Gender Inequalities and International Comparison of Workplace Policies

Gender Inequality in the Workplace
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Gender Inequality in the Workplace
Introduction
Working parents happen to have the toughest experiences mainly because of the difficulty that comes with juggling home and work responsibilities. Caregiving responsibilities, for example, call for attention and hours that at times encroach into the working hours. Other challenges include low wages, rigid workplace schedules, and expensive child care that greatly impact how working parents manage their time and resources. However, even with these issues above, the world somehow finds a way to champion a society that looks down upon women, especially working mothers. Aside from going through the issues above, working mothers also happen to still struggle with issues like sexism and discrimination. A majority of mothers happen to juggle their paid jobs with their unpaid household work. Some of these mothers have full-time employment but will still be taking care of everyone else at home. To further showcase how disadvantaged they are, their role as mothers happens to infringe on their careers. There have been instances when some women have been denied certain positions because they are mothers. Some employers feel that mothers cannot handle the pressure of some positions, and therefore, give these positions to men who ideally are seen to have lesser responsibilities. To add salt to injury, some women fight to get recognized in their organizations. After breaking the yoke of gender discrimination, they find themselves having to prove themselves worthy immediately after they have children. All of a sudden, a lady who has been delivering on all of her set objectives becomes incompetent because of children. Having fought and still fighting against sexism and gender discrimination, women still find themselves disadvantaged in this patriarchal society that continually sees women as second-fiddle and worse as damaged goods immediately after they have children. Against this backdrop, this paper seeks to discuss gender inequality in the workplace, the workplace policies that impact women and working mothers, and compare U.S. and Sweden workplace policies.
Part 1: Gender Inequality in the Workplace
Sexism, discrimination, and family responsibilities lead to gender inequalities in the workplace.
Despite the many years of fighting against gender inequality, women still find themselves dealing with sexism and gender discrimination in their workplaces. Even though women have proven themselves to be great at what they do, they are still being looked down upon and forced to play second-fiddle. Today, out of the 500 CEO positions of the Fortune 500, only 23 are led by women (Hinchliffe, 2021). The statistics above clearly indicates how women are less trusted than their male counterparts despite having similar or even better qualifications than them in some situations. In the workplace, women have found themselves at the mercy of sexist managers who happen to dictate the trajectory of their careers. Stamarski and Hing (2015) make a notable remark in their study, noting that sexism or gender inequalities start with human resource practices. Here is where all the rules and regulations that pertain to the hiring, training, fir...