Gender Inequalities and International Comparison of Workplace Policies

Gender Inequality in the Workplace
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Gender Inequality in the Workplace
Introduction
Working parents happen to have the toughest experiences mainly because of the difficulty that comes with juggling home and work responsibilities. Caregiving responsibilities, for example, call for attention and hours that at times encroach into the working hours. Other challenges include low wages, rigid workplace schedules, and expensive child care that greatly impact how working parents manage their time and resources. However, even with these issues above, the world somehow finds a way to champion a society that looks down upon women, especially working mothers. Aside from going through the issues above, working mothers also happen to still struggle with issues like sexism and discrimination. A majority of mothers happen to juggle their paid jobs with their unpaid household work. Some of these mothers have full-time employment but will still be taking care of everyone else at home. To further showcase how disadvantaged they are, their role as mothers happens to infringe on their careers. There have been instances when some women have been denied certain positions because they are mothers. Some employers feel that mothers cannot handle the pressure of some positions, and therefore, give these positions to men who ideally are seen to have lesser responsibilities. To add salt to injury, some women fight to get recognized in their organizations. After breaking the yoke of gender discrimination, they find themselves having to prove themselves worthy immediately after they have children. All of a sudden, a lady who has been delivering on all of her set objectives becomes incompetent because of children. Having fought and still fighting against sexism and gender discrimination, women still find themselves disadvantaged in this patriarchal society that continually sees women as second-fiddle and worse as damaged goods immediately after they have children. Against this backdrop, this paper seeks to discuss gender inequality in the workplace, the workplace policies that impact women and working mothers, and compare U.S. and Sweden workplace policies.
Part 1: Gender Inequality in the Workplace
Sexism, discrimination, and family responsibilities lead to gender inequalities in the workplace.
Despite the many years of fighting against gender inequality, women still find themselves dealing with sexism and gender discrimination in their workplaces. Even though women have proven themselves to be great at what they do, they are still being looked down upon and forced to play second-fiddle. Today, out of the 500 CEO positions of the Fortune 500, only 23 are led by women (Hinchliffe, 2021). The statistics above clearly indicates how women are less trusted than their male counterparts despite having similar or even better qualifications than them in some situations. In the workplace, women have found themselves at the mercy of sexist managers who happen to dictate the trajectory of their careers. Stamarski and Hing (2015) make a notable remark in their study, noting that sexism or gender inequalities start with human resource practices. Here is where all the rules and regulations that pertain to the hiring, training, firing, and promotion of women are created. Sexism impacts the decision-making process of a company. Stamarski and Hing (2015) note that the presence of sexist managers will lead to adopting H.R. policies and practices that demean women or propagate discrimination against women. The researchers warn of benevolent sexism, which is subtle but quite common in workplaces. Benevolent sexism mainly entails the paternalistic views or perspectives concerning women to propagate discriminating views regarding women. Today, for example, sexism and gender discrimination greatly influence the amount of money women make. Barroso and Brown (2021) note that women make 84% of what men are making. These sentiments are echoed by Bolotnyy and Emanuel (2018), who note that despite being members of unions and doing the same work as their male counterparts, women still earn less than men. The inequality displayed here is quite obvious and paints a clearer picture of how the world continues to look down upon women when it comes to higher positions and wages.
Aside from the above, women have found themselves having to settle for lesser positions despite their qualifications because of family responsibilities. Traditionally, women were the chief homemakers, and their expertise mainly included chores and other duties that kept them within their homes. However, today, women have become more empowered and are competing with men even in fields considered to be predominantly for men. Today, finding a female engineer is not as difficult as it was 15 or 20 years ago. However, even as they climb the career ladder, most women come to learn the hard way that getting children or starting a family can be the worst decision in their career. Often, it is said that family responsibilities impede women’s progress or ascension to higher positions in their workplaces (Buddhapriya, 2009). However, Metz (2011) denounces the above reason noting that masculine cultures impact women’s ascension more greatly. Masculine cultures create environments that speak of having children as a weakness and a distraction to one’s career. What follows are impossible H.R. practices that make it more difficult for women to perform or even ascend to higher positions. It is an unfair world that irrationally punishes women for who they are.
The sad reality for women is that even though home and childcare responsibilities impeded their growth in the workplace, men do not deal with the same problem. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, Boca et al. (2020) note that even though most parents were forced to work from home, the “additional housework and childcare associated with COVID-19 falls on women.” Somehow, women are the ones who are forced to make adjustments, and this includes even in workplaces where more of them are said to likely leave their places of work in favor of their families. Unfortunately, the paternalistic views and society happen to favor men as supposedly the superior gender.
There are different ways that gender inequality can be measured. The first one can be quantitative, where the number of women working in every department is counted and compared to that of men. Another way could be the measurement or observation of how women’s employment happens to change over time. This can help showcase the change experienced in the workplace and whether it favors women or continues to propagate or champion a patriarchal world.
Part 2: Workplace Policies
There are several policies that have been enacted to help support all workers in balancing their work and family responsibilities. A majority of these have been of great help to women, who happen to bear the burden of having to care for their families and delivering on their workplace duties. According to Chung (2018), many companies and governments are introducing policies of flexible work schedules. Such policies happen to greatly favor parents who have to juggle their work and family responsibilities. Chung and van der Lippe (2018) also note that giving workers more control over their schedules is becoming a popular trend in the world, especially with millennials demanding the same. However, such control allows women to deliver their work duties while also being present to their families.
Telecommuting is also another policy that can greatly help women in the workplace. In the context of COVID-19, telecommuting worked to perfection for many employees. Many were able to attain their deliverables while still keeping safe and avoiding the risk of contracting COVID. Such a policy can also be of great help to women, especially those who are trying to attain a favorable work-family balance. Eraso and Erro-Garces (2020) note that such a pol...