The Effects of Gender Discrimination in the Workplace

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According to a research survey, 70 percent of the women surveyed believe that gender discrimination exists in workplace. Today there are laws that protect women and other minorities from discrimination in the workplace. The 1963 Equal Pay act abolished the practice of paying men more than women for doing the same job. Regardless of these protections, majority of the women still think that gender discrimination is a problem in some businesses.

Lost Productivity The sufferers of gender discrimination lose motivation and morale which is required to perform their job effectively. According to experts, gender discrimination also leads to loss of productivity. Activities that result in such loss of motivation include jokes about an employee’s gender that imply inferiority, offensive jokes of sexual nature or jokes about an employee’s work is below par compared to his or her gender. This form of workplace harassment is considered as illegal by the federal law, whether by supervisors or coworkers.

Promotions Stereotypical views concerning gender can result in supervisors getting engaged in the illegal practice of passing a person over for promotion due to gender. Although this can happen to both genders, but supervisors frequently pass over women for promotion due to predetermined notions about their abilities and roles. For instance, a fire chief may constantly pass over a female fire fighter for promotion, due to resentment stemming from women applying to the force or due to a predetermined notion that men innately perform better in these positions. Supervisors often refer women for jobs in industries that employ a high percentage of women compared to men such as teaching and day care centers.

Family Responsibilities Women who have young children at home may experience a set-back when giving an interview due to family responsibilities. Even though law prohibits employers from asking about family responsibility, it frequently comes out during an interview process. Also, this may lead to provoking the HR manager to pass over a qualified female candidate if he feels she will be torn between the home and job responsibilities. However, it is illegal but still exists in the offices today.

Destruction Victims of gender discrimination may feel strong resentment and loss of self worth that they resort to destruction as a way to get back to discriminatory coworkers. Destructiveness is

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evident in the forms of physical violence against others, destruction of property or proliferation of nasty rumors about people in the organization and the organization itself.

Reference http://www.researchomatic.com/Gender-Discrimination-At-Workplace-104080.html

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