all workers were male in 2017, while 47% were female” (Parker, K. 2018). This relates back to the statement that gender discrimination occurs more often when a workplace is more one gender sided.
Gender discrimination happens on a daily basis but most of us might not recognize it as such. For example, calling a female “sweetheart” or commenting about someone’s outfit inappropriately, etc… These are all examples of sexism and discrimination. “This is the most frequently encountered form of everyday sexism, experienced by women and men, and consists of sexist remarks or jokes, and insulting terms based on gender” (Priestley, A. 2017). One of the main problems with this issue is, people do these things unintentional or intentional but not many people makes a fuss about it when it should be something to be addressed.
Society has created a role for women for generations. They have viewed them as kind and loving. The caregivers of society. The problem is, especially with older generations, this is how the workforce views women. Sometimes this can influence people’s decisions on who they hire and if they believe someone is capable of a certain job or title.”Women, who are regarded as the nicer, kinder sex, have a cultural stereotype…yet women often are victims of prejudice” (Heilman, M., & Eagly, A. 2008). This is another reason why it happens in the workplace.
Most of the time gender discrimination is unintentional mainly because of this reason. It has become almost a norm but more and more women are starting to stand up against it and realize it is not okay anymore. Men who are being discriminated against at a workplace should also stand up if they are being singled out. No one should have to deal with any type of discrimination at the workplace because it can effect our jobs and our well being. It is overall not a good environment to deal with on a daily basis.
References:
Parker, K. (2018, March 07). Gender discrimination more common for women in mostly male workplaces. Retrieved April 14, 2019, from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/03/07/women-in-majority-male-workplaces-report-higher-rates-of-gender-discrimination/
Priestley, A. (2017, October 24). Six common manifestations of everyday sexism at work. Retrieved April 14, 2019, from https://www.smartcompany.com.au/people-human-resources/six-common-manifestations-everyday-sexism-work/
Heilman, M., & Eagly, A. (2008). Gender Stereotypes Are Alive, Well, and Busy Producing Workplace Discrimination. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 1(4), 393-398. doi:10.1111/j.1754-9434.2008.00072.x