Top 10 Workplace Challenges for Women

Introduction

Being a woman is hard. You have to take care of the kids, the family, and the household work, and then you go to the office. That can be a serious security concern, even in recent times. You walk into the office, put in your best effort, and bring the best results to the table. Even then, you miss out on the opportunities. You miss the promotion you were eyeing. You suddenly notice that your male coworker has bought a car with his salary savings and you haven't. Surprisingly, you still struggle to make ends meet. After some investigation, you discover that he is paid more than you, even though you do the same work and have the same responsibilities.

Workplaces offer a myriad of problems for women. While some of them have to do with women's specific problems, most of them are because they are women. Even though attitudes toward women's work are changing, the male-dominated society maintains that women are inferior to men in the workplace. While this was not always the case, as we can give female leaders throughout the ages like Joan of Arc, Oprah Winfrey, and Eleanor Roosevelt, they were more of an exception than the rule.

The solution to changing this perspective is largely in the education industry. Unfortunately, a society is formed through education and is unlikely to change its perspectives once a pattern of behaviour has been formed.

Workplace challenges for women

1. Women's Representation

The major problem in the workforce today is that there are fewer and fewer women as you move higher up the corporate ladder. If we look at Fortune's 2021 list of CEOs of the biggest companies, we might be surprised to see that there are only 41 female executives there! What's even worse, the number is at an all-time high! It can be even more surprising when we look at the beginning of the 2nd millennium when there were only two women on the Fortune 500 CEO list. Women experience gender bias and racial discrimination more than men. The underlying causes are the root problems that rot humanity like

2. Period discrimination

Women undergo gruelling period pains every month, which is an atypical physiological process. During these times, a woman experiences mood swings that can cause bouts of anger, sadness, and a range of emotional triggers. However, this is a major reason why women are discriminated against in the modern workforce. While several companies offer menstrual leaves for women, most companies are prone to discrimination, shaming, verbal assaults, and other types of measures against menstruating women. If a woman genuinely gets angry over an issue, comments on how it is related to her periods can overwhelm women.

Other than that, women can be denied leave on their periods. There are even some cases where a woman is fired from her job just because she stained her chair during her heavy flow day (Source: ACLU)! Connecting every emotion experienced to a natural phenomenon alienates a woman and results in depression or dissatisfaction at work. A toxic environment is undesirable for any woman, and sadly, this is the case with most working environments.

3. Pregnancy discrimination

This is where an expectant mother is not hired, fired, or made a victim of abuse just because she is pregnant (Source: Wikipedia). Often, offensive comments by seniors, colleagues, and customers can be devastating for women. A pregnant woman is at odds during an interview because of her maternity. Again, a mother is discouraged from working by forcing her to take paid or unpaid leaves, reducing pay and working hours and thus alienating the woman from normal work routines. Further, she is not given any chance for promotion and is kept in a role that is not necessarily deserving of

4. Sexual harassment

According to a recent report, only 54% of women who report workplace harassment in the corporate sector face sexual harassment (Source: inc). Sexual harassment can happen anywhere, ranging from physical assaults and abuses to verbal assaults and verbal abuses. However, a major portion of these assaults goes unreported because often the perpetrators are in senior positions in the company, and due to this, the fear of being fired keeps female employees from taking legal action.

Surprisingly, this results in a counterproductive cycle where the abusers become more confident in their actions and the vicious cycle of abuse continues. Thankfully, modern anti-sexual harassment movements like #MeToo have shaken the core of these, and governments across the world are tightening their policies to counteract the sexual harassment of women in several legal initiatives.

5. Pay disparities

Men earn more than women. According to an Equal Rights Advocates report, a woman must work more than 14 months to earn what a man earned in just 12 months. While this can be acceptable when we compare different industries with different backgrounds, you will be surprised to see that men earn more than women, even in similar roles in the same industry. For the same amount of work and effort put in by both genders, men get paid more than women. This is frustrating for women because their efforts are going unnoticed, unrewarded, or merely ignored for the sake of being a woman.

According to Payscale's recent report, for every dollar a man makes at work, a woman only makes 0.82 dollars in an uncontrolled environment and 0.99 dollars in a controlled environment. Such bias or favouritism not only discourages women from working but is also one of the reasons they quit the workforce altogether.

6. Racial discrimination

Racial discrimination is a major social evil for humanity. In many cultures, this exists in different forms. Some are systematic and others are purely based on external factors like race, nationality, religion, ethnicity, language, social class etc. Racial discrimination is also a constant cause of famines, political upheavals, and genocides. Even in the modern age, the threat of racial discrimination is ever-present.

The heat of this social evil is felt everywhere in the world. Corporate structures are not immune to this at all. Women are subject to racial inequalities more often than men because they are perceived as the weaker gender and thus more susceptible to exploitation. The male domination of the workforce is also a reason why women's voices are rendered unheeded.

7. Lack of childcare

Working women's careers and well-being may be negatively affected by a lack of childcare assistance. According to studies, the high expense of childcare and the meagre assistance provided by employers are causing women to work fewer hours, earn lower wages, or even lose their jobs entirely. Married women who have childcare support from their husbands can have better career opportunities (Source: American Progress). However, some contend that a lack of such men may lead some working mothers to completely resign from their positions. If a woman is successful in her career, her male partner may also react negatively. This can take the form of sarcasm, passive aggression, or making the woman feel guilty.

8. Constantly being talked over

This is something that working women have experienced in almost every meeting where they have attempted to contribute their ideas. Whenever a woman speaks her mind in a group setting, like a meeting or a discussion, she is at risk of getting talked over by her male counterparts. Her ideas and suggestions are ignored while she communicates them and she is rudely interrupted.

While this can also be done subconsciously by her male counterparts as an effect of routine, this is often intentional with the aim of "showing the woman her place." While this can cause a woman to back down or use a louder and more authoritative voice to communicate her thoughts, it is often the case that the woman becomes unresponsive and quiet as a result of repeated intervention. As a result, the team is robbed of valuable input from a hard-working, thoughtful professional.

To avoid this, an informed meeting protocol where everyone respects everyone's suggestions might be helpful. Meeting facilitators can use pre-allotted times so that everyone present has their voices heard. While this is easier said than done, such initiatives can educate everyone about the importance of free speech and help everyone grow together as a team. Above all, women will appreciate the efforts and choose to stay in the workforce longer, engage better, and add their own ideas that will ultimately benefit the company.

9. Female bosses

Moreover, the basic unit of society, the family, is almost always headed by a man. Similarly, men expect male authorities to lead them in their work environments as well. As a result, they are either uncomfortable or downright reluctant to accept female authorities as their own. This puts female manager aspirants at a disadvantage.

As a countermeasure, only more and more female leaders and an increasing acceptability of female leaders in the workplace can mend this gap. If you are a management aspirant, remember that you are bridging this gap one step at a time. Only time will tell whether female leadership is widely accepted by fatherhood.

10. Work-life imbalance

All the while their male counterparts are doing their work and progressing personally and professionally. though it is not universal, this is the situation found in most offices and workplaces. Women are also required to work after their duty hours in their homes with their household tasks and take care of their children. They are the ones that take a holiday despite an important meeting to take care of their sick family members. All these put women in a _ position where they must put additional effort into everything they do and this can be overwhelming. This is the reason why women feel stressed out and leave the workforce altogether.

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Conclusion

Female leaders are still a very rare phenomenon in any corporation. Although the workforce is generally halved between the genders, women find it very difficult to move up the corporate ladder. Their challenges in the workforce are plenty and often devastating to their physical and emotional health. Sexual harassment is the major culprit where women are subjected to verbal, visual, or physical abuse.

It is more common than you would like to believe. Workplace rapes are also a major safety concern for female leaders, though these incidents are barely reported or researched. Female leaders experience gender bias that is intentional or subconscious without the intent to degrade the woman's dignity or mental health. They have to fight the gender pay gap in uncontrolled workplaces, though even in many controlled workplaces, this bias is present as well. Women are often the target of racial and period shaming.

Many women are even looked down upon during their periods and also in any emotional expression, though they may or may not be in pain. Female professionals experience rude interruptions when they express their opinions in a group setting. And finally, women are the targets of pregnancy discrimination as well. Even in this modern age, women are struggling to keep their dignity, and rights to equal pay, and free speech, and have to fight against exploitation and disrespect by their peers and seniors. So, if you are a male professional reading this, please make a resolve today to treat women as your equals in your work.