Analyzing Human Rights: Gender Inequality and Advocacy in Workplace

This report examines gender inequality in the workplace as a violation of human rights, referencing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). It discusses the background and context of gender inequality, highlighting how it restricts women's socio-economic status and career advancement. The report emphasizes the importance of equality and empowerment, advocating for gender-inclusive language and equal opportunities. It addresses the types of discrimination, including direct and indirect, and the consequences for companies that facilitate inequality. The report also explores financial initiatives and regulatory frameworks promoting gender diversity, discussing both successes, such as increased women on boards, and failures, like women being included as non-executive directors without significant decision-making power. Ultimately, the report underscores the need for companies to prioritize skills and qualities over gender and create positive working environments.

Human rights and social
advocacy

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Background and context of gender inequality at workplace.......................................................3
why gender inequality represents abuse of human rights...........................................................4
which human right is abused.......................................................................................................5
advocacy around the issue...........................................................................................................6
success or failure of advocacy.....................................................................................................7
RECOMMENDATIONS.................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Gender inequality refers to a social phenomenon in which the society or the organisation
does not treat men and women equally. Gender inequality in workplace is still a major issue in
developing as well as developed countries. Government has taken various measures to make sure
that the employees are treated on the basis of their skills and capabilities rather than their gender.
It is an essential factor which is needed to be considered as women in the workplace are
suffering from this issues. The management of the company still treats them as they are not
capable to handle responsibilities or authorities whereas it can be frustrating for women who are
workings hard and giving their 100% in their jobs and still not getting promotions or recognition
according to their work and capabilities. It can have a bad impact on not only the mental health
of women but also on their physical health. In this report, information in context to gender
inequality will be provided. In this report how it is abusing human rights will be discussed.
Particular human rights which are getting abused will be discussed and measures taken in order
to eradicate those issue will be discussed.
MAIN BODY
Background and context of gender inequality at workplace
The workplace sometimes serves as an inhospitable place for women due to the presence
of multiple form of gender inequality. The companies hinder the advancement in the career of
women due to their assumptions that women will not be able to handle responsibilities and
authority. The workplace inequality not only restrict women from taking managerial or
leadership positions but will also lower their socio economic status (Thornber ., (2020)). The
discrimination in workplace on the basis of gender, surely impact the Human resource roles
within the organisation which includes hiring, selection, recruitment, etc. The major decision
making power related to the employees of the company lays in the hands of HR department of
the company. The discrimination will have an impact on the processes, practices and
organisational structure of the company. The organisation structure shows that there is no top
level management post occupied by any women.
According to Global Gender Gap Report 2020, based on the current progress in the workplaces
the companies will require approximately 100 years to make the workplaces free from gender
inequalities. In the recent times of pandemic, the companies not only have registered a slowdown

in equality measures but the actions taken from the side of government and NGO's have also get
affected by the pandemic. It pushed the growth back 10 years again in the segment of eradication
of gender inequality. (Gender equality in the workplace: going beyond women on the board,
(2021)). According to the reports, women represents 39% of the workforce and have registered
54% job loss in May 2020 due to the adverse impact of Pandemic. There are certain industry
segment which provide wide range of jobs to the women and these segments when affected by
the pandemic make women loose their jobs. hospitality industry is one of the major example of
this segment. It is not appropriate to say that all the organisations are practising gender inequality
and are not providing opportunities to women, but some are definitely doing so. People
understand the importance of gender equality and it is the reason why they boycott companies
who are practising gender inequalities but the fact is most of the people doesn't understand or
able to have knowledge about organisations which are actually performing gender inequality
practices.
why gender inequality represents abuse of human rights
Gender inequality has made its significant part in internation human rights law by the
universal declaration of human rights. On 10th December 1948, the UN general assembly
accepted the fact and a milestone document has been produced which states that all Human
Being are born free and equal in rights and dignity. The declaration states that “everyone is
entitled to all the rights and freedoms, without distinction of any kind, such as race, religion, sex,
colour, language, … birth or other status.”
In 1979, The General Assembly adopted Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which is also known as International bill protecting
the rights of Women. In the year 1985, it was the year when finally feminism received global
recognitions and was having 15000 representatives of non governmental organisation taking
voluntary participation in parallel NGO Forum.
The forum of CWS officially known as commission on the status of women is a
intergovernmental body promoting gender equality and are exclusively dedicated for the
empowerment of women (GLOBAL ISSUES Gender Equality, (2020)). Several factors which are
needed to be considered for women empowerment are :
equality and empowerment: the companies must promote gender equality in there
workplace by providing equal opportunities and responsibilities to women employees. They must

take skills and knowledge of employee into considerations at the time of promotions rather than
the gender of employee. The assumptions regarding workings of women should by eradicated
and workplace must ensure that strict punishment is provided to those who are involved in
discrimination process.
use of gender inclusive language: language plays a major role in social attitude and
shaping culture of an organisation. It can be a powerful way through which the company can
promote gender equality and eradicate bias in the basis of gender. Inclusive language refers to
use of language in speaking and writing which does not discriminate against a particular sex or
gender identity.
which human right is abused
It is a human right of every individual to be treated equally irrespective of their age
gender, race, religion and location. If the women are facing gender based inequality a their
workplace then it is an abuse of their human rights (Isaacs & et. al., (2020)). According to law,
there should be no discrimination at the workplace and people must respect each and everyone's
rights. If a workplace is involving discrimination then they are liable for punishment as well as
penalties.
The right states that all human beings are born free and equal and hence there is no place
for discrimination on any basis. It means that no policies, programs and laws must be
discrimination free and must not include discrimination in any direct or indirect manner. There
are situations in which it is required to treat people differently in order to make it easy for
everyone to enjoy their rights but having this discrimination at workplace is totally unacceptable
and must not be allowed. People may be treated differently for purposes which are covered and
legitimate under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. There are two types of
discrimination which includes indirect discrimination and direct discrimination. It is important
for the companies to make sure that non of the discriminations is taking placer in there
workplace as it will help them in enhancing the performance of their workers and will also make
sure that the people are happy and satisfied with their job.
Indirect discrimination is also a criminal offence and must be avoided in order to in any
case. Companies facilitating inequality at workplace may have to suffer from loss of reputation if
they are unable to control or eradicate this practices from their workplace (Schnyder (2020)).
The consequences of gender based inequalities can be severe for the companies as well as

employees involved in discrimination. The basic rights of human must not be suffered in any
case and in case of gender based inequalities the right of equality is suffered the most.
advocacy around the issue
High level of financial initiatives, are made by government as well as independent units.
At least 15 new publicly traded gender lens equality funds have been launched in the year 2015
alone. In 2019, the total publicly available fixed income and equity offerings in gender lens
investing reaching over USD 2.4 billion in asset under-management. In case of independent units
, the Black rock initiated that it is compulsory for the companies to have at least two women
members on board as in that case only the company will make an investment. Within five
months of this rule the number of companies with less than two women board members
decreased by 14% in total (Gender equality in the workplace: going beyond women on the
board, (2021)). Also in the year 2018, state street global advisors announced that they would
vote against all male board in UK and US. In November 2019, Fox Gestion d’Actifs, a
subsidiary of Groupe Premium, launched Valuers Feminines Global Fund which is a fund by the
company investing only in companies whose CEO is women as a way of supporting women
entrepreneurs.
Regulatory frameworks are one of the most important reasons of promotion of gender
diversity within workplace. European unions are one of the members who have taken early
actions in order to promote workforce diversity in the workplace. The six member states of EU
have imposed binding quotas for gender board diversity. So why does it matter to have more
women on board to companies (Zhang & Buzan (2020)). It has been analysed that having more
women on board will tickle down the effect on workforce and the workplace will start providing
more opportunities to women. In the report of 2020 by McKinsey & Company Diversity win,
those companies who are having gender diversity in their board are most likely to perform better
financially as well. Having more women on board has also increased the benefits in the company
such as not so excessive risk taking decisions, improvement in the reputation of the firm,
sustainability performance, decrease in aggressive tax strategies and earning equalities.
Companies who are open and are inviting women employees in their workforce are more likely
to have a positive working environment and will also be attract talent workforce which is an
essential requirement for the companies now a days. It will help the company in retaining their
employees and will also be able to have a loyal workforce which is working according to the

goals and objectives of the company (Williams & Field (2021)). It is important for the companies
to make sure that they are not creating a workforce which is working on the basis of their
genders and not on the basis of their skills and qualities.
success or failure of advocacy.
 The success of the measure was that the companies are promoting ore and more women
workforce in their board members and in their workforce as well (Myles (2021)). The
countries are taking steps which are making it compulsory for the companies to have
women employees. The gender diversity has been promoted on a large scale and people
are aware of the inequalities and are taking corrective actions to stop that. It is also
promoting sustainability in the market as well as in the companies.
 The failure of the advocacy is that as women were not having opportunities and were
facing discrimination in the workforce, they are most likely to have lower level of
experience in several fields which can limit their capabilities and make them less suitable
for the post. It can also provide loss in the workings of the company as the decision
making process of the company will be affected.
 The companies include their women candidates as non executive or independent directors
which does not have much of a role in the workings or decision making process of the
company (Poteau & Winkle (Eds.). (2021)). It cannot make any sense of including
women in board as a member who is not allowed to take decisions.
 Due to stereotypes the women are tend to take less capable counter parts of male board
members and hence their views are not considered equal in the decision making process
of the company. Often employees does not show trust in the decisions made by female
superiors as they believe that the women superiors will not be able to handle
consequences or will not be able to take responsibilities as well.
 The companies take advantage of subsidies and benefits provided by the government by
simply employing women in their board but without giving them appropriate
opportunities or roles and responsibilities.
 It has been discussed that in companies like S&P global they have appointed nearly half
of their workforce as women but are unable to provide support to more than 6% of
CEO(Jodoin & et. al., (2020)). It states that it is required for the company to promote
more women based ventures and to provide investment to such ventures.

RECOMMENDATIONS
 It has been recommended that government must ensure that the companies are providing
a valid and powerful position to women employees before granting any subsidy or
benefits to them. It is important for the government to analyse at what position the
women candidate are working in board of directors and whether the women board
members are having decision making power or not.
 It is important for the government to take actions which can eradicate stereotypes that
people are having towards women leaders(Carriere (2020)). Until and unless people and
employees truly feel that the women employees have capabilities and can take decisions
effectively, there is no use of providing powerful positions to women.
 The government must maker sure that from early age the schools and parents must teach
their daughters with respect and always make them take their own decisions. It will help
them in building confidence in them to take their own decisions and also take
responsibilities of those decisions. It will help women in becoming leaders and taking
actions as well as will help them in taking a powerful position on the basis of their skills
and development practices.
 Lastly the companies must make sure that they are working on increasing the roles of
women in their workforce as if they do not trust their employees on the basis of gender
and will not provide them opportunities to handle responsibilities, they will not be able to
motivate them to take risk and do actions in that area.
 It has been observed that after pandemic due to care of family women employees has
decreased significantly. It has impacted the workings of the company as well as the
number of women workforce in the organisation. The government must take appropriate
measures which can help women employees in coming back to work physically or
virtually.

CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that, Gender inequality is a crime and abuse to
human rights. It is important for workplaces to levy strict instructions and punishment against the
practices of gender inequality. Employees must be appreciated or promoted on the basis of their
work and capabilities rather than their gender. It is important for the companies to make sure
that their workplace is not promoting any of these inequalities as it will promote a healthy
competition in the workplace and people will actually try to improve their performance in order
to have responsibility and authority. In this report, abuse of human rights on the basis of
inequality is provided along with the measures taken in order to promote equality in workplace.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Carriere (2020). Workers’ rights are human rights: organizing the psychology of labor
movements. Current opinion in psychology, 35, 60-64.
Guerra & et. al., (2021). “If you’re talking about poor communities, forget it!”:(lack of) human
rights advocacy for adequate food in primary healthcare. Cadernos de Saúde Pública,
37.
Isaacs & et. al., (2020). When psychologists take a stand: Barriers to trauma response services
and advocacy for American Indian communities. Journal of Trauma & Dissociation,
21(4), 468-483.
Jodoin & et. al., (2020). Realizing the right to be cold? Framing processes and outcomes
associated with the Inuit petition on human rights and global warming. Law & Society
Review, 54(1), 168-200.
Myles (2021). Addressing anti-discrimination in inter-group advocacy: intersections of allyship,
and intervention and development.
Poteau & Winkle (Eds.). (2021). Advocacy for Social and Linguistic Justice in TESOL:
Nurturing Inclusivity, Equity, and Social Responsibility in English Language Teaching.
Routledge.
Schnyder (2020). Analysing Norm-Based Advocacy Stratesgies to Address Asylum on the Basis
of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Europe. Journal of Human Rights
Practice, 12(3), 664-680.
Thornber ., (2020). Global Healing: Literature, Advocacy, Care. Brill.
Williams & Field (2021). Advocacy and the Rights of the Vulnerable Older Person. J. Aging L.
& Pol'y, 12, 1.
Zhang & Buzan (2020). China and the global reach of human rights. The China Quarterly, 241,
169-190.
online
Gender equality in the workplace: going beyond women on the board, 2021 [online]. Available
through <https://www.spglobal.com/esg/csa/yearbook/articles/gender-equality-
workplace-going-beyond-women-on-the-board>
GLOBAL ISSUES Gender Equality, 2020 [online]. Avavailable through
<https://www.un.org/en/global-issues/gender-equality>