Gender Planning And Development The Theory -Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Gender Planning And Development Theory? Answer: Introduction Over the years, the global social scenario has experienced considerable dynamics and transformations with the way of living, quality of life, general mindsets and social level of acceptance increasing considerably. In this aspect, women have progressed substantially in all the aspects of life, in a global framework, which especially includes the educational and professional aspects. Women, in the last few decades have progressed phenomenally, reducing the gaps, which existed in terms of the privileges, advantages, and opportunities, which the two genders of the society, received (Boston O'Grady, 2015). Women are increasingly exploring newer opportunities and are marking their presence increasingly in almost all the personal as well as professional domains of life. However, though women have infiltrated in all the professional domains of the society, there still remains several aspects where gender inequality still prevails, especially in the professional domains of the society in the global scenario. The primary areas of concern in workplaces where women in general face discrimination and remain less advantageous than their male counterparts are in the aspects of payment and position. In spite of women progressing significantly and becoming at par with the male counterparts, they still often are discriminated in terms of acknowledgement and compensations in the workplaces across the world (Abc.net.au, 2018). Keeping this into account, the concerned report tries to discuss the problems of gender discrimination in the contemporary workplaces and the steps which have been taken by the employers to combat the same, from the perspective of human resources management. To discuss the same, it takes reference of an article by John Hilton, which is summarized in the following section. Article Summary The article named Is HR doing enough to address gender inequality? by John Hilton, published in Human Resource Director, Australia on 14the December, 2017, takes into account the dynamics related to the gender pay equity issues in different eminent business organizations and the steps and perceptions of the relevant officials in dealing with the problem. The article takes into account the Gender Equality Agency data on 2016-2017, which shows that the employers in the last few years have progressed extensively in the perspective of addressing the issue of gender pay gaps present in the economy in an overall basis, in Australia (Hilton, 2018). The article takes into account the perceptions of several relevant officials, which includes the belief of Peter Acheson, the CEO of the People Bank, as a Pay Equity Ambassador. According to him, in the country, there is prominent presence of gender pay gap in all the strata of professional scenario of the country and it exists irrespective of the designation and job roles of women in general. According to him, the biases can be both conscious as well as unconscious, with the employers often not realizing that they are bringing in gender bias. In this aspect, he also highlights the aspects like the usage of words in their job ads, which creates perception among the women labor force that they are not eligible for some jobs, thereby creating unintentional gender bias (Dipboye Colella, 2013). The article also puts up the views of Colin Brookes, the director of SAP, according to whom there still exists considerable pay gap with respect to gender across the country. He also puts forward the steps, which have been taken by his company to combat this situation, which includes same starting salaries, similar job roles for same skilled personnel and also flexibility in the workplace. Currently, the gender pay gap of the company exists at 2%, which the company has committed to reduce to zero. Gender Inequality in Workplace From the above article and the assertions of the people whose perceptions have been included, it becomes evident that in the contemporary workplace, gender discrimination still exist and the main arena of concern is the inequality in payment between the male and female employees in the workplaces. Australia, though being one of the predominantly developed economies of the world and though have progressed significantly in the aspects of economic growth and development of the population, including female population specifically, still encounters the problem of gender inequalities in the workplaces (McLaughlin, Uggen Blackstone, 2012). Australia, though experiencing significant progress industrially, there still exists significant gender discrimination in terms of payment in the workplaces as it has been seen that even in the contemporary periods; women earn nearly 24% less than that of men in the country. The pattern of discrimination between men and women work force in the country becomes even more prominent with the help of the following figure: As can be seen from the above figure, women are predominantly present in those jobs in the country, whose pay scale are low, while the high paid jobs are mainly taken by the male population of the country. There is another prominent trend, which can be seen from the above figure. As the pay scale goes on increasing, the number of women workers goes on decreasing while the number of men workers goes on impressively increasing (Tomaskovic-Devey, 2014). This in turn indicates towards the fact that there exists considerable discrimination in terms of gender, in the country, when it comes to the types of jobs and the salary structure, with the male population being highly privileged. Apart from the aspect of types of jobs, inequality also exists in the aspect of payment among male and female employees of the country and this is present in private as well as in the public sectors, which can be seen as follows: As can be seen from the above figure, the pay gap exists significantly in private sector as compared to the public sector and surprisingly it had actually increased with time, which is alarming. This is because for a country as developed as Australia, the presence of high gender gap in the private sector, especially in the current period indicates towards the presence of lower economic as well as social welfare for the women in the country (Fujimoto, Azmat Hrtel, 2013). Reasons behind the presence of gender pay gap in Australia The above discussion and the empirical evidences, present in the country points towards the presence of visible gender gap in the workplace of the country, especially in terms of payments and other incentives. There are several plausible reasons behind the presence of such gender gaps in the country, the primary ones being as follows: One of the primary reasons behind the discrimination among the employees regarding wage gap is that the female workforce mainly participates in the part time jobs, with nearly 75% of the total part time workers of the country being female. The female-dominated companies in the country are also seen to be low paid. The industrial segregation also exists in terms of the male-female pay gaps (Smith, Caputi Crittenden, 2012). One of the primary reasons behind the presence of such wage gaps in all the sectors of the professional domain of the country is the aspect of childcare. Around 62% of all the employed female in the country with children under five years of age had been found to work part time. The percentage of parental leave taken by women in the country is also significantly higher than the percentage of that of men. The aspect of childcare and parental leave also makes women much less competitive and capable apparently in the eyes of the employers, which affect their career growth negatively, thereby aggravating the problem of gender pay gap in the workplaces even more apparent in the contemporary period, especially in the private sector of the country (Hacker, 2017). Keeping this into account in reference to the problems of gender discrimination in the professional domain of the country, there arises the need for proper policies to eradicate the problem of gender pay in the country. The human resource department of the companies being the ones responsible for efficient employee management and enhancement of their performance, there are several steps and policies which can be taken into consideration for the purpose of tackling the problem of gender pay gap in the country (Bandiera Natraj, 2013). Steps to remove gender pay gap: Human Resource Perspective a) Gender unbiased payment system- One of the primary steps, which can be taken by the companies to remove the gap, is by setting up a payment framework, which compensates both the genders equally, based on their capabilities and job roles and not on their genders. b) Reducing gender stereotypes- The companies and especially the management of the companies need to change their mindsets to reduce the stereotypes, which exist in the professional domains of the companies in the country. These stereotypes mainly exist in terms of the notion that women are less capable and contribute less productivity to the organization due to their professional commitments (Bratton Gold, 2012). c) Pro-Active human resource department- The human resource department presents in the companies should be active and responsive enough to keep a vigilant eye on the operational framework such that no pay gaps or discrepancies exist which make the female employees feel less valued and thus less motivated to work. d) Uniform regulations for all the employees- One of the primary ways to combat gender equality in all the aspects of the professional domain is the presence of uniform regulatory framework in the company, which includes rules regarding uniform rules and others. e) Punishment for gender discrimination- Gender discrimination, in the workplaces, not only occur in terms of payment to the employees but also in terms of general approach of the male employees and management towards the female workers, indecent behavior and other offences which makes the female employees feel de-motivated and threatened to work in such companies (Moser, 2012). f) Leadership roles- Inequality in genders across the professional domains can also be substantially removed by giving different administrative roles and leadership chances to the female employees of the companies, which contribute significantly in empowering the female employees of the companies and of the country in general. Conclusion From the above discussion, it is evident that in spite of significant progress of employment sectors and professional domains across the globe and women making mark in almost all the professional domains, there still exists the problem of gender inequality in the professional domains of people, in the global framework in general and specifically in Australia. Although many employers have progressed to some extent in this aspect, by taking appropriate steps in reducing the gender pay gaps and other discriminations in the workplaces, there still remains avenues of improvement for the others in the country, which if implemented appropriately can help in combating the problem efficiently. References Abc.net.au. (2018).Gender inequality still rampant in Australian workplaces: report.ABC News. Retrieved 5 February 2018, from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-26/gender-inequality-still-rampant-in-australian-workplaces-report/6976452 Aph.gov.au. (2018).Women in the Australian workforce A 2013 update Parliament of Australia.Aph.gov.au. Retrieved 5 February 2018, from https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/FlagPost/2013/March/Women_in_the_Australian_workforce_A_2013_update Bandiera, O., Natraj, A. (2013). Does gender inequality hinder development and economic growth? Evidence and policy implications.The World Bank Research Observer,28(1), 2-21. Boston, S., O'Grady, F. (2015).Women workers and the trade unions. Lawrence Wishart. Bratton, J., Gold, J. (2012).Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave Macmillan. Dipboye, R. L., Colella, A. (Eds.). (2013).Discrimination at work: The psychological and organizational bases. Psychology Press. Etax.com.au. (2018).Gender Inequality Growing: Women's Salaries in Australia....Etax.com.au. Retrieved 5 February 2018, from https://www.etax.com.au/gender-inequality-womens-salaries-australia/ Fujimoto, Y., Azmat, F., Hrtel, C. E. (2013). Gender perceptions of work-life balance: Management implications for full-time employees in Australia.Australian Journal of Management,38(1), 147-170. Hacker, S. (2017).Pleasure, power and technology: Some tales of gender, engineering, and the cooperative workplace(Vol. 5). Routledge. Hilton, J. (2018).Is HR doing enough to address gender inequality?.HR Online. Retrieved 5 February 2018, from https://www.hcamag.com/hr-business-review/leadership-development/is-hr-doing-enough-to-address-gender-inequality-244874.aspx McLaughlin, H., Uggen, C., Blackstone, A. (2012). Sexual harassment, workplace authority, and the paradox of power.American sociological review,77(4), 625-647. Moser, C. (2012).Gender planning and development: Theory, practice and training. Routledge. Smith, P., Caputi, P., Crittenden, N. (2012). A maze of metaphors around glass ceilings.Gender in Management: an international journal,27(7), 436-448. Tomaskovic-Devey, D. (2014). The relational generation of workplace inequalities.Social Currents,1(1), 51-73.