Women Challenges in workplace

Women have been trying to break away from norms and standards set by society. They have been marching for equal rights and fighting for their rightful place in the world. True,  the movement has begun to smash down centuries of patriarchy, but we still have a long way to go, especially in corporations, where the adage glass ceiling is still quite prevalent.

The Challenges

For the last four years,  peoples have being researching the participation and inclusivity of women in the workplace. While it might seem like the world is progressing and there's a rising involvement of women in the workplace, the reality is quite different. As the report suggests, "progress isn't slow. It's stalled."

Representation of Women

Women continue to remain underrepresented at every level, starting from entry-level jobs to C-suite roles. According to the Women In the Workplace 2018 report, representation of women of color is the least causing them to stay behind white men, men of color, and white women. Women of color comprise only 17% of entry-level roles and 4% of C-Suite positions.

This underrepresentation gets worse in senior management positions. Only 22% of C-suite executives are women. Compared to 62% of men in managerial positions, only 38% of women are promoted to be managers.

What’s interesting to see is that the number of women and men leaving their companies is almost the same. Therefore, attrition can’t be blamed for this inequality and misogyny.

Sexual Harassment

 cases of women facing sexual and non-sexual harassment in the workplace.These cases ranged from unwelcome verbal, visual, non-verbal or physical harassment.

The Women in the Workplace report found that 35% of women in full-time corporate sector jobs have experienced sexual harassment. Another study by EEOC estimates that 75% of women subject to such hostile situations will not report their harassment. And especially when the abuser is someone in senior positions.

Unemployment Penalty

During child-rearing years, the unemployment penalty for women is longer. This means that when women take longer leaves, they have a much harder time getting rehired.

The report by Payscale  also says that "someone unemployed for less than three months faces only a 3.4 percent penalty while someone who has not worked in over a year experiences a 7.3 percent penalty."

Race and Ethnicity

64% of Nigerian say that racism continues to be a major problem in society. In the workplaces, too, especially in the banking sectors this continues to be a problem. Women continue to get hired over men purposely to advertise their business at the end, they will be lured by men before engaged in business. 

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's (EEOC) 2017 workplace discrimination claims found that race discrimination claims accounted for 33.9 percent. A report published by the UK govt in 2017 shows that if black and minority ethnic (BME) talent was fully utilised in the UK, their economy could be boosted 

A typical example of racial and ethnic discrimination faced by women in the workplace is telling them that they won’t fit in with the culture and work ethics and hiring a white person over them.

Pregnancy Discrimination

A type of employment discrimination, pregnancy discrimination, refers to when women in the workplace are fired, not hired, or discriminated against their pregnancy or are expecting.

The discrimination can occur in the form of offensive comments by senior officials, clients, peers, and customers regarding their physical and medical condition. Some other ways are employers reducing a female employee’s working hours, pay, changing her benefits, refusing to promote her, or forcing her to take time off (paid or unpaid).

‘That Time Of The Month’

Women all over the world have at least once in their life have been subject to prejudice when on their periods. When they show emotions like anger or irritation, they are mocked by comments like, “stop fussing. Are you on your periods?”

Women undergo grueling physical pain while on their periods. A classic example of everyday sexism is male employees considering women taking leaves while menstruating as an excuse not to come to work.

Women Bosses

Lots of men feel threatened by female bosses. There are countless studies which show that men prefer male over female bosses. In recorded Gallup polls since the 1950s, the number of respondents saying they would like to work for a woman has never exceeded 25%.

This is the reason for the lack of representation of women in the workplace because there is a lack of powerful female leaders at the top, there's nobody to encourage and support women who have just started working and are in entry-level positions