Gender Inequality In The Work Force
For as long
as I can remember, there has always been inequality in the workforce. Although this situation is a lot better than
what it was, it is still pretty clear that women get treated differently than
men.
I am currently a college student taking classes here in Malaysia for a year before I return back to the States. Last semester, a class I took, International Human Resource Management, went into gender inequality in the work force in details. The class talked about how employees get chosen to go abroad to work.
It was pretty evident that a majority of employees chosen to go abroad were males and the question was why? The answer that I am about to give you guys is pretty obvious and probably will not shock any of you.
People have it in their minds that males have a better chance of adapting to living abroad than women do, partially because of the place that those employees may be working.
For example, my family has traveled all over the world because of my dad’s job, he is in the oil business and he is actually good at what he does and because of that he gets job offers from all over the world. So, for my whole high school career I lived in a tiny country in Middle East where their top industry is oil and gas.
Anyone guess what country that is? It’s Qatar.
Now all of you are probably wondering how in the world I could survive in a place like Qatar because that it is so hot and covered in sand right? You guys are probably also wondering what it is like to live in an Arab country where a lot of small things are considered punishable by jail time or even worse, death.
But back to the topic at hand, since my father is obviously male, he never had a problem when he was working there because, well, he was male. However, for females it is a whole other ballgame!
In the Middle East, women are not considered to be the alpha gender, it has always been this way, and while other parts of the world are slowly trying to change this perception, the Middle East is embracing this tightly. Women are looked at as caregivers and caretakers and nothing else.
Males believe that the women belong in one place and one place only, and I am pretty sure you guys know where that is. So, knowing a little bit of background, you probably have an understanding about women in the workforce there.
It is pretty unheard of for women to be working in offices let alone going abroad unless you are a foreigner; even then it is hard to gain the respect from a lot of male colleagues because males believe that they should not need to take orders from a woman.
Take this example, the last year that I lived there my father had a female boss, and he was the only person that respected her and invited her into our house. He treated her like a boss and because of that she asked for his opinion about a lot things.’
The moral of this story is that it did not even matter that she was way better at her job than any other person but the only reason that work did not go smoothly was because the males that worked under her would not work with her and did not follow her instructions.
Gender discrimination in the work place has been a controversial topic over the past few years because as more and more women show up in the workforce, the more companies have to take that into consideration.
Women are starting to get jobs in places that were primarily male oriented proving to males that what they can do, women can do it. Women also tend to work harder than males so that they can prove to the world that they have to ability to do what so many people say they can’t. Gender discrimination is slowly decreasing but hopefully soon it can end for good.
I am currently a college student taking classes here in Malaysia for a year before I return back to the States. Last semester, a class I took, International Human Resource Management, went into gender inequality in the work force in details. The class talked about how employees get chosen to go abroad to work.
It was pretty evident that a majority of employees chosen to go abroad were males and the question was why? The answer that I am about to give you guys is pretty obvious and probably will not shock any of you.
People have it in their minds that males have a better chance of adapting to living abroad than women do, partially because of the place that those employees may be working.
For example, my family has traveled all over the world because of my dad’s job, he is in the oil business and he is actually good at what he does and because of that he gets job offers from all over the world. So, for my whole high school career I lived in a tiny country in Middle East where their top industry is oil and gas.
Anyone guess what country that is? It’s Qatar.
Now all of you are probably wondering how in the world I could survive in a place like Qatar because that it is so hot and covered in sand right? You guys are probably also wondering what it is like to live in an Arab country where a lot of small things are considered punishable by jail time or even worse, death.
But back to the topic at hand, since my father is obviously male, he never had a problem when he was working there because, well, he was male. However, for females it is a whole other ballgame!
In the Middle East, women are not considered to be the alpha gender, it has always been this way, and while other parts of the world are slowly trying to change this perception, the Middle East is embracing this tightly. Women are looked at as caregivers and caretakers and nothing else.
Males believe that the women belong in one place and one place only, and I am pretty sure you guys know where that is. So, knowing a little bit of background, you probably have an understanding about women in the workforce there.
It is pretty unheard of for women to be working in offices let alone going abroad unless you are a foreigner; even then it is hard to gain the respect from a lot of male colleagues because males believe that they should not need to take orders from a woman.
Take this example, the last year that I lived there my father had a female boss, and he was the only person that respected her and invited her into our house. He treated her like a boss and because of that she asked for his opinion about a lot things.’
The moral of this story is that it did not even matter that she was way better at her job than any other person but the only reason that work did not go smoothly was because the males that worked under her would not work with her and did not follow her instructions.
Gender discrimination in the work place has been a controversial topic over the past few years because as more and more women show up in the workforce, the more companies have to take that into consideration.
Women are starting to get jobs in places that were primarily male oriented proving to males that what they can do, women can do it. Women also tend to work harder than males so that they can prove to the world that they have to ability to do what so many people say they can’t. Gender discrimination is slowly decreasing but hopefully soon it can end for good.
And I, a
young woman, is looking forward to the changes.
By Anitha
Thanabalan
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