Gender Inequality essays

Gender Inequality essays Under-representation of women in managerial posts in the UK Women in the workplace are a relatively recent development. The first time a woman was allowed to take up a so-called mans job in this country was during the war, when the men were away serving their country. It took Emmiline Pankhurst and her fellow suffragettes nearly forty years to finally get the womens vote. Even though this was their primary struggle, they indirectly fought for equal opportunities for women in the workplace as well. Nearly a whole century later, prejudices still exist about women being the weaker sex. Many laws have been passed against sexual discrimination such as the Equal Pay Act (1970) and the Sex Discrimination Act (1976). However, women are still singled out. For example, just recently a former nurse, Kate Bleasdale, received a record amount of compensation: 2.2 million. She had set up her own company in 1985, called Match Group, whose purpose was to re-train and help qualified nurses to find suitable jobs. However, she was subject to hate mails and verbal abuse from her male board members. She also found out that her (male) finance director was paid more than she was. She was finally forced to leave the organisation. Her compensation is in light of a new law to be passed in 2003 against religious and sexual discrimination in England, Scotland and Wales. But the question we need to ask is that do these laws actually have any effect on the way male colleagues treat their female counterparts? Although these acts have been fairly introduced, there still remains what is known as the glass ceiling. This metaphor suggests the invisible barrier that women have to face in order move up the hierarchical ladder in their specific organisations. It stops them from achieving their full potential even though they are fully aware about exactly what their full potential&ap...