Gender Inequality and Sexism in Management

This paper discusses the concept of gender inequality and sexism in management and its impact on organizational culture. It explores the benevolent and hostile theories of sexism, the impact on performance evaluations, and the role of feminism. The paper also highlights the importance of gender equality in organizations.

Running head: MANAGEMENT
Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction:
The concept of sexism and the gender inequality is achieving greater significance in
the modern world of business and that is pretty evident with the increased urgency amongst
the management of the organizations regarding the formation of the various provisions in the
employees’ code of conduct related to the appropriate behaviour inside the workplaces.
Along with this, the initiation of the various activities for the improvement of the awareness
amongst the employees regarding the suitable behaviour towards the employees of the other
gender provides significant information regarding the increased consideration of the
management of the modern organizations towards the effective management of the gender
inequality. Haraway and Goodeve (2018) commented that the strong sense of feminism, in
many cases has the potential to affect the smooth and effective organizational or corporate
culture of the companies. However, Williams (2013) claimed that many of the modern
organizations are seen to be affected by the gender inequality in a significant manner. In
order to clarify the stand, Williams (2013) further added that the biased decisions from the
part of the managers responsible for the evaluation of the performances of the employees and
the inappropriate influences of the gender of the female employees have the potential to result
in faulty assessments of the performances of the employees.
The biased performance evaluations along with recognising and rewarding the
improper individuals has the possibility of creating significant amount of job dissatisfaction
amongst the employees of the organizations. Karim and Arif-Uz-Zaman (2013) stated that the
inappropriate performance evaluation and rewarding the improper individuals have the
potential to influence the deserving candidates towards approaching the unethical means of
the business activities. Hence it is evident that the gender inequality is a major social issue
which has the potential to become a threat for the sustainable business operations in the
modern business world. The paper is focused in the elaboration of my stand regarding the

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gender inequality. For the effective elaboration of the stand point regarding the sexism and
the gender inequality, the concept of the feminism is discussed throughout the paper. The
concept of feminism provides a strong basis for understanding the cause of the issue. Along
with that, the paper provides significant information in relation to the literature of the issue.
Literature Review:
From the analysis of the scoping paper, it is evident that the impact of the benevolent
and the hostile sexism is pretty significant in the various cases of the gender inequality.
Fincher (2016) commented that it is important to understand the definition of the gender for
achieving the knowledge regarding the context of the gender inequality. . Fincher (2016)
further added that one of the main characteristics that classifies the human beings is
considered as gender. Kleven, Landais and Søgaard (2018) considered it as a form of the
social recognition for the individuals. Massey (2013) shared an important insight with the
claim that, the classification of the works and the responsibilities for managing the diversified
works are significantly influenced with the differences in the genders. Connell (2013)
portrayed the fact that the gender of individuals has greater significance in the formation of
the personality of the individuals. Connell (2013) further added that the female individuals
have a proactive sense of taking the responsibilities for the management of the household
operations and along with that, the responsibilities of being a mother, daughter or sister of
someone.
On the other hand, the male individuals have the necessity of playing the role of a
father, son or husband where the main objective for them will be to make sure that they
provide the financial and physical safety to their family members. Hence, it is pretty evident
that, with a particular gender, people have a measure of the roles and the responsibilities of
the individuals. Having said that, Eckert and McConnell-Ginet (2013) also claimed that, in

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modern generation, exceptionality is pretty prominent. Considering the importance of the
culture in the modern organizations, it becomes important for the managers to have the
sustainable approach towards each and every individuals irrespective of the gender of the
individuals. Kristan et al. (2016) stated that the impact of the bias in the performance
evaluation of the employees has the potential to create considerable amount of vulnerability
in the business operations of the organizations. Koskinen Sandberg (2017) highlighted that
many of the managers of the modern organizations are seen to have a tendency of getting
influenced by the gender of the employees and that is pretty visible with the selection of the
tasks for both male and female employees inside the organizations. Bohnet, Van Geen and
Bazerman (2015) stated that many of the organizations specifically from the engineering
genre have a tendency of recruiting the male candidates as they hold a perception that the
engineering operations require muscular strength which will beyond the capabilities of the
female employees. Along with that, many of the organizations consider that the strengths
based tasks are to be allocated to the male employees instead of the female employees which
in many cases prepares the basis for the gender bias approach.
Haselton, Nettle and Murray (2015) claimed that the reflection of the gender bias
nature of the task allocation becomes prominent even in case of recognising the good work of
the employees. Several market researchers claimed that the managers, responsible for the
evaluation of the performances of the employees generally do not have any sort of additional
provisions for the evaluation of the difficulty of the operations that the employees have
performed and that restricts them from recognising the added efforts that the male employees
provided. Under such situation, the female employees with the limited efforts have the
possibility of getting improved recognition and rewards from the part of the management.
Faccio, Marchica and Mura (2016) highlighted a crucial factor with the claim that the
managers of the modern organizations are seen to be affected by the gender of the employees

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in such a manner that their preferences even reflects in their assumption regarding the
customers’ thought process. For an example, the placement of a female employee to the
direct sales position on the basis of the beauty of the employee is pretty significant in stating
the gender biasness of the managers regarding a particular position. The thought process of
the managers that include the thought that the beauty of the female employee will be a more
important basis for the employee over the experience or the skills and competencies of the
employees in attracting a customers for the purchases, clearly describes the mentality of the
managers where they have a predefined idea that the purchase intention of the customers will
be influenced by the beauty of that female employee. Fink (2016) commented that this
presents a sexist nature of the managers where they consider that the preferences if the
customers is the mere beauty of the individuals over the experiences, skills and the learning
of the individuals.
Gaunt (2013) commented that the reflection of the benevolent and the hostile theory is
the most prevailing aspect of the human psychology that promotes the gender inequality.
From the concept of the benevolent theory of sexism, it is evident that the managers consider
that the female employees are required to be treated in a gentle manner and are in need to be
subjected towards a positive attitude. On the other hand, the hostile theory of sexism is more
concerned in making sure that the managers of the organizations have a defined knowledge of
treating the female employees. In a dissimilar manner to the benevolent theory of sexism, the
hostile theory of sexism does not have any sort of consideration towards the necessity of
applying soft or gentle way of treatment towards the female employees. Zaikman and Marks
(2014) claimed that the application of the benevolent sexism provides the basis for the
requirement of help of male employees for the survival of the female employees. This
prepares a context where the managers influenced by the benevolent sexism will always
consider that the female employees require the help of the male employees for their survival.

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However, the hostile theory of sexism speaks more about a professional way of handling the
entire workforces.
Considering the benevolent theory sexism, the additional help from the part of the
managers or the male employees for the female employees of the organizations has the
potential to create unbalance between the male and the female employees in terms of the help
that they receive from the part of the management of the organizations. Fraser, Osborne and
Sibley (2015) claimed that the additional favours that the female employees are expected to
receive with the application of the benevolent theory of sexism, creates a situation where the
male employees are exempted from the benefits or the services that the female employees are
receiving. Hence this creates a situation where the male employees are the deprived section.
It is clear that the benevolent sexism and the offerings of it to the female employees is
significantly harmful for the male employees of the organizations. On the other hand, the
hostile theory of sexism is seen to face significant amount of attention or the impact of the
feminist culture and that is visible from the thought process of the feminist that the mentioned
theory of sexism provides significantly limited amount of respect for being female. It is
important for the managers of the modern organizations to establish the much required
gender equality inside the organizations and under such situations, it is essential for the
managers to make sure that none of the employees inside the workforces gets any sort of
additional helps for the sexual orientation or the gender. With such an idea, the impact of the
feminists is pretty prominent as it overrules their conception of being preferred for their
gender.
Justification for the stand point:
In the case, I consider that the benevolent sexism is more of a detrimental theory than
that of the hostile theory of sexism. The theory creates a sense where the female individuals

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are responsible for the creation of the happiness amongst the male individuals and is more
concentrated regarding the intimacy or the romance culture. From the concept of the feminist
culture, it is evident that the benevolent sexism provides significantly limited amount of
career ambitions and the career objectives as the theory focuses on the creation of such a
scenario where the female individuals will be dependent on the husband or the female
individuals for their support. Hence it has the potential to prepare the female individuals for
the inappropriate progress of their career.
On the other hand, the additional offerings that the female individuals are subjected to
receive signify the inappropriate management of the employees in the organizational context.
The additional offerings for the female individuals will certainly deprive the male
individuals. However, the benevolent sexism is considered to be harmless as it does not have
the potential to threaten the male individuals in case of any scope of getting outperformed by
the female individuals in terms of the skills and the competencies. Considering the example
of the beautiful female employee getting the sales position over the experienced and skilful
employees, it is evident that the particular female employee will not be able to get the
promotions in the same manner for a prolonged period of time. It is understandable that the
beauty of that particular employee will not remain the same for a longer period of time.
Hence, with increasing age, the employee will start losing the same amount of beauty which
will then force her to be dependent only on the skills and the competencies instead of the
beauty. Hence, it is clear, that the favour that the particular employee received for being
beautiful will not be able to provide the undue advantage to the employee for a longer period
of time. Hence the other employees are expected to be less bothered regarding the application
of the benevolent sexism and that influences me to have a stand where the benevolent theory
of sexism is not that harmful.

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On the other hand, I do consider that the benevolent theory of sexism is not merely
harmless as well as it is evident that it has a more of a negative impact compared to the
hostile theory of sexism. The provisions for the additional offerings with the introduction of
the benevolent sexism has the potential to affect the motivation of the other employees. I had
a tendency of disliking the working environment that I got as my motivation got reduced. I
was unable to motivate myself while considering the fact that the managers who are there to
evaluate my performances are benevolent sexist and on the other hand, it also affected my
bond with that employee as I knew that the employee got undue advantage and she is
incapable for the position she is promoted to. With a precise focus on the perceptions that
surround both the male and the female individuals is pretty significant for my understanding
of the importance of the gender inequality. It is visible that the male individuals are
associated with a stereotypes that they are efficient, competitive and independent whereas the
female individuals are more suitable for the household operations. Considering the
justification theory, it is evident that the theory speaks regarding the favourable behaviours
towards a particular gender and the other to be the deprived section. I consider that the
benevolent theory of the sexism has the potential to be a concern for the managers of the
organizations as all sorts of additional benefits to a particular gender has the potential to
affect the efficiency and the psychology of the individuals of the other generation. Hence it is
evident that the benevolent theory of sexism can lead the society towards the detrimental
experiences of the gender inequality. Considering all the attributes, skills and the capabilities
reserved for a particular gender, the existence of the gender inequality is pretty prominent.
Thus, the partiality behaviour or the bias of the employees can be major concern for
the managers and can lead to the gender inequality. The biased leadership of the
organizations is the main basis of the gender inequality for me and me and my members of
the team were significantly affected with the impact of the gender inequality. Hence it is

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evident that the benevolent theory of sexism has the potential to affect the male employees of
the organizations in a more significant manner where the male employees are seen to bear
almost double of the work pressure and that becomes the reason of the increasing frustration
of many of the male employees. Hence, the employment relations are expected to lose its
quality and that will certainly affect the quality of the services of the employees and the
overall performances of the companies.
Conclusion:
On a concluding note, it is understandable that both the benevolent and the hostile
sexism have the capability to affect the business activities of the employees and the
employment relations. With the introduction of the benevolent theory of sexism, it us evident
that the theory is affecting both male and the female employees. While the capabilities of the
male employees are getting ignored with the selection of the female employees, the female
employees are seen to be considered less as well with the application of the benevolent theory
of sexism.

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