Factors Influencing Gender Disparities Against Women

Factors Influencing Gender Disparities Against Women
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Introduction The calls for gender equality across the social, political, and economic dimensions in today’s society are receiving much attention while also eliciting diverse opinions and perspectives among different global community stakeholders. The global political dimension, for instance, is characteristic of renowned female leaders who have gone down in history as being among the best or most successful political leaders. The German politician, Chancellor Angela Merkel, makes for one of the most outstanding women in political leadership at the global platform, as indicated by her equally remarkable track record of political decisiveness and integrity. Both Angela Merkel and her predecessor in the European political arena and former United Kingdom’s Prime Minister, Lady Teresa May, are excellent depictions of women who have gone against the odds to overcome the existing gender bias or perceived discrimination against women in the political dimension. The success of such women in the political field is being witnessed across the other dimensions of society today, as indicated by the increasing number of female entrepreneurs in the global economic sector. Despite the remarkable milestones made towards reducing gender disparities across the different social dimensions, gender inequality remains to be a challenge around the world. The existence of gender disparities in society today raises a question that guides the research herein; what factors promote gender disparity in society?  An evaluation of these factors functions to create an understanding of the manifestation of gender disparities across the different social dimensions. Provided herein is a comprehensive review of selected literature on women and their diverse encounters across different social dimensions to understand the underlying issues and factors promoting gender disparities and limiting gender equality across the different social platforms. Literature Review Rice and Greenlee’s article, The effect of Evaluator Masculinity on Dyadic Hiring Decisions, evaluates gender disparities at the workplace in an attempt to highlight the factors contributing to the under-representation of women across the different workplace levels (Rice, 2019). The authors conduct specific research into the effect of masculinity in influencing hiring decisions in a dyadic setting. The article posits that gender disparities create varied work experiences for men and women, including lack of gender inclusivity and gender-based pay gaps (Rice, 2019). The research article builds on the argument that men are more represented in the workplace than their female counterparts, especially in the key decision-making levels of hiring and promoting employees (Rice, 2019). The under-representation of women in such key areas is a disadvantage for securing higher levels in the workplace as the men-dominated hierarchy may expose women to masculine biases. Rice and Greenlee single out the hiring and promotions levels in the workplace as the basis for evaluating the effect of masculinity on the evaluators in the hiring and promotion decision-making. The article further sheds light on the gender biases faced by women at work, including perceived incompetency to deliver in positions or fields deemed traditionally masculine such as engineering. The traditional social structures upon which gender role stereotypes on women, such as their being less assertive, are also portrayed as factors promoting an affiliation to masculinity among evaluators in the hiring and promotion decision-making in the workplace. In essence, the gender biases faced by women in the workplace emanate from the masculine orientation of evaluators in the hiring and promotion levels. However, the research bases its findings on fresh college graduates with little or no experience in the workplace and thus limiting its ability to determine the extent to which under-representation of women occurs due to affiliation to the masculine gender role stereotypes across different levels in the workplace. Echoing Rice and Greenlee’s observation of women’s under-representation across different levels in the workplace is Albu and Grigore’s (2020) journal article, The Difficulties Encountered by Women in Pursuing A Managerial Career in Sports. The authors reiterate women’s under-representation in positions of influence or management in sporting organizations (Albu, 2020). Besides gender discrimination for management positions in the European sports organizations, women in such positions of influence are also victims of gender-based pay gaps as they receive lower salaries thanheir male counterparts in the same capacity (Albu, 2020). The masculine nature of the sports culture, traditional gender role stereotypes, and the often misleading assumption of women’s incompetency to uphold management positions are some of the challenges or factors leading to the under-representation of women in the management of sporting organizations (Albu, 2020). The articles’ findings correlate with Rice and Greenlee’s conclusion that the social gender perceptions built on the gender role stereotypes are a major challenge against women’s endeavor to overcome the gender disparities existing in the management of sports organizations. The only limitation to the research study is that even though it creates a vivid picture of gender disparities in management positions, its focus on women managers in sporting organizations does not provide the other views and perceptions of women in sporting activities. Sharif, R. and Hina, G. (2018) explores the underlying factors limiting women’s participation in the socio-political dimension, emphasizing the electoral process. The author’s article, Participation of Women in Politics: A Perspective of Hurdles and Challenges, further evaluates the interventional measures taken by both the pre-existing and emerging political entities towards increasing women’s participation in the electoral process and other political affairs. The authors’ qualitative study creates a basis for their interpretation of the hurdles and challenges facilitating women’s low participation and under-representation in Pakistani’s socio-political dimension (Sharif, 2018). The authors share in Rice and Greenlee’s observation that the socio-cultural construct plays a significant role in facilitating the gender disparities witnessed in women’s lower participation in political affairs than men. The mainly patriarchal Pakistani community segregates women to gender role stereotypes, dissociating women from political affairs and the electoral deci...