OUMH 2203

ENGLISH FOR WORKPLACE COMMUNICATION

SEMESTER JANUARY / 2019

MATRICULATION NO : 970909136530001

IDENTITY CARD NO. : 970909-13-6530

TELEPHONE NO. : 0109678697

E-MAIL : lynneazleen@gmail

LEARNING CENTRE : Kuching Learning Centre

 A Report on Gender Inequality at the Workplace

1.0 Introduction
1.1 Background
Gender equality is a political concept that emphasises equality between genders.
Gender equality is typically defined as men and woman enjoying the same
opportunities, rights and responsibilities within all areas of life. According to
Cambridge Dictionary, gender equality does not imply that women and men are the
same, but that they have equal value and should be accorded equal treatment. Gender
equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a
peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world. The gender equality can be found at
workplace, school and society.

The gender equality can be achieved at the workplace when people are able to
access and enjoy the same reward, resources and opportunities regardless of gender.
Gender equality might mean that woman and men should be treated equally or
differently. For example, it may imply that woman and men should be paid the same
for doing the same work. At the workplace, the employer should treat the employee
equally and do not treat the employee according to their gender .The gender equality
at the workplace is important to make sure the employees are comfort with the work
environment.

However, gender inequality also happened at the workplace and it is happen

when one of the gender faced the gender bias. In the workplace, it is common for
most women to face some form of gender bias. This gender bias is unfair and
ultimately detrimental to overall corporate performance as well.

1.2 Purpose on Gender Inequality

I agree with the statement that gender inequality does exist in the workplace.
This is because the company that do the manufacturing usually prefer male workers
than female workers. I have visited one of the company at Kuching that do the
 manufacturing. That’s company had 300 male workers and 100 female workers per
shift. This company have divided into 3 department which is production department,
quality department and packaging department. From my experience visiting this
company, it is obvious that the male workers is more than the female. The female
workers were more at the quality department because it does not need much energy.
From the visited, I can conclude that the gender inequality at the workplace does
exist.

The purpose of this report was to identify some possible cause of this problem
and provide suggestion to overcome this problem.

2.0 Workplace Gender Inequality

Gender inequality is a type of sex discrimination. It will result a particular individual

being treated disadvantageously because of their gender. This is something that has
plagued woman in the workplace for a long time and still persists all the leaps and bounds
women’s right movement have made. In the workplace, it is common for most women to
encounter some form of gender bias. For example, women get paid lower than men but
their doing the same work. There are many companies make pointed efforts to encourage
diversity and equality but none of that changes a simple fact that women still get lower
paying position and consistently earn less than their male counterparts. When hiring
decisions or decisions related promotion or continued employment are based in an
employee’s gender, then they are being treated unequally and unfairly.

2.1 Causes Of The Gender Inequality

There are many causes of gender inequality. Among them are persisting gender
bias, salary and qualification.

2.1.1 Persisting Gender Bias

Many workplace prefer male employee than female employee. This is
because there are employers who consider women to be weaker than men. This
situation is usually in the workplace that requires a lot of energy such as labor
jobs and factory. According to Winnie Simun (2017), in 2008 the average
female participation as a labor force in Malaysia a decrease of 0.7% of the
amount recorded in the previous year. The table below shows the average labor
participation in Malaysia based on gender from 1970 to 2000.

Year 1970 1980 1991 1995 2000 2009

Labor Participation Statement (%)
Male 79.3 84.8 85.3 84.3 83.3 78.9
Female 37.2 42.2 47.8 44.7 46.7 46.4
Source: Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development
(2003; 2007; 2010)

The participation of women in the employment sector has led to gender

discrimination leading to gender division of employment. According to the type
of work performed by women in comparison with males in Malaysia, generally
most woman engage in clerical and related, professional, services and sales.
According to the Statistic Department of Malaysia 1991, it was found that only
a few women who hold position in architect, engineer, technologist, etc.

This division of work is due to the attitude of employers who often

associate gender with the type of work where women are more focused on jobs
that are more relevant to the characteristics of women. For example, nurse jobs
become occupations dominated by women because this work is said to be very
relevant to the characteristic of women such as caring and gentleness. Compared
with male workers, male are more likely to dominate rugged and skilled jobs
such as architects and engineers. Besides, the privileges of men in the division
of labor enable them to hold a higher position in employment despite the fact
that the quality of their education and work experience is similar to what woman
have.

Overall, most jobs are dominated by men. Men are more likely to
choose high- ranking jobs than women who are still concentrated on “tradition”
jobs.
2.1.2 Salary

Wage discrimination issues involving gender differentials often occur in

developing country industries. Issues of discrimination on wages based on
gender differences occur in any industry. Gender-based wage discrimination
occurs when women laborers are paid less than wages given to male labor
while these two gender work similarly with the same level of education work
experience. There are thousands of studies prove that women are paid less than
men regardless of race and ethnic group. For example, according to Denny and
Harmon (2000) studies shows male workers are paid much higher wages than
women. Most of the empirical studies outside country and in Malaysia itself
supports that there is discrimination in the labor market based to the large
percentage of the differences in wages of the sex cannot be explained by
individual characteristics. This phenomenon leads to discrimination to women
who subsequently cause women to hold low-status jobs.

According to Azizan Morshidi (2017), gender wage differences can be

explained through neoclassical theory. According to this theory, wages of
workers are determined by their productivity suit and women are considered to
have low productivity over men as they are more focused on certain jobs and
have lower human capital. There is also another theory that supports gender
differentials is the dual labor market theory. According to this theory, the labor
market can be divided into two categories that is the primary labor market and
the secondary labor market. Primary labor is more organized and systematic
but the tendency of women is in the secondary labor market category as they
have low skills.

According to the National Employment Report (Ministry of Human

Resources, 2008), the average wage for female workers was lower at RM1,239
compared to male workers’ wages of RM 1,473. A case study was conducted
on the difference in wages between male and female employees in the private
ICT sector in Malaysia. Based on this study, it is found that the ICT sector is
the sector that records the lowest wage rate difference between the sexes in
which female workers in this sector receive wages of almost 87% of the
 average male wage. The average total wage for this sector is RM 3.22986 per
month.

Rahman Talib’s report also shows clearly the discrimination and

injustice of gender, especially on the scale of salaries and other benefits. The
difference in wages between female teachers and male teachers in Primary
School according to Rahman Talib Report is explained in the table below.

Salary per month Salary per month

First year Year 15
Male teacher 165 385
Female teacher 150 275
Source: Modified by Rahman Talib Report and WTU Memorandum
entitiled “ The status of Women Teachers in the Federation of Malaya”

Gender differences have led to wage discrimination in which women

tend to receive low wages. In addition, the increasing labor force in the
marketplace has led employers to prioritize men’s labor welfare as compared
to women laborers.

2.1.3 Qualification

Worker’s eligibility is also the cause of gender inequality. In general,

most women engage in clerical and related, professional, service and sales.
Not many women who hold office position as architects, engineers,
technologist, etc. This is the reason why employers do not take women
workers.

During study, most women didn’t take course such as engineering,

architect and so on. Most of the women take diploma in commerce. For
example, in Polytechnic most of women take diploma in commerce compared
to men who take mostly take engineering courses. This is the reason why
 gender inequality happened in some workplace. The table below show
statistics of diploma program enrolment in Polytechnics.
Diploma program 7nrolment in polytechnic session Januari 2010 (Depatment
of Polytechnic Studies, KPTM, 2010)

From the table above shows that most of men take engineering course
compare to women. Lack of female gender in workplace such as
manufacturing is because most women didn’t take engineering course when
study. This situation can cause gender inequality happened in workplace when
a job needed employee that proficient in the field of work.

2.2 Suggestion To Improve Gender Inequality In The Workplace

Having gender equality is an important issues for women and it is also

directly related to the overall economic performance of corporations and in
general, the whole country. In overcoming the issues of gender inequality in the
workplace, companies should strive to provide the same outcomes and privileges
irrespective of gender, men and woman alike. Some of the features of this include
equal pay for the jobs or roles which are the same and no barriers for women to
participate fully in the workplace.

Suggestion to achieve gender equality in the workplace are changing

the stereotypical attitude toward women and remove the gender pay gap.
2.2.1 Changing The Stereotypical Attitude Toward Women

It is important to implement policies aimed at changing the

stereotypical attitude toward women at work, discussing internal factors
including sector and job segregation, as well as lack of education and training.
The government should take legislative, administrative and financial measures
to provide a strong environment and support the involvement and business of
women in the labor market, including improving the working conditions;
provide opportunities for career advancement; eliminating income gap based on
gender and providing quality, safe and capable child care services.

Another step forward in ensuring the rights of women, the greater

transparency of the public and the balance of the economy is through the use of
provisions as response to gender. The provisions initiative that aimed at getting
rid of gender-specific injustice into national processes, districts and
communities may cover the whole or part of it.

2.2.2 Remove The Gender Pay Gap

In order to promote female equality in the workplace, it is must first begin with
equal pay. The gender gap continued if a culture of secrecy is encouraged
within a company. A new culture of transparency need to be introduces which
challenges a company to investigate the pay gap between women and men.
Candidates’ last job pay must not be taken into a yardstick to determine the
salary of their current job. Employer must paying employees fairly and equally
based on their experience level, not on their gender .
3.0 Conclusion

For the conclusion, gender inequality is a problem that many women face in the
workplace such as persisting gender bias, different salary between men and women and
qualification. There are employers who still think women are weak and unqualified in
work. This will causes gender inequality in workplace. This problem should be resolved
in order to achieve gender equality in the workplace. The suggestion that are given to
improve this problem is changing the stereotypical attitude toward women and remove
the gender pay gap. The best way to eradicate this problem is to increase awareness about
the existence of gender inequality in order to dispel any lingering gender biases in
workplace which may exist. The effort that made by all parties to solve this problem is
important in ensuring productivity production is in line with country’s development
whisch is requires a lot of workforce.

(2070 words)
REFERENCE

GENDER EQUALITY | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary. Retrieved from

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/gender-equality

Gender equality and women's empowerment. Retrieved from

https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/gender-equality/

Gender Equality. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.includegender.org/facts/gender-

equality/

Gender Inequality in The Workplace. Retrieved from

http://www.excite.com/education/blog/gender-inequality-in-the-workplace

Kesaksamaan di dalam pekerjaan.. Retrieved from

https://www.unicef.org/malaysia/msl/support_6114.html

Council, F. C. (2016, April 08). 13 Ideas To Promote Female Equality In The

Workplace. Retrieved from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2016/04/08/13-ideas-to-
promote-female-equality-in-the-workplace/#4c6d47943f14

W. S., & A. M. (2017, March). Diskriminasi wanita dalam sektor pekerjaan. Retrieved
March 13, 2019, from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315457238_DISKRIMINASI_WANIT
A_DALAM_SEKTOR_PEKERJAAN

E. A., & S. I. (2011, January). Kemahiran hands-on pelajar wanita bidang kejuruteraan
elektrik di politeknik Malaysia. Retrieved March 13, 2019, from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277770666_Kemahiran_hands-
on_pelajar_wanita_bidang_kejuruteraan_elektrik_di_politeknik_Malaysia

5 Things Employers Can Do To Improve Gender Equality In The Workplace. Retrieved

from https://www.nextgeneration.ie/blog/2018/04/workplace-gender-equality