Women and Workplace Discrimination in Australian Organizations

Women And Workplace Discrimination 1
Women and Workplace Discrimination in Australian Organizations
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Women And Workplace Discrimination 2
Women and Workplace Discrimination in Australian Organizations
Introduction
There is growing concern over women discrimination in the workplace all over the world. The
proliferation of discrimination against women rests of the thriving of biased perception of
women and the perceived weaknesses of the female sex by their male counterparts. In the words
of Strong (2016), gender differences are deep-rooted in many cultures and have been for a long
time ignored and denied individuals the right to articulate and themselves in the social context
(31). Indeed, the exemplification of gender biases is a historical projection of the social
construction and perception of women. The social denial of gender equality has surpassed the
historical boundaries and entered into the contemporary society leaving horrible experiences
among women (Kira et al., 2015, p.2042). The job market appears to be one of the most affected
sectors by the isms of male dominance and women have seen themselves take the second spot
regarding pay and skills development. Notably, most organizations appear to see women as not
deserving equal pay with men. Notwithstanding, influential positions seem to be a reserve of
men as women have not been socialized to becoming leaders of men and men are not ready to
follow orders from them (Denissen and Saguy et al., 2014, p.384). The Australian job market
appears not to be immune to the inimical exercise of authority against women making them
submerged under the wings male authority. It is essential to examine the relationships of power
among men and women in the workplace and the effects it has on gender power and relations in
Australian labor market.
Problem Statement
While many women still face gender bias and discrimination, in the past few decades, the
number of women thriving in business, politics and technology etc. is certainly on the rise.

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Society has started appreciating the role of women and is now viewing them in a different
perspective. Today, women work as nurses, doctors, lawyers, social workers, secretaries,
teachers, officers and managers etc. There is not a single profession currently where women are
not employed (Pagan, 2018). Nonetheless, it is true that working women still face hitches by
virtue of their gender. At work place for instance, women commonly face, sexual harassment,
mental stress, safety and security issues discriminatory practices, etc.
It is noble to celebrate how far Australia has advanced concerning women and work issue, but
policymakers have got a long way to go to streamline workplaces policies towards incorporating
women fully (Sun, 2009). For instance, although more women in Australia are working
nowadays, they are still worse paid than men with this kind of discrimination against women at
workplace being accused for the 16.2% gap in wages (Hodgson and Schlager, 2017).
Revealingly, gender pay gaps in favor of men are understood to rise abruptly in companies where
the management ranks are greatly dominated by female employees (over and above 80%
women). This replicates the fact that not only do female employees in female-dominated
companies are paid lower but also that in workplaces which are heavily dominated by female
management teams, there are great gender pay gaps in favor of men (O’Loughlin et al., 2017).
This is so true in Australia to the extent that the disparity in pay starts right at the first job, with
young graduate women pocketing 2.8% less on base salary and 2.1% less on total remuneration
(Hodgson and Schlager, 2017). The gap increases with seniority.
While the employment discrimination against women in Australia is a serious issue, it has not
been acknowledged as such throughout society. Consequently, it is a problematic task to
eradicate gender discriminations in in a short term. In the existing legal system of Australia, even
though there are some provisions shielding equal working rights for women, they are still

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unsystematic and dispersive. Furthermore, these regulations are too theoretical and general to
offer effective protection for women. Learning such experience would help Australia to offer
effective protection on women and improve the rank of women in the entire society.
Research Objectives
Main Objective
This paper seeks to understand the perceived gender-based discrimination in Australia as
experienced by female employees in workplaces.
Specific Objectives
Other research objectives that this study attempts to address include:
1. To gain understanding about the challenges and problems that are faced by Australian
working women at the workplace.
2. To examine the level of fairness in appointment, promotion and compensation of women
in Australia.
3. To discover possible solutions that could women to overcome the several kinds of
discrimination they face in the workplace.
Research Questions
The study evinces the following research questions for the survey at hand allied to harm and
challenges that Australian working women encounter with in the workplace:
1. How do women balance between paid employment and family life?
2. What challenges and problems do Australian working women face at the workplace?
3. Do different organizations in Australia exercise fairness in appointment, promotion and
compensation of women in Australia?