Gender inequality in the workplace: A lack of women in leadership

Ramanah,BC0160031

Sexual harassment is a manifestation of gender inequality within an organisation. A primary

causes of gender discrimination in the workplace is that women are under-represented in
many different industries, especially in male-dominated industries such as the auto industry.
As a result, men in authority in these industries don’t always have an open, progressive view
about welcoming women, and that can create conflict, tension, and a negative work
environment. Due to the lack of equal participation of women in decision making all the
interests of the women are not taken into account without which equality, development and
peace cannot be achieved. In spite of various laws enacted it is really challenging for the
organisations to address gender equality in the workplace. According to the Prevention of
Sexual Harassment Act,2013 it is mandatory for organisations to define their sexual
harassment policies, prevention mechanisms, procedures and service rules. It is also
necessary for the organisation to establish internal complaint cell, hold gender sensitization
and awareness activities to prevent gender inequality in the workplace. And lack of all these
mandates can lead to cancellation of an organisation’s license to operate. it is found from
various researches that companies with more number of women on their board have better
corporate governance and ethical behaviour. Various studies also found that women leaders
improve a country’s GDP and lead to the welfare of future generations. Institutional
discrimination against women also occurs in performance evaluations that are used to
determine organizational rewards (e.g., compensation), opportunities (e.g., promotion, role
assignments), and punishments (e.g., termination). Gender discrimination can be formalized
into HR policy if criteria used by organizational decision makers to evaluate job performance
systematically favour men over women. In some of the organisation institutional discrimination
can be present within HR policies set out to determine employee selection, performance
evaluations, and promotions. These policies can have significant effects on women’s careers.
However, HR policy can only be used to guide HR-related decision-making. In reality, it is
organizational decision-makers, that is, managers, supervisors, HR personnel who, guided by
policy, must evaluate job candidates or employees and decide how policy will be applied to
individuals. Personal discrimination against women by organizational decision makers can
occur in each stage of HR-related decision-making regarding recruitment and selection, role
assignments, training opportunities, pay, performance evaluation, promotion, and termination.
Men have a faster ascent in organizational hierarchies than women due to under promotion of
women this is an discrimination by organisational decision makers thereby denying women the
power hierarchies in the organisation.

Recommendations for creating an atmosphere of gender equality at workplace

• Equal participation of women is necessary in decision making for considering all their
interests i.e. they should be involved in HR-related decision-making, and the
enactment of HR policies and decisions.
• The head of all organisations must ensure that all the mandates associated with
Prevention of Sexual Harassment Act,2013 are fulfilled by the organisation.
• Gender equality awareness camps should be held more often so as to create awareness
among all the workers of the organisation.
• Appropriate complaint forum should be established in the organisation so as to redress
any complaint associated with sexual harassment.
• Pay gap should not be gender biased.
• Recruitment policy in the organisations must be revised and it should ensure that equal
importance are given to women during recruitment.
• Leadership roles should also be assigned to women thereby avoiding all the
stereotypes which form the base for gender discrimination at the workplace.
• Establishment of child care facilities.