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Chapter 2: Literature Review

2.0 Introduction 

Gender discrimination is phenomenon in the socity which do not tret men and women equally however both of them are equally important for a healthy socity. In organisations also iscriminations are prevalent in the form of pay gap, sexual harrasments etc. The study provides a brief description on the concept and its effect on diminishing employee dedication. Gender inequalitty also results in the form of lower performance of employees but there are approaches that can be applied to abolish the cases of gender discrimination in an organisation which has been also enlighten in the study.

2.1 The Concept of Gender Discrimination in a Workplace Dissertation Help

In the modern corporate environment, gender discrimination is an important subject which should be addressed in proper way. According to Heilman and Caleo (2018), although there are many distinct types of occupational gender discrimination, but overall it refers to when a worker or prospective employee is handled unfairly or less favourably due to their sexuality, gender identification, or personal preference. The sexuality plus another factor, such as colour or race, can both lead to workplace discrimination. From the viewpoint of Onlyassignmenthelp.com (2019), the process of favouring one gender over the other when it comes to hiring, giving special assignments, dismissal of contract, salary as well as advancement is known as gender inequality within the workforce. In most cases, women are the main victim of gender inequality. But there are some instances where men become the victim of gender inequality. 

Workplace Gender Discrmination 

Women in so many nations throughout the globe seem to find gender bias to be a worrying issue. As mentioned by Bilan et al. (2020), most women must have experienced gender inequality of some kind at some point in their lives because it is thought to be highly pervasive. Despite possessing comparable qualities to their men equivalents, women nevertheless face prejudice at the workplace in the modern world. Regardless of their education and competence levels, which may be equal to or greater than those of men, women could still make a two-thirds of whatever men do. As pointed out by Heilman and Caleo (2018), stereotyping or misunderstanding could be the cause of workplace inequality, which can be deliberate or unconscious. Inside the workforce, both women and men are constantly handled differently; in certain situations, males could be addressed in a better way than women, whereas in others, women could be regarded in a better manner than men. In 2020, full-time female workers can make 83 bucks for each dollar produced by male full-time professionals, according to a series of researches. It indicates that women are rewarded around 17% lower than males (Business Insider, 2020). Disputes among employees are also more common when gender inequality is present in the workplace. The workplace connection inside a company declines if women experience less discomfort while performing similarly as its male counterparts. For instance, men are frequently referred to as geniuses at business whereas women are typically referred to as overachievers.

Gender Discriminatory Factors in Workplace

Within a modern workplace, there are various factors which significantly influence gender inequality. As stated by Batool (2020), when contrasted to the works performed by males, women’s effort is frequently devalued. Similar experience and qualifications-required jobs seem to be underrepresented for women in comparison to men. Due to all this, effort given by women is underpaid and given less importance than that performed by males. Women are seldom included in assessments and reviews, and also some incentives tied to accomplishment are not given to them. Also Dashper (2019), argued that women frequently find it difficult to request more salary at work. Anxiety of talking about payment is a different problem that impacts women more than men, while being connected to the problem of wage inequality. Women sometimes hesitate to demand what they are valued at work since appealing for more money is perceived as being arrogant or demanding.

2.2 The Effect of Gender Discrimination on Lowering Employee Engagement and Dedication in an Organisation

Gender inequality often creates toxic workplace environments wherein conducting operational processes is really difficult. Individuals who experience discrimination frequently have lower levels of engagement as well as satisfaction, therefore consequently, they would want to go somewhere else (). Discrimination among workers is not really a desirable thing because it can inder both employee and their collaborative efficiency, which lower’s an institutions production. Moreover, gender bias within the work environment can cause unfavourable behaviours in a business, such as poor worker engagement as well as commitment to their task.

Reduced Employee Engagement

Success of an organisation depends on how gender stereotypes are differentiated, which directly affects how people view their employment situations. Today’s business faces significant difficulties with regard to administration and task distribution in the workforce (). It has raised the subject of gender fairness, something that businesses are working to accomplish. Many detrimental effects on work performance have been brought on by gender inequality. Such a notion of gender inequality has more detrimental effects on employees’ mindsets and working experiences. According to (), it has been evident from various studies that gender inequalities are one of the primary reasons behind lower employee engagement within the workplace. Corporations that practise gender inequality may experience a decline in creativity and advancement. Advancements are only conceivable when everybody in the operating environment is content with their surroundings. As per the view of (), whenever individuals’ minds are relaxed, they frequently perform better at work. A worker who has experienced gender discrimination is more prone to spend additional time reflecting on their problems, which may prevent them from brainstorming creatively and coming up with some ideas. The sufferer would then be prevented from realising their maximum capabilities. On the other hand, (), argued that employee engagement will be higher when they felt their managers treated them fairly and distributed resources equally. For instance, Starbucks uses market-based governance in an effort to foster a diverse and inclusive workplace environment. Their objectives include developing a broad ecosystem with partners, a diversified staff, increased competences, as well as an inclusive atmosphere.

Lower Commitments towards Work 

Workplace gender inequality also affects workers by reducing their commitments towards their work. As per the view of (), most sufferers of discriminatory treatment due to gender experience a decline in motivation. An employee’s poor enthusiasm would undoubtedly provide substandard output. It is indeed a reality that motivation influences the majority of employee performance. The standard of performance would undoubtedly decline if the workplace is really not favourable enough to treat employees unfairly. Moreover, as mentioned by (), lower commitments towards work will force them to absenteeism which will significantly affect the corporations productivity. Individual’s overall professional performance is adversely correlated with experienced gender inequality. It seems to have a significant direct impact on potential plans to leave the company. Therefore, it is essential for corporate organisations to establish zero-tolerance for any gender inequalities within the workplace in order to create a productive and friendly workplace environment. 

2.3 Impact of Gender Discrimination on the Performance of Employees 

Gender discrimination is a major problem in the workforce which affects the employees of an organisation in many ways. Gender discrimination happens when a women get less payment and benefit compared to men for doing the same work, being equally qualified and sometimes being more qualified than men (Lang and Kahn-Lang Spitzer, 2020). As each employee’s performance is crucial so low level of performance of women employees is one of the major effects of gender discrimination which hampers the overall productivity of an organisation.

Mental Health Issues: People who are facing gender discrimination issues most of the time suffers from stress, anxiety etc., which affects their performance hugely. According to Quadlin, (2018), women face more discrimination in the workplace compared to men and it is more prevalent in private sector organisations. For performing well an employee is needed to be happy towards their organisation and their work, but if they got discriminated on the basis of their gender despite of doing great work it decreases their motivation to work and also the morality towards their workplace (Lang and Kahn-Lang Spitzer, 2020). As per Chung (2020), people who have faced discrimination in the workplace tends to suffer more with mental health problems compared to who have not. Due to mental health issues like anxiety, stress individuals get addicted to drugs, smoking and alcohol which negatively effcts their health and also decreases their ability to perform well. 

Higher Rate of Conflicts: Gender discrimination is a type of harassment which affects the organisation by increasing conflict among the workers. Conflicts which are constructive are good for organisations but conflicts related to gender biasness can severely hamper the performance of employees, a team and also the entire department (Chung, 2020). These king of conflicts also affects the work environment of an organisation due to which employees lose their focus on the job. According to Brouwers (2020), not getting the anticipated benefits due to being a particular gender creates an unhealthy environment in the workplace and this kind of environment demotivates employees as they see people getting benefits of their gender despite of good performance. 

Lower Motivation

Gender biases in organisations creates lower motivation among the workers which results in low-performing employees. An organisation’s workforce is made of people from both genders and the performance of every employee matters for the long-term growth of the organisation (Quadlin, 2018). According to Pay Scale (2022), a perceived discrimination results in loss of focus among the employees and they often leaves eary, or arrives late, not completing tasks on time etc. As a result of gender discrimination some organisations do not offers pay hike or promotions to their women employees and also do not appreciate their work as well (Brouwers, 2020). These actions lower the motivation level of the employees of an organisation and make them reluctant to perform effectively. 

Lower Morale

In many times gender biasness also results in decreased morale of the employees which also hampers their performance. Employees who are trying to do their best for the achievements of the goals of their organisation if not appreciated for their gender create low engagement towards the organisation (Chung, 2020). Employees with decreased morale will be less focused on the achievements of organisational goals rather and they will be careless about their job. Often not getting the required respect also downs the morale of employees (Pay Scale, 2022). For example, in companies like Starbucks, some of their employees companied that instead of doing the same work, for being transgender they do not get equal respect like their co-workers and it really hurts them. As a whole gender biases in organisations result in lower commitment towards an organisation.

2.4 Approaches and Practices to Abolish Gender Discrimination 

Gender biasness is a global issue and is prevalent for a long period of time. Abolition of gender inequality is a tough fight as it is deep-rooted in the mindset of people that women are less efficient and supposed to do only the household work (Kang and Kaplan, 2019). At present women are coming out from home with knowledge and skills, so organisations are getting heterogeneous as well. In this moment any kind of gender biasness hampers the productivity of an organisation because both the male and female employees can produce the same output (Armstrong, Gleckman-Krut and Johnson, 2018). Organisations can take the following approaches to abolish gender inequality in their organisations.

Educating the Workers 

Educating the workers is the first step organisations need to take. They are required to make their employees aware of the issue of gender biasness very clearly, because they will not make any changes until they perceive gender biasness as an issue (We Forum, 2021). Organisation can give some examples or exercises to make the point clear and should also teach them how to avoid it. Along with that organisation should also make it clear that gender discrimination can happen for both genders (Armstrong, Gleckman-Krut and Johnson, 2018). According to Fernández et al (2021), employees will stand up for each other if they have increased awareness about the issue of gender biasness. Abolishen of gender biasness is not an easy task but the issue will decrease as more as it will call out by the upper management of an organisation. 

Standerdisation of Payment and Benefits

Discrimination of payment on the basis of gender is one of the most prevalent issue people faces. It has often observed women get less paid compared to women in organisations. According to Lau et al (2021), in 2022 the uncontrolled gender pay gap is 0.82 US dollars for women compared to every 1 US dollars earned by men in the US. These kind of pay gaps results in dissatisfaction of workers and organisations should effective measures to minimise it. Organisations should standardised their pay structure on the basis of knowledge, skill and performance of an employee and should also give promotions or raises to the productive employees irrespective of their gender (Kang and Kaplan, 2019). By evaluating current compensation trends organisations can take steps to make their salary structure more progressive.

Reviewing the Recruitment Process

While posting an advertisement about any recruitment people have to write an unbiased job description. Sometimes the job description of a position can be gender biased (Johansson and Herranen, 2019). Human resources personnel of an organisation should be careful while posting an advertisement for the job by avoiding any kind of word or phrase that specifies a particular gender group. Several masculine words like dominate, competitive and feminine words like nurturing, loyal etc should be avoided (Kang and Kaplan, 2019). According to Lau et al (2021), men apply for jobs where they meet only 60% of the criteria whereas women apply where they meet the criteria 100%. So while making a job description unnecessary words should be avoided which may weed out women candidates from applying.

Reconstructing the Hiring Process

It has been seen that in interviews often candidates are judged on the basis of gender. As stated by (Johansson and Herranen, 2019) more than 50% of employers get influenced by the gender of a candidate and often it results in the hiring of an underperforming employee. To reduce this kind of bias, organisations should have a set of diverse people in their interview board to effectively judge the candidate without any bias (Fernández et al., 2021). Organisations can also take the help of technologies like artificial intelligence while recruiting a candidate to avoid any unfair decisions.

2.5 Theoretical Perspective From https://onlyassignmenthelp.com/category/homework-help/ 

Gender biasness is not a new challenge in society it is prevalent in human minds from a very early period of time. Gender discrimination starts in childhood and continues throughout the life of an individual. Depending on the cause and effect of gender discrimination several theories have been developed which describe gender inequality in society. Conflict theory is a well-known theory of gender discrimination. As stated in the theory society is a struggle for dominance among social groups that compete for scarce resources (Njoki, 2021). According to conflict theory, men can be viewed as dominant and women as the subordinate group when sociologists examine gender from this perspective. The theory states social issues are created when the dominant group suppresses the subordinate group (Pennington et al., 2018). Men creates rule for success in the society which make the rise of women difficult. It is become worse for the women eho entirely depends on the male member of her family. As discussed earlier women get less paid, and also do not get benefits compared to men for the same work and due to this organisations face conflict which as a result decreases the performance of employees. Another theory related to genger discrimination is the feminist theory. It is a type of conflict theory and it mostly evaluates the discriminations in gender related issues. The theory mainly gives importance on the role of family in perpetuating male dominance (Akter, Rahman and Radicic, 2019). Generally in the patriarchal society the contribution of male is given more importance than women and the ideas and opinions of women are also considered invalid and gets marginalised. It is seen in organisations that women get less benefits despite doing equal work (Chung, 2020). Often the creative ideas of women are less appreciated and need the confirmation of men before implementing it. In organisations women often given the less important roles compared to men as society thinks them weak and inefficient. The congruity model of gender discrimination predicts the negative outcome of men and women in domains that are gender incongruent (Frontiersin, 2019). According to the model people term women as emotional and men as rational. The model basically shows that the participation of men and women in the workplace is gets affected by gender biasness. These stereotypes are build on the basis of the differential distribution of roles and responsibility in the society towards the gender. Over the years men represnts areas which needs power and strong decision making and women are regarded as weak and given the responsibilities of household works and roles with less responsibilities like caregiving (Quadlin, 2018). In organisations also this happens men mostly takes the positions in an organisations that are important and also needs strong decision making whereas women are mostly assigned to roles which are not so much important. 

2.6 Literature Gap Astronomy Assignment Help

In the study there is some gap that can not be covered due to lack of sources and evidences available. However in a small research every aspects of a topic can not be covered. There are studies available which describes about the impact of gender discrmination on the overall workforce but there are limited resources that focus on the affect of gender inequality on employee performance. The study discusses about the concept, the effect of gender discrimination and also provide some approaches to solve it. However there are scope for future study as the research does not covers the areas like what are the types of discrmination women face, if men also face discrimination or not etc.

2.7 Summary

Gender discrimination a serious problem of the society which is needed to be tackle with utmost importance. Gender discrimination as a esult hampers an organisation in many ways along with that it also effects the mental health of an individual. However there are approaches that can reduce the level of gender inequality in a organisation and generte a better productive workforce.

References

Lang, K. and Kahn-Lang Spitzer, A., (2020). Race discrimination: An economic perspective. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 34(2), pp.68-89. Accessed from: https://onlyassignmenthelp.com/custom-writing-service/write-my-assignment-for-me/get-astronomy-assignment-help-from-expert-writers/  

Quadlin, N., (2018). The mark of a woman’s record: Gender and academic performance in hiring. American Sociological Review, 83(2), pp.331-360. Accessed from: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0003122418762291 

Chung, H., (2020). Gender, flexibility stigma and the perceived negative consequences of flexible working in the UK. Social Indicators Research, 151(2), pp.521-545. Accessed from: https://onlyassignmenthelp.com/write-my-dissertation-for-me/ 

Brouwers, E.P., (2020). Social stigma is an underestimated contributing factor to unemployment in people with mental illness or mental health issues: position work and future directions. BMC psychology, 8(1), pp.1-7. Accessed from: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s40359-020-00399-0.pdf 

Pay Scale, (2022). What is the Gender Pay Gap? Available at: https://www.payscale.com/research-and-insights/gender-pay-gap/ [Accessed on 20 June 2022]

We Forum, (2021). 5 ways to improve gender equality in the workplace. Available at: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/03/gender-equality-in-the-workplace-ways-to-improve/ [Accessed on 20 June 2022]

Kang, S.K. and Kaplan, S., (2019). Working toward gender diversity and inclusion in medicine: myths and solutions. The Lancet, 393(10171), pp.579-586. Accessed from: https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S0140673618331386?token=B39A6FDE86990F16746536765DDE109520162BBD8A402A37EEEA9C6D000E2D605E995EE873DD81CC1385E49479BF5447&originRegion=eu-west-1&originCreation=20220622114650 

Armstrong, E.A., Gleckman-Krut, M. and Johnson, L., (2018). Silence, power, and inequality: An intersectional approach to sexual violence. Annual Review of Sociology, 44(1), pp.99-122. Accessed from: https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/67303405/ars_6_-with-cover-page-v2.pdf?Expires=1655902091&Signature=X2aRwOfHUg4tx37pB2jcNTFzHK~cUgcnt~AkicAmx0i-Bc-F90jSsmKBb4wIQcoJt8URplvZxschgwS4iSJvUnsdoc7~yzGv4Mkf6pHNgU4LIbGYQ-Lrap0qcZpBWae0Sp~OqWTryW26oYpoPVdOragTdIIEVcFyE3mACH369rT-bcutumOOfNECtSgxSqWOue0wf7XPQ2Oqj2ut~5Q9FFMq4k6u-wwBv~~cfSZGPZ8PSiZHYJ89Lw64Z7HcoAg67VcHMsPEgcbvyZM~no0G6uEXeZlg-rOOr8RkovOaD623oGTA-yCNIMBX5T1VwreOld6dh4oJ3ol9YmgOAQAFZg__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA 

Lau, V.W.Y., Scott, V., Warren, M.A. and Bligh, M., (2021). Moving from problems to solutions: A review of gender equality interventions at work using an ecological systems approach. Accessed from: https://psyarxiv.com/cy63n/ 

Johansson, J. and Herranen, S., (2019). The application of artificial intelligence (AI) in human resource management: Current state of AI and its impact on the traditional recruitment process. Accessed from: https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1322478/FULLTEXT01.pdf 

Fernández, R., Isakova, A., Luna, F. and Rambousek, B., (2021). Gender equality and inclusive growth. International Monetary Fund. Accessed from: https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=JrokEAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA4&dq=restructuring+the+Recruitment+Process+abolish+Gender+Discrimination+IN+ORGANISATION&ots=UTsoPFSK8x&sig=GwGhk3TfZa3L_CkfCVslIEpXPRg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false 

Njoki, W., (2021). GENDER DISCRIMINATION IN THE WORKPLACE. Journal of Gender Related Studies, 2(2), pp.9-17. Accessed from: https://carijournals.org/journals/index.php/JGRS/article/view/744/961 

Pennington, A., Orton, L., Nayak, S., Ring, A., Petticrew, M., Sowden, A., White, M. and Whitehead, M., (2018). The health impacts of women’s low control in their living environment: a theory-based systematic review of observational studies in societies with profound gender discrimination. Health & place, 51, pp.1-10. Accessed from: https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S135382921830042X?token=B8399863BC5D0918066AA60A513C7007AD8C4E79A716CF0214D3CF32C352ACA8D41F34EFA48AD9B4EBC22B06832D9419&originRegion=eu-west-1&originCreation=20220622115711 

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Frontiersin, (2019). Are the Processes Underlying Discrimination the Same for Women and Men? A Critical Review of Congruity Models of Gender Discrimination Available at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00469/full [Accessed on 20 June 2022]

Heilman, M.E. and Caleo, S., (2018). Gender discrimination in the workplace. Accessed from: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-09013-005 

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Bilan, Y., Mishchuk, H., Samoliuk, N. and Mishchuk, V., (2020). Gender discrimination and its links with compensations and benefits practices in enterprises. Entrepreneurial Business and Economics Review, 8(3), pp.189-203. Accessed from: https://eber.uek.krakow.pl/index.php/eber/article/view/944/626 

Batool, F., (2020). Gender Discrimination At Workplace And Mental Health Of Women: A Systematic Literature Review. PalArch’s Journal of Archaeology of Egypt/Egyptology, 17(8), pp.622-633. Accessed from: https://archives.palarch.nl/index.php/jae/article/download/4454/4367 

Business Insider, (2020). 7 charts that show the glaring gap between men’s and women’s salaries in the US. Available at: https://www.businessinsider.com/gender-wage-pay-gap-charts-2017-3 [Accessed on 20 June 2022]