Gender
based discrimination has been a hot topic for many years and is something that
takes place even in today’s world. There are many reasons as to why it happens
and only by self-awareness can we try to do something about it. There are three
areas of Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s discussion that I would like to reflect upon:
Sex-based discrimination of top jobs, the preference for social similarity, and
the feminine advantage.
The
first area to discuss is the idea of sex-based discrimination amongst top jobs.
Kanter mentions that “it’s just getting up to the very peak has still been an
issue – I think one other hidden sources of discrimination that still goes on
in many companies is sort of informal and behind the scenes, when there’s a
discussion in private conversation about, well, who are the people that we
should put in certain positions and then, well, she isn’t quite as dedicated or
that we love the fact that she has a family and we’re very family friendly. We
don’t want to take away from the family and so they don’t even give the women a
choice.” (Harvard Business Review, 2010) This shows that
there is discrimination amongst people to assume that women want to make family
a priority over their careers. This is completely unfair to assume and eliminates
the possibility of a perfectly good candidate. Yukl mentions that “only a small
number of nations have a female head of state, and the number of women in top
executive positions in large business organizations is also very small.” (Yukl, 2013) This provides
further evidence that links Kanter’s ideas to Yukl’s text.
The
second area to discuss is the preference for social similarity. Kanter says
that “people trust judgment of those who resemble themselves – [for example]
people of similar ethnic groups or who are also male.” (Harvard Business Review, 2010) What this means is
that people have a natural tendency to want to stick to those who are like
themselves. Since the majority of top leaders are male, they’ll have a natural
tendency to choose other male leaders. A separate study has also shown that “people
seek out others who are similar to them because the interaction is smoother and
more pleasant.” (Dallas, 2011) When it comes to
choosing someone to work with or choosing a successor, we not only want to
choose someone who thinks the same, but we want to choose someone who is going
to take command smoothly and pleasantly. By introducing someone out of this
social similarity group, friction is created.
Finally
a third area to discuss is the feminine advantage. There’s this idea that “women
are more concerned with consensus building, inclusiveness, and interpersonal
relations; they are more willing to develop and nurture subordinates and share
power with them. Women are believed to have more empathy, rely more on
intuition, and be more sensitive to feelings and the quality of relationships.”
(Yukl, 2013) Due to this idea,
there is a bias to what positions most women can fill at the top ranks. Kanter
mentions that “women, even at high levels, are still often disproportionately
found in people oriented jobs.” (Harvard Business Review, 2010) On the contrary, men
are often found is risk oriented jobs. This further emphasizes the biases
belief that women are naturally more suited towards people oriented jobs.
Gender
based discrimination comes in many ways and the three that I discussed are:
Sex-based discrimination of top jobs, the preferences for social similarity,
and the female advantage. There are many aspects that contribute to this type
of discrimination and its social awareness that’s required for society to
recognize that this type of discrimination is occurring. By further emphasizing
and talking about this type of discrimination can we hope to one day remove it
from our society as a whole.
References
Dallas, M. E. (2011). People Tend to Choose
Friends Just Like Themselves. Retrieved from
http://consumer.healthday.com/general-health-information-16/friendship-health-news-324/people-tend-to-choose-friends-just-like-themselves-656977.html
Harvard Business Review. (2010). Women, Ambition
and (Still) the Pay Gap. Retrieved from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhquUOlBuOY&feature=youtu.be&t=5s
Yukl, G. (2013). Leadership in Organizations.
New Jersey: Pearson.
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