Gender-Based Discrimination in the Workplace

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Gender, race, and ethnicity are important aspects that would tend to determine how people react towards each other in a group. Among these aspects, gender has become a matter of interest in the modern business environment where gender inequality remains the norm is many organizations. In fact, women have been overlooked for senior positions in workplaces simply because of their gender. More subtle, women have, in many occasions, been victims of unfair treatment in those organizations mainly occupied by men.

Women are considered to be inferior to men in the society, thus being subjected to numerous forms of harassment in the workplace. Among other forms of workplace dimensions, gender-related issues are common aspects of organizational behaviors that are known to have serious implications for businesses. In order to give a good account of the effects of gender-based discrimination against women, this paper examines the space of women in the automotive engineering industry.

The law requires businesses and organizations to judge their employees by their contribution towards the business goals that have been set, and not by the attributes and the differences they possess as humans. This, however, is not the case in a field like automotive engineering which is thought to be much too complicated to women. There are multiple dimensions of gender-based discrimination in automotive industries allover the world.

This is observable through the various discriminatory policies and practices against female employees witnessed in the industry nowadays. For example, the number of male employees in the field exceeds that of women by a huge margin. Moreover, there is a disparity in the salaries and wages given to male and female employees in the sector, whereby men earn more than their female counterparts. To crown it all, there are serious promotion obstacles for female employees working in automotive engineering companies across the world.

Gender-based discrimination against women in the automotive engineering sector has continued to trigger many positive and negative implications (Evetts, 1996). There is no doubt that female representation in leadership positions comes with massive benefits for organizations in numerous ways. This can be confirmed through the nature of those organizations that have adopted strong organizational behaviors in terms of gender equality.

By treating both women and men equally, these organizations have successfully managed to reap the full benefits of gender diversity as a key factor for business success. In this respect, there is no doubt that additional commercial value would have been realized in the automotive engineering sector if gender equality was taken seriously within the industry.

Gender equality can positively impact the overall wellbeing of businesses, and therefore, it is necessary for modern organizations to embrace the concept. A diverse organization comprises of employees who belong to different genders, races, and ethnicities. However, a perfect integration of these differences in the workplace can be beneficial to organizations in a number of ways. For example, this helps to strengthen employee relationships, thus ensuring easy flow of communication through various units of an organization.

This, in turn helps to boost employees’ morale, thus leading to increased productivity. More importantly, gender equality comes with tremendous benefits in terms of fruitful teamwork, provision of mutual understanding, respect, and improved relationships among the employees, thus forming a strong basis for a successful business (Grosser & Moon, 2005). However, gender-based dimensions in the automotive engineering sector have continued to affect the motivation and performance of female workers in the industry, thus limiting the benefits associated with diversity in the workplace.

Diverse talent helps to strengthen work environments by ensuring that all employees are contented in their work. In this case, promoting diverse talent through gender equality reflects a strong business environment that would play a crucial role in facilitating creativity and innovation. Apart from the outcomes of fairness and equity that promote employee motivation in the workplace, diversity is also an avenue through which operations and opportunities can be optimized to give the most desirable business outcomes (Hitt, Miller & Colella, 2011).

By fully embracing and practicing gender equality, businesses are able to serve their own interests in the best way possible. Based on these facts, it is obvious that giving women equal treatment in the workplace can generate positive outcomes. This strengthens the bottom line, thus serving as a reliable form of competitive advantage for organizations. In this regard, organizations that have learnt to practice gender equality in the workplace have achieved great benefits in terms of female representation in the workplace. All these lack in the automotive engineering sector where women are considered to be flighty and incapable.

Based on current and past reports on the management of the largest corporations in the world, women still come after men in higher positions (Oakley, 2000). This has been proven by the findings of a recent report about statistics on discrimination of women in the workplace, where it was observed that only 13 of the 500 biggest corporations globally are headed by female Chief Executive Officers. This is a clear indication of what can be expected of the other management levels that have not been observed.

Things are not different in the automotive engineering industry where women are not offered the same opportunities as men. Moreover, those women who happen to stumble their way in the industry are subjected to various forms of workplace discrimination. Some of the common forms of discrimination here would be limited opportunities to go up the professional ladder and less pay to women despite of them handling the same tasks as men in the workplace.

These discriminatory attitudes towards women in the automotive industry and other engineering fields have over the years continued to impact women’s career decisions. Nowadays, women will have to think twice before venturing in male-dominated job sectors for fear of being discriminated or harassed, possibly due to their seemingly weak physical appearances. As a result of this misconception, women have ended up being misrepresented in these distinguished fields.

This has limited women participation in the sector, thus hindering their worthwhile contribution towards the success of businesses within these sectors. Giving women an equal opportunity to serve in the automotive engineering sector widens the range in which professionals are identified, and this ensures that qualified personnel are selected for the jobs. Gender diversity can be a perfect way of ensuring that businesses in the industry attain a sustainable competitive advantage in the market (Leonard & Levine, 2006).

For this reason, several antidiscrimination laws have been enacted to safeguard the rights of female employees in the workplace. Some of the common laws here include the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. With these laws, women now have a better understanding of their employment rights, and will not hesitate to file a case against any form of harassment against them with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Engineering comes with complex business needs that attract opportunities for women misrepresentation in the sector. For many years, auto engineers have been overwhelmingly men. The literature on women and engineering has documented various reasons why these particular jobs are considered suitable for men and not women. Engineering involves many comprehensive tasks which may be too odd for women to handle. Obviously, the wide range of activities in the sector incorporates elements of electronic, mechanical, and software applications, among other elements.

More importantly, the perceptions of women towards the engineering field have always been negative, since this is a predominantly male sector. In this case, people will tend to presume that women’s space in the engineering sector is strictly restricted due to the belief that the profession involves many technical jobs that may be more difficulty for female workers. There is also a shortage of women career models in the automotive engineering sector, and this makes it hard for girls to think of pursuing a career in the field (Cech, Rubineau, Silbey & Seron, 2011). All these observations help to explain the reasons as to why women appear to be misrepresented in the engineering sector.

Another possible factor that hinders the collective participation of women in the engineering sector is the gender stereotyped perception that the job involves a lot of energy, thus being unsuitable for women, who tend to be less physically active compared to men. Moreover, engineering involves the use of sophisticated equipment and tools, and for this reason, it is viewed as a dangerous profession that can easily expose women to injuries. The other reason why automotive engineering has remained a predominantly male career is the fact that, the profession calls for serious commitment and dedication.

This may be too tricky for women, who may find it more challenging to counterbalance work with family obligations. Due to this cultural pressure, women are compelled to settle for those careers that go well with important obligations of human life, such as family matters. It is owing to the above reasons why women are highly misrepresented in the automotive engineering sector, and this has always made men superior to them in the field.

Based on the observations presented in this paper, it is patently clear that women still continue to be discriminated in the workplace due to their gender. Even though there have been initiatives in place to address issues of gender inequality, gender-based discrimination is still very much alive in the contemporary American society and other regions of the world. In fact, women have taken the same career paths as men in many areas nowadays, and for that reason, their efforts to take part in the engineering sector should not be challenged in any way (Schein, 2007).

As we have seen in the above paragraphs, gender equality enhances business success in many ways, and therefore, we all stand to lose if the participation of women in the workplace is limited. At a time when the world is struggling to deal with the challenges of poor economy, we have to ensure that necessary opportunities and resources are optimized.

One way of achieving this objective is by giving women equal treatment in the workplace. This would not only ensure that women get a fair representation in areas that had previously been dominated by men, but will also help to ensure that the potential skills of women are well utilized.

According to recent surveys on gender and diversity matters in the workplace, many organizations have been able to see the tremendous benefits that come with gender equality in the workplace, thus applying every effort to eradicate gender-based stereotypes from their environments. In order to achieve this goal, these organizations have come up with initiatives aimed at ensuring that women are protected from all kind of gender-based discrimination. There is a need for the automotive engineering sector to adjust to these changes, and introduce strong initiatives and programs that will attract massive women representation.

It is true that automotive engineering has never been considered a woman’s occupation, but that is a perception of the past. Times have changed, and today, women can be as successful as men in almost every sector (Soni, 2000). In this regard, there is no reason why female engineers cannot be as smart as male engineers. Even though there have been slight increases in the number of women who take the path of automotive engineering, there is still room for extra interventions to ensure that more women are drawn into the field.

In fact, discrimination against women in the workplace, particularly in engineering sectors, will not disappear by itself, but there is a need for consistent efforts by all parties involved. In this case, both communities and organizations should work together in ensuring that women are fairly represented in the automotive engineering sector. Through such interventions, occupational gender segregation will become history in the engineering sector. This way, women will finally enjoy equal benefits and opportunities as their male counterparts in the workplace.

As it is shown in this paper, women are still prone to gender-based discrimination in the workplace, and this results to negative implications for individuals and organizations. These implications have been a major drawback to the economical success of many developed and developing businesses in the world. Despite it being a requirement of the Law that all people should be accorded equal opportunities in the workplace, regardless of their gender differences, women’s space is still restricted in some sectors.

As it is shown in this paper, the benefits of diversity and gender equality can never be overestimated. In this regard, the global community should focus more on the issue of gender equality in the workplace to ensure that women are not discriminated in the workplace anymore because of gender-based reasons.

References

Cech, E., Rubineau, B., Silbey, S., & Seron, C. (2011). Professional role confidence and gendered persistence in engineering. American Sociological Review, 76(5), 641-666.

Evetts, J. (1996). Gender and career in science and engineering (Vol. 2). Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press.

Grosser, K., & Moon, J. (2005). Gender mainstreaming and corporate social responsibility: Reporting workplace issues. Journal of Business Ethics, 62(4), 327-340.

Hitt, M. A., Miller, C. C., & Colella, A. (2011). Organizational Behavior (3rd ed.).

Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Leonard, J. & Levine, D. (2006). The effect of diversity. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 59(4), 547-572.

Oakley, J. (2000). Gender-based barriers to senior management positions: understanding the scarcity of female CEOs. Journal of business ethics, 27(4), 321-334.

Schein, V. (2007). Women in management: reflections and projections. Women in Management Review, 22(1), 6-18.

Soni, V. (2000). A Twenty-First-Century Reception for Diversity in the Public Sector: A Case Study. Public Administration Review, 60(12), 395-408.

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Gender-Based Discrimination in the Workplace

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