Gender Inequality In United Kingdom: Evaluating The Current And Future Roles Of Men And Women In The Workplace

Current Roles of Men and Women at Work in the UK

Gender Discrimination defines that the position of a woman and a man is not equal in the society. Gender inequality refers the unequal treatment with the individual wholly or partly due to their gender. In the society, women lag behind men in many fields such as education, political representation, labour market opportunities and in job pay. Gender discrimination is an issue in the world which is socially build by the people of the society (Heilman, & Caleo, 2018). In this paper, the discussion will be made on the topic of “gender inequality in United Kingdom”.  

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The role of women in the society is limited to maintenance of family. Male dominance is a main factor from which inequality is spreading in the society. The society is called men society in which the women have the responsibility to take care of the families with the restricted areas that is different from the public area (Jayachandran, 2015). The men are allowed to work in outside in the external environment such as politics, governance and many other profession. In the men society, men are responsible to earn the money but the women do not allow working outside to earn money. The women have the responsibility to take care of the family members by cooking the food and maintain the house. It has been seen that the more participation of men in the external environment increase their power in the society. 

The gender organizational concept states that the men getting the advantage and women face the disadvantage in the everyday works of workplace. The image of men and women is different in the organization of UK. The statement of masculinity power is used to define men and it is able to do the physical hard word. The image of women defines with its care services in the organization of UK. The women contribute in the maintenance of separation in the organization. The organization of UK implements the act of male notion helps the male in increasing their power. It has been seen that the point of view of men is more heard by the organisation as compare to women from that men getting an advantage in the workplace. The decision taken by the women is not more valuable than the decision taken by the men in the organisation of UK.  The decision are taken as per the majority of male due to which the opportunity of rise in the profession is very low for women as compare to the men (Rao, Sandler, Kelleher, & Miller, 2015). The men get the opportunity to rise in their profession due to their high power in the organisation. The language is essential in attaining the position of a leader in the organisation that directed towards the male in the organisation of UK (McMaster, 2016). Women face the difficulties in the path of their career; power of male is an obstacle in the path of professional growth of women in the organisation. It has been seen that the people of UK believes that the men can easily maintain the organisation in a better manner in the position of senior management. Believe and tradition follow by an organisation increase the difficulties for a woman in their profession. The women getting the opportunity in the care sector services such as nursing, assistants and many others but they have less opportunity to getting the promotion in the software development sector (Nicolson, 2015).

Reasons for the Lack of Female Representation in Higher Management Positions

From the earlier life, people follow the tradition of segregation which directly affects the profession growth of women. The difference between men and women is unequal due to the separation of women from their families. It is the main reason that the women get the low pay and have less chances of promotion. The women separated from their family after the marriage due to which there lifestyle is changed. It has been seen that the change in lifestyle have a negative impact on the progression opportunities of women in their professional life (Flynn, Earlie, & Cross, 2015). The women take the family leaves which result the gender pay gap for the women. The women have fewer chances to get back to their job after marriage because they are not allowed to do the work outside the restricted area. The efficiency of women diminishes in the workplace due to changing the lifestyle. Change in lifestyle means change in habits and interest of women. As per the concept, the change in lifestyle is a reason of gender pay gap. The diminishing efficiency is the workplace is the barrier for the women in their professional position. It has been founded that the men are forward for the professional position such as senior management position due to high efficiency in the work. Physical strength is also considered in some industries from which the men get the chance of high position in the organisation. Physical strength is also a barrier which results in the gender pay gap. It is evaluated that women get the 80% of wages of men in the organisation of UK. As per the analysis, it has been founded that there are large number of women who have more experience as compare to the men experience but the experience of men is more valuable in the term of wages (Flinkman, & Salanterä, 2015). People of UK follows the concept of men society, in which men of the family act as the head of the house and he have the rights to take the decision and the women plays her by performing the following the order given by the men. According to gender report, it has been seen that the participation in the society of women is less as compare to men with the rate of 58% (Equalityhumanrights, 2018). From the analysis it has been stated that the participation of women is less due to playing the role of housewives which result in the gender pay gap. Horizontal segregation defines the difference number of people in each gender across occupational. Vertical segregation defines that the men have high job as compare to women. In horizontal segregation, women are entering into the job through the service sector. But in vertical segregation, women are not allowed to do the work outside and the men getting the opportunity to grow in their profession. The society is walking with the vertical segregation in which a man getting higher position and a woman efficiency is getting low due to changing life style. 

Barriers and Stereotypes Women Face

There are many stereotypes believe in the organisation such as segregation that helps the male workers to grow in their profession but it is a difficulty for the women workers. As per believes of society, men is evaluated more effective leader in an organisation. The women who have been able to give their best towards their organisation also get the lower rank due to notion exist in the organisation. It has been seen that the evaluation of rewards is also unequal due to inefficiency in the performance of women. Women have more efficiency to handle the multiple situations at a time more than the men. But the men get the advantage in their profession due to high power of men in the organisation which also increases the reward gap. Although, the women of UK are the good achievers in the academics fields but that is not reflected in the area of workplace achievement.

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In the organisation of UK, the women have been poor paid in the terms of rewards and salary. They are restricted with the traditional occupations of the society such as assistant work, nurses, and many others. Human resources manager is the common job for the women because it is related to the care and administrative of organisation. The women perform the responsibility in the field of maintaining and caring which is undervalued as per believe of people of UK. The women have bunched of various jobs in the organisation in which the major part of women getting the opportunity in the undervalued services such as care sectors. Although, these sectors are not undervalued but the religions constructed by human beings measured these sectors as undervalued which is not appropriate for women (Vleuten, 2016).

According to the World Economic Forum, it has been stated that there will be large gender-gap in the organisation of UK. The women lost the millions of jobs due to gender inequality in the society. As per the gender report, it is founded that the women lost the 2.45 million jobs by the end of the year of 2020 (Weforum, 2018). The women suffer the loss of job as well as low wages in the organisation of UK. The services industries offer the more jobs to women to take care of the services of the organisation or members of the organisation. It is observed that the women has more responsibility towards their family due to which they have very less time to learn the new things and give time for themselves. These personal reasons become the obstacles for men. It can be said that the women loose the best job opportunity in the age of advance technologies if the current trend is continue follow by the society. In the technology sector, gender gap is large and it would be widened in the coming years due to less participation of women in the workplace (Otiniano Verissimo, Gee, Ford, & Iguchi, 2014).

Gender equality refers the state of equal access the opportunities and resources regardless of gender. It includes the participation of women in economic and decision making process in the organisation (Aagaard, 2016). Gender equality concept states that the both men and women are free to select their choices as per their personal abilities. The different behaviour, needs and aspiration of men and women is equally treated and favoured. It is against the concept of discrimination in the gender; it does not mean that women and men become same. According to this concept, the rights and responsibilities and opportunities are not relying on the born of an individual (Peters, & Wolper, 2018). It also means to fairly treatment of the need of men and women. As per the World Economic Forum report of 2017, Iceland achieves the top position in the context to gender equality (Weforum. 2018). It has been appreciated that the small Island has been able to get the first rank among the 144 countries (Rothman, 2015). It is the only country which has close gender income gap with the rate of 44%. The women of the country are able to occupy 30 seats out of 62 parliamentary seats of parliament which states that women occupied the strong position in the country (Hacker, 2017). It can be said that the Iceland is advance as compare to the Finland, Norway and the Sweden in the term of gender equality (Durbin, Page, & Walby, 2017). Gender gap is reduces in the Iceland due to which the women are encourage to participate in the economic activities. The legislation in Iceland is advanced and neutral country in the world in the terms of gender (McGlynn, 2018).

Consequences of Gender Discrimination: Gender Pay Gap

It has been evaluated that the culture and believes of people strongly affects the power of women and men in the society. It can be said that the women is able to perform their responsibilities very well but there are certain barriers which push them back. In the organisation, point of view of women is less valuable than the men point of view which negatively affects women profession.  Culture and believes are the reasons of reducing the opportunity of growth of women. The men notion exist in the organisation provides the opportunities to men to go ahead in the professional career but it becomes an obstacle in the profession of women. There are some industries which considered the physical strength as a reason of diminishing efficiency of women. Diminishing efficiency becomes the part of life of women and the reason is discontinuity in the performance (Fraile, & Gomez, 2017).  Change in lifestyle is the major issue of discontinuity of performance of women. The men in the organisation of UK are rewarded better as compare to women reward. The wage rate of women is measurable in the terms of experience or performance but due to diminishing efficiency the women get lower wages as compare to men.  In the organisation of UK, wages are distributed as per the male notion exist in the organisation. It has been evaluated that the vertical segregation is followed in the society which gives the opportunity to men for the highest position. It has been founded that as the time passes women’s are getting stronger by their experiences. Although, rewards distributed in the right concept as per the performance and responsibilities but the cause of inequality is the main issue which increases the gap in the pay rate.

From the above discussion, it has been concluded that the gender discrimination is a concept that states the inequality in men and women of the society. In the organisation, men are getting the proper guidance from the mentors and trainers for the high position. But the implicit power in the organisation fails the women in getting the high position in the market. Organisational culture plays a crucial role in the hierarchy of the organisation. The male notion exist in the organisation is appropriate for the men not for the women in the society.  It is observed that there is large pay gap due to gender inequality in the organisation. Segregation tradition is the reason of change in the life style of women that increases the pay gap of men and women. Change lifestyle means the change in interest and passion of women which reduces the efficiency of women in performing their existing responsibilities. Rewards are distributed as per the performance of an individual. It is observed that the performance of women is inappropriate thus; the wage and rewards rate of women is less as compare to men. Diminishing efficiency is also one of the reasons of gender pay gap in the organisation. Iceland is the only country in the world that treats equally men and women in the organisation as well as in the society. From the analysis, it has been evaluated that the gap between the gender pay will be reduces in the near year because women are getting string day by day from their experience and struggles. 

References

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