Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Gender discrimination at the workplace in the USA
How have changes in women's employment affected their role in society
Gender discrimination at the workplace in the USA
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Gender discrimination at the workplace in the USA
Career Development
A career is the sequence and variety of occupations which one undertakes throughout a lifetime. It includes life roles, leisure activities, learning, as well as work. Further career can be conceptualized as employees’ objective for participation in work and their subjective commitment to work (Pulkkinen, Ohranen & Tolvanen 1999). Once employees have career they are expecting career development. Career development can be recognized as a process which employees progress from a series of stages, and each stage characterized by different sets of development tasks, activities, and relationships (Noe as cited in Amir & Mahmud, 2014). Further Zheng and Kleiner (2001) emphasized it is a formal approach taken by an organisation to
…show more content…
As well as making people aware of learning, work, civic and leisure opportunities, career guidance helps to build confidence and empower individuals. However, discrimination always occurs among female employees because people assume that they cannot do the job as well as male workers, especially in management (Amir & Mahmud, 2014; Afza & Newas, 2008). For instance Veale and Gold (1998) stressed that women’s participation in the labour market is increasing although some barriers still remain and the majority of them occupied the lower range of the white collar posts. Moreover females need to work harder and longer to show their credibility in order to have opportunity (Ismail & Ibrahim as cited in Amir & Mahmud, …show more content…
Such as employers avoid promoting women because women as a group are absent from work more often than men, due to child bearing and childcare responsibilities. (Rosenfeld et al. as cited in Afza & Newaz, 2008), organizational level variables such as size, public versus private status, different geographic region (Afza & Newaz, 2008), Individual factors like women strategies and style of communication are significant which shows if women face barrier in carrier progress (Shakir & Siddiqui, 2014). Moreover Kattara as cited in Amir and Mahmud (2014) discrimination in career development occurred because the community often see women with certain stereotypes as well as lack of opportunities for mentoring, training, promotion, and reward can be identified. Anyhow Njiru (2013) pointed out that if female employees have their own willingness to confront and fight strong barriers and hurdles that stand their path mostly they would be able reach and survive in high flying jobs in corporations and
Gender, as socially constructed differences between men and women and the beliefs and identities that support difference and inequality, is also present in all organizations (Gender & Society). It has been known that most women have continued to stick to the traditional jobs because it is just easier to do so. They do it to avoid any hardship in the work place and discrimination when applying for a job or working for a company. Non-traditional careers and jobs for woman are hard to find and when hired woman are segregated to the wage gap. Class relations in the workplace, such as supervisory practices or wage-setting processes, were shaped by gendered and sexualized attitudes and assumptions (Gender & Society). For example, in the work place managers were almost always men; the lower-level white-collar workers were always women (Gender &
Barbara White, author of Women’s Career Development, gives an opportunity for successful women to give advice to other women wanting to pursue a career in the workforce. First, they explained that women need to be single-minded today. They must make their own choices and know what they want. If a woman hopes to achieve her goal of an ‘American Dream’ and live up to it, then she should be persistent and keep working at achieving her objectives. The best advice given in White’s book is that a woman should not underestimate herself (227-229). A woman today can be whatever she pleases. It takes work, dedication and persistence to achieve goals in general, not just in the career aspect of life. As seen through Joan Crawford and Dawn Steel’s stories, a ‘business woman’ has a bright future now and for years to come. Women’s roles have drastically changed throughout the past century along with the actual number of women now working. It is phenomenal to see such an increase in women’s participation, and hopefully this course will continue even higher into the twenty-first century.
It is primarily evident that a lot of amendments have been made in the field of employment to achieve a sense of work place equality for men and women. However, there is the understanding that the topic of inequality and inequity is still persistent in contemporary society. It is manifest that there are a numerous amount of barriers that females endure in the workplace environment, and this binary is occurring because of their gender roles. This paper’s intent is to recognize that the concept of gender stratification experienced in the occupational spectrum causes the downward social mobility for females. The focus of this paper is to further investigate the argument that women in the workplace are still facing numerous amounts of impediments,
According to the article “It’s a Man’s World”, many fields are still male-dominated even though women have slowly started entering them. Historically women have been time and again been denied to enter certain occupations based on gender. Women still face many of the same challenges addressed in working in a male-dominated career. Earning the respect of their male colleagues, obtaining the same promotions and balancing work and home life appear to remain at the forefront of issues still in need of being addressed.
Also, the majority of women have been able to secure employment from traditionally female occupations such as teaching compared to male-dominated careers like engineering. Moreover, democratic country like the United States of America has recognized gender inequality as a fundamental issue and espouse equal right between men and women in contributing to social, economic and cultural life. Despite this improvement, gender inequality persists as women are not represented and treated equally in the workplace (Michialidis, Morphitou, & Theophylatou, 2012). The increasing number of women in the workplace has not provided equal opportunity for career advancement for females due to the way women are treated in an organization and the society. Also, attaining an executive position seem impossible for women due to the glass ceiling effects which defines the invisible and artificial barrier created by attitudinal and organizational prejudices, which inhibit women from attaining top executive positions (Wirth
Career management plays important role in career development. Career management is done with involved taking some necessary steps to reach the career plan and commonly more focusing on the ability of the organization able to do for their employee to increase their career development (Werner & DeSimone, 2009). Career plan is usually able to be performed, at least in some apart, through the training program which implemented by the organization. Career management process contained four steps which are self-assessment, reality check, goal setting and action planning (refer to Figure 1 in Appendix 1).
I have known from an early age that I’ve wanted to become a doctor. Helping people has always been a passion of mine. When I was younger, I wanted to be a veterinarian. However, after working with young children I have found that I love working with them, and have a connection with children. Currently, I am interested in becoming either a neonatologist or a general pediatrician so I can continue to work with young children.
For many decades, women have faced inequalities in the workforce. At one point, they were not allowed to work at all. Although women's rights have improved and are now able to work alongside men, they are still treated unfairly. According to the 2012 U.S. Census, women’s earnings were “76.5 percent of men’s” (1). In 2012, men, on average, earned $47,398 and women earned only $35,791. This is when comparing employees where both gender spend the same amount of time working. Not only do women encounter unfairness in work pay, they also face a “glass ceiling” on a promotional basis. This glass ceiling is a “promotion barrier that prevents woman’s upward ability” (2). For example, if a woman is able to enter a job traditionally for men, she will still not receive the same pay or experience the same increase in occupational ability. Gender typing plays a huge role in the workplace. It is the idea that women tend to hold jobs that are low paid with low status. Women are not highly considered in leadership positions because of social construction of gender. Society has given women the role of “caretakers” and sensitive individuals. Therefore, women are not depicted as authoritative figures, which is apparent with the absence of women in leadership roles in companies. Furthermore, sex segregation leads to occupations with either the emphasis of women in a certain job or men in a certain job. In 2009, occupations with the highest proportion of women included “secretary, child care worker, hair dresser, cashier, bookkeeper, etc.” (3). Male workers typically held job positions as construction workers, truck drivers, taxi drivers, etc. (3). Sex segregation represents inequality because the gender composition for these jobs depends on what ...
Jones states in his Gallup news article entitled Americans Say Equal Pay Top Issue for Working Women, (Jones, 2014) that the data from a September 2014 Gallup poll shows that two of the most important issues facing working women in this country today are equal/fair pay and equal opportunity for advancement and promotion. These concerns placed higher than the issues of better childcare and healthcare and the economy in general. The number of working women in the United States is almost equal to that of men, however the challenges women face in establishing careers and advancing in them is different from men. The EEOC Women 's Work Group issued a report (EEOC Women 's Work Group, 2010) that cites many of the biggest challenges for women seeking equal opportunities in the workplace. These include lack of mentoring and grooming for management positions, being less likely to be invited to networking events, women not being granted training and developmental assignments on as equal footing as men, and women not being targeted in recruitment efforts for upper level and management positions. In order to combat these discriminatory practices, employers should develop mentoring programs and monitor their effectiveness, actively making sure that women are as equally included as men. Senior level officials should be expected to mentor subordinates and that mentoring should not be gender biased. Businesses should perform a barrier analysis to discover what obstacles
Some types of career development theories include trait and factor, life-span, and social cognitive (Sharf 1997). This section looks at some of the issues surrounding the applicability of these theories in regard to gender, race, and class.
Career development is a continuous process of handling proactively work and changes in life in order to move forward and reach the goals set for a better future. It involves learning new skills, moving up in the position within the organization or altogether moving to new organization or even starting up a new business. A career development plan is created to set goals and how to reach these goals using your talents and skills in the working world. A five year plan is ideal to start with, as five years are enough to reach bigger goals while working for and achieving smaller goals.
Career is the total sequence of employment-related positions, roles, activities and experiences encountered by an individual (Jackson T. 2002, p.VIII). Career can also be conceptualised more broadly in terms of “the individual development in learning and work throughout life", and thus includes voluntary work and other life experience (Watt, 1996; in Torrington et al. 2008, p. 446).
The persistence of the gender gap has been evaluated through the barriers, wage disparity, and discrimination that women endure in these organizations. In evaluating the barriers that women endure, it is displayed that they are left at a disadvantage compared to men, since they do not have the same learning opportunities, and are unable to progress at the same level. Also, in the assessment of the wage gender gap, unfair treatment towards women has led to their value and worth be questioned, eventually obstructing their ability to advance in their organizations. Finally, the analysis of the discrimination that women face in the workplace, has expressed that women are not given the same opportunities as men, which hinders their ability on rising in corporate hierarchy. The opposing argument to the gender gap focuses on gender bias, and recognizes the underrepresentation of women in upper management positions. The gender gap can begin to close if organizations take the initiative to hire more women and encourage their participation in the workforce. Overall, the gender gap in the representation of top management positions does exist in corporate organizations, however these organizations can make a change and bridge the
According to the study of this course, I have learned many useful management skills and I feel like these skills will be applied to my future career development. When working on the self- assessment tests, I found myself fall into the category of the ISTJ personality types, which as illustrated by Myers Briggs, is the type of personality that is conscientious, considerate, and helpful. Personality traits such as honest, dutiful, practical and responsible are my strengths; personality traits such as stubborn, insensitive and poor communication skill are my weaknesses. Related to the knowledge I have learned in the course I believe both strengths and weakness will have influence to my future career development. In this reflection paper, I will demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses that may place the most influence on my way of success.
It can be concluded that women are treated in terms of stereotyped impressions of being the lowest class and greater evidence can be found that there are large disparities between the women and the men 's class. It can be seen that women are more likely to play casual roles as they are most likely to take seasonal and part time work so that they can work according to their needs. They are hampered from progressing upward into the organizations as they face problems like lack of health insurance, sexual harassments, lower wage rates, gender biases and attitudes of negative behavior. However, this wouldn’t have hampered the participation of the women in the work force and they continue to increase their efforts which is highly evident in the occupational and job ratios of females in the industry.