Gender Discrimination at Work Place

Gender Discrimination at Work Place

The existence of successful women like Condoleezza Rice, Hillary Clinton, Meg Whitman, and Oprah Winfrey might cause some individuals to presume that the gender equity gap in business is narrowing quickly.However, despite these examples of prosperous women and changes in certain laws, gender inequity continues to exist in the workplace (King, 2006;Sarra, 2005; Scott & Nolan, 2007).

Bible & Hill (2007) stated that although the equity gap between men and women in management careers appears to be closing, the glass ceiling still persists in today’s business environment.

Throughout the world, men out-earn women (Ngo et al., 2003)

Gender discrimination still exist,even in U.S work place Notwithstanding Equal Employment Opportunity
laws that have been in place for several decades (Bible & Hill).

According to Ngo et al (2003) extensive literature review,several key findings related to evidence of gender discrimination in the workplace have been identified.
(a) women lag behind men in salary and salary progression; (b) women’s rewards and work conditions (i.e., pay, autonomy,authority) are usually lower than men’s; (c) women tend to work in dead end jobs,where opportunities for growth is less than that of men'(d) women are less likely than are men to exercise authority in the workplace.

In the contemporary labor market,Gender discrimination can result in lower wages and other perks for women (Besen & Kimmel, 2006;Blau & Kahn, 2004).Institute of Management Accountants reported that female members earned less than male members at all levels of education, management, and certification according to their recent survey. (Burress & Zucca, 2004).
However, the effects of gender inequity and discrimination in not limited to wages.There are number of other issues faced by women all over the world in their work places.

The persistence of gender discrimination has been studied in academia as well. Schmitt et al. (2002) carried out a study among a sample of undergraduate students and found that female students usually under go more discrimination than did male students, which as resulted in negative psychological consequences associated with the discrimination.According to the research by  Steele et al. (2002) it has been observed that tendency of considering to change their major among women in male-dominated academic fields is high and that they continued to perceive gender-based obstacles in their field.

References 

King, E. B. (2006). Report from SIOP: Current industrial/organizational psychology perspectives
of women in organizations. Equal Opportunities International, 25, 215–218.

Ngo, H., Foley, S., Wong, A., & Loi, R. (2003).Who gets more of the pie? Predictors of perceived
gender inequity at work. Journal of Business Ethics, 45, 227–241.

Bible, D., & Hill, K. (2007). Discrimination: Women in business. Journal of Organizational Culture,

Communication and Conflict, 11(1), 65–76.

Ngo, H., Foley, S., Wong, A., & Loi, R. (2003).Who gets more of the pie? Predictors of perceived
gender inequity at work. Journal of Business Ethics, 45, 227–241.

Besen, Y., & Kimmel, M. K. (2006). At Sam’s Club, no girls allowed: The lived experience of
sex discrimination. Equal Opportunities International, 25, 172–187.

Burress, J. H., & Zucca, L. J. (2004). The gender equity gap in top corporate executive positions.
Mid-American Journal of Business, 19(1),54–62.

Schmitt, M. T., Branscombe, N. R., Kobrynowicz,D., & Owen, S. (2002). Perceiving discrimination
against one’s gender group has different implications for well-being in women and men.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28,

197–210.

Steele, J., James, J. B., & Barnett, R. C. (2002).Learning in a man’s world: Examining the
perceptions of undergraduate women in maledominated academic areas. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 26, 46–50.