Gender Issues in Workplace Diversity

Introduction

The issue of discrimination at work is commonplace in most parts of the world. This comes quite
often when women are considered as part of today's workforce. This is a sea change that has taken place
worldwide seen from images from the media and activities undertaken by women today. This chapter
addresses the gender issue by paying particular attention to women in business. Long ago, we all knew of
the traditional family illustrated with the father as the bread winner, the mother as the one who did the
household chores and looked after the children. Women were submissive in the initial part of modern history
confronted to minimized roles and influence at work. This obviously changed with time and women are now
at the forefront of organizations; a few having leading roles to play in business.

At the political level, the representation of women is limited with a few cliches of great ladies like
Indira Gandhi (India), Golda Meir (Israel), Margaret Thatcher (UK), just to mention a few. Some have been
making the news in the social arena like Mother Theresa. Unlike men, the success of women in society can
be said to be countable in number terms while it is all too difficult to account for the contribution of men at
work. Every society has its heroes and the male gender is often portrayed as the hero.

Traditional societies in the developing world have usually given the impression that men are more
important to women. In China, there are villages whereby there is a majority of males. The same applies to
tradition-rooted India where baby girls were claimed to be killed in the wait for male children. There are
exceptions however within the developing world in some African societies where women have a greater
role to play and this applies exceptionally to matriarchal societies. Else, male dominance is paramount be
it the industrialized or the developing nation. Even today in the USA, there is still the wait for a female to
become the president of the world's first economic power.

This chapter raises the issue of gender from the perspective of the role and influence of women in
today's diversity. It evidently covers the emancipation of women including the inevitable outlook on Simone
de Beauvoir's "Deuxieme Sexe" as an intention to clearly see how women deserve their role in society.
Examples are taken from various sources to enrich the reader's experience of efforts undertaken to give
women their due right and expectations within diversity and to welcome their achievements.

Traditional roles in society

Tradition broadly establishes roles and intentions of people. Starting from dressing habits to
activities in the family to gifts like balls for boys or dolls for girls, tradition has an overwhelming presence in
shaping the role of men and women in society. Newbie (2009) comments that the traditional roles of men
and women were established to ensure the power of the head of household. Historically speaking, that
head of household was always male. But the rapidly developing world has brought about many changes
into the traditional roles of both men and women. People have been socialized to expect men to be brave,
industrious and domineering, whereas women have been expected to be submissive, timid and nurturing.
Nowadays, however, women do not have to rely on their husbands anymore to provide a financial support
for the home and in many cases, they become breadwinners and head of the home themselves. Thus,
these changes have resulted in male losing his image and ego as the dominant gender in society.

Women are the inherent part of our society and cannot be neglected due to their less power and
authority. They are created as a companion for men and men have to make her walk with them in the
course of life. Gicki (2013) states that women play roles as a mother, a sister, a daughter, a wife. They play
their roles with great responsibilities in upbringing of a healthy solid society, but she is in our so-called
modern world, still living in chains.
Woman as a basic unit of society

The basic unit of society is a woman. As woman makes a family, family makes a home and homes
make a society. So we should never think that a society would come into existence without the contribution
of women. We all know that without education, no development is possible. Here we have forgotten that
the very first and best school of a child is its mother's lap (Gicki, 2013). A good healthy society does not
automatically emerge on its own and stands firm but it needs to be emerged and for its emergence women
play a pivotal role. From behavioral to health education women have their hands in. These all are the basic
fundamentals of a good society and women are the main contributors in building up a strong society.

Women's Movement

It is interesting to start by speaking of women's movement which initially developed in forward-

looking nations, particularly in Scandinavian countries where the rights to vote started as early as the 1925
for women while this was passed on much later to the United Kingdom, around the fifties and its colonies
by the late 1960s. The first women's movement grew out of the context of European revolutions during the
18th and 19th century. Whereas it mainly focused on fighting for access to education and political
participation (women's right to vote), the new women's movement in the second half of the 20th century
drew its strength especially from the struggle for sexual and reproductive rights of freedom and equal
opportunities in all areas of society. While this second phase of the organized women's movement in the
US has to be seen in a context with the black civil rights movement, e.g.., in West Germany it stemmed
from the student movement.

Feminism

The term "feminism" is increasingly found since the early 20th century, when it was used as a
synonym for the women's issue and female emancipation endeavors. Today, feminism can be assumed as
a political movement as well as a critical trend in the philosophy of science that deals with power, power
relations and domination. Currently, we find different national and cultural developments on the
conceptional level and concerning its self-image. So instead of talking about feminism, it seems more apt
to talk about "feminisms". Its different orientations (including liberal, Marxist, autonomous, deconstructive,
differential and equality feminism) originate from heterogeneous theoretical paradigms, but their smallest
common denominator is "the complete realization of the emancipation of women". It was mainly in the
course of the second women's movement and its march through the institutions that feminism got
universally established, became increasingly academic and further developed through critical women's and
later gender studies (Neus?? and Chojecka, 2008).

Gender

"The fundamental transformation that took place in Beijing was the recognition of the need to shift
the focus from women to the concept of gender, recognizing that the entire structure of society, and all
relations between men and women within it, had to be re-evaluated. Only by such a fundamental
restructuring of society and its institutions could women be fully empowered to take their rightful place as
equal partners with men in all aspects of life. This change represented a strong reaffirmation that women's
rights were human rights and that gender equality was an issue of universal concern, benefiting all. (UN
org, 2010)."
 Gender equality is achieved when people are able to access and enjoy the same rewards,
resources and opportunities regardless of whether they are a woman or a man. Many countries worldwide
have made significant progress towards gender equality in recent decades, particularly in areas such as
education. However, women continue to earn less than men, are less likely to advance their careers as far
as men and are more likely to spend their final years in poverty. At the same time, some men find it more
difficult to access family-friendly policies or flexible working arrangements than women (Commonwealth
Government of Australia, 2014).

The aim of gender equality in the workplace is to achieve broadly equal outcomes for women and
men, not exactly the same outcome for all individuals. To achieve this requires:

 Workplaces to provide equal remuneration for women and men for work of equal or comparable
value
 The removal of barriers to the full and equal participation of women in the workforce
 Full and genuine access to all occupations and industries, including to leadership roles for women
and men
 Elimination of discrimination on the basis of gender particularly in relation to family and caring
responsibilities for both women and men

Women's emancipation

When women's emancipation movements initially emerged, they were usually closely connected
to political and social opposition movements. In liberation movements and revolutions in which men and
women jointly exerted themselves for basic rights, national independence, and a constitutional charter, the
position of women was also on the agenda. Some men, although not the majority, were prepared to accept
women as companions with equal rights. Women availed themselves of the additional scope for action
which materialized during periods of social upheaval. There arose new forms of feminist involvement in the
form of societies, journals, and alternative lifestyles.

Women's emancipation movements developed early in those countries where socioeconomic

change was already advanced, and soon had a mass following. The emergent industrial and civil society
resulted in a closer interaction among all classes. In the last decade of the nineteenth century women's
associations with widely different goals increasingly united on national and international levels. This
consolidation was the result of intensified communication which encouraged the exchange of ideas and
accelerated developments in the different national women's movements.