Discrimination and unequal treatment on female in workplaces in Canada
Overview
In history, women were regarded as vulnerable groups in society, because men have more strength and it was significant in previous era. And it led to the inequality between men and women and the influence has been existing in the society till now. Although there are many people considering that the discrimination against women is reducing and similar issues are under controlling, women are still suffering gender discrimination in various occasions in their daily life. And this discrimination brings unequal treatment to women and makes their life worse.
As a global and pervasive social problem, gender discrimination may not be invisible with the development of the economy and society, but its influence is persistent. People usually have stereotypes of women, which refer that women could not do things as well as men.[1] The stereotypes provide an environment for the growth of prejudice and discrimination, and one of the most common occasion is the workplace.
Stereotypes of women in workplaces
The concept of stereotype
Gender stereotypes have been noticed and analysed form more than twenty years, and researchers found that related phenomenon are common and long lasting in various workplaces. [2] The image of women is described and regarded as "more passive, emotional, submissive, compassionate, and social sensitive",[2] so people widely believe that men have better working abilities than women during work. Since these gender stereotypes are stable and consistent, the misunderstanding of women's abilities will be inherited and contribute to the stereotypes. This gender stereotype brings convenience to rise to biased judgments and decisions, and impeding women’s advancement in their workplaces.
The manifestation of stereotype
In the aspect of working and business, negotiation is an essential part of people's daily work, and it is also a significant example to present the manifestation of stereotype in workplaces. From a historical view, negotiation and bargaining should be finished by men since they had lower Interpersonal Orientations than women, and it means that they are not sensitive or reactive to external influence. [3] Actually, there were few data or evidence to support this opinion, but many popular publication takes this opinion as a fact to state the difference between women and men, and it leads to the spread of the stereotype.
Unequal treatment on women in workplaces
The influence of stereotype on women's treatment in Canada
As a result of the discrimination and stereotype, women suffer from unequal treatment in their companies or workplaces. Although women are playing more important roles in modern business than before in Canada[4], they do not receive reasonable treatment which they should be received on their positions. In other words, the improvement of women's positions do not lead to an improvement of their welfare. [5]
The salary and women's performance at work is unequal
The existence and spread of gender discrimination in workplaces leads to the decrease of women's salary. According to a research among small and medium-sized enterprises in Canada, women will get paid less than men who are in the same positions and working as similar roles in companies[6]. The participation rate of women and men is getting similar in recent years, and it means that women's working performance and abilities seemed to be recognized by employers gradually, but the problem is that the growth of women's earnings do not rank as rapidly as men's.
The gap between women's and men's salary is not only occurring in a small part of companies in Canada, but it is a common issue[7] . Similar issue of women's income can be found in various industries and positions in Canada. As one of the most significant symbols of nowadays society, there are a large number of women are working as temporary positions in various companies[7], and they are suffering unequal treatment and low salary. It is not resulted from employees' education levels since women with higher level of certificates do not earn as much as men who do not have a bachelor certificate.
And the appearance of the salary gap also occur in top positions . Even for women who have successfully reached the top 10% positions in their industry, they are still suffering from gender discrimination and earning less than men[6] . Furthermore, most female employees' treatment and welfare do not have any changes even with the increase of representation of women in top earning groups in recent years.
Potential Reasons lead to discrimination
The stereotype of women's physiological structure might be one of the reasons that people consider women could not have as good performance as men in workplaces. Many women need to experience pregnancy as an important part of their life, but pregrancy will be an negative influence on their working performance to some extent. Most women will go back to work and perform similar performance before their childbirth, however, things have been changed during their long time leave [6], and it affect their stablity and persistent.
Future of the gender discrimination
Along with the change and development of the society, communal attributes and behaviors are regarding as valued characteristics for leadership roles in workplaces [8]. When employers are evaluating employees' abilities and performance during work, they need to consider more comprehensively and try to get rid of gender stereotypes. Fortunately, there is proof that individuals accept that after some time ladies' properties have become progressively like men's and will keep on doing as such[9], and it means that people's gender stereotypes have been eliminated gradually.
Besides, feminine leadership advantage is raised as a new topic in the aspect of business management, and more people begin to work on analyzing women's functions in workplaces as well as its importance. But people also notice that there is some traditional stereotype on womens in workplaces, as more collective and less agentic than men, they presently are viewed as equivalent to men in insight and fitness. At the point when ladies are the objectives of sexual orientation predisposition they, however the associations for which they work and society all in all, need to afford the lose by themselves.
Reference
- ↑ Heilman, Madeline E. (21 November 2012). "Gender stereotypes and workplace bias". Research in Organizational Behavior: 114–131.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Locksley, Anne (1980). "Sex stereotypes and social judgment". Journal of personality and social psychology. 39: 821–831.
- ↑ Kray, Laura J.; Thompson, Leigh (2004). "GENDER STEREOTYPES AND NEGOTIATION PERFORMANCE: AN EXAMINATION OF THEORY AND RESEARCH". Research in Organizational Behavior. 26: 103–182.
- ↑ Hadley, Karen (2003). "And We Still Ain't Satisfied: a Report on Gender and Income Inequality in Canada [Study Based on the 1998 Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics]". Atlantis. 28: 3–18.
- ↑ Bonikowska, Aneta (2019). "Earnings Inequality and the Gender Pay Gap in Canada : The Role of Women's Under-Representation Among Top Earners". Statistics Canada.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Fortin, Nicole (2019). ""Increasing Earnings Inequality and the Gender Pay Gap in Canada: Prospects for Convergence."". The Canadian Journal of Economics. 52: 407–440.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Fuller, Sylvia; Vosko, Leah (2008). "Temporary Employment and Social Inequality in Canada: Exploring Intersections of Gender, Race and Immigration Status". Social Indicators Research. 88: 31–50.
- ↑ Eagly, A. H.; Carli, L. L (2003). "The female leadership advantage: An evaluation of the evidence". The Leadership Quarterly. 14: 807–834.
- ↑ Diekman, A. B.; Eagly, A. H (2000). "Stereotypes as dynamic constructs: Women and men of the past, present, and future". Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 26: 1171–1188.