Its Monday morning, you wake up excited and nervous to go to work for the first time since you entered the company. This is because you heard the manager is going to be giving out a promotion to either you or one other male employee. Both of you achieved your sales goal and it comes down to the wire. You enter the office, the clock strikes 9 and the manager announces that your co-worker got the promotion. You congratulate him albeit rather disappointed. Asking the manager on “what could I have done better” and he simply just comforted you and replied that your co-worker is just “more suited for the position”.
If this happened to you, would you be surprised? When I asked my female friends, most of them said no. The reason they gave all revolved around the same concept, that women tend to face a lot of challenges in the workplace.
In fact, they are not wrong. According to the Knowledge Academy, a gender pay gap analysis for 2022 showed that Bruneian women on average tend to earn 11% less than their male counterparts. In addition to that, bonuses are received by on average 15% of women compared to 24% of men. Meanwhile in under countries such as Belgium, women occupied 16% of position on the executive committees of large Belgian companies back in 2018.
Now, I believe many women are as hardworking and are as smart as men (if not more in some cases), so why is it that women still struggle in the workplace environment, especially on the issue of gender pay gap? I have a few reasonable theories.
1. Cultural Implication
Leaders of an organization want to culture more leaders (at least I hope so). However, being in a more male dominant society such as our country and others in South East Asia, women have often been seen as inferior to men for generations. This is largely due to cultural or religious interpretations that has been indoctrinated, causing a bias towards men in leadership/work roles rather than women.
2. Physical Implication
Head of companies want their leaders to be respected and are capable of ensuring the day-to-day operations go smoothly. However, physical strength and size may give some men some sense of superiority over females who have conventionally smaller body frame. In laborious work, this is indeed an advantage which explains the overwhelming saturation of men in jobs like construction. It all came down to basic human biology at this point.
3. The Issue of Maternity Leaves
Having children affects both genders differently. During this time, pregnant women may not be able to work for at least 6 months. Should she be in the leadership role such as a manager, many head of companies may fear that promoting her would just leave a “gap” in the position. Hence, it is better to hire a male that would not have to take maternity leaves in the first place. In fact, while we all have heard of maternity leaves, but paternity leaves are much more uncommon – and often shortened, if any. This poses less issue for men to return to work even when they have children.
Tipping the Scale To Women’s Favor
Unfortunately, while writing this article, I have been trying to think of a way for women to be able to make change in the workplace. However, it is challenging to make impactful change – other than continuously raising awareness on this issue. Afterall, it is still a man’s world when it comes to majority of the workforce.
The main way that I have identified would be to improve your connection with your superiors. It’s a tried and true method that will help you in your job progression regardless of your gender. Assuming that you are passionate, hardworking and have a sense of integrity, building your network at the workplace is your best bet. Some ideas to build a connection with your superiors include:
- Treating them out for coffee and asking them questions about themselves.
- Asking them how can you make their lives or day better then follow through with it.
- Show that you are grateful whenever you can.
- Put his or her interest ahead of your own.
Why is this? well, in most cases, human’s are emotional creatures and we make decisions largely based on emotion then we use information to rationalize our decision. When you show that you value your superiors, and the company, they will gradually feel connected with you, they will want to know more about you and work with you. It’s simple psychology in human behavior. They will see multiple sides of you and will find ways to justify working with you.
In Need of External Efforts
For employers and those in the leadership position of an organization. After reading this article, I hope that you start to have the desire to reduce gender inequality in your workplace. If you are willing to improve the gender inequality, I certainly believe that productivity would improve and that you will find talents within your own organization that you never noticed. A few procedures you can try to reduce gender inequality include.
1. Implement Blind Screening
Make your application and screening processes blind in order to reduce unconscious bias when hiring and promoting employees. Blind screenings exclude information about candidates, like their name, interests and experiences that are unrelated to the role, which may reveal their assumed gender, race or ethnicity.
2. Implement Regular Bias and Stereotype Training
By implementing unconscious bias training, you will be able to ensure that your team is on the same page. It can also initiate a conversation that people are either reluctant to have or are unsure of where to start. This is part of the company’s effort in raising awareness on this subject matter of gender pay gap.
All in all, the gender pay gap is a very real phenomenon and fighting it is an uphill battle for women in all positions. I believe that helping people become aware and implementing small changes in the workplace is the first step in overcoming this challenge and ensuring a fair work culture based on results rather than gender.