There are numerous topics that are very interesting that I have learned about so far in this class. The topic I am going to discuss in this blog is that of women in the workplace. In reading, I am going to talk about a couple issues many women have in the workplace still today, compare it to how women are treated where I currently work and also compare it to how it is where my wife works. In closing, I am going to discuss my thoughts on this interesting topic.
In our textbook, it talks about how women still have a huge gap between them and how they are represented in work as far as leadership roles and what they make (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014, p. 142). I would say that just based on what I have experienced firsthand with managers for various places and executives, this seems accurate. Whether it’s a store manager at the local Walmart I shop at or the finance manager I dealt with when applying for a mortgage, it seems to be top heavy with males. Our textbook gives several real life examples of the huge pay gap that males get versus women. According to the National Partnership for Women and Families, women earn 77 cents for every 1 dollar that is paid to full-time men (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014, p. 142). This is a fact that I have not seem in anywhere that I have worked. The fact that this still is an issue in 2019 is absolutely amazing! Another issue women have still today is getting enough leave after having a child. In Chapter 5, a full-time mother of three suggests increasing the leave for the birth of a child from 12 weeks to 16 (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014, p. 153). To me, this is something that across the board that should be done! After becoming a dad for the first time, my wife struggled becoming a mom. From the up all nights to being with the baby 24 hours a day, to hearing the cries of our newborn, I could see how women need the extra time! 12 weeks is not enough time in my eyes to be off, especially being a first time mother. Women need this time to be with their child! Being a mother is the toughest jobs in America and its sad many companies do not recognize this. The ability to have time paid or even unpaid, and knowing you will still have a job to go back to is comforting. By upping it to 16 weeks, I think this shows compassion to women and shows they matter.
Where I work at, many of the male workers treat the women employees like they are inferior. In our textbook, this is seen as hostile sexism (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014, p. 147). A male worker even went as far as to do things to help any males but if a female asked for help, he wouldn’t help! This employee, who is retired now, had a mindset of no women will be above me, which is really sad. Biases are views that influence behavior (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014, p. 147). For this guy, he was an older guy who grew up in the 50’s and was raised where women were to do house chores while the men worked. His bias I believe started here. Many women where I am won’t take a daylight head custodian job because they believe they can’t do the job. This is what is driven in the minds of the women who work there by the sexist males. It even went so far as an argument ensued right in front of my eyes in that a male maintenance worker got into it with a female custodian in that she shouldn’t be a head custodian because he thought she wouldn’t be able to do any of the jobs as there was a lot of heavy lifting and fixing things. As if a woman can’t lift or fix something? I know that this isn’t the case. I know many women who are better than men at fixing broken equipment. In 2019, it’s so sad that this even still exists! Another male worker even made fun of a female worker because she “acted like one of the guys”. Because of this, he wouldn’t sit with her. Because of this, he influenced a lot of the other male workers to do the same. Many also think that she isn’t able to make financial decisions on orders that have to be filled because she is a female. This is known as a stereotype (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014, p. 147). This type of stereotype is extremely counterproductive in the workplace as it hinders men and women from working successfully together (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014, p. 149). This past summer, this was the case in that the same male worker who didn’t sit with the one female worker, would work against her and actually do nothing that she asked him to do. It got so bad that she gave up and let him do whatever he wanted because she didn’t want to fight with him.
On the contrary, where my wife works, there is a huge difference with how women are treated. There have been great strides made by women in the workplace (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014, p. 158). A good example of this can be seen where she works. Every one of her bosses except for one was a woman. The company where she works actually offered a fast track training program geared towards women to help get into management roles. They also have a huge interest in helping business women succeed. Once I had to stop down at here work to drop something off and I can say without a doubt that they have way more women in her department than men. She was actually given a very important project to work on. This shows their commitment that women can make important decisions as well as men. One of the recommendations in out textbook to help integrate women into the workplace environment is by basing pay on effort and skills and not by gender (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014, p. 159). Where she works at, she gets regular bonuses based on the amount of work that she is able to do. It is not one sided where males get a bonus regardless and women can never get ahead.
In the end, I’ve listed two totally different workplace environments in dealing with women. Although there has been great strides made, there is still a lot that needs done for women. I think that in a workplace like where I am, everyone needs educated on being equals. No one is better than the other, regardless of sex. If we can honestly understand the issues that really do have a positive or negative effect on women, the workplace would be such a better place. We all of something to gain by understanding issues many women have to go through on a daily basis. I believe a company will only prosper by addressing these needs and putting an end to sexism.
References:
Moran, R.T., Moran, S. V., & Abramson, N. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences: Ninth Edition. New York, NY: Routledge.