Women from various socioeconomic backgrounds face unique challenges. The urban female population has a very different culture and way of life than the rural female population. There are multiple levels at which their issues must be addressed. Urban women are much more independent than rural women in their careers and lifestyle. While the problems faced by women everywhere may be similar, the situational context varies significantly. For urban women, the major problems faced by them are at their workplaces regarding equality and gender bias.
Despite the growing representation of women in leadership roles in fields like politics, science, and business, most women continue to experience bias and discrimination because of their gender. Representation alone does not mean that women are valued for their abilities and contribution to work. Even though the number of women is growing in male-dominated careers, they are still not given positions of power or authority even after gaining merit based on their performance.
A huge issue women face at most workplaces is the wage gap between themselves and their male counterparts. Men and women who hold the same positions in the workplace are offered different salaries, with women usually getting the short end of the stick. There's this belief that men are more capable than women in business matters, therefore deeming them more valuable than female employees. On that note, there has been little change in the pay gap between males and females. In 2002, women earned approximately 80% of what men received for doing the same amount of work. 20 years later in 2022, women still get only approximately 82% of what men earn. Why this differential treatment still exists to this day is hard to understand.
Moving away from the inequality experienced in professional lives, urban women experience gender-related issues in their personal lives as well. Even urban women are constantly under pressure from their families to get married after a certain age. Women who are married and working, are expected to find a balance between household chores and their professional duties.
Women everywhere suffer from a lack of security. As soon as she leaves the safety of her home, she experiences eve-teasing, cat-calling, and other forms of sexual harassment. These occurrences can be subtle or extremely obvious. All of this is something that women face not only in public but also in their workplaces. Male superiors who are managers or higher often use their power to sexually harass or otherwise exploit their female subordinates. Despite women's best attempts to report such incidents to the appropriate authorities, the perpetrators are often allowed to continue unpunished.
Even in this day and age where there is so much focus on women's empowerment and feminism, women are still expected to act in gender-specific roles defined by society. Long-standing patriarchal thought process continues to drive the behaviour of the general public. Because males refuse to see women as equals, employers offer women job roles that they abhor. In contrast, once a woman has entered the working world on equal footing with men, she is expected to abandon her femininity. With more women standing up for better recognition and treatment, change has started to come about but not at a quick pace.
No comments:
Post a Comment