Gender Inequality In UK For Labour Review

Gender Disparity in UK

Discuss about the Gender Inequality in UK for Labour Review.

Women power in professional work set-up is yet unexplored and mostly undermine. Having gender inequality in the industry shrinks the talent available in an economy leading to a negative consequence. Changing dynamics of running a family, increasing demand for monetary resources and quest to achieve career aspiration has led women coming out for work prevalent. Social practices and religious practices that secluded women from mainstream have profound consequences on talent management across organizations (Ashburner, 1994).

In UK most women employee has been treated unequal with their male subordinates on assigning responsibilities, compensations, opportunities etc. Many of them remain at the middle management level or opt to move out of their career advancement. It happens due to inadequate corporate support to help them create a balance between family and professional aspiration. More than a quarter of women at work have faced some sort of gender discrimination at workplace. According to estimates, 54% of the working women are found to be working part-time, 2.8 million women are working below the required scale. Also among the 70% of the people with minimum wages jobs are primarily women (Darnell & Gadiesh, 2013).

To correct the situation many organizations in UK have come up with gender parity program to undermine the pressure for women. Considering such initiatives companies aim to create a culture shift that provides them a competitive edge to attract new talent as well as retain them. The Brain’s Survey in 2013 found that these programs aren’t succeeding due to inadequate support from the senior management, leaders as well as two sexes in the organization itself. The indifference in the perception of both male and female workers concerning the parity as a strategic issue in their companies (Beneria, 1999).

There are several factors identified causing gender disparity in organizations considering a barrier to success. There are structural barriers where women are expected to balance work and family commitment, which gradually slow down their career progression. Lesser supportive spouse giving his job more importance has major influence over women career choices. Lack of innovative approach to balance family and work life in UK has worsened the situation. Women bearing a child often becomes a target to gender parity much faster, losing future opportunities and opting for lesser challenging jobs (Jourová, 2015).

The report is going to discuss the issue of gender inequality persisting in the professional scenario in UK. It will analyze the three prime concern on the issues to help understand the present state, need to change as well as a solution to address the issues at a broader level. It will highlight the importance of promoting gender equality, factors at prevent women taking progressive steps and solutions to address the issue.

Outline of the Report

It has become important to highlight as well as implement policy reforms to change the attitude of the organizations practicing gender disparity. Along with that, it is also required to change the perception of people with regards to having a positive attitude towards accepting women workforce with their commitments and support them at each step.

The Pool of Talent – To have an appropriate mix of talent within the organization it becomes important to eliminate gender equality. It gives a business much more sense; a business can make more profit only if it can attract both men and women successfully at work. According to the Global Gender Gap report, women seem to have higher education than men with better sense of business understanding as well as execution. To face stiff competition in the UK market and to create sustainability for long run, organizations need to have the best talent regardless of gender (Cassell & Walsh, 1993).

Save cost – Having a situation where men and women both are leaving organizations at the same time can cost organization disorientation and unachievable targets. A company supporting gender equality in UK would be able to retain its workforce on value and not on gender biases. It will further help organization making unnecessary expenses, saving cost involved in recruiting and advertising, process of recruitment as well as training the new on-the-board employee.

Improving Economic Performance – Having a pool of both men and women workforce would enhance the decision-making power. It together brings in varied perspective, provides a more holistic approach to work when facing an issue and as a group it brings out higher efforts. Combining the two perspective and implementing them in an ideal way can lead to an improved decision making of an organization. Together as a team both gender can play a balancing act and streamline the work process at the same time (Norton & Fox, 1997).

Strategic Perspective – Practicing gender parity does not mean giving equal work or assuming men and women as same. The strategic perspective needs to bring in change by understanding that gender equality stands on providing roles and responsibility as well as opportunities to individual without any gender bias. The mainstreaming strategy needs to design activities that support women’s needs and priorities. Women-specific projects here seem to have an important role to play to create an empowering space for female gender. These projects would enable them to apply and implement their strategic framework to conquer the mainstream (Persson & Jonung, 1998).

Factors to Gender Inequality

Sharing Opportunities for Economic Growth – Women at work are either kept underpaid or are not provided with ample opportunities to prove themselves at work. This situation can eventually affect the economic condition of the country, under-utilising the resource. Women a major resourceful means considering the knowledge and higher education potential they have been required to provide with equal opportunities at work. Their contribution can help companies make profit as well as earn more disposable income. Higher income level would also enhance the spending power and overall benefit the economic condition of the UK market.

There are many factors that hamper the growth of women in the professional workplace subject to their commitment and prevailing gender disparity in the organizations.

Family Commitments – Women are socially bound with the system of managing family and performing household jobs. This ideology has driven men in the society to command more, being an earning member in every household. To look after their family commitments, women often choose to opt out from their challenging job profile or leave job in major cases. The support required from work is often disappointing as the organizational leaders themselves does not perceive women equality (Pfeffer, 1998).

Child Care – Most women have experienced harassment at work during the period of their pregnancy. Women are often asked to step down from their current profile considering their inability to perform the same in future. Over 1500 offices in UK, 26% of the women workers felt that having children would hamper their professional growth. They are often asked about their plan to start a family during interviews, making it a criterion forr selection or rejection. Despite huge progress in the field of education, technology and economic expansion, the outlook of the organizations remains the old way. In UK up to 30,000 women are sacked each year on the grounds of being pregnant. A large number of those who remain in the system are often lose out on their promotions as a result of their pregnancy announcement (Porter, 1990).

Lack of Leadership – Among the top positions in the organization only a few have women representation. Among the majority of the workforce females opting for higher responsibilities are extremely few in numbers considering the lack of support from the organizational level. The wage gap created at different level of work has also impacted the choices of women to work for longer hours but paid less. It is important that the leaders understand the importance of women workforce, creating multiple avenues to attract and retain them such as flexible working hours, option to work from home, etc. these options are required to practice to give women equal opportunities to prove their competencies at work (Rees, 1998).

Importance of promoting gender equality at the workplace

Negative Image created through Media – Over the years there has been a negative image created for women in media communication. Women are shown weaker and are a sensitive target to the changing social norms. This picture has created an opinion about women being unproductive for the market. Change at every level is required whether it is policy, behavioral or perception to practice women equality in the UK industry (Pfeffer, 1998).

Women Absence in Decision Making – It is not only in the organizations where women participation is challenging, but it is also the government departments where women seems to be in minority. The under-representation matters in creating an overall image as well as message conveying women as second choice. Women make up only 17% of the board of directors of the top 100 companies in UK. The over-representation of men propagates policies and decision making, making it harder to address or acknowledge the gender-specific issues. Having more women in power can help in addressing concern related to gender specific violence, disparity issues, maternity laws and provisions, etc (Shapiro, 1999).

It is evident that the perception and social norms that profound to have a greater impact on gender equality need to pay attention to.

Reforming Policies – It is imperative that organizations must review their policies to support women participation by giving them multiple options to work. Organizations are required to review their diversity and equality policies to ensure having enough scope created to support women workforce. These clauses required to be communicated at each level so that women are nowhere faces disparity at the cost of its gender. Also, the management must review the company family-friendly policies which include shared parental leaves, maternity leave, etc that can help women stay in the system and can climb her career ladder (Shapiro, 2000).

Having Women at Leadership Position – To overcome the issue about women inequality it is important to have a gender representation at the top level. A women leader at a senior management level would help bridge the gap of communication as well as can discuss policy initiatives on their behalf. Women leaders can help creating a balance in the decision making process in the organization by lending an alternative perspective. These leaders are the real representation of women power in the organization, bringing out the best from the system and the workforce (Wajcman, 1991).

Mentorship Program – Women by nature are given numerous responsibilities and adequate capabilities to perform these duties. Similarly bearing a child is one of the important ones who needs to be appreciated and supported. To support women after the maternity leave companies’ can offer their women staff a mentor, such support helps them get back to work schedule much faster. Such mentorship program inspires women workforce to join work back sooner. It further guides them with the work changes taken place during their period of absence without hampering their performance as well as any potential risk to the organization (LSE., 2015).

Factors that prevent women’s progression at the workplace

Gender Parity Program – Companies across UK need to work on their gender parity programs to address to the increasing pressure on women to perform. To achieve competitive edge these gender parity programs can help attract new talent as well as retain the existing one. It is important that the management organizes training and development initiatives to communicate the importance of such programs to both men and women for better growth in the market. Equal opportunities must be provided to both genders to avoid any disparity with regards to differential pay scales. Promotion and increment must be dependent on the performance of an individual rather than calling it a gender specific thing (Orgad. S, 2015).

Strict Clauses against Gender-Based Violence – All organizations in UK must maintain strict clause against any gender bias observed or practiced within the organization. Integrity and honesty must be practiced to create a productive environment within the organization. The employee-employer relationship must be based on honesty with no forced implementation on targets or cheating or disclosure of personal information or demine the professional growth etc. (Bourdieu, 1989). 

After having an in-depth understanding of the women power and gender disparity existing in the work set-up in UK. There are certain things that organizations can amend as well as introduce to reduce the gap such as:

Implement employee well-being policy – It is important that organizations identify the needs of employees before they recruit them. Like the case of both male and female, if they intend to plan a family soon, an organization must consider its family policy with regards to parental leave to help them taking care of their child. This way an employee would also have clarity about his or her leaves and plan things accordingly.

Work-Life Balance – Opportunities to all employees much be given equally to help them taking care of their health, family and other personal requirements. The employee must be motivated to practice work-life balance for better efficiency and satisfaction. Having options such as flexible working hours, work from home, etc must be offered as and when required to avoid absenteeism and under productivity.

Review Recruitment Policy – Organizations must review the existing recruitment policy to eliminate any discriminatory criterion, making sure that the position is offered after genuine selection process.

Set a Women Workforce Ratio – To have clarity with the number of over and under-represented group of men & women in the organization, it must set a criterion of having a predetermined ratio. Such ratio helps organization maintain women workforce across all level.

Conclusion

Gender inequality has been an issue with greater significance and required higher attention at every level in UK industry. The report has been able to highlight the issue with regards to the importance of having gender equality at a work place. Equality at work ensures the environment is productive as well as acceptable for both genders. It further advocated reasons causing gender inequality in the organizations such as family commitment, childcare, negative image, lack of leadership, etc.

The study has also discussed possible ways in which these organizations in UK can overcome the issue of gender disparity through women leadership, mentorship program, reviewing & reforming the existing recruitment policies, etc. To implement certain changes, recommendation has been suggested such as work-life balance, employee well-being, reforming policies and setting men to women ratio at a work place. We hope this disparity against gender in UK would soon be over and women can be provided with better opportunities.

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