Because I Am a Girl?

Photo: Kazi Tahsin Agaz Apurbo

You would think in this day and age, in these modern times, in such a fast-paced world, employees would be treated as employees. You would think that the input of work and the rewards for it would not be taken or given with the consideration of the employee's gender.

But if you walk into a mainstream office in the city, your heart will sink.

“Gender discrimination at the workplace is just another location for gendered role and norms practices in our society, which mostly put women in a position of disadvantages in a patriarchal or male dominated social structure. Gender discrimination mostly implies as well as applies to women as the discriminated gender, but we must acknowledged that at times men can be faced with discrimination in jobs based on their gender identity as well,” says Shuchi Karim, research fellow, ISS, the Hague.

There are many signs through which you can understand whether or not you are being discriminated against in the office. One thing you must know is that if you are an employee of an office, you must be treated just like other, regardless of your social status, your gender, or your financial abilities. Once you see a difference in behaviour that is related to any of these factors, you must speak out immediately.

Some of the signs include lack of recognition for the employees performances, consistent negative assessments in performance reviews, people may miss out on promotions for years, despite good work records, people are often left out of projects and social events, job opportunities are given to others in the "acceptable" workplace group, individuals have conspicuously high levels of stress or medical leave, a sure sign that something's wrong. And of course, 'the glass ceiling effect'- an invisible barrier that keeps a given demographic - typically applied to women - from rising beyond a certain level in a hierarchy.

So what makes these disagreeable behaviours or acts of discrimination prevail?

“In the case of women as victims of discrimination, there are multiple contexts that make it prevalent. Firstly, the labour market, be it formal or informal, is controlled by men, and male norms, male dominance of power and a mechanism that practices hyper-masculinity. All rules, like job conditions, office facilities or lack of it, language etc are framed around a dominant male culture, which they find extremely difficult to adjust and/ or change when the other genders like women come to work, and claim their space. In general, men grow up knowing that they are the boss, at home and outside, that their roles are that of provider and protectors, and that others, including women, are somewhat less valued, talented and equal to opportunities in life,” says Shuchi, “as a result to this, when masculinity is confronted or faced with female presence at work that is equal or even better in quality, courage and potential - it feels challenged and reacts with dominance, oppression, and discrimination.” 

When women begin excelling in fields or spaces that men thought were rightly theirs, they are seen as problematic, especially with their sexual and reproductive roles and rights - making them an easy target for illogical discrimination, whether in pay, leave or promotion.

Shuchi believes that women, at times, can be at fault too. “Since it is only in recent times that women are getting more opportunities in both education and employment, they enter the job market with a sense of fear, intimidation and fewer demands. Some women are mostly apologetic about their ambitions and abilities. Surpassing a male, a brother, husband or a colleague can cause them stress, and women tend to compromise too often for too less,” she says. She thinks the reason behind such behaviour from women might be that young women in our society don't have a lot of positive role models as successful career minded individuals, “and we still tend to think that employment is not the first priority of a woman if she has the social safety net for her. Women more than often enter job market as a fill in the gap between education and a good marriage, or as 'passion' and not a necessity, either financially or as part of growth for an individual,” says Shuchi.

 According to her, women need to learn to be competitive, have positive views about life and potential, and be assertive. “Using femininity as an easy excuse to escape challenges and difficulties will only make their position weaker and pave the way to systematic discrimination.”

Even though gender discrimination is recognised in many places now, the hope for change is still to come. Unless and until women are viewed as equals in the house and on the streets, the situation for us will only worsen. “The job market is not outside the prevalent social system and its mechanisms. Therefore, we cannot expect a better situation for women or any kind of gender discrimination exclusively from the sector when we are not changing our perceptions and practices of gender roles, norms and values starting from home and school,” says Shuchi.

For an office to fix a matter of such grave concern, a holistic policy is absolutely necessary, and if required Human Resources professionals should be tasked with creating the working approach to fixing local situations. The management should make sure to monitor the resolution of gender discrimination issues closely, and should not ignore the issue no matter what the magnitude. From history and life, we have learned that nothing good comes from discrimination and oppression, and that for any home, and office and even any nation to thrive- equality must prevail amongst the masses. It is time for our nation to recognise that and bring that change before we harm ourselves further.