Challenges of Women in the Workforce

Challenges of Women in the Workforce

Introduction

Female workers in the workforce who earns salaries or wages are part of the contemporary phenomenon in various organizations. However, women in the workforce have been challenged by crucial factors such as inequality that has retarded the growth of paid employment for women. In the long run, this has created an economic over-dependence upon men by women due to the poor socio-economic status of females. This current phenomenon of inequality and discrimination was absent in the 19^th and 20^th centuries as the occupations in that era were nor professionalized. Female members lack access to higher education in significant cases, especially those who originate from underdeveloped nations such as Somalia and Togo. Due to this notion, women are paid less than men for doing the same work, thus limiting them to low paid and inferior status occupations. However, empowerment techniques can significantly aid in curbing the challenges that they face in the workforce. Some of these empowerment techniques include promoting a fair parental leave policy, prevention of sexual harassment, equal pay for the same work and experience, and many others. Therefore, in this paper, I will discuss some of the challenges that women face in the workforce. Besides, I will describe how women can be empowered and empower themselves to overcome these challenges.

Challenges that women face in the workforce

Women in the workforce make to about 44% of the global workforce, with their employment rate reaching a record high in 2017 (Ruiz 2018, p. 11). Despite the advancement of social movements such as #metoo movements that fight against women’s discrimination in the workplace, female workers still face obstacles when it comes to the workplace. Some of the critical challenges that they face include;

1. Work-life balance

A research study conducted by Mushfiqur et al. (2018) surveyed employees’ work-life balance. The findings indicated that women were vulnerable workforce gender group that was prone to work-life balance. These findings were derived from the statistics from the study that revealed that more than 44% of women admitted that their work-life balance was the toughest challenge in the workplace. In another survey that was carried out by Julka and Mathur (2017) proved that more than 50% of workers struggled to have a flexible working plan that would help them reduce stress.

1. Equal pay

Equal pay has been listed as the most significant challenge that women workers face in their workplaces. Equal pay for the same work has been a concept of labor rights that intends to align all the individuals to receive the same equal pay in the same workplace. However, despite the signing of the Equal Pay Act of 1963 by President Kennedy that stipulated the illegality means of paying unequal salaries and wages of both women and men in the same workplace, still, the issue of unequal pay is present (Fitzpatrick, 2018). The leading cause of unequal pay is how female’s expertise and skills are compared to men’s. Other factors, such as stereotypes and segregation, also contribute to unequal pay of female workers.

• Career opportunities

Globally, men are placed at a higher likelihood of getting new jobs than females. The justification behind this notion is that men have excellent access to career growth opportunities and professional development. Also, in some organizations such as those from manufacturing industries, some of the employers may have a perception that male workers perform better than average at some tasks due to factors such as metabolic rates.

1. Harassment

Studies such as those conducted by Goux and Adams (2020) have found that over 50% of sexual harassment incidences are typically evidenced by workplace situations. However, these statistics might not be accurate, as over 80% of the sexual harassment cases are never reported. Almost 20% of all sexual harassment cases’ offenders are the top management staff, such as the directors and managers, or someone in a position of authority.

1. Child care

Notably, less than 20% of females workers have reported that they could have children without affecting their careers (Moilanen et al. 2016, p. 67). On the other hand, over 80% of the female workforce find it challenging to have children while at work. This is because childcare costs are extreme at an all-time high, and hence returning to work is not a financially viable choice. However, there is a link between an organization’s profitability to more balanced gender distribution. Hence, as a solution, companies should employ more female directors to cut the risk of insolvency by 30% (Moilanen et al. 2016, p. 242).

How women can be empowered and empower themselves to overcome these challenges.

Due to the increased incidences of workplace challenges among female workers, the following empowerment tools and concepts can aid them in overcoming these challenges.

• Educating women on how to create opportunities in their career

Notably, as an empowerment concept, it is the role of the business firm to create opportunities for advancement. Hence, the female workforce should hold discussions with stakeholders and managers on how to effectively promote their opportunities through skills training and development to help advance their careers. The justification behind this notion is that the talented female workforce is limited to progress’ chances due to minimal opportunities for advancement in a workplace setting.

• Women recognizing themselves as experts in a particular field

Opportunities for career advancements always pop up for skilled workforce parties. Hence, as a tool to overcome the challenges of women in the workforce, women should accomplish this by gaining publicity features in specific firm’s magazines, websites, as well as receiving awards.

• Self-appealing to hiring managers and learning how to negotiate

Women should learn to make themselves marketable to breakdown the barriers of new job opportunities. Hence, they should have their stories that trigger attention, gains their vested interests, and arouse the hiring managers’ desires to hire them.

Conclusion

Conclusively, women’s workforce faces lots of challenges in their workplaces, such as sexual harassment, unequal pay, limited career opportunities, as well as inadequate child care. These challenges derive their self-esteem and morale from stepping up to higher rankings. However, some measures, such as the act of recognizing themselves as experts in their specific workplace fields, as well as self-appealing to hiring managers and learning how to negotiate, act as necessary measures that will empower them. Nevertheless, governments and non-governmental organizations should work closely to implement strict rules as a measure of curbing the overall workplace challenges.

References

Fitzpatrick, E., 2018. Women of Color Face Added Challenges in Workplace.

Goux, D. and Adams, S.M., 2020. Millennials in the workplace. Bently University Center for Women and Busines.

Julka, T. and Mathur, U., 2017. A conceptual study of work-life balance among women employees. International Journal of Emerging Research in Management & Technology 6, no. 2 (2017): 74-78.

Moilanen, S., May, V., Raikkonen, E., Sevon, E. and Laakso, M.L., 2016. Mothers’ non-standard working and childcare-related challenges. International journal of sociology and social policy.

Mushfiqur, R., Mordi, C., Oruh, E.S., Nwagbara, U., Mordi, T. and Turner, I.M., 2018. The impacts of work-life-balance (WLB) challenges on social sustainability. Employee Relations.

Ruiz, V., 2018. Challenges women face in small business leadership roles (Doctoral dissertation).