Society Debate: Are women and men treated equally at work?

Women are not favored at work places Women have come a long way during the past century: They’ve flown solo across the Atlantic, they’ve been given the right to vote, in Rwanda, women have been elected to parliamentary positions, and they have grown into big-time entrepreneurs. Regardless of the great achievements, women still face barriers at work place. Those barriers account for today’s dwindling careers. Putting in practice ‘the written equal rights,’ between men and women at work is next to impossible. Not even activism or gender equality can bring to an end the male dominance and discrimination against women, even in big organizations, worldwide. It’s crystal clear that despite women’s efforts to achieve and build great careers, men are favored at workplaces. Here are some of the day to day barriers that women face, in a competent working environment. Promotion is part of the male culture, men are comfortable promoting themselves even when there is nothing achieved at all.Meanwhile, women are more prone to do a good job and wait to be recognized for it. Waiting for promotions to no avail only turns women into slaves to their male bosses as they seek recognition. A woman works twice harder than the man to be acknowledged And yes, women still fall prey to male illicit intentions and habits such as sexual harassment, termination of contracts for cases of ladies that don’t comply to male bosses’ advances and at times death threats, incase of stiff competition with their male counterparts. A reasonable percentage of university graduates have been lured into having sex in return for jobs. Some girls were unlucky enough to contract HIV or pregnancies, just because they are believed to be ‘just helpless women.’ It’s also awfully true that women are not even considered or at least suggested for bigger challenges at work. Male domination often presents women as weaklings who can only accomplish kitchen chores and secretarial work. And of course gender stereotypes continue to play a big role into holding women back, career-wise. For example, a woman with a family may not be considered for an overseas position on assumptions that her husband will not accept the changes. A woman who just had a child may not be considered for a promotion because of the assumption that her child is her first priority. And yes, women are rarely promoted to places with profit and loss responsibilities. Women are often promoted to human resource, training jobs but operations and sales jobs are often secured for men. And you call that justice at work? True that women are often blamed for emotional baggage incase they complain about mistreatment at work. This perhaps explains why some companies never employ women at all. Women are tainted gossips, birth machines and less intelligent. Meanwhile, women have a reputation of being the best at malt tasks. I bet no male would balance family, kids and career. Some companies lose a tremendous amount of female talent because they don’t recognize that women at a certain age take career as priority. Women are often excluded from informal networking. It’s not deliberate but it’s rather unusual for men to invite women to talk business. Blame it on male twisted thinking. Still wondering what keeps women from cracking the glass ceiling and finding seats in bigger boardrooms? Blame it on the barriers at women’s work place. lillianean@yahoo.com