Posted: March 23rd, 2023

Gender biases against women

Gender biases against women

Although gender biases have been opposed since the early 1960s and measures have been devised to eliminate them. They are still prevalent even today. Women experience gender biases not only in workplaces but also in social places such as market places, schools, and clubs.  With the increase in the dominance of men in some fields such as Information Technology and engineering, some gender biases against women go unnoticed.

There are various ways in which women are discriminated against. The most common type of gender bias is sexual harassment. Some colleagues or superiors at work request for sexual favors from women for them to grant opportunities such as jobs and promotions. Also, women are indecently touched in public places mostly in clubs.

Gender biases also come out during job interviews, where women are asked different sets of questions from men, for instance, they are asked whether they have children or not and whether they are planning to get children in the future. Such questions are personal and not related to work in any way. Asking questions with the idea of you will hire or fire people based on their gender and the possibility of taking maternity leave is not allowed as it discriminates women.

In other cases, women in the workplace are not given leadership opportunities. They are also given lower salaries compared to their male counterparts. In some corporates, women are viewed as the weaker sex. Men are viewed as naturally born leaders they are confident and assertive. Women who are assertive and self-confident are viewed as too aggressive, bossy and disrespectful. Instead of women being granted opportunities in leadership positions. They are expected to do simple tasks such as cleaning utensils, serving tea and cleaning the washrooms. This is gender discrimination against women. A company should hire a cleaner to do such tasks.

Also, some jobs are believed to be done better by men, for instance, security jobs. Human resource managers should offer job opportunities not based on the gender of the person but they should instead, look at the qualifications and experience of the individual.  Some women do better than men in security jobs.

Although in some cases gender biases are noticed. Many are the times that they go unnoticed. Those women who are aware of them are more empowered and enlightened. Gender discrimination portrays women as weaker compared to men. This point of view is distorted as women can do as well as men, and thus they should be given equal opportunities, rights, and freedoms.

References

Kahloon, Rashid Munir. “Gender Biasness: A Corporate or a Social Concern.” American International Journal of Contemporary Research 1.1 (2011).

Hamid, Bahiyah Dato’Hj Abdul, et al. “Linguistic sexism and gender role stereotyping in Malaysian English language textbooks.” GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies 8.2 (2008).

Jamal, Aina Rahizan Mat. “Gender-biases of Challenges Designed and Television Portrayal of Gender in Explorace 2: A Feminist Approach to Stereotypes and Patriarchal Ideology.” Jurnal Komunikasi: Malaysian Journal of Communication 22 (2006): 1-13.