Discuss about the Gender Egalitarianism Applied in Middle East Workplaces.
Gender Egalitarianism or gender equality refers to that every individual should be given equal rights and responsibilities irrespective of their gender. It is one of the key objectives of the Universal Declaration of Human rights given by the United Nation that men and women should be given equal rights and responsibilities. Over the years it has been analyzed that gender inequality prevailed in the society where men were given more importance at workplaces as compared to women. Women have always been considered as an inferior gender in the society and they are expected to stay at home. Due to a number of civil rights organizations, the role of women in the work place has risen not in the developed countries only but also in the developing countries which are regarded as a good sign. After so many reforms for gender equality there are still some regions especially in Asian Countries were women are supposed to stay at home and look after it and if they are working they are not given equal treatment and positions that males are enjoying. Women discrimination still exists in the workplaces as the senior executive positions are given to men and the salary gap is also there.
There are a number of reasons that the discrimination amongst the gender is prevalent in the society from the earlier times. Men are regarded as the most stronger and dominant gender in the society and they are given full freedom and liberty to do as per their wish. This is a primary reason that the women have to face discrimination at their home as well as at their workplaces (Gregory, 2003). Though they are given equal opportunities and treatment while performing some task but when it comes to salary and leadership, men are given more than women.
This is a literature review which has been conducted to analyze whether gender egalitarianism is applied in the workplaces in the Middle East in the terms of work time, income and security. So for the purpose of this literature review opinions of various authors will be analyzed with respect to gender equality, gender diversity and leadership. In the light of these three key concepts a deep debate will be conducted about the opinions of various research scholars to get the adequate and accurate information of Gender Egalitarianism.
This section is about a critical analysis of author’s views about Gender Equality which means equal treatment should be given to men and women in the workplace with respect to work time, income and security.
Dr Faiza Ali presented her strong arguments on the gender egalitarianism through her article titled ‘Gender Equality at Workplace’. Through this article she has presented her views on gender equality, key concepts like gender stereotyping, pay and glass ceiling. As per her opinion, men and women are give equal job opportunities at work place but when it comes to salary and promotion, men are given more as compared to women. She presented an argument in which she stated that if men and women are working for the equal duration with equal effort, then what the reason of inequality is. She opposed and addressed various seniors that why women are least considered for the higher positions and more salary.
Through her research she has also proposed different theories on gender segregation at the workplace which has been presented in the article which includes Marxist Theory, radical feminist theory and dual system theory. She has also presented approaches through which gender equality can be promoted at the workplace and what kind of benefits if offers to an organization. She has defined Gender Equality at the workplace as giving equal opportunities, rights and responsibilities to men and women in employment which are necessary for an organization to improve its growth and functionality.
She further added that equality means that giving equal importance to the needs, interest and priorities of both men and women at the workplace by giving recognition to the different diversity of both genders at the workplace. A gender stereotype is related to giving more importance to men which have been prevalent since ages create two major issues i.e. Pay Gap and glass ceiling which is an invisible barrier.
Dr. Faiza also presented theories on Gender segregation at the workplace which includes Marxist Theory which analyzed the effect of the capitalist system on workforce segregation. The Marxist feminist focussed on taking apart capitalism for the purpose to achieve liberation for women. Radical Feminist theory states the reason for inequality at the workplace is because of patriarchy system that prevails. Dual System theory was based on a combination of both that states that reason for gender segregation at the workplace is because of capitalist patriarchy (Ali, 2015). Witnessing the reasons for the gender inequality at the workplace, the number of approaches for promoting the gender equality has been proposed in this work.
In her work she identified the benefits of Gender Equality at workplace which are listed below:
Attracts Top Talent: Any organization that equally treats women and men will offer businesses with an access to a great talent pool.
Reduce Expenses: The organization that is fair attracts both women and men and they will stay with them for a long time as there are fewer chances for employee turnover for an organization, which will reduce the high expense involved in the recruitment
Better Performance: The most important factor amongst all these factors is diversity that helps in bringing together the different perspectives, that helps in producing a more holistic observation of the different issues that an organization may face, and encourages greater effort, that lead to an improved decision-making.
Improves competitiveness and Natural Productivity: It states that giving power to women is the best use a nation can make of its endowment which will decrease the gender inequality, improves productivity and make economic growth
Another argument on Gender Equality was presented by Anne Mikkola (2004) in which she described the importance of gender equality in development and growth of an organization. She stated that women have less economic opportunities to enhance and earn their livelihood as they are usually restricted in the terms of education, the monetary return of their work, wealth ownership and opportunities and decision making. She presented evidence which revealed that where men and women are given equal opportunities that countries are affluent countries. This simply shows that there is a close association between development level and the role of women, seeking to which development of women is considered as a top most priority.
In the light of these arguments Jacobson (2002) condemned the statement that there are a number of issues that men faces but is least considered. She reported that are a number of areas where men face problem both in developed and developing countries. She stated that any destruction of the human capital affects men more than a women. Moreover changing the role of men puts more pressure on them and ultimately the expectation level of the organization rises which may be disturbing sometimes as they have to work for more hours. Witnessing the hardships faced by Men at the workplace, she suggested that men should be given equal attention (Mikkola, 2005).
This literature survey illustrates the gender equality at workplaces for which various authors presented their views on various issues that men and women face at the workplace in terms of work time, salary and positions. It has been observed that the countries where men and women are treated equally in the workplace are the most developed nations. Therefore it can be concluded that both should be given equal treatment in terms of income, position, and work time.
Gender Diversity is defined as having an equal proportion of men and women at work place which plays a significant role in the development of an organization and there are a number of companies who have realized the value of having a diverse workforce. For the purpose of this literature review a deep debate has been conducted amongst writers with respect to Gender Diversity at the workplace.
Ruchika Tulshyan (2015) presented her views in the favour of gender equality in the workplace through her research on “The Diversity Advantage”. In her article she presented strong views on women empowerment and focussed on promoting diversity at workplaces. Her research work presented very challenging issues that every woman of the world is facing especially at workplaces. We are in the era of technological advancement and modernization but the gender inequality still prevails in developed as well as developing countries. She makes a great urge to all the organizations of the world to make an effort to explore the talent of women by giving them the position and opportunities that they actually deserve. It has been observed that women are given job opportunities but there are very less number of women who holds the senior positions. In her work she has suggested having gender diversity at the workplace that will help the organization to achieve the target goals as it has been observed that women have the potential to manage a number of tasks simultaneously (Tulshyan, 2015).
Beverly Dawn Metcalfe (2005) has given strong reviews on gender diversity at Middle East workplaces in his article “Exploring cultural dimensions of gender and management in the Middle East.” Through his research he has analyzed the experience of female professionals at workplaces in three regions in the Middle East: Jordan, Oman and Bahrain. The research was conducted that revealed the importance of females in the economic development of the country. He stated that women in the Middle East are excellent in management but they are restricted to perform and show their potential because of the strong and rigid role of gender in Islamic culture. Through his research he has recommended the effective strategies for Human resource management that can help in the appointment and equal treatment of both genders at the workplace which can help a business organization to develop at international level (Metcalfe B. , 2005).
Beverly Dawn Metcalfe (2007) again conducted a research in which he presented his strong views on gender equality and diversity at Middle East workplaces in his article “Gender and human resource management in the Middle East”. His research was based on an evaluation of the impact of Islamic values on women at workplace, their experience and how the HRM and gender policies are being framed by Islam. The study was based on the evaluation of 27 semi structured interviews and 53 response from the surveys that was conducted in the workshop for Career development in Bahrain. The observation has clearly revealed the rising significance of female employment in the Middle East and summarizes the government initiatives in planning national strategies for development in a well-defined Islamic framework in order to sustain the advancement of women in the public sphere. The experimental data has shown that women face constraints in career and development because of gender inequality. He analyzed that the Human Resource Management policies have been designed as per the Islamic framework which supports more power to males. He has made strong suggestions that Human Resource Department should take some significant steps to promote women equality and they should be given equal training. There are some other issues that have been suggested through this article that to understand and develop a business relationship at the global level it is important to give equal rights to Women as well. A strong recommendation has been made by him for implementing global HRM scholarship that will help to tackle the gender issues at the Middle East (Metcalfe B. D., 2007).
V M Moghadam (2003) presented his view in the book “Modernizing Women: Gender and Social Change in the Middle East” He stated that the technological advancements and societal changes transformed and promoted gender equality in Middle East workplaces. He further added that women have been always regarded as a weaker section of the society but with social reforms and change in the thinking of society, women are getting equal importance like men. Still there are some areas where women have to face discrimination especially during promotions and salary. With reference to his research he suggested that there is a great need to promote diversity at workplaces which means that they should have an equal ratio of men and women at workplace and both should be given equality in everything say it is the position, salary and promotions. Diversity at workplace will help in organizational growth and development (Moghadam, 2003).
Leadership is defined as the act of leading people in an organization for which there are various styles through which people can be directed to work. A literature review has been conducted to identify who can be a better leader with respect to gender for which various authors have presented their arguments.
Alice and Linda (2008) presented their reviews on gender leadership in their article “Women and Labyrinth of leadership” in which they highlighted the status of women and perception of people about them in terms of leadership and leadership qualities. A research was conducted by them to analyze that women have achieved heights in their career but still they don’t get higher positions and salary as compared to their counterpart men. In terms of leadership they have observed that people have the perception that women cannot become strong leaders and does not possess leadership qualities as they are very gentle and polite with their mates. In spite of all this, they say women have so many domestic responsibilities and they cannot pay attention to both their personal and professional work equally for which they are deprived of becoming leaders in the workplace. They have given a number of reasons because of which women are not given higher positions like issues with leadership style, demands for family life, underinvestment in social capital etc. Both authors have suggested people to make changes in their perception about women as they are actually the stronger gender of the society who can manage all the responsibilities very well (Carli, 2007).
With respect to the Gender differences in style of Leadership, the findings are very contradictory. Eagly and Johnson (1990) stated that there is a small difference in the leadership style where women usually adopt democratic and participative leadership style and men follow the autocratic style. They added that women are soft hearted usually and they tend to work equally with the people rather than dominating them or directing them strictly, whereas men are lean towards the autocratic behaviour (Eagly, 2013).
Rosener (1990) also stated that there is a less difference amongst the styles of men and women where men usually adopt transactional leadership style and women adopt transformational leadership style.
It has been observed that behaviour of gender is changing with time where women have changed a lot and men have changed a less, the reason being that women are given equal opportunities at the workplace which earlier were given to men only. Eagly, Karau, Makhijani (1995) stated that men and women both are effective leaders and differences usually appeared in Gender Evaluation. With respect to the leadership literature, the glass ceiling is the most discussed phenomenon which is defined as an invisible barrier that appeared against women which prevented them from acquiring the leadership positions in the organizations (Underdahl, Walker, & Woehr, 2014).
Northhouse (2007) presented a statement that the reasons for which women were given fewer positions in the top management were that they had so much pressure of the domestic responsibilities, less work experience and follows informal leadership style (Northouse, 2016).
Therefore in terms of diversity, it can be stated that men and women are equally effective leaders though they adopt different leadership style but with the change of time, women are coming into power which has affected their leadership style as well (Snaebjornsson & Edvardsson, 2013).
Conclusion
This literature review was conducted to analyze that gender egalitarianism is applied in Middle East workplace in the terms of work equality, income and security. For the purpose of this literature review, a deep debate was conducted amongst the writers in terms of Gender equality, Gender Diversity and Leadership which helped to explore the more information about Gender equality, the importance of Gender Diversity and leadership style of men and women.
In the light of above discussions it can be stated that Gender equality has been applied at Middle East Workplaces in the terms of rights and recruitment but when it comes to top executive positions and equal salary, the discrimination based on gender still exists. This literature review is based on exploring gender roles in terms of diversity, leadership and equality in the Middle East. As per the opinion of various research scholars it has been found that with a change in thinking and advancement, women have started getting equivalent roles and responsibilities at the workplace but due to Islamic culture and beliefs the HRM policy has been designed to give better position and salary to men in the workplaces. It has also been observed that people think women have family responsibilities also for which they are not given higher positions in the workplace. Witnessing this situation, there is a great need to implement equality in terms of salary as well as positions in the workplace as it offers a number of benefits to the organization. There are a number of initiatives that has been taken in the same direction in MENA region but there are some areas that need to be improved so that organizations can make efficient use of human resources for the betterment of their organizations.
References
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