Bridging the Gap: Addressing Gender Inequality in the Workplace and Beyond

Abstract

Institutional Affiliations: Inequality between women and men is an issue that has a very long history. Men across the globe have ever since immemorial been viewed as superior to women. Such assumptions have for a long time left the male gender at an advantage of enjoying privileges like leadership positions, better jobs, and better pays in all areas of work as compared to their female counterparts. Gender inequality is a controversial issue that stirs hot debates across the world. The hypothesis behind gender inequality is coined around biological, psychological, and cultural norm distinctions. It is unfortunate that though some of the differences mentioned above are empirically grounded, like physical distinctions, some appear to be socially constructed, making one gender superior. What comes into many people's minds when gender inequality is mentioned or after experiencing gender inequality in one way or the other is the gender norms and stereotypes that foster gender identities and constraints? This essay aims at giving a factual argument expressing the extent of inequalities that gender exposes to humans regardless of their ability to outperform those depicted superior to them. Since gender is the primary identifier of economic and social stratification, one can argue that women and men will continue receiving unequal treatment until the day that society will start seeing men and women as a human who are equal regardless of their gender. When people talk of wage inequality, what do they imply? Wage inequality is the act of rewarding/paying workers differently though having engaged in the same task at the exact durations. Wage inequality is an experience that many women, especially in America, have openly witnessed. The United States is among the nations where wage inequality is very loud amongst women, as Raviskanthan et al. (2020) argued. In their article, Raviskanthan and others say that though women continue expressing great efforts in familiarizing themselves with roles that have always been thought of as male gender fields like medicine, their recognition remains in question in many nations. Shannon et al. (2019), in their article on "Gender equality in science, medicine, and global health: where are we at, and why does it matter?" argues for the need to reconsider women's contribution in a field like medicine and offer them their rewards accordingly. Based on these authors, women suffer a massive blow in the medical field than their male counterparts. Women, regardless of their levels in the science field, are given limited opportunities in areas that can positively impact the general health status of society. Men tend to take the best positions in the science field and receive higher incentives than their female counterparts, regardless of whether they express more outstanding expertise than these men. Gender inequalities within the medical area lead to un-substantial health, social and economic loss to society (Barnes, 2019). Women should be given a chance to express their abilities in this field so that changes that can enhance this field's general growth can become well defined. Women have defined capabilities in many things just as their male counterparts; thus, no need to limit their chance to exercise such rights. Such limitations hinder the realization of change in many fields, medicine being significant (Raviskanthan, 2020). Raviskanthan (2020) argued that uneven access to education serves as an effective inhibitor of women in accessing defined positions in fields like medicine. . It is unfortunate regardless of other distinctions like education levels and work experiences, women earn very little for the same task as men due to the inferiors associated with the female gender. It is also evident that women are always overrepresented in low-paying jobs and also in senior positions with working environments worldwide. Globally, only about 19% of firms have a female manager" (Barnes, 2019). What do such insights indicate? Such insights suggest that women are always earning little, and chances to make higher remain hampered by their limited chances of getting better positions with organizations. Women tend to have limited influence over important household decisions in many countries (Barnes, 2019). At the same time, men own productive assets like land as compared to women. It is open that women are left at the mercies of men even concerning their personal earned income where the man tend to give orders on ways the woman should spend the little income they earn However, with time, gender inequalities have been...