Gender Inequality in the Workplace: Human Rights and Social Advocacy

This assignment highlights the gender analysis and the evaluation of the gender differences in the domain of capabilities, agencies and livelihoods. It reflects on the issues faced by women in the domain of gender inequality at the workplace and advocates for human rights and social advocacy.

Running head: HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ADVOCACY
HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ADVOCACY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ADVOCACY
Introduction
Gender inequality is basically not perpetuated via the differential access towards and
control over the resources of the material. The norms and the stereotypes related to the gender
tends to reinforce some of the gender related identities and tends to constrain the nature and the
behavior of the women and men in some of the differentiated ways that forms the root cause and
the ingredients towards inequality (Hacker, 2017). One of the main ingredients and the primary
makers of the economic and the social stratification, gender is the result of the optimum
exclusion. Apart from the socio economic classification, there have been systematic differences
in the gender in the wellbeing in the connection to the material. The degree and the range of
inequality tend to vary across the countries over the time. The concept of gender inequality is the
basic characteristics of most of the societies in the current decade. With the very power of the
men in the society and a better position of the masculine population in the political, social and
economic hierarchy, the discrimination among the female and the male has been a growing issue
going beyond educational attainment, income and empowerment (Amin, 2015). For more than
two of the decades the aim or the goal of the reduction of the gender inequality has been one of
the prominent issues in the international organizations and in the statements of the national
strategy. The famous millennium development goals reflects the ongoing global issue and the
attention towards the problems of the gender inequality as an international problem (Tolbert &
Castilla, 2017). The assignment highlights the gender analysis and the evaluation of the gender
differences in the domain of capabilities, agencies and livelihoods. The assignment furthermore
reflects the issues faced by the women in the domain of gender inequality at the workplace.

2HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ADVOCACY
Background of gender inequality
Equality can be connected to various dimensions of the lives of the people. According to
the norms of equality, it is the belief that people out to be equal in connection to the central
conditions of their lives. Equality is basically the state or the condition in which all the
individuals irrespective of their gender have equal chances and opportunities. Gender is actually
not the only dimension of the social relations that tends to cause inequality. Women have been
subjected to deep diversity, inequality and discrimination from various decades in respective
domain. The context of gender inequality has been a wide spread political and societal goal in
the last decades and also in the changing times (Tolbert & Castilla, 2017). Through out the
decades, the concept of gender inequality has shifted from the concept of similarity to the ideas
of equal worth and from the female centeredness towards the emphasis over the significance
related to the gender. The assignment explains the issues faced by women in the sector of
employment in terms of promotion, qualification, payscales and other classifications. Through
out the times of the history, women have faced intense discrimination regarding the absence of
legal rights and very little independence from the social norms. Women has been long viewed as
less than full human and their rights have never been considered equivalent to the men in the
society.
The social issue
Egregious inequality of gender still exist in the global basis despite of the international
and the national measures taken towards the eradiation and the improvement of the rights of the
women and the context of gender equality (Besse, 2018). The concept of gender inequality is a
social issue that needs to be brought to the light for the empowerment of women in the current

3HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ADVOCACY
decade. The inequality has always been a social issue starting from the discrimination in the
education level among the male and the female. The problem of gender inequality is a major
social issues that has been brought to light by various feminist movements that are happening in
the current decade (Correll, 2017). Although the gap in the participation of both the genders in
the labour market has reduced and narrowed in the every day experiences in the developing
countries, the issue of the gender discrimination still persist in the current decade.
The inequality among the genders is not perpetuated exclusively via the differential
access towards the control over the resources of the material. The norms and the stereotypes of
gender reinforce the identities and the constrain of the behavior of the women and men leading to
inequality (Amis et al., 2018). The approach towards the global trends in the gender equality is
cognizant towards the gender disparities favor of men.
According to the topic details of the assignment, gender inequality in the workplace has
been one of the rising concerns in the current decade since differentials in the society. The factor
of income is one of the most basic indicators of the gender inequality. Women tends to be less
educated in compared to men since they are not send to the schools, these lead to a gap in the
knowledge among the genders. In the era of rising context of feminism, women though being
equally qualified are often rejected by many organizations due to the nature or the attitude of
gender biasness (Huffman, King & Reichelt, 2017). In the multinational organizations, women
are often the victim of the discrimination from promotion and higher level promotions and
differences in wage as compared to that of men. This is a major social issue that needs to be
highlighted a solved.
Violation of human rights

4HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ADVOCACY
The context of violation of gender equality lies at the very heart of the human rights and
the values of the United Nations. The fundamental principal of the United Nations Charter that
are adopted by the leaders of the world in the year 1945 depict the quotation of equal rights of
men and women (Stainback, Kleiner & Skaggs, 2016). The article of the charter furthermore
illustrates promotion and protection of the human rights of the women which is one of the major
responsibility of the state.
Various regional and international instruments have highlighted to the dimensions related
to the gender and the issues related to human rights. The most important among the international
conventions is the UN Convention of Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women (CEDAW) which was adopted by the UN general assembly in the year 1979 (Calás,
Smircich & Holvino, 2014). 45 years after the adaptation of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and eight years after the enforcement of CEDAW in the UN force, the World Conference
of UN regarding Human Rights in Vienna explained the importance of the rights of the women
in the society as one of the major factor in the context of the human rights.
The persistent stigma related to women being the second gender has translated the society
and the people in the society towards the vulnerability of the discrimination of the female in
comparison to that of the men (Thébaud & Pedulla, 2016). The discrimination and the
prohibition of the women from their inherent and their inalienable rights is one of the major
ingredients serving the notion of the violation of the human rights.
Discussion
Gender inequality in the organization is basically a complex phenomenon that is mostly
visible in the structure, process and the practices in the organization. In case of women, some of

5HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ADVOCACY
the most harmful inequalities in relation to the gender are generally enacted with the human
resource practices. The policies, decision making and their enactment tend to impact the training,
the hiring and the pay and promotion of the women. The gender inequality in the workplace is a
big issues for the women since women in the current scenario still faced the context of the
gender bias in the workforce (Stamarski & Son Hing, 2015). Despite of some of the best efforts
from the companies and the multinational organizations towards the promotion of the diversity
and the equality, women are still the subject towards the domination and discrimination and are
targeted victims of low paying administrative ranks while the men of the organization continues
to dominate the women and exceed in the executive level.
While the outright differences and the discrimination of the women may not be the part
of the current business world, there lies some of the major generation gender biases in the current
scenario. Unlike the previous and the first generation biases in relation to the gender there has
been some of the major international acts of discrimination that are powerful but yet often
invisible barriers in the pathway of the advancement of the women (Ridgeway, 2014). Rising
from the cultural beliefs regarding the gender as well as structures of workplace, the patterns and
the practices of the interactions that inadvertently favors of men tends to impact the notion and
the culture of the freedom of the women thus violating the basic human rights of the women.
Women are also perceived as being less ambitious as compared to the men due to their
focus and nature towards the responsibilities of the family. The age old concept of women being
the home maker is still ongoing in the current decade. According to the researches, there lies
very little differences while men and women aspire for the leadership roles in the organization
since the women are often turned down due to the their inability towards the commitment and the
responsibility towards their employment (Sen, 2017).

6HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ADVOCACY
Advocacy work of the issue
The gender disparity is generally harder to spot and the promotion of the proper gender
equality is even more harder. Some of the effective strategies towards the improvement of the
gender equality in the workplace are as follows.
The driving of the skill towards equal development – The persistent belief and the myth that men
are advancing towards the high grades of payment and the sustainment of the wage gap due to
their high qualification is something that needs to be busted (Freeman, 2017).
Creation of the role models – Women requires a push at the helm to initiate a trickledown effect
that furthermore inspires the other women towards the aspiration to the executive level.
The elimination of the gender based roles – The closing of the gaps in the gender starts with the
development and the introduction of the organizations way of looking at the employees and
making sure regarding the provision of equal and equitable chances and opportunities from the
entry level.
Furthermore some of the basic steps the employers can take towards the improvement of the
propagation of the gender equality at the workplace includes the following.
 The reassessment of the requirements of the job for the team of the senior management
and leadership.
 The expansion of the applicant pool
 Consideration of the biases and the prevailing stereotypes
 Rethinking of the process of the interview (Boyd, 2018)
 Making sure that all the employees have similar access towards the opportunity

7HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ADVOCACY
 Minimization of the gender pay gap
 Addressing the importance of the work and the life balances
 Fair evaluation system
 Coaching and training of the employees
Current status
Despite the great gains and the introduction of the various policies and measures by the
government and the UN agencies through out the world, there still lies gender inequality in the
employment force through out the world. Women in the current generation still continue to earn
less than their male counterparts (Gurr & Naples, 2015). Although the wage of the gender gap is
diminishing in many of the countries, the gap still exist till today and there has been some bare
changes since the mid of 1990s.
The context of the gender inequality at the workplace is not just the fight of the women, it
is the fight of each and every person. While most of the labor force is occupied by the feminine
gender, according to the research studies, women in the current generation of the world still
struggle for the proper social and the economic equity. The ever persistent gender wage gap is
one of the major obstacles of the current women towards the attainment of the economic justice
and the proper attainment of the human right of the women (Hill, Madden & Ezpeleta, 2016).
The persistent implicit biases and the gender stereotypes play some of the major roles in the
prevalence of the equality in the gender at the workplace. Some of the noticeable changes in the
progress of the women empowerment included the increase in the number of the employed
women among the age group of 16 to 64. The rate of the number of women joining the

8HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ADVOCACY
employment and the labor sector increased to 53% in the year 2010 and to 72% as estimated in
the year 2015 (Cole, 2015). However even if 47% of the population in the current world working
in the labor market are ruled by the feminine force, only 35% are constituted by the women for
the managerial position.
Conclusion
Equality is basically the state or the condition in which all the individuals irrespective of
their gender have equal chances and opportunities. Gender is actually not the only dimension of
the social relations that tends to cause inequality. The degree and the range of inequality tend to
vary across the countries over the time. The context of gender inequality has been a wide spread
political and societal goal in the last decades and also in the changing times. Through out the
decades, the concept of gender inequality has shifted from the concept of similarity to the ideas
of equal worth and from the female centeredness towards the emphasis over the significance
related to the gender. The problem of gender inequality is a major social issues that has been
brought to light by various feminist movements that are happening in the current decade.
Although the gap in the participation of both the genders in the labour market has reduced and
narrowed in the every day experiences in the developing countries, the issue of the gender
discrimination still persist in the current decade. The assignment reflects on the gender analysis
and the evaluation of the gender differences in the domain of capabilities, agencies and
livelihoods.

9HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ADVOCACY
References
Amin, S. (2015). Gender Inequality in the workplace: Banks from Sweden and Pakistan.
Amis, J. M., Munir, K. A., Lawrence, T. B., Hirsch, P., & McGahan, A. (2018). Inequality,
institutions and organizations. Organization Studies, 39(9), 1131-1152.
Besse, S. K. (2018). Restructuring patriarchy: the modernization of gender inequality in Brazil,
1914-1940. UNC Press Books.
Boyd, M. (2018). Gender, refugee status, and permanent settlement. In Immigrant Women (pp.
103-124). Routledge.
Calás, M. B., Smircich, L., & Holvino, E. (2014). Theorizing Gender-and-Organization. In The
Oxford handbook of gender in organizations.
Cole, W. M. (2015). International human rights and domestic income inequality: A difficult case
of compliance in world society. American Sociological Review, 80(2), 359-390.
Correll, S. J. (2017). SWS 2016 Feminist Lecture: Reducing gender biases in modern
workplaces: A small wins approach to organizational change. Gender & Society, 31(6),
725-750.
Freeman, M. (2017). Human rights. John Wiley & Sons.
Gurr, B., & Naples, N. A. (2015). sEx and gEndER. Expanding the Human in Human Rights:
Toward a Sociology of Human Rights, 7.
Hacker, S. (2017). Pleasure, power and technology: Some tales of gender, engineering, and the
cooperative workplace. Routledge.

10HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ADVOCACY
Hill, C., Madden, C., & Ezpeleta, M. (2016). Gender and the Extractive Industries: Putting
Gender on the Corporate Agenda. Oxfam Australia.
Huffman, M. L., King, J., & Reichelt, M. (2017). Equality for whom? Organizational policies
and the gender gap across the German earnings distribution. ILR Review, 70(1), 16-41.
Ridgeway, C. L. (2014). Why status matters for inequality. American Sociological
Review, 79(1), 1-16.
Sen, A. (2017). Elements of a theory of human rights. In Justice and the Capabilities
Approach (pp. 221-262). Routledge.
Stainback, K., Kleiner, S., & Skaggs, S. (2016). Women in power: Undoing or redoing the
gendered organization?. Gender & Society, 30(1), 109-135.
Stamarski, C. S., & Son Hing, L. S. (2015). Gender inequalities in the workplace: the effects of
organizational structures, processes, practices, and decision makers’ sexism. Frontiers in
psychology, 6, 1400.
Thébaud, S., & Pedulla, D. S. (2016). Masculinity and the stalled Revolution: how Gender
ideologies and norms shape young Men’s Responses to Work–Family Policies. Gender &
Society, 30(4), 590-617.
Tolbert, P. S., & Castilla, E. J. (2017). Introduction to a Special Issue on Inequality in the
Workplace (“What Works?).