Gender Discrimination in the Workforce PDF

Gender Discrimination in the Workforce

Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
Purpose of the research.....................................................................................................................3
Scope of the research.........................................................................................................................3
Research aim.....................................................................................................................................3
Research objectives...........................................................................................................................3
Research questions............................................................................................................................4
Rationale of the research...................................................................................................................4
1. What is the issue?......................................................................................................................4
2. Why it is an issue?.....................................................................................................................4
3. What is the issue now?..............................................................................................................4
4. How this study will help in future..............................................................................................5
Literature Review..................................................................................................................................6
Methodology.........................................................................................................................................8
Research philosophy..........................................................................................................................8
Research approach............................................................................................................................8
Research design.................................................................................................................................8
Data collection and Data analysis techniques...................................................................................8
Ethical consideration and research limitation....................................................................................9
Research and findings..........................................................................................................................10
Conclusions..........................................................................................................................................17
Recommendations...............................................................................................................................18
References...........................................................................................................................................19

Introduction
Purpose of the research
Gender discrimination and equality in workforce has given rise to many policies in advanced
industrial countries including the United Kingdom, all aimed at controlling gender inequality
regarding recruitment, promotion and salary (Barak, 2016). Yet this issue in the workplace
persist. On the other hand, gender discrimination is any execution, preference, execution,
distinction, which disadvantages an individual or group, as compared with others in similar
workplace situations. The causes underlying this gender discrimination might be diverse, like
race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, sex, age, language and even disability. This study is
based on exploring the issue of gender inequality in different workplace as well as its
influence on the satisfaction, motivation, enthusiasm and stress level of workers.
Scope of the research
According to Cotter (2017), gender studies in relation to the gender discrimination in the
workplaces have developed over the past few years. Its roots have expanded not just in the
scholarly areas but also in the areas of economic and social area. Over the few decades, it has
been seen that while the participation rate of women in the workplace and their level of
education are developing, there are still some major factors that are dragging back them more
than men. Even treatment of the disable persons at the workplaces also counted into the
gender discrimination studies. With this research, understanding regarding the gender
discrimination and knowledge about how employees should be treated by the management
will be developed along with the insight about the actual gender discrimination sceneries in
organizations.
Research aim
The aim of the study is listed below;
To investigate and research on the ongoing practices of gender discrimination in the
workforces and how to reduce them in the future.
Research objectives
All the research objectives are listed below;
 To investigate the actual scenario of gender discrimination in the workplaces
 To study the reasons of gender discriminations in the workforce
 To identify what are the consequences of gender discrimination on the workforce

Research questions
The research questions are described below;
 What is the actual scenario of gender discrimination in the workplaces?
 What are the main reasons of gender inequalities at the workplaces?
 What are the consequences of gender discrimination on the workforce?
Rationale of the research
1. What is the issue?
According to the current release from the “World Economic Forum”, the “Gender Gap
Report 2016” suggest that over the past ten years, the international gender gap across
financial and educational opportunity as well as politics has decreased by around 4%, at the
same time the financial gap has closed near by 3% (Gibson, 2017). On the other hand,
extrapolating this course underscores that it would take the world another 118 years or until
the year 2133 to close the financial gap entirely. According to Hu (2018), the gender
discrimination is specifically blatant in the working places. For example, on average women
are more likely to involve in part-time jobs, be employed in averagely low-paid jobs and not
taken on management positions.
2. Why it is an issue?
As per the observation of Bratton and Gold (2017), the phrase “Gender Discrimination”
outlines socially-constructed responsibilities, duties, which societies consider proper for
women and men. It is hard to explain why gender discrimination becomes a huge concern
nowadays. It might be the educational rights, political, economic and social roles of women
have been developed in last few years. Therefore, equal opportunities and scopes in the
workforce and professional responsibilities has become a real concern (Hakim, 2016).
3. What is the issue now?
Currently, it could be said that there is some progress initiated for the gender discrimination
in the workplaces. While numbers of women and disable persons remain small, it can be said
that attention into this matter has brought further changes and causes workers to both use the
resources along with make positive changes (Sanford, 2017). Concern in the recruitment
process, division of labour, payment methods and promotion have been seen and some
positive changes also happen in the last few years into this area.

4. How this study will help in future
Research and studying this area will help in enabling effective steps to change the situation
further. Organizational management could be able to identify the exact areas that need to be
modified if gender discrimination in the workforce required to be minimized and equal rights
for men, women and disable persons could be restored effectively in the future.

Literature Review
Current scenario of Gender discrimination in UK
The issues related to gender discrimination, pay and sexual discrimination in the workforce
are at the front of public consciousness nowadays. According to Rhode and Ricca (2014), it
has been noticed that currently, in United Kingdom, there has been close public scrutiny of
the British Broadcasting Corporation in light of a seeming pay disparity among women and
men along with equal payment claims threatened against the leading retailer Tesco based on
the fact that Women have been paid less than men for according to the working hours that is
reported could amount around liability of 4 million or $5.5 billion. On the other hand,
Higgins and Regan (2016) have pointed out the fact that main focus if turning recently to
organizations reporting their gender pay gap, with a 2019 deadline looming for private sector
as well as voluntary employers with around 250 workers or more than that to public their
reports.
Reasons of gender discrimination in the workforce
As per the opinion of Flynn et al. (2017), apart from the root causes of gender discrimination
indebted in the social construction, a primary reasons of gender discrimination in the working
force is that women are often under-represented in various industries, specifically in male-
dominated sectors like the auto industry. As a consequence, men in the authority in these
sectors do no always have a progressive, positive view of welcoming others sex, and that
creates conflict, negative working conditions (Schultz, 2016). On the other side, Collins
(2015) has said that gender discrimination, however, does not present in the male-dominated
sectors, it is also cropping up in other sectors where male employees consider their female
workers are less capable of performing the same duties they have. Unlike women, men
employees are also become victim of gender discrimination such as in many organizations or
in specific jobs, males are unwelcomed as per their rules.
Impacts of gender discrimination on working force
Landy and Conte (2016) have investigated the fact that gender discrimination might seem
like a minor challenge in the working force, but the truth is that this develops conflicts and
negative working culture in many organizations. When an organization either directly or
objectively portraits the work culture devalues the contribution of female workers, the focus
changes from performing every day tasks to conflicts made by women, which decide to take

actions against discriminatory functions. On the other hand, another influence of gender
inequality is that all the female or male workers will feel less motivated to perform their
responsibilities that in turn can affect on the productivity level of the organization (Littleton,
2018). Finally, it should be mentioned hare that if the gender discrimination cases become
critical, then organizations can face serious legal compliances as per the governmental rules
of anti-discrimination law in workplaces.

Methodology
Research philosophy
Among the available research philosophies, the positivism research philosophy has been
selected here. This philosophy will help in analysing the information in an objective way and
depends on the quantifiable observations of the scenario, which lead to statistical evaluation
(Saunders et al., 2015). On the other hand, the Positivism research philosophy adheres to the
concept of “factual” understanding has gained with the help of observations, involving
measurements that are trustworthy (Dudovskiy, 2016). This research philosophy has been
helpful in investigating factual data regarding gender discrimination in workforce and what
are the impacts of this phenomena.
Research approach
There are three main research approaches such as “Deductive research approach, abductive
research and Inductive research approach”. Among these three research approaches,
deductive research approach has been chosen in this study. This research approach is helpful
in explaining by means of hypotheses that could be derived from the propositions of the
theory (Sekaran and Bougie, 2016). This research approach has helped in designing a
research strategy to examine the hypothesis of the study.
Research design
There are “exploratory, explanatory and descriptive research design”, among which
explanatory research design has been selected for this study as it has helped in generating
results, which are practically useful in reaching to the conclusions and decision-making
process (Lewis, 2015). In this kind of research design information and objectives
requirements need to be defined clearly. Therefore, it could be said that “explanatory or
conclusive research design” has been helpful in pointing out the actual facts and analysing
them to find out a constructive result relating to gender discrimination in workforce (Meyers
et al., 2016).
Data collection and Data analysis techniques
For this study “Primary data collection process” has been selected to find out the results.
Under the primary data collection process both the qualitative and quantitative data collection
processes have been performed (Palinkas et al., 2015). The quantitative data collection
process has been conducted through survey method and the sample size was 50 employees
from different workplaces (Silverman, 2018). On the other hand, the qualitative data

collection process has been conducted through interviews of two HR managers from
respected organizations.
Ethical consideration and research limitation
During the research protection of privacy of all the participants have been preserved along
with adequate level of confidentiality has been restored regarding the research data. No
information has been used for any commercial purposes (Holloway and Galvin, 2016).
During the research, important research limitations that have been faced are the economic
constraints, ineffective time management and managing objectivity while the survey and
interview process. On the other hand, lack of previous studies in this area is also another
limitation that produces a constraint gaining effective secondary information (Corbin et al.,
2014).

Research and findings
Quantitative analysis
1. What is your gender?
Options No of
respondents
Total respondents Response %
Male 30 50 60
Female 20 50 40
Table 1: Gender of respondents
(Source: Created by the Learner)
30
20
Gender of respondents
Male Female
Analysis: From the table of gender ratio of respondents, it has been understood that male
candidates have participated more than females resulting 60% of male and 40% of female
candidates.
2. What is your age?
Options No of
respondents
Total respondents Response %
From 20-25 years 10 50 20
From 26-31 years 15 50 30

From 32-37 years 5 50 10
Above 40 20 50 40
Table 2: Age of respondents
(Source: Created by the Learner)
10
15
5
20
Age of respondents
From 20-25 years From 26-31 years From 32-37 years Above 40
Analysis: From the results of the above table and graph, it has been noticed that most of the
employees are above 40 years old and the second major group is from 26 to 31. Young
employee ratio is very low. There is a need to recruit more fresh employees who have an
analytical, open and creative mindset towards working with others.
3. How long you have been working?
Options No of
respondents
Total
respondents
Response %
Last 3 months 5 50 10
Last 1 year 12 50 24
More than 2 years 15 50 30
More than 5 years 18 50 36

Table 3: Working experience of candidates
(Source: Created by the learner)
5
12
15
18
Working experience of candidates
Last 3 months Last 1 year More than 2 years More than 5 years
Analysis: From the above results of the survey regarding job experiences of candidates, it has
been understood that most of the candidates have either more than 5 years and 2 years of
working experiences in their respective jobs. This is an effective sign than both the female
and male employees have been providing an opportunity to develop their career prospect in
the corporate, private and public industries.

4. According to you, the conditions of taking leaves from the organization are worthy
or not?
Options No of
respondents
Total respondents Response %
Yes 30 50 60
No 20 50 40
Table 4: Responses regarding conditions of taking leaves
(Source: Created by the learner)
30
20
Responses regarding conditions of taking leaves
Yes No
Analysis: From the above survey reports, it has been understood that many organizations are
legalizing policies for taking leaves from the workplaces for both the female and male
employees. Apart from the parental leaves many organizations have seen permitting the
menstruation leaves for their female employees once in a month. Among the candidates
surveyed, around 60% have showed satisfaction with the current leave structure in many
organizations.
5. Are you satisfied with the payment structure of your organization?
Options No of Total respondents Response %

respondents
Yes 15 50 30
No 35 50 70
Table 5: satisfaction level of the employees in current payment structures
(Source: Created by the learner)
15
35
satisfaction level of the employees in current
payment structures
Yes No
Analysis: From the above results of the survey it has been accounted that more than half of
the respondents are not satisfied with the payment structure in their companies. Around 70
per cent of the respondents have showed negative reactions towards their payment structure.
This indicates to the fact that in case of payment for employees, discrimination has been
practiced by the authorities despite the equal payment rights of the employees.
6. Do you agree with the equal responsibility rights among men and women in
workplaces?
Options No of
respondents
Total
respondents
Response %
Yes 10 50 20
No 35 50 70
Neutral 5 50 10

Table 6: Insight of equal responsibility rights among men and women in workplaces
(Source: Created by the learner)
10
35
5
Insight of equal responsibility rights among men and
women in workplaces
Yes No Neutral
Analysis: From the above graph and table, it has been understood that currently, in many
industries, practice of equal responsibilities is not performed effectively by the employers.
Many times, it has been seen that female employees are given the tasks that require less
physical power or less intellectual capabilities. Among the 50 respondents around 70% of
them have said that this type of discrimination has been noticed in the working places and
10% of the respondents showed positivity towards equal responsibilities I organizations,
which proves the fact that gender discrimination is being performed with the organizations
even in case of equal duties.

Qualitative analysis
1. What are the main causes of gender discrimination that directly affects the
productivity level?
According to the first Human Resource manager, the main causes of gender discrimination is
rooted in the construction of the working culture itself. Form the primeval stage employees
should be trained to respect others and a collaborative working culture should be developed,
otherwise, it could directly affect the productivity level of the company.
As per the second manager, one of the important causes of gender discrimination is rigid
mentality and behavioural patterns of the higher authority towards employees. These reasons
have a direct influence on the negative working environment and developing employee
resignations. These factors have direct impact on the productivity level of the company.
2. How gender inequality can be minimized with the help of effective HR policies?
As per the first manager, organizational authorities and the human resource team should
consult on recruiting equal male and female employees in their organizations and make it a
policy so that there will be no chance of male employees thinking that female employees are
inferior to them in case of numbers and abilities.
On the other hand, the second manager has said that the human resource department should
modify their payment structure and compensation method for each female and male candidate
as per their experience and responsibilities and as soon as possible try to implement them
effectively. These policies could help the employees to compete a healthy battel and develop
effective learning and working environment that eventually lead to productivity level of the
company.

Conclusions
Therefore, from the above discussion regarding gender discrimination in the workforce and
workplace practices currently in different industries, it has been seen that there are many
loopholes in the current human resource practices for gender discrimination. Organizational
management needs to be careful for some matters. The foremost concern is changing the
payment structure in the organizations. According to the equal payment rights of the workers,
all the employees should be paid equally despite their sexual orientation and race. It is the
duty of management to provide same level of pay for their female and male employees. The
second concern should be about the providing equal responsibilities to the male and female
employees. Currently, it has been seen that education level of females in developing and
developed countries are rising day by day. Thus, there are many females have automotive
abilities with the higher management knowledge in professional life. Therefore, recruiters
should consider females to be appropriate for duties in the automotive industries like the male
candidates. On the other hand, the third area that the managers should be concerned of
making the working hours and compensation structure more flexible for both male and
female employees so that their motivation level could be retained and employee retention
could be effectively increased. However, concern about the male gender discrimination is
also a matter of concern. Organizations, should provide opportunity to the male candidates
also in the beauty sector, hospitality sector to communicate with the employees and leave the
concept that only female employees have the better knowledge regarding beauty products.

Recommendations
From the above analysis and research as well as predicaments, it has been finding out that
there should be some steps taken by the organizational management to minimize the gender
discriminations in workforce. Recommendations are listed below;
 Organizational management could try to develop workplace diversity by limiting
experience needs for some of the professional positions. This solution could help in
fighting gender discrimination as women who wish to re-enter the working force after
taking a time off to develop a family ay not qualify for jobs, which need prior
experience (Barak, 2016).
 Another possible recommendation could be hold training and development sessions
and seminars for the male workers so that they could understand the effects and signs
of gender inequality (Benería et al., 2015). This solution could help in become made
alliance of female workers, thereby making a more positive and collaborative working
environment.

References
Barak, M.E.M., 2016. Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage
Publications.
Benería, L., Berik, G. and Floro, M., 2015. Gender, development and globalization:
economics as if all people mattered. Routledge.
Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.
Collins, J.C., 2015. Characteristics of “masculinized” industries: Gay men as a provocative
exception to male privilege and gendered rules. Human Resource Development
Review, 14(4), pp.415-441.
Corbin, J., Strauss, A. and Strauss, A.L., 2014. Basics of qualitative research. sage.
Cotter, A.M.M., 2017. Gender injustice: An international comparative analysis of equality in
employment. Routledge.
Dudovskiy, J., 2016. Positivism research philosophy. Retrieved September, 10, p.2016.
Flynn, P.M., Haynes, K. and Kilgour, M.A., 2017. Introduction: identifying the key issues
underlying gender inequality in management education and ways to reduce gender
gaps........................................................... Kathryn Haynes, Newcastle University Business
School, UK. In Integrating Gender Equality into Business and Management Education(pp.
13-20). Routledge.
Gibson, L., 2017. Towards a More Equal Indonesia: How the government can take action to
close the gap between the richest and the rest. Oxfam.
Hakim, C., 2016. Key issues in women's work: Female diversity and the polarisation of
women's employment. Routledge-Cavendish.
Higgins, M. and Regan, M., 2016. The Gender Wage Gap. ABDO.
Holloway, I. and Galvin, K., 2016. Qualitative research in nursing and healthcare. John
Wiley & Sons.
Hu, Q., 2018. Perspectives on the regulation of working conditions in times of
globalization (Doctoral dissertation).

Landy, F.J. and Conte, J.M., 2016. Work in the 21st century, Binder ready version: An
introduction to Industrial and Organizational Psychology. John Wiley & Sons.
Lewis, S., 2015. Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five
approaches. Health promotion practice, 16(4), pp.473-475.
Littleton, C.A., 2018. Reconstructing Sexual Equality [1987]. In Feminist legal theory (pp.
35-56). Routledge.
Meyers, L.S., Gamst, G. and Guarino, A.J., 2016. Applied multivariate research: Design and
interpretation. Sage publications.
Palinkas, L.A., Horwitz, S.M., Green, C.A., Wisdom, J.P., Duan, N. and Hoagwood, K.,
2015. Purposeful sampling for qualitative data collection and analysis in mixed method
implementation research. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health
Services Research, 42(5), pp.533-544.
Rhode, D.L. and Ricca, L.B., 2014. Diversity in the legal profession: perspectives from
managing partners and general counsel. Fordham L. Rev., 83, p.2483.
Sanford, N., 2017. Self and society: Social change and individual development. Routledge.
Saunders, M.N., Lewis, P., Thornhill, A. and Bristow, A., 2015. Understanding research
philosophy and approaches to theory development.
Schultz, V., 2016. The Sanitized Workplace Revisited. In Feminist and Queer Legal
Theory (pp. 79-104). Routledge.
Sekaran, U. and Bougie, R., 2016. Research methods for business: A skill building approach.
John Wiley & Sons.
Silverman, B.W., 2018. Density estimation for statistics and data analysis. Routledge.