How To Combat Gender Discrimination In The Workplace

Regardless of whichever affinity group you belong to, everyone deserves fair and equal treatment at their place of work. As working adults, most of our waking hours are spent at our workplace and you deserve to feel safe while earning to provide for yourself and your loved ones. Companies and managers have the responsibility to make this a reality for their employees.

Unfortunately, this is not always the case. There are many cases of gender discrimination around the world, many of which are borne from ingrained stereotypes of our communities. In order to prevent gender bias in the workplace, there needs to be a conscious effort to improve gender equality measures. To help you and your colleagues address this, our expert team of attorneys that specialize in discrimination cases has compiled a list of tips that you can apply to your best practices at work.

Create Mechanisms to Avoid Unfair Judgment and Biases

Many forms of gender discrimination occur subconsciously when we treat people with assumptions and perceptions that were formed from other circumstances. These can be hard to catch, and even harder to address. The most common process in which gender discrimination occurs is during the hiring process.

One good way to combat this is to employ blind hiring where candidates are evaluated solely based on their qualities and skills without indications of their name, gender, or ethnicity. It is a common phenomenon where hiring managers are more likely to evaluate candidates that are similar to them favorably. Making sure that identifying features are hidden during judgment calls as far as possible ensures that the candidates are then evaluated fairly and without any favoritism.

Similarly, where possible, having double standards should be avoided where possible such as acceptable behavior for both men and women. A common form of gender discrimination also occurs in the form of pregnancy discrimination where women and pregnant individuals are deemed as lesser workers and will not be able to do their jobs as well as non-pregnant individuals.

Lastly, it is just as important to note that men are also capable of facing gender discrimination at work, such as being assigned unfair amounts of menial labor or being deemed as not nurturing enough for certain roles.

Equal Pay for Equal Roles

Gender pay gaps are not as wide as they were decades ago. However, in 2021, women were still estimated to only make 80% of their male counterparts. This is a hugely concerning situation that can affect morale, talent retention, and more. This can be exacerbated by companies where there is a culture or condition of not being transparent about salaries.

One of the best ways to mitigate this is to ensure that everyone with similar roles, responsibilities, or positions should have similar pay. This can be generated by comparison with the non-gender differentiated market competitive wages.

Be Intentional with Business Inclusion

Disparate treatment occurs when unfair actions or measures are taken against a certain affinity group. One common example is when women are excluded from board meetings or executive-level roles. Being intentional with creating inclusive measures and a diverse workforce can help to mitigate this issue.