Women’s Day: How Women Can Fight Gender Inequality At Workplace

As the world marks International Women’s Day 2022, it is important for women to learn ways they can fight gender inequality even at workplaces.

This year’s Women’s Day celebration has its theme as “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow.”

It calls for the closing of the gender gap existing between men and women.
Gender disparity against women has been existing for long and we can see this in virtually every sector of the economy.

ALSO READ: Women’s Day: Tech Jobs For Women With No Tech Skills

Very often, females get gender disparity at their workplaces. They get less pay than their male counterparts.
In some cases, they also get little or no promotions.

Similarly, women have to give in extra of being likeable and extremely smart for them to move up the promotion ladder.

Meanwhile, as much as there are many factors causing this disparity, women have been in the fight for equality.

However, while women are clearly not largely blamed for this disparity, a percentage of the blames, sometimes, goes to them.

For instance, most women shy away and give up at the mention of tech. They think being a part of tech requires that you must know how to code.

So, some women decide not to get involved at all.

Meanwhile, some who have even ventured into the tech space are not being as aggressive as they should.
Similarly, women are less likely to be investing and are more likely to have debt.

Yet, they are still being paid less than men overall.

This results in many men taking the shine and breaking more records than females, resulting in greater disparity.
According to a report by Cio.Com, out of total workforce, only 26% of computer-science related jobs are held by women.

This disparity is equally seen in leadership and other positions in companies.

According to the report, a mere 28% of people in senior management roles are women and only 19% of the C-suite is female.

It said however that this is not the fault of women but that of establishments dominated by men.

“This isn’t because women aren’t trying for leadership roles. It’s because getting promoted — especially in an industry like IT that is dominated by men — is more difficult for women than it is for men.”

Speaking on the challenges women face especially in the IT space, CTO and co-founder of Speakfully, Nandini Easwar said as follows:

“For entry-level positions, there are a lot of good initiatives that bring women into IT. The challenge happens when it comes to growing up that ladder.

Speakfully is a company that offers a safe place for employees to address workplace concerns.

Speaking further on this, Easwar said “There is a different standard for women and men.”

The report noted that “getting promoted requires a person to be assertive, make decisions, express ideas, and lead. Men know this, do it, and are rewarded with more money and a boost up the ladder. When women do the very same thing, the response is quite different.”

So, as the world marks this year’s International Women’s Day, the theme is as ideal as it is apt.

Therefore, below are ways women can fight gender disparity at workplaces.
Ways Women Can Fight Gender Inequality at workplace:

Women must strive to adopt the following ways to fight and close the gender inequality gap between them and men.

1 Speak Up About Pay Disparity Issues

Women must not keep quiet when inequality is being meted against them just for being women.

We see jobs which some women do better than men yet, they are paid less than what their male counterparts in similar jobs get.

So, to close this gap, women must lean to speak up against this.

“If you believe you are being underpaid, you should immediately bring this up with your human resources department or direct manager.”

it’s vital that you stand up for yourself as a woman. Don’t keep quiet. Challenge it.

Recently, the USA women’s football team reached a landmark $33m equal pay settlement with US Soccer.
After a six-year legal battle, past and present players of the US women’s national football team reached the landmark settlement with their governing body, US Soccer, over equal pay.

Despite a US judge dismissing the players’ equal pay arguments in 2020 (a decision that was appealed by the players), the eight-figure settlement is a tacit admission by US Soccer that payments for the women’s and men’s teams had been unequal for years.

As part of that legal battle, the two sides settled the working conditions portion in December 2020, which addressed inequalities in travel, accommodation, and playing surfaces.

However, a judge threw out their equal pay claim. Until last two weeks when the judge ruled in the women’s favour.

This is exactly how women should fight inequality; speak up!

2 Invest In Yourself:

Women need to invest in themselves especially by learning relevant skills in high demand.

This will increase their worth in companies and sectors they find themselves.

Keep in mind that you will hardly get unfair treatment at workplace if you take up extra trainings and professional courses.

3 Build A Network Of Other Women:

Another way of fighting gender inequality today for a better tomorrow is for women to build a network of other females.

These networking groups can team up to fight better for women’s rights.
This stand in corroborated by Joana Fonseca Orvalho, career coach and founder of Coaching for Professionals.

She said thus:

“Getting the right support is a must.”
“No one will better understand the position you are in than someone that is going through the exact same thing.
“Therefore, find women that work in similar environments and use them as a support group. You can share experiences and tips on how to deal with specific scenarios.”

Implications:

This year’s Women’s Day celebration calls for joint actions toward bridging the inequality gap between women and men.

This fight that is taking place today will yield greater fruit for tomorrow.
Men have dominated various endeavours for long and this is not ideal.

According to the latest stats, women hold $72 billion in private wealth.
However, only fewer women than men consider themselves to be in “good” or “excellent” financial shape.

So, women need to brace up and push up their self-esteem , knowing that they too fit in well even in male dominated environments.