Equity and Equality in Workplaces - Literature review Example

Equity and Equality in Workplaces Contents Introduction 3 Main Body 3 Critical Analysis of Literature Review 3 Recent Survey Literature Analysis 4 Empirical Evidence 6 Gender Discrimination Cases in Modern Corporations 8 Conclusion 9 Reference List 10 Introduction The long run economic prosperity of an organization substantially depends on the extent of its workplace diversity and equality. The governing authorities of a contemporary organization must not entertain any type of discriminations between its employees on basis of caste, creed, religion and sex. The workplace productivity and harmony is much superior in organizations that offer equality and on the contrary is highly problematic in a firm that encourages unequal treatments between its employees (Leinonen, 2012). Among all sorts of discriminations, the most crucial negativity is incongruity relating to gender equality in workplace. A woman even in the current epoch needs to go through several organizations hazards in workplace if they really desire to succeed in their professional career. Such unequal treatments practiced in contemporary organizations are highly unethical and immoral. This paper will make a critical analysis of several scholarly articles relating to this matter. It is highly rational to critical analyze this issue because if development process of a firm is not engendered, then it prosperity is endangered in the long run (Leinonen, 2012). Main Body Critical Analysis of Literature Review Long back it was claimed by of all the wilderness of human unawareness, perhaps the most spendthrift and precious to human development has been the waste of the distinguishing authorities of womanhood after the child-bearing age (Leinonen, 2012). It was also found that that both vertical and horizontal segregations among men and women labour force in organizations exists in favour of men workers and against to the female employees (Poutanen and Kovalainen, 2013). They also stated that in work-family arrangements, in labour markets or while making the choice of professions, gender related inequalities are common characteristic features. In 1989, a special study introduced on American military organization showed that the opportunities offered to women were less than the aggregate opportunities provided to men (Swan, 2010). It was claimed that in most of the workplaces in the contemporary era, gender wage gap is highly persistent workplace negativity in most of the nations (Swan, 2010). Women are subjected to several occupational hazards in their professional life. The midlife and older women working in various corporate organizations are subjected high job attrition at times of crisis and problems in the external world (Aghazadeh, 2004). Like the recent global financial crisis have significantly lowered the level of women employments relative to that of men in most of the workplaces. Recent Survey Literature Analysis A survey of 2010 claimed that 53% of men claimed to possess required job securities (Smith, 2013). However, only 43% of women claimed that they had proper job security during recessionary trails in the market (Smith, 2013). It was also claimed by Hasson in 1999, that organizations that experience lower level of gender inequalities are more successful in the long run than the companies that offer less equality to women and men workers (Smith, 2013). Along with higher inequality in terms of job security, differences in wage payments between men and women workers is a long standing discrepancy reflecting gender inequalities in workplaces. Moreover, it is also noted that the level of inequality in terms of wage payments between men and women increases with their age, against the favour of women (Swan, 2010). A survey result showed that among the young employees (16 to 19 years) in organizations, on average the wage gap between men and women is only 5% (Berry and Bell, 2012). However, when the salaries of employees between ages 35 to 44 years are considered, it is found that women earn only 80% of what men of same age group earns (Sayce, 2012). The income level of Elder Economic Security Standard Index is higher than the income earned by most women in the workplaces (Khoreva, 2011). High degree of inequality in terms of security and wage benefits increases the level of mental illness for women workers in the workplaces. Ambitious women workers are often subjected to socioeconomic discriminations in workplaces and such atrocities generates high depression on such female workers and ultimately makes them less productive in workplaces (Stoica, 2010). Racial and ethnic discriminations are also common in most of the workplaces in the contemporary era. The level of workplace welfare facilities are offered less to female workers receiving lower incomes than the male workers. With growth in the degree of commercialization, the employments generated in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields have significantly increased. However, the proportions of female employees are less in such fields than the male employees (Eve, 2007). The scope of entrepreneurship offered to existing higher female workers in contemporary organizations are also less than the opportunities provided to male workers (Bull and Compton, 2006). Traditionally workplace inequality between men and women are explained in terms of biological perspectives. It is analysed that due to factors like maternity leave, childbearing and child care women are relatively less productive in workplaces than their male counterparts. Such analysis claims that a variation in career outcomes and workplace opportunities between men and women occurs due to such factors. However, in reality initial biased wage, job security offers and cultural discriminations faced by women in workplaces are substantially responsible for making women less productive than men in contemporary organizations (Eve, 2007). Empirical Evidence The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have introduced in one of its report that women, that represents half of total global human capital are still underutilized resources in most of the economies. It should be analyzed that the long run sustainable growth and development of an organization or a country significantly depends on the extent up to which women joins the labour force in the market and degree up to which their skills and qualifications are exploited in workplace (OECD, 2008). It is analyzed that the negativities caused by the declining fertility rates and ageing population strengths experienced in most of the OECD nations in the current era can be offset with the essence of increased women workforce in organizations. Figure 1: Gender Inequalities in Labour Force across Nations (Source: OECD, 2008) The above graph clearly shows that the degree of workforce inequalities in terms of gender (biased in favour of males) exists across all the nations in the world. However, from the above graph it can be claimed that economic progress of a nation (measured in terms of Gross Domestic Product) is directly proportional to its women labour force participation rate. Figure 2: Gender Wage Remuneration Gaps (Source: OECD, 2008) From the above statistics it can also be claimed that wage differentials strongly persists in the workplaces in most of the nations. It is estimated that the wage differentials of African American Women and White men is 30% (OECD, 2008). At the same time, the wages of Latin American women are on an average 39% than the wages received by White American men (OECD, 2008). Figure 3: Percentage of Women Income lying under or above the Elder Index (Source: OECD, 2008) It can be claimed from the above graph that the income level of most women from different cultural backgrounds are less than the standard level introduced by the Eder Index. Gender Discrimination Cases in Modern Corporations The persistent practices of gender decimations in most of the workplaces in the current era marks the relevance of the literature reviewed. In 2013 the Bank of America was found to pay a penalty of $ 39 million for its gender bias case (Micgeehan, 2013). The company had to pay the money to its female workers who worked in its Merrill Lynch brokerage operation. The case claimed that the organization did not offer appropriate career opportunities for these women employees (Micgeehan, 2013). It is also found that the famous multinational retailing firm of WalMart provides biased promotional and pay offerings to its male employees (Greenhouse, 2003). Five women were found to win over a gender discrimination lawsuit against Department of Fire of the New York’s Emergency Medical Service. The company was accused of not providing adequate career opportunities to these women and had to pay a sum of $ 1.25 million to the winning women who had filed the case (Goldstein, 2013). Thus, the above empirical analysis proves the argument of the literature analysis that women do face several occupational hazards in workplaces in the course of their professional lives. Conclusion From the above analysis, it can be claimed that women in the contemporary world faces several types of organizational hazards while shaping up their professional careers. Organizational hazards, that exists in the contemporary world and is strongly related to gender related inequalities in terms wage inequalities, job securities, promotional facilities and socioeconomic respects. Such problems faced by women in their workplaces have significantly lowered their productivities and efficacies at work. This has automatically created a strong negative impact on the long term growth and profit generations of such organizations. In the long run, the growth of an economy is substantially influenced by the growth of the domestic companies in its economy. Thus, such gender biasness in the workplaces should not be encouraged in the long run to assure substantial national income growth of an economy. After all, a large proportion of human capital in a nation is comprised of women workers and unequal treatments offered to them would generate severe atrocities to a nation in the long run (Messmer, 2011). Reference List Aghazadeh, S. M., 2004. Managing workforce diversity as an essential requisite for improving organizational performance. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 53(6), pp.521 – 53. Berry, D. and Bell, M. P., 2012. Inequality in organizations: stereotyping, discrimination, and labour law exclusions. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 31(3), pp. 236 – 248. Bull, M. and Compton, H., 2006. Business practices in social enterprises. Social Enterprise Journal, 1 (2), pp. 42-60. Eve, A., 2007. Development of project management systems. industrial and commercial training. 39 (2), pp. 85-90. Goldstein, J., 2013. 5 settle gender bias suit against fire department. The New York Times, 14 June. Greenhouse, S., 2003. WalMart faces lawsuit over sex discrimination. The New York Times, 16 February. Khoreva, V., 2011. Gender pay gap and its perceptions. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 30(3), pp.233 – 248. Leinonen, M., 2012. Challenging and reinforcing gender boundaries at work. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 31(7), pp.633 – 645. Messmer, M., 2011. Motivating employees for dummies. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Micgeehan, P., 2013. Bank of America to pay $39 million in gender bias case. The New York Times, 6 September. OECD, 2008. Gender and Sustainable Development. [pdf] OECD. Available at: [Accessed 4 March 2014]. Poutanen, S. and Kovalainen, A., 2013. Gendering innovation process in an industrial plant – revisiting tokenism, gender and innovation. International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, 5(3), pp.257 – 274. Sayce, S., 2012. Celebrating Joan Ackers contribution to theorising gender and organisation. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 31(3), pp.205 – 207. Smith, L., 2013. Working hard with gender: Gendered labour for women in male dominated occupations of manual trades and information technology (IT). Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 32(6), pp.592 – 603. Stoica, M., 2010. Occupational stress management. Management in health, 14(2), pp. 7-9. Swan, E., 2010. A testing time, full of potential? Gender in management, histories and futures", Gender in Management: An International Journal, 25(8), pp.661 – 675. Read More