Gender discrimination in the workplace happens for many reasons, but one of the biggest issues that women face is that they simply do not have the same representation as men. There are far more men than women in many professions. This doesn’t mean that women can’t do the job, but they face challenges trying to break into the industry.
Experts believe some of this discrimination would slowly end itself if the numbers for both genders were simply more equal than they are today.
This suggests that gender discrimination can be unconscious. It sometimes stems from the fact that people assume men are going to do those specific jobs. They never sat down and thought about it, deciding they didn’t want women to be involved.
They have just seen more men doing the jobs for so many years that it’s become ingrained in the way they think about that job. This can lead to some ingrained prejudices, like not feeling confident that a female worker can get the same results.
If there were an equal amount of men and women working in that position, people’s unconscious prejudices would slowly change because they’d be exposed to both male and female workers. They wouldn’t expect or assume anything. Of course, this is a bit of a catch-22 since female workers may then find it harder to land certain jobs just because there are not as many female workers doing those jobs.
Have you faced gender discrimination at work? If you have, you need to know what legal steps to take. Discrimination is illegal.
