Barriers for women in the workplace

The life of a woman is more like a roller coaster. From being a CEO and a mother, women can manage both which is not an easy task to do. Since the day a girl is born, she has to face many challenges. Similarly, in ancient times women were believed to be the weaker gender and there were hardly any women who worked outside. Nonetheless, with time the mindset of people has been changing and now women are everywhere shining like anything! However, still today in many places a woman needs to fight for her basic rights. And one of the basic rights every woman has is the right to discrimination in the workplace. Meanwhile, the truth is that unfortunately even though the law exists women across the world have been continuously discriminated against in the workplace.

How gender discrimination has been affecting women

Gender discrimination has a huge impact on one’s mental as well as physical health. However, Sexism fuels gender discrimination. Gender discrimination in the workplace can include incidents like paying less, discrimination in hiring or promoting, treating employees differently based on their gender. It can create a disturbance in one’s mind which would affect the workplace as well. Discrimination is also a form of harassment that increases conflict in the work environment. As many times women could not speak about the wrong that they have faced this can make them suffer mentally.

Common examples of gender discrimination at work

Despite the progress that has been made over the years, gender discrimination has been a prime issue in many places. Moreover, about four in ten working women in the United States claim that they faced gender discrimination at work. Let us take a glance at a couple of samples of it.

• A woman has to work equally as a man but when it comes to salary a woman has to settle for less. The pay gap is one of the major issues women are facing worldwide. Additionally, this gender pay gap even follows women into retirement. Meanwhile, the Equal Remuneration Act under Article 39 lets women claim equal pay as men. Nonetheless, at many workplaces, this is an ongoing issue.
• It is no secret that sexual harassment at work is a violation of women’s right to equality. This discourages women from working and creates an insecure work environment. Along with that, gender-based harassment mostly targets women, non-binary and trans women. Because of the continuous cases of harassment at the workplace, they find it challenging to go out and dare to work.
• Many companies hesitate to hire women at work because a woman will eventually get married or start thinking about making a family. Hence, for this reason, they will get leave for a while. Pregnancy Discrimination is a major issue that women employers are facing for a long.
• Getting opportunities or losing opportunities regarding gender is also gender discrimination that has been ongoing in the workplace. For instance, many workplaces hire only men for a certain position. This should stop as a woman has equal rights for all the opportunities in the workplace.

How to eliminate Gender discrimination at work

Even though there are women empowering movements and many laws to protect women’s rights and equality; gender discrimination still exists. You cannot remove it in a day or months. Moreover, if we wish to, we can create an environment where we treat everyone equally. Similarly, in the workplace, employers should create awareness about it.

Educate employees about gender discrimination/stereotypes: Many times, people are not aware of the fact that they are promoting stereotypes. Hence, the employer must educate and spread awareness about gender discrimination and common stereotypes that we follow.

Take immediate actions against any kind of discrimination: One of the prime reasons why continuous discrimination is going is the lack of action. In the workplace, most of the time there is no action taken against the discrimination against women. Therefore, the employer must take strict action against any kind of discrimination.

Remove gender pay gap: Employers can promote gender equality in the workplace by reducing the gender gap. They need to ensure that women in their workplace are not receiving less pay than men. This is one of the prime reasons why women workers tend to leave work in between.

Women empowerment and gender equality

Female empowerment is a movement to make a woman strong enough to raise a voice for themselves. However, for ages women have been trying to break the barriers that society has set for them. Similarly, Feminist movements have been continuous support to break gender stereotypes and prove equal rights to women. One of the major principles of the women empowering movement is respecting and supporting non-discrimination at work. But even after the continuous awareness and fights, females still face discrimination in the workplace. Although breaking gender norms and bringing gender equality is not a one-day task. It starts from an individual and small steps.

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