Gender Inequality and HR Practices: A Comprehensive Report

This report examines the pervasive issue of gender inequality in the workplace, focusing on the challenges faced by female employees, including sexual harassment, racism, and the gender pay gap. It highlights the shortcomings of HR departments in addressing these issues, such as low representation of women in top-level positions and unequal compensation. The report analyzes the impact of gender inequality in Australia, where the gender pay gap is significantly high, and reviews the failures of organizations and governments in tackling this problem. It offers recommendations for HR departments, including implementing gender equality policies, incorporating these policies into Corporate Social Responsibility models, and establishing flexible policies to increase female employees' roles. Furthermore, the report emphasizes the need for HR executives to prioritize hiring and promoting women to top-level positions and ensuring equal pay for equal work to foster a more inclusive and equitable workplace. It also includes examples of companies that have attempted to address the issue and suggests strategies for improvement, such as conducting equal pay audits and focusing on reducing the gender pay gap.

Running head: GENDER INEQUALITY 0
Managing Human Resources

GENDER INEQUALITY 1
Executive Summary
Gender inequality is a critical issue which is faced by a large number of female
employees worldwide. The female workers face various issues while working in corporations
such as sexual harassment, racism, and unequal pay. Women are also facing issues of gender
pay gap which means them receive less salary for similar work as compared to male
employees. In Australia, the gender pay gap is 15.3 percent which is considerably high, and it
proves that government and organisations have failed to address the issue of gender
inequality. The HR department also faces issue such as high retention rate, turnover rate, lack
of motivated employees, and ineffective employee relationships. The HR department of
companies has failed to address the issue of female workers. HR executive did not prefer to
hire female workers, and they did not promote them to the top-level managerial position. The
female employee also receives lower compensation for similar work than compared to male
workers. The awareness about this issue is continuously growing especially in developed
nations. The HR executives can implement various policies to address gender inequality and
pay gap issues such as determining female employees’ issues and implementing appropriate
policies. HR department should incorporate gender equality and equal pay policies into
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) model to implement it across the corporation. HR
executive should establish flexible policies for female employees to increase their role in the
corporation. These policies can assist HR executives in hiring female employees for top-level
executive positions and providing them equal remuneration for their work.

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Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction..........................................................................................................................3
2.0 Issue of Gender Inequality...................................................................................................4
3.0 Challenges Face by Women due to Gender Inequality........................................................5
4.0 Recommendations................................................................................................................6
5.0 Conclusion............................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................8

GENDER INEQUALITY 3
1.0 Introduction
In recent years, the role of women in business has grown substantially, and they started
getting jobs in the middle as well as top-level management positions. Though, it has seen that
the number of female employees who reach a top-level position is considerably low when
compared to men. Women have continuously proven that they no less than compared to men,
and they perform take proper responsibility of top-level positions as well. Women throughout
the world have proven that they can perform better than men. Even with a significant number
of achievements, women did not receive similar respect as compared to men. They still face
the issue of gender inequality and still corporations did not prefer to assign them top-level
executive positions (Acker, 2012). There are various reasons which create invisible barriers
for women that stops them reaching to a top-level position. One of the key issues faces by
women is ‘gender inequality’. It has been proven by various studies that corporations
promote employees not just based on their performance rather than their contribution to the
enterprise or how much are they willing to sacrifice for their top-level position (Hook, 2010).
Female employees face the issue of inequality because they are unable to contribute to an
organisation as much as a male employee can do because of natural or social factors.
Women throughout the world face the issue of “gender pay gap” which means they
receive less salary or benefit packages them compared to their male colleagues. In Australia,
gender pay gap is a serious problem which affects a large number of female employees
throughout different industries (Watson, 2010). This report will analyse the issues faced by
human resource department while managing and retaining employees in an organisation. The
primary aim of this report is to analyse the problem of gender inequality gap faced by women
worldwide. The report will evaluate the issue of gender pay gap and how it is negatively
influencing female workers even in multinational corporations. This report has a wider scope,
and it will focus on analysing the gender inequality issues face by women worldwide and
how the administration has failed to address the problem of gender pay gap. The report will
assess how gender pays gap influence human resource practices in a corporation. The report
will include examples of various companies that have succeeded or failed in addressing this
issue. Further, the report will provide recommendations that can assist in addressing the issue
of gender inequality and reduce the gender pay gap.

GENDER INEQUALITY 4
2.0 Issue of Gender Inequality
Modern corporation implements diversity management strategies that focus on
establishing a positive workplace environment that promotes and supports people from
different cultures, religions, and race. Equal employment opportunity (EEO) is defined as
freedom from discriminations based on gender, race, religion, age, or disability in order to
receive equal growth opportunities (Card, Cardoso & Kline, 2015). The Equal Opportunity
for Women in Workplace Amendment Bill 2012 provides policies that promote gender
equality and equal pay in modern corporations. The Equal Opportunity for Women in the
Workplace Agency is a federal body which performs the activities of data gathering and
implementing government policies in order to promote equal equality and equal pay in
companies (Baird, Williamson & Heron, 2012). Gender inequality still exists in modern
corporations despite the national and international measures that are taken by governments or
organisations for addressing this issue. Out of 135 nations, only four countries have achieved
gender inequality which includes Norway, Sweden, Cuba and Costa Rica. Even after
achieving tremendous success women are still receiving less salary for similar work. The
human resource department of corporations face issue of high turnover and retention of
female employees, therefore, they did not promote them on top-level management positions
(Craig & Mullan, 2010).
Due to national and international initiatives, the number of women in top-level
management is increasing, but the pace is considerably slow. In 2016, women help 24 percent
senior roles across the world which has grown just 3 percent from 2011 (Catalyst, 2017).
Women face various issues due to which it is difficult for them to achieve top executive
positions. For example, it is a common conception that men work to provide their families
whereas women stay at home to perform housework such as cleaning, cooking or children’s
care. Although this conception is changing especially in developed nations, it is still difficult
for women to work in night shift due to safety issues. The HR department finds it difficult to
manage female employees’ performance because they are not able to equal working hours as
compared to male workers. Female employees find it difficult to devote 16 hours a day in
their work whereas for men it is not an issue. The women face problems such as safety issue,
sexual harassment, office politics, and racism in the workplace (McDonald, 2012). The
human resource department failed to address female employees’ issues which increase their
turnover and retention rates. Due to high retention rates, HR executive avoids hiring female

GENDER INEQUALITY 5
workers instead of improving their workplace environment. The high rate of retention is
caused because HR executives failed to maintain positive relationships with employees
(Hutchinson & Eveline, 2010). The HR department did not implement appropriate policies
for motivating or rewarding female employees’ performance which increases the gender
inequality issues.
3.0 Challenges Face by Women due to Gender Inequality
Human resource department has failed to address the challenges faced by women
employees such as sexual harassment, safety issues, and racism. Other than these issues,
female workers lack confidence because the business world is male-centric and it is filled
with aggressive and strong males who did not prefer female at top-level positions. Due to
lack of confidence, HR department find it difficult to manage and improve the performance
of female employees. Top-level positions require leaders to become more aggressive and
strong doing which male managers are considered as masculine, whereas, female leaders are
viewed as uncaring or abrasive (Smith & Villa, 2010). In case of a female manager, the HR
executives face difficulty in maintaining discipline because most workers resist the decisions
of female managers. The study conducted by Bleidorn, Arslan, Denissen, Rentfrow, Gebauer,
Potter & Gosling (2016) provided that there is a significant gap in women confidence due to
which they face inequality in the workplace and find it difficult to achieve top-level positions.
Most of the women in the workplace face the issue of sexual harassment; according to
the US Equal Employees Opportunity Commission, more than 75 percent of the cases are not
reported by the victims (Golshan, 2017). Even in developed countries, women face gender
inequality issues due to which women are continuously lagging behind in terms of salary
packages and accommodations. In Australia, the national gender pay gap of 15.3 percent
proves that there is still a requirement for improvement in human resource policies in modern
corporations (Hilton, 2017). The Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) data provides
that men earn 22.4 percent more remuneration than women which is AU$27,000 a year
(Workplace Gender Equality Agency, 2018). The gender pay gap in BBC (9.3%) proves that
multinational corporations also failed to address the issues and even high-income female
employees are facing the issue of unequal pay (Ruddick & Grierson, 2017). The lack of
female employees in top-level executive position is also a significant issue faced by women
worldwide.

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4.0 Recommendations
Following recommendations can be implemented by human resource department to
address the issue of gender inequality and pay gap which promotes female employees and
increase their role in top-level managerial positions.
 The HR department should address various issues relating to female employees such
as sexual harassment, racism, and discrimination and understand their situation from a
different perspective. They should implement strict HR policies to effectively manage
diversity in the organisation which assist in promoting female workers in the
corporation (Lavive & Stutzer, 2010).
 HR department should implement new gender equality policies as a part of company’s
Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) model which enforces them to implement
them throughout the organisation and provide disclosures on an annual basis. HR
department can implement effective learning and development methods to improve
the performance of female workers.
 HR department should establish flexible policies for female workers to create a more
suitable working environment for them. They should also promote employees based
on their performance and increase the number of top-level executives.
 After identification of gender pay gap and lack of senior female executive, BBC
decided to reduce gender inequality in their organisation. The company conducted
Equal pay audit to find the reason for gender pay and implement policies according to
address such issue. The corporation is focusing on reducing gender pay gap and hiring
female employees to end gender equality by 2020. Other corporations should also
consider the strategy of BBC to address the issue of gender inequality and pay gap.

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5.0 Conclusion
In conclusion, female employees face issues of gender inequality and pay gap in
modern corporations. The high rate of gender pay gap proves that women are treated unfairly
in organisations. The human resource policies in most companies have failed to address the
issues relating to female employees. The HR department avoids hiring female workers and
provide them less salary for similar work. High female employee retention and turnover rates,
racism, unequal pay, and growing sexual harassment cases prove that HR department has
failed to address the issue of gender inequality. The number of top-level female executives is
considerably low in organisations worldwide because of the high rate of gender inequality.
Through, awareness about this issue is continuously growing, especially in developed
countries, and HR department can implement appropriate policies to reduce gender pay gap
in the organisation. Various HR policies can be implemented by HR executive to address the
issue of gender inequality and pay gap such as analysing female employees’ issues and
implementing HR policies accordingly. HR executive should promote the hiring of female
employees and assign them top-level managerial positions. The corporations should
incorporate gender equality policies into their CSR structure to implement it across the
organisation. These policies can assist in reducing the gender inequality and pay gap which
increases the number of female employees in modern corporations and promote their
development.

GENDER INEQUALITY 8
References
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Baird, M., Williamson, S., & Heron, A. (2012). Women, work and policy settings in
Australia in 2011. Journal of Industrial Relations, 54(3), 326-343.
Bleidorn, W., Arslan, R. C., Denissen, J. J., Rentfrow, P. J., Gebauer, J. E., Potter, J., &
Gosling, S. D. (2016). Age and gender differences in self-esteem—A cross-cultural
window. Journal of personality and social psychology, 111(3), 396. Retrieved from
http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/psp-pspp0000078.pdf
Card, D., Cardoso, A. R., & Kline, P. (2015). Bargaining, sorting, and the gender wage gap:
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