GENDER DISCRIMINATION AT WORKPLACE: WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO WORKING WOMEN

GENDER DISCRIMINATION AT WORKPLACE: WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO WORKING WOMEN

 

“The hand that rocks the cradle, rules the world”

This popular proverb bluntly describes the confident, potential and dynamic women in the 21st century. Women have come a long way from barely rocking the cradle, now, to ruling the world. This essentially means that a woman, whose role was traditionally to sit at home and keep house clean has changed drastically. Today, more than 50 per cent of women in urban areas have begun to move out and start working. If one takes a closer look at any industry/ organization/ institution, one will see that around 70 per cent of the employees are women. For example, when we visit a hospital, female workers are definitely outnumbering their male counterparts. One look at the service industry i.e., hotels and airlines and one can notice a majority of women employees. In the present day and age, women have excelled in academics and in a whole wide range of professions. The increased respect and need for women in both the productive sphere and the reproductive roles they have held, led to a trend in human resource management towards equal opportunities in the workplace.

Women make up 50 per cent of the workplace but account for less than 4 per cent of nations’ top executives. Women managers are clustered into administrative and support functions. Although a significant number of women have entered management positions for sufficient number of years, they are still noticeably absent at the top level of organizations.

Women constitutes half of the world population and one-third of the official labour force and perform nearly two-thirds of the hour’s work but (based on UN and ILO statistics) receive only one-tenth of the world income and possess less than one-hundredth of the world property. Women are called as ‘silent majority’, ‘pace makers of development’, ‘better half of the society’ and sometimes ‘fairer sex’ and ‘weaker sex’, etc.

In India, nearly 85 per cent of the population lives in villages. The heart of India beats in villages. The contribution of women to the agricultural production, rural development, and domestic chores as well as in familial responsibilities is very crucial and vital. But this toilsome and backbreaking work has remained largely invisible to our planners and policy-makers.

We envision human rights for women as the “Collective Rights of a woman to be seen and accepted as a person with the capacity to decide or act on her own behalf and to have equal access to resources and equitable social, economic and political support to develop her full potential”, exercised her right as a full human being and to support the development of others.

Traditional picture of women is different from that of today

The traditional picture of women is very different than what it is today. Women have played a key and largely unrecognized role in the rapid economic and social development worldwide. Women have been entering workforce in record numbers, over the last four decades. Although women are not a minority, in the world of work they have faced many handicaps. In fact, majority of women who wish to pursue a career face the problem. Domestic and outside work often causes imbalances. Gender discrimination is a common phenomenon.

Most women have always worked. The exceptions were women born with a very high status and who spent their time in leisure, whereas the vast majority of women were required to help the family obtain adequate food, clothing and shelter. In our society of the 21st century, however, the ideal of the non-working lady appeared as someone too fragile or unworldly for business or the professions. A successful husband or father provided subsistence for his daughter or wife who did not have to work. What had been the privilege of the elite was held up as an ideal for all women. In recent years, an increasing number of women have rejected the ideal of the `lady’ in favour of active, responsible occupational roles.

Today, while women make up 50 per cent of the workforce, they comprise 33 per cent of managers and administrator, 4 per cent of senior managers and only 1 per cent of senior executives. These figures indicate that, in spite of sex-equality legislation having been on the statue book for over 20 years, women’s progress in achieving senior positions in the same positions as men is slow.

India has the world’s largest number of professionally qualified women; we have more female doctors, scientists and professors than even the U.S. With its huge population, the country has more working women than any other nation, with the working force ranging from an air pilot to a rickshaw driver to the mental laborer.

It definitely is a tough life for a woman, especially for a working woman. There is no dearth of equality before the law; we have laws for equal pay, against rape and molestation, female infanticide and everything on paper that would be the envy of even the strongest advocates of female emancipation. However, gender bias, which is a result of illiteracy and downright boorishness in a predominantly patriarchal society, coupled with the sheer of convenience of male domination, and has ensured that the plight of woman, even among the sophisticated, remains pitiable.

The modern working woman is brighter, smarter and much sought after in many emerging areas of work. The scenario of women’s development in the new century that we have entered is of great concern not only to women themselves but also to everyone, since she is getting into every field now. She is not only a partner but a forerunner in building the family and the nation. Therefore, to create a gender balance, role sharing and steps taken by the employer are required to facilitate and promote equal opportunities within the workplace and equal responsibilities at home.

Even though, our Constitution and other National and International legislations ensures equal rights for women in the workforce, with equal pay for equal work, the ground realities are very different. So in order to empower the women employment, additional avenues have to be explored and promoted. Appropriate steps must be taken to develop the professional and technical skills among women in India. Opportunities for self- employment and entrepreneurship have to be developed; governments have to encourage liberal flow of technology for the use of women entrepreneurs, facilities of getting credit and essential raw material have to be available and also institutional finances should be provided to make their projects economically viable. If all these measures will be taken into consideration then the women employment will rapidly increase. So let us work hand in hand for ensuring that trade policy outcomes will lead to empowerment of women.