Business Ethics Essay: Gender Paradox and Equality in the Workplace

This essay, submitted by a student, delves into the complexities of gender equality and the observed gender paradox within the business environment. It begins by introducing the concept of gender equality as a global objective, contrasting it with the 'gender paradox,' which suggests that increased social and political gender equality can lead to greater differences between men and women. The essay explores the sociolinguistic aspects of this paradox, referencing William Labov's observations and principles, and discusses how women's linguistic behaviors may differ from men's in various situations. It then defines gender equality as the equal sharing of rights, opportunities, and decision-making across all life sectors, emphasizing the importance of equal treatment and opportunities for both genders. The essay further examines the purpose of gender equality in the workplace, highlighting its impact on economic growth, equal pay, and equal opportunities for both men and women, while acknowledging that achieving numerical equality is not always feasible or desirable. It also addresses the gender sociolinguistic paradox in the workplace, focusing on how communication styles and leadership approaches can differ between men and women. The essay concludes by summarizing the key arguments and providing recommendations for fostering gender equity in the workplace, offering valuable insights into the ongoing discussion of gender dynamics in the business world. This document is available on Desklib, a platform offering AI-based study tools.

Student No.: 220200617
MM 322
BUSINESS ETHICS
ESSAY
Name: Ng Zi Ying
Student Number: 220200617
Unit Coordinator: Dr Simon Burgess
Date Submitted: 19th May 2019
Word Count:
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Student No.: 220200617
Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................3
Discussion...................................................................................................................................3
What is gender paradox?.........................................................................................................3
What is gender equality?.............................................................................................................5
What is the purpose of gender equality in the workplace?.....................................................5
Gender sociolinguistic paradox in workplace.........................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
Recommendations.......................................................................................................................9
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Introduction
In this modern and advanced era, gender equality is the goal to achieve in every nook
and cranny of the world. As it mentioned earlier in the textbook, “myths, stereotypes, false
preconceptions and hostile attitudes devalue both women and minorities in the world of work,
leading to decisions that disadvantage them in the areas of employee selection, promotion and
career development.” However, ‘gender paradox’ can be observed, according to some
observers: “As societies become more gender-equal in their social and political policies, men
and women become more different in certain aspects, rather than more similar” (Ayres-
Bennett & Carruthers, 2018.) Hence, this essay will discuss about supposed paradox and
explain its significance for gender equity in the workplace.
Discussion
What is gender paradox?
William Labov was the first person to observe the gender paradox that is a
sociolinguistic phenomenon and he said that women conform to the sociolinguistic norms
more closely than men in case these norms are prescribed and otherwise they conform lesser
than men (Hutton, 2015). It has been observed that women tend to use prestige forms to these
linguistic variables then majority of men and they change language by using innovations to
the linguistic variables. According to William Labov there are three main principles on which
the gender paradox is based. These are linguistic variables when they are stable, in case if
changes from above and in case of changes from below. Women have shown lower degree of
discrimination as compared to men and a higher degree of prestige variants in case of stable
linguistic variables. Women in case of no changes in the variable prefer standard forms as
against non-standards form of linguistic variables (Ayres-Bennett and Carruthers, 2018). In
other words it can be said that women carefully select their linguistic variables when speaking
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formally as compared to men and this shows their higher degree of awareness. In case of
changes from above women tend to adopt prestige at a much higher rate than men. Formal
styles are associated with higher level of prestige and therefore there is hypercorrection done
by people (Durbin, Page & Walby, 2017). Women adapt to these linguistic variables more
easily than men. In case of changes from below women tend to adopt to the linguistic
variables in a more innovative form than men do. These changes occur die to lack of social
consciousness’s and therefore it takes place within system (Gelman & DeJesus, 2017). In this
case of change from below also women tend to adapt themselves to these changes at a faster
rate than men do. This fact can be explained with the help of data that was collected in north
America when about 56 speakers were analyzed and the result of the analysis as a that women
were considered as the leading innovators because of the sound change carried out by them.
Therefore from the above theories it can be said that women are the leaders for carrying out
linguistic changes and there are various response behind the same. They are more sensitive
and aware of the status associated with the variants. This is again because women have been
denied the social status through job opportunities and education and that is why they try to
gain the same through the use of prestige forms. Another reasons that determines their pattern
of linguistic variables leadership is that they do not create more social networks as men this
makes them make use of standard variable forms and this is the reason why they make use of
more innovative variants in their speeches as compared to men. Moreover, women tend to be
better speakers through voice change because of the biological advantage that they have and
therefore have better command over linguistic variables and style when compared to men in
the same position or the job role.
What is gender equality?
Gender equality is attained when men and women are sharing the same rights,
opportunities, health care, economic participation and decision-making across all sectors of
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life. Gender equality also defined as the equality of sexes and when it comes to different
behaviors and desires, needs of men and women are equally cherished and preferred, without
regarding of gender (GENDER EQUALITY IN IRELAND, n.d.) . All human beings are free
to develop their own personal capabilities and make their own choices without restrictions
which are set by stereotypes, myths, prejudices and rigid gender. Gender equality advocates
equal treatment for women and men on the basis of respective needs. Both men and women
are deserve to get fair treatment including the same incentives and rewards (Flynn, Haynes &
Kilgour, 2017). Gender equality increases productivity of an organization as no matter the
employee is a man or a woman, both of them have the same rights to be awarded regarding to
their work performance. Apart from that, gender equality enables both men and women get
equal access to resources and opportunities for promotion in the workplace. Gender equality
means equal respect to both men and women but it does not mean treating woman like a man.
Both of them have the equal opportunities and rights (Wu & Cheng, 2016).
What is the purpose of gender equality in the workplace?
In ancient China, men got the opportunity to study, work and involve in many areas of
life. Men occupy higher status in the ancient times. However, nowadays, the society promotes
gender equality. Everyone deserves the equal treats, opportunities and rights to survive in this
world. Gender equality in the workplace is important because it can achieve gender equity. If
gender equality is the goals to be attained, the gender equity is the approach. (Ray, 2017)
Gender equality impacts greatly on the economic around the world.
The purpose of gender equality in the workplace is to provide equal pay for work for
both men and women based on equal or comparative value. Based on an Australian story,
Australian women are the most highly educated among others in the world, but their
engagement in paid work keeps comparatively low compared to men. (Broderick, n.d.) In
fact, women are less likely to work for pay and mostly to be hired in lower-paid occupation.
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In comparison, men are more likely to be involved in high-pay sectors and hold a higher
status which mostly requires decision-making in a workplace. Hence, gender equality ensures
equal pay to both women and men according to their values, contributions, skills and level of
responsibility in the workplace (Littleton, 2018).
On top of that, gender equality in workplace provides equal opportunity to both men
and women. It provides equal participation of men and women in all sectors of a workplace.
However, equal opportunity does not mean that numerically equal which is to attain 50/50 in
the workplace. 50/50 is not gender equity because in some sectors like nursing and teachers in
school, it cannot attain 50/50 men and women in the workplace. In nursing and tutoring
sectors, men are less likely to be recruited. This is not gender discrimination. This is due to
the reason that women are more capable in nursing and tutoring. They are more patience in
taking care of the children. On the other hand, men are more likely to involve in science,
technology, engineering and mathematics which involving less women in these sectors. The
researchers found that countries with greater gender equality have smaller proportion of
women engaging in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. (Halpin, 2018) It does
not depend on how well they study in the science and mathematics n school, but the interest to
be involved in these sectors. Giving equal treatment and equal respect are one of the
requirements of gender equality (Grusky, 2018). Women are less likely to be interested in
science and mathematics. Hence, gender equality provides equal opportunity to both women
and men but not numerically equal to give equal respect to both of the genders regarding to
their needs.
Apart from that, gender equality is seen as a motivation and encouragement to greater
economic growth and bring prosperity to a country. According to UN Women, half of the
growth of economic over the past 50 years, due to the reason that girls have better access to
education and the hiking up number of years of schooling between boys and girls have
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contributed to the economic growth in Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) member countries. (Darrah, 2018) Women are important in boosting
the economic growth as women have abilities that cannot find in men. For instance, women
are more likely and capable to involve in nursing as they are patience. However, men are less
likely to engage in such sector. Besides, women still face obstacles to the labor market. There
are about 2.7 billion women around the world who are forbidden to work by law in certain
jobs, according to the World Bank. In this era, there are still men can forbid their wives from
working legally. (Darrah, 2018) Women also face sexual harassment, less pay to work and
even doing unpaid work. In the end, these barriers have brought up $160 trillion in lost
income potential to the economic which found by the World Bank. (Darrah, 2018) Hence, we
can say that gender equality has indeed developing the growth of economic. If there are no
women engaged in the workforce, countries will not develop.
Furthermore, gender equality in workplace provides more employment opportunities
and enable the expansion of an organization.
Gender sociolinguistic paradox in workplace
Gender sociolinguistic paradox is based on the assumption that the position and the
speaker’s relationship determine the sociolinguistic variables used by the various male or
female speakers (Holmes & Stubbe, 2015). This paradox focuses on how women and men
interact in the workplace with each other and how they carry out their authorities when
occupying different positions or job roles in the organization. The communication role of men
has not changed since the beginning of time. The men carry out their authority with vigor and
variety and they provide only necessary information to the employees. Women in the higher
position tend to imitate the men’s style of communication and behavior styles. These
communication differences have been seen between male and female employees of an
organization when they are give equal rights in the organization. It has been observed that
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irrespective of the roles that the men’s and women play in an organization there are certain
types of assumptions related with their communication styles that determines their command
over linguistic variables. There has been assumptions relating to women’s occupying higher
positions for influencing others. In order to influence the people of the organization, women
tend to adapt a friendly behavior for effectively influencing others. The women tend to use
compliments for influencing others in the organization (Baxter, 2017). Therefore the
observers of gender paradox have observed properly that when the male and the female
employees are given equal powers through more gender equality activities they tend to differ
even more such as there are linguistic variables differences between male and female
employees of the organization. Female leaders in organization believe in building others by
giving them compliments and supporting them whereas the male leaders are observed as
discrediting the role of other people in the organization by letting them down. Women remain
unrepresented even in the leadership roles due to the double bind problems. If they
communicate in a more feministic way with the employees then their decision are not
considered seriously and if they carry out the roles like their male counterparts then they are
considered too strict being female (Mullany & Yoon, 2018). Therefore there exits gender
inequality even in top positions of the organizations.
Conclusion
From the above discussion it can be concluded that gender paradox discuses about the
superiority of women in terms of linguistic variables due to various reasons- biological, the
way they perceive social status and other reasons. The study highlights the purpose of gender
equality in organizations, discusses on the concept of gender equality and how it motivates
the employees in an organization and can help them in developing their careers. The study
also suggests various recommendations for carrying out gender equality activities in
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organizations such as-helping women to join their jobs after parental leaves has been availed
by the, having legislations similar to fair work pay to reduce the gender pay gap of the
employees of an organization.
Recommendations
Helping women enter the male dominated industry
Various companies are trying to overcome the problems of gender equality by
carrying out various operations such as they are helping women to enter the male dominated
industry and break the stereotyping against the women that they are unfit for all types of jobs.
For instance: St. Barbara is strategically planning to attract females into the male dominated
industry through its objectives, monitoring of those objectives regularly, and by continuously
reporting to the top management, the organization is aiming to increase the arte of women in
the organization and they are also allowing women to return to their works easily after the
parental leaves taken by them.
Parental leave
In order to provide gender equality to women regarding their careers, many
organizations are providing parental leaves and also allowing women to join their jobs after
the parental leave has been availed by the women in the same organization. This strategy
helps women to develop in their careers without any gender discrimination being faced by
them as this step will allow the women to grow in their careers instead of starting from
scratch. St Barbara is aiming at increasing the number of women by adopting the strategy of
returning to work after the parental leave.
Operation of fair work pays commission
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The operation of fair ombudsperson’s and fair work pay commission has been
undertaken in many countries to avoid any form of discrimination that is being faced by the
employees. This discrimination can be on grounds of unequal pay to employees based on their
gender. The countries that have adopted this commission and comply with the same, the rates
of gender pay gap has declined in these countries. More countries should have similar laws to
look after workplace discrimination as that will help in creating employee loyalty and will
help to overcome major issues of discrimination. Australia is one such country that has the
fair work pay commission looking after all the issues of any form of discrimination at
workplace.
Career development in the organization through various gender equity actions
If organizations can overcome the problems of gender pay gap then career
development for women can take place in the same organization. It will also help the
organization to retain a team of motivated and engaged employees. This action will prove to
be beneficial for both the organization as well as the employees. For instance: HESTA is
carrying out various actions to increase the career development activities of women within the
organization by carrying out proper gender pay gap analysis.
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References
Ayres-Bennett, W. & Carruthers, J., (2018). 0 Romance sociolinguistics: past, present,
future. Manual of Romance Sociolinguistics, 18, p.3.
Baxter, J. (2017). Double-voicing at work: Power, gender and linguistic expertise. Springer.
Cornwall, A., & Rivas, A. M. (2015). From ‘gender equality and ‘women’s empowerment’to
global justice: reclaiming a transformative agenda for gender and development. Third
World Quarterly, 36(2), 396-415.
Durbin, S., Page, M. & Walby, S., (2017). Gender equality and ‘austerity’: Vulnerabilities,
resistance and change. Gender, Work & Organization, 24(1), pp.1-6.
Flynn, P. M., Haynes, K., & Kilgour, M. A. (Eds.). (2017). Overcoming challenges to gender
equality in the workplace: Leadership and innovation. Routledge.
Gelman, S. A., & DeJesus, J. M. (2017). THE LANGUAGE PARADOX. Converging
Perspectives on Conceptual Change: Mapping an Emerging Paradigm in the
Learning Sciences.
Grusky, D. (2018). The inequality reader: Contemporary and foundational readings in race,
class, and gender. Routledge.
Holmes, J., & Stubbe, M. (2015). Power and politeness in the workplace: A sociolinguistic
analysis of talk at work. Routledge.
Hutton, C. (2015). Sociolinguistics and its metalinguistic paradox: a plea for history.
In International Conference on The Sociolinguistics of Globalization:(De) centring
and (de) standardization, SLXG 2015.
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Littleton, C. A. (2018). Reconstructing Sexual Equality [1987]. In Feminist legal theory (pp.
35-56). Routledge.
Mullany, L., & Yoong, M. (2018). Gender and the workplace. Routledge handbook of
language in the workplace, 311-322.
Wu, R., & Cheng, X. (2016). Gender equality in the workplace: the effect of gender equality
on productivity growth among the Chilean manufacturers. The Journal of Developing
Areas, 50(1), 257-274.
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