Attitudes Towards Women in the Workplace

This assignment examines the complex issue of attitudes towards women in the workplace. It delves into both positive and negative perceptions, analyzing factors such as religious beliefs and societal expectations that shape these attitudes. The analysis draws upon secondary data and literature reviews to highlight the challenges women face in securing leadership positions and achieving equality in the professional sphere.

Running head: EXPLORING EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY
Exploring Equality and Diversity
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Authors note

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Aim and objectives of the secondary data analysis
Aim of this analysis
Finding the factors affecting attitude towards woman at workplace and impact on the
women employees.
Objectives
1. Fact finding: In this secondary data analysis we will try to find out the facts that
can impact on the attitude and behaviour of the other employees towards the women
employees at the workplace.
2. Analysis of the results from the different sources such as journals and web portals.
3. Providing recommendations in order to improve the attitude towards the women.
Part A: Secondary Data Analysis
General Attitude towards women at the workplace
The attitude plays a vital role on the behaviour of an individual. In both the developed
and developing countries women access to the workforce/workplace are restricted by the
cultural values. This is also limited due to familial limitations, Studies on the general attitude
concerning on the women at the work place shows that, the world economy and stringency
also effects on the attitude of the employees at the workplace.
Attitude of supervisor
As mentioned and briefed in the different web portals and different journals, at any
workplace a supervisor of the employees or team may have generalized attitude for a group
or for an individual who are categorized by some certain attributes (Mylearning.org 2018).
This leads to generalized concept of the superior may affect the supervisor’s behaviour

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towards a female employee and his way of treating a member of that specific group (with any
one of the group he or she comes into contact). The concept may lead to preferential
treatment for a woman employee or discriminatory, exclusionary actions against the group or
individual from that group.
At the work places Women employees are still under rated at different levels in the
corporate organizations of different industries. According to the different researchers, it is
assumed that, this happens because women are leaving organizations at higher rates than
compared to men (Abdullah Ismail and Nachum 2016). Some other researchers suggest that
this happens due to the difficulties faced by the women employees in balancing family and
work.
Main factors impacting the attitude
There are mainly three factors that influences and leads to the gender bias and
segregation between the employees depending on the gender. These three principle factors
prompt sexual orientation isolation in access to monetary open doors among business people,
and wage specialists: sexual orientation contrasts in time utilization (essentially coming about
from contrasts in performing duties timely), sexual orientation contrasts in access to gainful
sources of info (especially in case of making important decisions related to credit), and sexual
orientation contrasts originating from advertise and institutional disappointments at the
workplace (Pfau-Effinger 2017). Since the elements causing isolation are regular crosswise
over parts of financial action, therefore it can incorporate the examination of the
entrepreneurial, and wage segments inside a typical structure.
Results of negative attitude towards woman
The negative and underestimating attitude towards the woman at the adversely
impacts the desired output of a particular organization, thus leading to the organizations not

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accomplishing their pre-determined economic and performance objectives (Wgea 2018).
Most of the researchers it is important to minimize the attitude gap between the men and
women is desired if organizations need to perform better. With the increasing number of
women entering in the workforce throughout the world and reaching the higher executive
positions in the respective organizations is also contributing to the change in the negative
attitude of the other employees towards the women employees/ colleagues at the workplace.
The advantages of positive attitude towards the women at work are numerous (Abdullah,
Ismail and Nachum 2016). These positive results can incorporate more powerful
collaboration between the team members, better outputs of the undertaken projects, better job
satisfaction, more satisfied clients.
According to the records collected by the researchers Abdullah Ismail and Nachum
(2016) from over 30000 employees over 30 organizations, they found that, the woman
employees at the work places are disadvantaged due to the culture and practices that affects
the other employee’s attitude to their colleague woman employees.
According to their research, at the entry level or midlevel of any organization women
and men share similar aspirations for promotion to the next level, but senior-level women are
less interested in advancing than senior-level men. In addition, at every stage woman are less
eager than men to become a top executive in the organization.
As mentioned in the reports Pfau-Effinger (2017) in it is found that, generally the
women are paid 77% of the wage that a man earns at the same employee level. Moreover,
there are only 12% women in the boards of the organization. In addition to that, it can be
said that culture, in any case, as a constituting some portion that influences of human attitude
has not been that unmistakable in especially monetary examinations that look at female work
crosswise over nations. This may to some degree be ascribed to the many-sided quality of the

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term. It comprises of express and certain examples of and for conduct. Traditional, religious
ideas, i.e. thoughts that are generally determined and chosen and particularly their appended
esteems are of specific significance. Culture may accordingly, from one viewpoint, be
considered as results of activity however it might, then again, additionally be considered as
conditioning components of impacting an individual’s attitude as well as behaviours.
The authors recommended that in order to improve the attitude towards the women
employees or workers at the workplace it is important to a gender related strategy, policy,
activities, their implementation guidelines, and indicators. In addition to that, it is also
suggested to provide staff development programs as well as mentoring for women
employee’s/staff members so that the female employee can better compete for higher
management jobs/executive positions in the organizations.
Part C: Literature Review and Reflection
Literature Review
Attitude towards the women at the workplace is one of the most influential factors
when gender discrimination and inequality is considered. Even though there is increase in
the women’s participation in paid employment in the last few decades but the attitude
towards these working women has not been changed too much (Goffee and Scase 2015).
Most of the researchers mainly used the binary responses for the following questions,
(1) For a, it is their responsibility to do job and to earn money on the other hand the
main responsibility and job is to look after the family and home
(2) Family life suffers in case a woman from the family employed to a full-time job.
The respondents were asked if they agree or disagree to these questions.

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Some other researchers also collected data on the similar questions using Likert scale which
ranged from “Strongly agree” to “Strongly disagree”.
According to the researchers it is important to have a positive attitude towards the
woman employees which will help and encourage them to progress in their career and to have
higher executive positions at the workplace.
As opined by the researchers, today the women look for careers not only earning
money and livelihood; but also for their personal growth, identification and self-esteem, self-
actualization (Bongiorno, Bain and David 2014). The working woman not just focuses on
supplementing the family earnings but also to make a bursting use of their skills and talents in
order to secure for themselves as well as their family. This includes their desire to provide
best of education to their children, nourishment as well as cultural life.
As opined by the researchers Goffee and Scase (2015), in their paper they stated that,
even though the gender gap at the workplaces has been narrowed and participation of the
women at the workplaces has been increased but the difference of attitude towards a woman
employees is still persistent in both developing and developed countries like UK. In addition
to that, gender differences in routine experiences at the workplace and salary/ wage levels
still persist. Till date large proportion of women and men most men back up the outdated
division of labour between the men and women employees of the organization. According to
them differences in salaries justifiable according to the gender which is mainly supported by
the negative attitude toward the women employees at the workplace. According to this large
proportion childcare and family are being the main the responsibilities for the women.
According to the other researchers like Arpino Esping-Andersen and Pessin, (2015)
the religion is another factor that influences the attitude and behaviour of an employee
towards a woman employee or colleague. Other researchers found that, other employees

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working at the same workplace consider the women emotionally weaker compared to the
men as the women find difficulties in handling stresses at the workplace. In addition to that,
according to the researchers Bongiorno, Bain and David (2014), women are also stressed out
due to the other elements in the workplace scenarios as far as different components or
elements at the work place, for example, absence of job security, interpersonal relations at
workplace, social insurance, uncertainty, conflicts with superiors and job responsibilities,
absence of autonomy, hierarchy of the organization, work place environment, profession
prospects, work and family balance, low wage, disproportionate workload distribution
among the employees at the same work place and so forth. In addition to that, women also be
likely to earn ominously less amount as salary when compared with men in same occupations
and same levels of employment. Women also found the high-level promotions difficult
compared to men.
Again, in case of having supervisory positions, it is found that there is mostly positive
attitude towards the women managers. Sex of the of the supervisors or managers was found
to be statistically significant in determining the supportive nature of the supervisors for the
employees at the work place. Women managers gets positive feedback as female are
considered more supportive to the team or to the workforce at the supervisory positions.
Recommended by the authors like Goffee and Scase (2015), Gender equality at the
workplace can be achieved when it will be possible for everyone to enjoy and access the
same resources, rewards as well as opportunities regardless of their gender. Even though it is
not possible that every individual will receive similar rewards. The reason behind this can be
stated as; different managers allow different benefits for their employees in which the gender
equality can be used as the framework to change the negative attitude of others towards
women at workplace.

7EXPLORING EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY
As the result of influence of religion that impacts on the behaviour of an individual, it
is found by the authors, that an employed woman is not only discouraged but also
disapproved by the other employees in the workplace (mainly belongs to some specific
religious societies and communities). In those societies, prevalent attitude and general
conceptions is that a husband or a father is undignified if they live on the earning of their
daughters and their wives respectively (Abdullah, Ismail and Nachum 2016). This attitude
towards the women colleagues are responsible for discouraging the qualified women in
different work areas.
Reflection
The main objective of this secondary data analysis and literature review is to find out
the reasons behind the positive and negative attitudes towards the women employees at the
workplace. In different reaches it is mostly negative attitude towards the general women
employees as well as towards the women managers and leadership positions. According to a
study it is, found that women employees occupies only 11%- 15 % per cent of the top
managerial positions throughout the world. From the above analysis of the collected data and
literature review it is evident that there are moderate changes in the attitude of other gender
towards the woman at workplace.
Despite the effect and influence of the religious factors, there are several indicators
that states that the current situation would change in the favour of woman in the coming
future. This may be improved with the increased educational and employment opportunities
for women. Our research found that attitudes towards the women at different work places
has been improved over the last two decades or so a universally.

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References
Abdullah, S.N., Ismail, K.N.I.K. and Nachum, L., 2016. Does having women on boards
create value? The impact of societal perceptions and corporate governance in emerging
markets. Strategic Management Journal, 37(3), pp.466-476.
Arpino, B., Esping-Andersen, G. and Pessin, L., 2015. How do changes in gender role
attitudes towards female employment influence fertility? A macro-level analysis. European
Sociological Review, 31(3), pp.370-382.
Bongiorno, R., Bain, P.G. and David, B., 2014. If you're going to be a leader, at least act like
it! Prejudice towards women who are tentative in leader roles. British Journal of Social
Psychology, 53(2), pp.217-234.
Goffee, R. and Scase, R., 2015. Women in Charge (routledge Revivals): The Experiences of
Female Entrepreneurs. Routledge.
Mylearning.org. (2018). Women's Rights - The Equal Pay Debate - Part of the front cover of
the pamphlet Equal Work Deserves Equal Pay by Mavis Tate. [online] Available at:
http://www.mylearning.org/womens-rights--the-equal-pay-debate/images/1-915/ [Accessed 9
Jan. 2018]
Pfau-Effinger, B., 2017. Development of culture, welfare states and women's employment in
Europe. Routledge.
Wgea.gov.au. (2018). About workplace gender equality. [online] Available at:
https://www.wgea.gov.au/learn/about-workplace-gender-equality [Accessed 9 Jan. 2018].