First of all, what are gender roles? This could mean a lot of different things depending on how you view gender. According to plannedparenthood.org, they say, “Gender roles in society means how we’re expected to act, speak, dress, groom, and conduct ourselves based upon our assigned sex. For example, girls and women are generally expected to dress in typically feminine ways and be polite, accommodating, and nurturing.” That being said, as we come upon a new era, society is taking a different step when it comes to how they view gender roles and here is why.
Discrimination in the Workplace
A lot of discrimination today is based on the pay of women vs. men. Men that are in the same working roles as women are making way more when it comes to their salary.
According to payscale.com they say the reason for the gender pay gap is because, “women are more likely to take a break during their careers to have children.” They also say that. “Although women have increased representation in higher paying jobs today, women as a whole are still underrepresented in high paying jobs and leadership roles.” This could be due to family responsibilities. Employers tend to stray away from women when it comes to leadership roles fearing that work will become a second-place standard among women.
Sexism
“Sexism. It’s everywhere. And it’s every day. Said by the smartcompany.com. The most common forms of sexism are insults in the workplace, devaluing women’s ideas , and physical appearance. Common insults among women in the workplace according to smartcompany.com are:
“You won’t want to work on that machine… you might break a fingernail!”
“You’ve got to let her know who wears the pant around here!”
Hearing these things as a women in the work place are very common which leads to the devaluing of women’s ideas, usually when people ask to speak to a manager, they tend to look for a man and disregard what women have to say or when women try to speak about an idea in the work place, a man may seem to step in and take over, leaving women feeling less important.
Women in the workplace are also judged on their appearance, a lot of times if a woman does not dress for the occasion, she will not be taken seriously. Women deal with this on a day to day basis.
How can we spread awareness?
We can spread awareness by first educating people in the workplace about sexism and gender roles. To further prevent sexism and gender role stereo typing we should ensure that women can share an equal voice during meetings or talks, ensure not to tell sexist jokes, and to be open minded when it comes to appearances.
If more women were treated equally, our workplace would benefit greatly.
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