According to this survey, most women do not get a pay raise due to their gender!
Along with this being responsible for all household chores is another obstacle. More than 6 in 10 working women feel that taking care and managing a family come in the way of their career development.
Bias is a widespread practice and a constant element in all aspects of our lives.It won’t be wrong to say that it’s in our blood to categorise things we encounter in our day to day lives in order to make sense of the complicated stuff around us.
Although biases can be a result of our preconceptions or prejudices against others, it also allows us to form blatant and unpardonable inequalities between different demographics.
In Spite of bias having its different forms, which can arise due to religion, caste, creed, place of birth, race etc. Our focus will be on gender bias and its effect on pay raise.
What is Gender Bias?
“Gender Bias is the tendency to prefer one gender over another. It is a form of unconscious bias, or implicit bias, which occurs when one individual unconsciously attributes certain attitudes and stereotypes to another person or group of people.”
Let us move to some facts.
According to the latest LinkedIn report of 2021, it is released ahead of International Women’s Day, which sheds light on the statistical index of opportunity, a composite measure that seeks to understand how people perceive opportunities and the barriers that stand in the way of achieving them. 85% of the women miss a raise in pay or promotion or work offer due to their gender. This accounts for every 4 out of 5 working women. It further stated women of the Asian-Pacific (APAC) region accounted for an average of 60%. This clearly means that gender played an essential role in the career development of women.
The report also mentioned that the available market opportunities are also perceived based on genders. Around 37% of India’s working women affirm the fact that they have received fewer job opportunities than men due to their gender and only 20% of men acknowledge this fact. “This disparity in perception is also seen in conversations about equal pay, as more women (37 per cent) say they get less pay than men, while only 21 per cent men share this sentiment, it added.
Though 70% of the professionals believe that even though the differentiation based on gender has improved since two to three decades, it still needs improvisation and implementation. Women across the Asia-Pacific region still face a very hard gender bias.
Simple question. “What does one expect from a particular job opportunity?” 90 per cent of the people seeking jobs expect that it should be a job they like to do, the job should be secured, should give a good status in the society, and one should be able to strike a balance between personal and professional life. Despite having similar expectations from a particular job opportunity, more women (68 per cent) believe that a person’s specific gender is essential to achieve something in life.
Along with this being responsible for all household chores is another obstacle.
More than 6 in 10 working women feel that taking care and managing a family come in the way of their career development.
Impact of covid-19 on the working environment for men and women
The unprecedented pandemic across the world has negatively impacted this situation which is affirmed by 9 in 10 women. The hurdles in the life of women have blown out of proportion due to the same. It has been claimed by many women that the expectation to juggle between work life and home life have created irreparable chaos
Fair Treatment- The idea and expectations
The fact that the government has taken a lot of measures to remove gender disparity is applaudable but where they are lacking behind is the solid implementation of the measure. The equal remuneration act, 1976 is an Act to provide for the payment of equal remuneration to men and women workers and for the prevention of discrimination, on the ground of sex, against women in the matter of employment and for matters connected in addition to that or incidental to that. This act has improved the situation of gender bias all-in-all but still calls for stricter measures to eradicate the problem.
The Linkedin report also states that employed women focus more on the type of employer they are working with in terms of goodwill, name in the market, experience. 1 in 2 women look forward to working with people who can mentor them, guide them in career advancements; 65 per cent of women agree that lack of guidance through networks is a crucial opportunity barrier.
This is possible if we keep working, keep expressing and keep refusing to settle for anything less than what we deserve.
Originally published at https://www.fuzia.com.