GENDER DISCRIMINATION & HARASSMENT

Young women endure harassment, job insecurity, and low pay compared with male peers.

Is it still a rich man’s world? A report from the United Nations Population Fund, called The State of World Population 2017, found that no country was left untouched by discrimination when it came to women in the workplace.

80 percent of UK women think that gender discrimination occurs in the workplace, and almost a third consider it to be inherent. Four in ten young women (40%) said it was a ‘real struggle’ to make their cash last to the end of the month, compared with 29% of young men.

Investors in People, which works with thousands of businesses nationwide, questioned 1,000 women and 1,000 men online in January and found that 66 percent of all young people claim to have experienced gender discrimination first-hand.

The concluding report showed that across both genders, 73 percent said that they believe gender discrimination at work still exists.

The organisation’s chair, Valerie Todd, said that nearly half of female workers have experienced this sort of discrimination, and it shows that there is still more to be done in those workplaces across the country.

Beyond discrimination, the survey also found that, at 60 percent, the majority of workers said that they would find it unusual for a man to take more than two weeks paternity leave.

In addition to this, the study also found that there are still clear gendered preferences when individuals consider what sector to seek work in. Men are three times more likely to consider a career in manufacturing than women, the report shows that while women are nearly three times more likely to consider careers in the health and social services sector.

Investor in People’s chief executive, Paul Devoy, said that they must bridge the gender gap as soon as possible.

Mr Devoy also said that it was particularly concerning that just 51 percent of workers agree that their workplace has a culture of encouraging gender equality.

To a lot of social and political commentators, most of the issues mentioned above are not serious problems at workplaces. They believe that these issues only come from differences between men and women.

Adapted from The Independent and The Guardian websites