Women have always played a part in the workforce in different levels and capacities. The gender gap between women and men has differences, due to society and how people view gender differences and the acceptance of it. The Glass Ceiling is an unseen barrier that keeps women and minorities from achieving higher positions or climbing the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or accomplishments. The time has come to reframe the gender imbalance issue. Building a gender-balanced organization takes skill, determination, and courage. We are moving in the right direction, but there is still work to be done.
More women are moving up the corporate ladder and are becoming professionals in once male dominated fields. “Although women occupy more than half of all management and professional positions, they have fewer developmental opportunities at work than men” (Hoyt, 2103, p. 356). Research show that women give the same equal amount of attention to their job roles as workers, parents and partners as some men do. “Gender stereotypes can significantly change the perception and evaluation of female leaders and can directly affect women in aspiring to leadership roles” (Hoyt, 2013, p. 360).
Study has shown that “Men are stereotyped with agentic characteristics such as confidence, assertiveness, independence, rationality, and decisiveness, whereas women are stereotyped with communal characteristics such as concern for other, sensitivity, warmth, helpfulness, and nurturance” (Deaux & Kite, 1993; Heilman, 2001 as cited in Hoyt, 2013, p. 358).
In my opinion, to ensure that all women and men are treated fairly in any organization, the organization should focus on how to correct the problem. The organization should implement family friendly policies for both female and male employees to make it equal, to retain high morale. “Beyond work home issues, negotiations for valued positions, experiences, and resources are important social interactions on the road to top leadership positions” (Hoyt, 2013, p. 361).
References:
Hoyt, C.L. (2013). Women and Leadership. In P. G. Northouse, (Ed.). (2013), Leadership: Theory and practice (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Women have always been under represented in higher positions in companies. Women are still stuck in stereotype of a caregiver and have jobs related to taking care of people. Men also have the stereotype of being authoritative and a leader which shows why men hold a higher percentage in higher positions and pay. I find it interesting that men and women have similar if not the same statistics in leadership skills. With that being said, it is still a work in progress. This is a universal problem. Companies are to keep records of minorities including women, race and color in the workplace to ensure fairness for all. Businesses can receive fines for not having a certain percentage of diversity in the workplace.