Discrimination against women on basis of gender at work

Talk about any kind of group; informal or formal, permanent or temporary, heterogeneous or homogeneous- they are all consequential in producing gender inequality.

There is a delicate but obvious demarcation between the official rank and the gender rank in offices. Many men have authority over women but very few women have authority over men. A man who bosses a woman is his boss on 2 counts: official rank and gender rank. A man who bosses only men or a woman who bosses only women is superior only in official rank. A woman who bosses men is superior only in official rank but unfortunately considered inferior in the other rank (gender). Moreover, a woman who bosses men finds it very difficult to gain their compliance and support. To add to her challenge, she has little leeway to commit any kind of mistake. She is constantly on parole. Her successes are viewed as coincidences, but her mistakes are taken as confirmation of incompetence, proof that there's a fraud lurking underneath. Unfortunately women cannot gain respect or acquiescence if they are anything short of being a perfectionist. And this bondage of being a perfectionist demands unrealistically high standards and sacrifices of important responsibilities from them. In the bargain, the cost women pay may be too high for them and may lead to gradual disenchantment with their work and a deadening of the real person inside.

Let’s analyze it with the help of the most common example available today. A software professional’s life. Till a computer engineer is given the initial training, males and females are all equal. But once they plunge into serious coding, their boundaries are marked. Since majority of the IT companies work on off-shore – on-shore model with strict adherence to timely deliveries, it becomes almost impossible to leave office before dinner time (sometimes rather many times the clock strikes at midnight as a reminder to pack up). It’s not difficult for bachelors to stay back late and gain kudos for the hard work they put in. But it’s not always feasible for females to sacrifice the rules of discipline at the altar of work. The result: early promotion and ticket to fly across Atlantic for the male and increasing frustration for the female.

Men and women are expected to demonstrate gender-appropriate behavior- words, mannerisms, facial expressions, tones of voices, emotions etc at all times and all places. As a result women generally face problems in leadership roles where they have to exercise their authority and bend some so called norms associated with their female status. Our society operates on the myth that “leadership” is a male-normative behavior and “following” is a female-normative behavior. As a result women are trapped in the whirlpool of conflicting ethics. They are criticized to be ruthless and incompassionate if they violate the norms associated with the status of women and are adjudged incompetent if they fail to behave like a leader.

Open the newspaper and it’s flooded with news about sexual harassment against females at work. This disgusting exploitation takes place right from the clerical level till the managerial level of work. The reason for this kind of violence is nothing but the patriarchal values and dominating attitudes of men. They are aimed at reminding females of their vulnerability and subjugated status in every field if life.

The prevailing methodology of discriminating against females on the basis of gender has a substantial effect on their work. If we want a woman to contribute towards development in an equal and healthy way, we need to discontinue the practice of pulling her down just because she was born as a female and encourage her to add value to the work with her knowledge.