gender based discrimination

Gender based discrimination
Introduction
Gender based discrimination means treating someone (male or female) in an unfavorable way due to the individual’s sex. It may also involve treating somebody unfavorably since they are connected with an association or grouping that is generally allied with people of a particular sex. Everyone ought to have a life with the chance to education, work, and health and involve in all facets of public life. However each nation in the globe, everyone lives within the boundaries of strict gender standards which regularly effect in unbalanced right to use to necessary services and main violations of their human rights.
Gender discrimination and other related kinds of harassment are the stern kinds of discrimination in the entire world that challenge the decorum of women and even men, cancel out gender impartiality and this if not taken care of can lead to considerable implications. Gender-based violent behavior in the place of work should be forbidden; guiding principles, programs, rules and other technicalities, as deemed fit, should be devised and implemented to curb it.
It is arguable that the issue of gender based discrimination leans more on the side of women. In fact, the first thing that comes to mind when gender discrimination is mentioned would be the girl child and the woman. Most background studies show that women are apparently the most discriminated against. According to a study done by business insiders, both genders agree that women face gender discrimination. The perpetrators of this discrimination are mostly men (male gender). This however does not mean that men are not discriminated against. There are cases where men are looked down upon especially in a female dominated world. Also in a bid to improve the welfare of women, the government and organizations end up being discriminative against men. The most prevalent form of discrimination is the one at the workplace. This is common due to the fact that this is a uniform long term interaction platform for men and women. It is possible to study their behavior over a significant period of time.
Gender discrimination in the workplace
In the question of whether women and men have equal chances in the society, a common response is the affirmative. This is because under the law, women and men have equal rights. The law does not favor any gender per se but provides platforms in which a balance can be attained. On the contrary the real world shows a different scenario. In the year 2007, the average woman earned 78 cents versus a dollar earned by a man in a similar post. This can easily translate almost $2 million dollars less woman’s career period. A recent study reveals that if two matching résumés, one with a male name and another with a female name, the female names were given a lower mark. This applied to when the employer was male or female.
Another view is the typecast that women are less strong and emotional than their male counterparts. This is the major reason why fewer women have positions in leadership. It portrays a woman as out of control and irrational, this is the opposite of what everybody wants in a leader. Men get to appear as the idyllic contenders, having an objective, sturdy, and rational reputation. Most believe that a female leader would weaken an organization by bringing a new standpoint. Away from this opinion, women are not inferior to men when it comes to positions in leadership. This is because globally we have women that have been leaders and have performed exemplarily well in their positions. Arguably, leadership is about personality and education and nothing about gender.
In another case, women are anticipated to work in sectors different from men. Women are more in social work, childcare, and health assistant type jobs. The benefits associated with these jobs are less than those of “male” jobs e.g. work in math and science. There are ceilings that are put in place for the “women’s job” in areas such as promotion. (Jaffee D). This is what has created a wage gap. It’s debatable whether this is a result of personal choice or influence from the society. One perspective stands for the ideology that women are the ones that choose those jobs. Their reasons are, amongst others, the feeling of inferiority and peer influence. The other group criticizes the society for the jobs that women perform. They believe that there is a great role played by the society in creating mindsets and alienating those that try to override them. When a woman goes out of her way and tries out a hand in the jobs that are set aside for men then it is taken in a negative way.
In matters of education, in some societies, the boy child education is also valued more than that of the girl child. If there are only funds available to send one person to school then that child is likely to be male. In some nations, the boys are esteemed highly to an extent that women would carry out an abortion if they find out that their baby is female. In an opposite perspective, the society has changed dynamically and thus in the current society such cases have been phased out. The reason is that the people of the world continue being civilized day by day and thus the ancient traditions that put down women no longer mean a lot. There is freedom of education in the modern society.
The society anticipates different things and roles from women and men. As the traditions have defined, men need to go out and perform their breadwinning roles for their home. Women are supposed to remain at home and perform housework and childcare. Despite the fact that a significant number of women perform breadwinning work, these anticipations still exist. A woman is to choose between their traditional roles and their career and face being branded a bad parent who in this case trade the lives of their kids for their careers. Men on the other hand do not face such. In fact, if they do not go to work, they are deemed to have neglected their families, and not being bad parents. These perspective influence the view employer have on women in the workplace as well. Women get paid lesser than men and are not assigned big roles because they are viewed in relation to their traditional roles which are more or less subordinate. “The U.S. Department of Education data show that a year out of school, despite having earned higher college GPAs in every subject, young women will take home, on average across all professions, just 80 percent of what their male colleagues do. Even at the top end, female M.B.A.s makes $4,600 less per year in their first job out of business school… Motherhood has long been the explanation for the persistent pay gap, yet a decade out of college, full-time working women who haven’t had children still make 77 cents on the male dollar “(Andrew).Though this, there is a perspective that the current world no longer leans on the notions that the roles of a man and a woman are defined concretely. The roles overlap since we have children that have been raised single handedly by their fathers and the number of women employers is so high that it can prove that women are not in the backline when it comes to serving in the same platform as men.
Lastly, there is the issue of sexual harassment and physical violence in the workplace. Women are mostly vulnerable in this area as often they have no means to defend themselves. Sometimes they are forced to compromise their moral standards in order to earn the promotions that they rightfully deserve.( international labor organization, sexual harassment at work (United Nations). However just like cited earlier, others view it as a personal choice that an individual has control over. The victims have the ability to say no and to quit altogether.( Chappell and Duncan)
This points form a major part of the argument on gender based discrimination. However there are many other points that relate to this very topic and like other trending topics that change with the ever dynamic world, remains a topic to be debated upon. The different lines of argument depend on the current situations and the dynamic statistics that keep emerging worldwide.

Andrew Geddes
West European Politics
Volume 27, Issue 2, 2004
Special Issue: Policy Change and Discourse in Europe