Developing an Action Plan to Combat Gender Discrimination at Work

This report presents an action plan designed to address gender discrimination in Australian workplaces, where a significant gender pay gap persists and women are underrepresented in senior management roles. The objective is to reduce gender discrimination by 50% through actions such as monitoring legal protections, improving women's status with flexible work hours, increasing recruitment in senior roles, and ensuring equal pay. Anticipated outcomes include improved gender parity, higher financial returns for companies, innovation, and increased GDP. Key risks involve underreporting of discrimination and lack of family support for women's participation. Evaluation methods include surveys of managers and women, as well as regular audits to identify biases and assess the effectiveness of the action plan. The plan can be modified based on the barriers identified to ensure full adherence to laws and regulations.

Running Head: GENDER DISCRIMINATION IN WORKPLACE
Gender discrimination in workplace
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1GENDER DISCRIMINATION IN WORKPLACE
Topic- Gender discrimination in workplace
Objective of the action plan and the proposed action
Gender discrimination at workplace is still rampant in Australia as men earn more than
women (24%) on an average. In the senior management roles there are very few women working
part time. Only 15% of women are chief executives. There are 30 top companies in Australia
without women on their boards (ABC News 2017). This is why one of our objectives is to reduce
the level of gender discrimination by 50% by next year. It will help improve the status of the
women and promote gender equality
Thus, in order to reduce the gender discrimination the actions are –
 Monitor the legal protections in regards to gender inequality and
 Improving the women status- flexible work hours for women and increase in
recruitment in senior role and equal payment
Anticipated outcomes of the proposed actions
By monitoring the workplace adherence to the Gender Equality Act, it is possible to take
stringent actions against people violating the policies and norms. Regular audit will help in this
process. Taking strict actions such as law suit against the company or the suspending from
workplace will help people restrain from gender discrimination. Women status can be increased
by workforce participation in different roles. Offering the physical security benefits to women
will help her in participating in senior roles. Equal financial returns as men will motivate women.

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In the long run it may help in gender parity, higher financial returns for the companies,
innovation and increase in annual GDP (Charlesworth and Macdonald 2014).
Key risk associated with the proposed actions
The key risks associated with proposed action are that the discrimination at the workplace
may go unnoticed. Underreporting may be the other major barrier to monitor the changes in the
gender discrimination. Further lack of support from the family members may be the barrier to
women’s participation on the board in corporate sector. Although the corporate sector offers the
senior management roles, lack of sharing of responsibilities by men at house prevents women
empowerment (Chizema et al. 2015). These barriers will hamper the process of the attaining
gender equity in workplace.
Evaluation
The best way to assess if the action plan is working is to conduct open and close ended
survey. The target population will be the managers of the companies to identify the barriers faced
by them in recruiting women in senior roles. Women will be surveyed to identify the barriers in
working part time in senior management roles. Regular audits will help monitor the change. It
will also help analyse the attitude and behaviour of people towards legislations and polices
against gender discrimination. The audit results will also help in identifying any kind of implicit
or conscious bias in workplace that is causing gender discrimination. Proposed action can be
modified and designed considering the barriers and factors preventing 100% adherence of the
workplace managers to the laws and regulations (Van den Brink and Stobbe 2014).

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References
ABC News., 2017. Gender inequality still rampant in Australian workplaces: report. [online]
ABC News. Available at: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-26/gender-inequality-still-
rampant-in-australian-workplaces-report/6976452 [Accessed 1 Dec. 2017].
Charlesworth, S. and Macdonald, F., 2014. Australia’s gender pay equity legislation: how new,
how different, what prospects?. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 39(2), pp.421-440.
Chizema, A., Kamuriwo, D.S. and Shinozawa, Y., 2015. Women on corporate boards around the
world: Triggers and barriers. The Leadership Quarterly, 26(6), pp.1051-1065.
Van den Brink, M. and Stobbe, L., 2014. The support paradox: Overcoming dilemmas in gender
equality programs. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 30(2), pp.163-174.