Gender equality is the primary political goals of the European countries (Conley & Page, 2016). They have been agitating for equal opportunities and treatments since the 1970s. Most of the realms have been striving to ensure that both men and women are given equivalent positions in the European labor markets (Veldhoven & Peccei, 2015). This concern has been stressed as the most crucial core value in the European Union for it to achieve its mission of growth, social interaction and employment strategies. Despite various measures that have been put in place to end this issue of gender inequality in different sectors, there remains segregation in different workplaces. The jobs done by men differ greatly as compared to those done by women across diverse sectors, industries, their occupations and the kind of firms they work in. Mostly, women are involved in low income earning jobs in several countries. Women find themselves so hard to rise to most powerful positions in the labor markets (Seguino, 2017). Even if they happen to work in the same positions as their male counterparts, they are still paid less as compared to men (Peters, 2003). Although the UK government has made tremendous efforts to solve this menace, gender equality is yet to be realized.
Though there is a noteworthy increase in the number of women in the professional life (67% in 2013), lower percentage out of them are working in a managerial position. The male dominates the higher percentage of those holding more senior positions of administrative. Women only occupy about thirty-five percent of those higher ranks while men cover the rest. The majority of them believe that women are not educated to be leaders, so they should not be entrusted to hold more senior positions. The general society too considers women to be weak even in schools. This makes them lack self-confidence in whatever they are tasked. But many women currently desire to rise to become chief executive officers in the future as compared to some years back. This will bring a brighter change as many women are expected to be holding managerial positions in some few years to come. Women are ordinarily believed to be lacking the necessary experience in maintaining administrative positions, lack networks of mentors and are encircled by social prejudices that see them as less suitable to be entrusted in management ranks (Hearn, n.d.).
Gender stereotyping is one of the issues that has led to job segregation. They believe that there are considerable differences between female and male brains that result in inequalities in their careers. That is why most men are considered to be better in technical jobs than women. These kind of jobs is well paying hence women are disadvantaged. Women have been taken as weak, and good at caring roles as well as possessing excellent communication skills. Most women are tasked with household and family duties, having and raising children and workforce reproduction, caring for disabled and older people in the society. As a result, they are not flexible to take any job. They have to look for jobs that will match their skills and other responsibilities. Many consider looking for part time jobs despite the fact that they are low-paying. They hold positions that are typically female and that offer few career opportunities (Sanders and Sanders, 1993).
The position that women play in the society and the family has dramatically affected the role women play in the labor market. Most of the of the employers believe that women are less qualified to embrace different positions than men. At times they prefer women who are unmarried or those without children who can spend enough of their time in the workplace. In other scenarios, employers tend to believe that women happen to show more absenteeism or interrupt their careers (Stein, 2010).
Men typically are aligned with occupations which require high responsibility and productivity level, and they will invest more in their professions than women. Women are more represented in those sectors requiring less human capital investment and productivity. Employers regularly take into consideration several of these factors during recruitment. Hence men are mostly considered in those professions that require higher qualification levels and responsibilities than female counterparts. Women are depicted as less stable to offer them top positions since their careers can be quickly interrupted while bearing children and are also seen as less productive. Men are more flexible than women, and they can work anywhere even far from their families (Schmidtz, n.d.). But the majority of the female employees are confined to working in places not far from their homes.
Horizontal segregation is more prevalent in the United Kingdom as compared to other European nations. Women are more aligned with less paid occupations than men. Men mostly work in more paid and skilled jobs while women are left to take cleaning, cashiering, caring, catering and clerical tasks (Schmidtz, n.d). In these jobs, wages are not pleasing to those in other fields. Women end up receiving less salary, which can at times deny them to save or invest in other businesses. They will still have to depend on their husbands to provide them to meet their basic needs.
As with occupation, men and women tend to work in different fields. Most women tend to work in fields like in health and social work as well as education profession. On the other hand, men are likely to work in sectors like manufacturing, construction, and transport, storage and communication where the salary scale is higher than the other professions. Also, this kind of jobs is on a full-time basis. Women are more likely to work in public service due to the nature of their work, majorly hired by a public employer (Wilford & Miller, 2008).
Although there has been progressing initiative by the local government propagating for equal pay, little has been achieved. This is due to lower representation of females in the public sector. Although women employed are currently more than men, a lower percentage (33%) occupies senior management posts in that same field. This shows an open gender discrimination where women are working under the supervision of men (Gregory, 2003). There is still that culture in place, undermining the capabilities of women to rise to high hierarchical posts. Even though there are fields in which the pay gap favors women, this accounts for a tiny percentage of occupations that exist in the country.
Undervaluation of the women’s work has been seen as another issue that contributes to their low income earning. According to the review that was undertaken by the Women and Work Commission, it established that low expertise jobs are defined based on stereotyping and the real skills that the job considers. “Influence of the prejudices and stereotypes on job evaluation methods serves to reinforce and maintain gender pay disparities … traditional job evaluation methods overlooking or undervaluing important aspects of female jobs” (Chicha, M.-T, International Labour Office, & InFocus Programme on Promoting the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, 2008). The most female-dominated employment sectors are public administration, hotels and restaurants and health. These are the places where we can find most females doing part-time jobs in order to earn their living. Due to less amount of time they spend in the workplace, women find it difficult to obtain the required experience and skills in the job market environment.
The period that women spend in the workplace is also significantly lower than that of men. This also results in the wage gap, primarily when they are working under part-time employment which will reflect the intensity of the job done. Women do a lot of housework which can take part of the time they could be on the job (Siitonen, 2015). In this case, female counterparts end up wasting a lot of time for the unpaid task in a month, which in turn affects the net salary that they receive in the end. The shorter time they spend on workplace also translate to women being in a weaker position to enable them accumulate wealth. When it comes to job promotions, men are favored since women lack good networking to land them there.
Men are customarily rewarded at times for working at specific hours, which is more prevalent to them than their opposite genders due to their higher geographical mobility. At times women cannot compete or negotiate for salary for fear that they will be penalized. This is not the case for men who can bargain and settle even if the job does not require salary negotiation. Women can only negotiate for the salary only if it is well indicated free to do so (Siitonen, 2015). They are also least represented in the high paying and productive sectors, for example, science, technology, and engineering which are mostly occupied by men. Even in entrepreneurship, women are seen not fit to carry on businesses.
Even in the positions of local politics, women are still under-represented. This shows how women are still being discriminated in matters to do with decision making. This is despite the fact that women who have attained higher levels of education have seen a promising improvement. But still the cultural norms entrenched in the cultural values cannot allow them to make significant progress in their endeavors. A lot needs to be done to educate the locals on the essential capabilities, and change women can bring to the betterment of the society. The latest data shows that women hold only about 35% of the posts of the local assemblies in all the European Union members. However, there has been a campaign across the member states to improve on the gender in political positions. The measures that are being put in place will result in more roles women will play in politics in the future (Pascall, 2012). They include raising awareness of gender segregation in the society, the introduction of educational programs in schools that aim at lowering the stereotyping and spreading this information in public and opposing gender inequality across all the employment levels.
Women have achieved a lot in educational opportunities as compared to men, but they continue to hold posts of subordinate staff in academic sectors (Williams & Dellinger, 2015). A higher percentage of professorial roles have been taken over by male individuals. On the salary side, men are well paid as compared to women (European Institute for gender equality (Vilnius), 2012). The salary of female staff was 31,116 Euros as compared to male’s 39,021 Euros. This disparity continues to exist despite the higher number of the female graduates as compared to guys. From the educational background perspective, women have obtained poor education and have been the source of a cheap workforce for so many years than men. This perception has been implanted in the minds of the employers to date. This is why we find that women receive fewer salaries even despite being in the same working level and experience as men.
The United Kingdom has struggled so much to reduce the gender segregation gap, but still, it faces some difficult hurdles to implement it. We see that a higher percentage of women are again being looked down upon in workplaces, even though a majority of them have acquired the necessary education standards (Connolly, 2007). If the steps laid down by the government is implemented soon, we shall witness a more significant number of women climbing the ladder of senior positions as men in a time to come. The current trend in higher education achievements that women have had is appealing. Most of them too are hard working and performers as compared to men working in the same position. Politically, many women are seen aspiring to take over the positions that are currently held by men (Squires, 2007).
References
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