Universidad de Monterrey

Should it be allowed a different treatment between men and women in senior management
positions in companies?

Integrative Evaluation
Words: 3336

Monterrey, Nuevo León.

 Gender inequality in senior management positions, such as CEOs, is one of the biggest

problems globally in large companies. Gender inequality in organisations is a complex phenomenon

that can be seen in organisational structures, processes, and practices. This problem hurts the income

of women and men, harming their opportunities and their dignity in their jobs. Having said that,

should it be allowed a different treatment between men and women in senior management positions in

companies?

According to Zhuzwayo (2016), gender inequality is a cause of a social construct where men

predominantly benefit at the expense of women. More specifically, gender inequality in workspaces is

the result of the unacknowledged presence of the masculinist standards making it hard for people to

recognise and identify women's challenges. (Heilman 2000). In big companies CEO´s are an example

of senior management positions and are essential for a company's growth, according to Glick (2011), a

chief executive officer, CEO, is considered to be the organization‘s chief leader and they should be

able to reflect their thoughts and values into an organization.

This dilemma interests me because looking to the future I was thinking about this kind of

problem in society, that even though it is decreasing, it diminishes in an impressive way the

opportunities for women in their work. In the same way, this topic is closely related to my POP, the

business POP, because as part of the company human resources and CEO's are usually the ones who

make these decisions of promotions or hiring new personnel. Business managers and every person in a

company mostly follow a code of professional ethics so they can avoid or take action on problems like

gender inequality, such as: be fair and take action not to discriminate, avoid harm, articulate and

support policies that protect the dignity of users and others affected. These codes are the base of the

regulations each member should follow, and for this to create a good and neutral environment.

As a little background according to Reshi (2020) from many years men have been dominating

the business workforce and women have been the fewer number. This is because our society has

labelled men as “breadwinners” and women as “housewives”. However, in the past years there has

been a different form of seeing women, but in a really slow way. Over the years women are searching

for equal pay, equal treatment, equal representation in leadership, etc. (Carosella, 2020)
 In the actuality, locally speaking in México, according to ONU (2020) women's labor force

participation is far below that of men, women's force participation on average 45% compared to the

77% of the men's participation and because of this Mexico is one of the places where the woman's

labor force is extremely low, even though over the last years the participation force of woman has

increased, the gap between the lack of opportunities and gender descremenation on the business

companies still a big number. Now a days womens in mexico experiment different barriers that

society and the managers of big companies impose over the years, one of the most important barriers

that woman have when trying to find a job is the the need to provide care to their children, Mexico

society has a mentality that woman become “home workers” when having kids, mostly when women

are pregnant they are fired, and this is because labor costs are higher when hiring women. For

example, Camila Ferrari testimony job discrimination in her workplace, she said “The director told me

they were looking for a man because the last three female employees had become pregnant.”

In addition, globally speaking in Western Asia the labor market is characterized by very low

levels of female labor force participation and female employment rates and relatively high female

unemployment rates. In Turkey, despite that the Article 5 of their constitution states that “There

cannot be any discrimination based on language, ethnicity, gender, political alignment, philosophical

ideology, religious beliefs and anything else similar in the work environment.” Only 22.8 % of women

in Turkey currently work and three out of four women are out of the labour market. In Western Asia,

although women's participation rate has increased over the last decade, according to Mine

Durman-Aslan (2020) only 31.5 percent of women participate in the labor market compared to 71.6

percent of men. Women experience barriers when asking for jobs or wanting to be promoted. As in

Mexico, a barrier to women’s access to the labour force is the traditional family values which

stereotypes men as the breadwinner and the women as the homemaker. Also, the lack of education and

their responsibilities at home for children and elderly care. In addition, specifically in their culture it

has been seen that when a woman is married, the choice of working or staying home is controlled by

their husbands.

This problem has relevance in our environment and in our future, since not having gender

inequality in companies normally affects the economy of our country in the long term. According to
studies, having gender equity, based on equal pay and opportunities for all, will increase the country's

economic status. (Carosella, 2020)

Now, what are the perspectives and stances of this dilemma? Should it be allowed a different

treatment between men and women in senior management positions in companies? According to a

Hardvar business review they establish one of the most common companies' perspectives: “high-level

jobs require extremely long hours, and women’s devotion to family makes it impossible for them to

put in those hours, and their careers suffer as a result.” In the same study we see the opinion of a men

worker in a company that says: “Women are going to have kids and not want to work, or they are

going to have kids and might want to work but won’t want to travel every week and live the lifestyle

that consulting requires, of 60- or 70-hour weeks.” (Ely & Padavic ,2020) On the other hand, the

Principle of Equal Treatment states that “all people have the right to receive the same treatment and

not to be discriminated regardless of a worker’s position, age, disability, sex, race and religion.”

(Isbilir & Gül, 2020)

With this essay my objective is to inform people about the problem of gender inequality in

companies, I will rely on books and articles such as “An approach to addressing gender inequality in

the workplace.” by Khuzwayo's, as well as studies from Harvard and other universities. These books

and studies are relevant to gather information for this problem in order to present actual numbers and

data. During this process, there have been limitations such as not having much updated data of the last

year given by the pandemic since there was a stoppage in the companies and the unemployment was

massive and general due to the lack of money the pandemic stoppage caused. Likewise, the references

used are impartial since they present perspectives of different positions and opinions of different

people with different social status, jobs and places. The methodology used in this research is to gather

information by asking several questions in an interview to a person that is specialized in this topic.

Having stabish how this affects locally and globally around the world and the perspectives on

this issue I will start to analyse this.

First of all, legally speaking, in all parts of the world there is a law by the government that

establishes gender equity. For example, In Mexico, the Federal Labor Law establishes in Article 56

that "Working conditions based on the principle of substantive equality between women and men must
be proportional to the importance of the services and equal for equal work without differences and/or

exclusions based on ethnic origin or nationality, sex, gender, age, disability, social condition, health

conditions, religion, opinions, sexual preferences, pregnancy conditions, family responsibilities or

marital status, except for the modalities expressly set forth in this Law." (H. Congress of the Union,

2015) Another case is un USA, the U.S. Departement of Labor (2021) declares that the “Equal

Employment Opportunity (EEO) laws prohibit specific types of job discrimination in certain

workplaces.” Also in the U.S. According to the Federal Trade Comission (2021) the title VII of the

Civil Rights Act of 1964 “protects employees and job applicants from employment discrimination

based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.” On last case is the Turkish law, the Principle of

Equal Treatment states that “all people have the right to receive the same treatment and not to be

discriminated regardless of a worker’s position, age, disability, sex, race and religion.” (Isbilir & Gül,

2020) So, according to the law there should be no discrimination or different treatment based on the

employee's gender. In most cases if these laws are not complied with they can see huge fines or even

consequences such as dismissal or closure, depending on the degree.

However, even though these laws are established and it is supposed to be a punishment if it's

not accomplished, in actuality these laws are not in practice. Nowadays workers, managers and CEOs

are feeling free to discriminate because all the laws are not being enforced. According to Baska

(2019) said that individuals were facing discrimination because “employers and service providers are

not afraid to discriminate, knowing that they are unlikely to be held to account”. This happens because

yes, the law established laws of equality in labor and all what it corresponds to, but they are not acting

within. This is why Beska (2019) also says “Human Resources needs to work with business leaders

and employees to establish robust policies to counter any potential discrimination at work”, if human

resources should be very strict and with a very firm position over the unfairnes off descrimination on

teartment between men and woman this cases shouldn´t happen.

In conclusion, laws actually protect the equality of the womens and mens in their labor but

these same laws are not being enforced making employers and directors feeling free to discriminate

without consequences.
 Secondly, society says that women can't have a working-lifestyle because of their families.

Our society believes that a woman doesn't have enough time to be in a high position management

level because of the care they give to their childes, that's why they have special treatment when

promoting employees and while contracting them. For example, according to a Harvard business

review a men CEO says “women are going to have kids and not want to work, or they are going to

have kids and might want to work but won’t want to travel every week and live the lifestyle that

consulting requires, of 60- or 70-hour weeks.” (Ely & Padavic ,2020). Suma Gowda a CVCheck

Client Service Officer says that “when the office management is very rigid with their rules and

regulations and are not flexible enough to adjust to your family situation then that becomes difficult

for women” (CVC, 2020) Melinda Tyro, CVCheck’s Enterprise Sales Manage says that “our life is

segmented, with each segment belonging to other people. It belongs to our children, our partners, our

friends, and our employers.”(CVC, 2020) Now a days, society is a pressure in womens and in their

working-life, normally know a days society are the one that establish the stereotypes that a woman

need to be in the house or that if they work they need to be the best in the work and the best in the

house.

On the contrary, nowadays there are articles, studies and more that declare that a woman can

have a life balance and have a care of her family and their work. Organizations instead of having the

mentality that if a woman has a family can't be promoted or they can't be in the job, they should help

them to have a life-balance, so they can have the same opportunities, take advantage of them and still

be there for their family. According to CVC (2020) organizations can offer flexibility, for example a

female employee with a toddler will have a different schedule than one with a teenager. Also, don't

penalise parenthood, they should attract top talent with leading-edge return-to-work programs,

generous parental leave and subsidised childcare. Not living a side that they are single women that

want to get more opportunities and promotions but organizations and society generalice over the

stereotypes already mentioned, single women or moms should not be penalized and discriminated

against in their workplace only because they are womens.

 In conclusion, society and organizations think women can't dedicate time to their job if they

have family but on the contrary organizations should help by adjusting some rules so women can have

a life-balance.

Finally, when women have a different treatment in their workplace than men their economy is

directly affected. This is because of the difference in salaries, as previously mentioned the law

establishes that a man and woman should have the same salary, but although this is established

organizations don't follow it very well. According to Sheth, Hoff, Ward & Tyson (2021) in the US

“year-round employees women are paid 17.7% less than men, earning $10,157 less than

men.”Another case of high gender gaps is Yemen with the highest gender gap where women on

average earn 75 cents for every dollar a man earns, followed by Pakistan, Iraq, and Syria with almost

the same numbers. (Quek, 2018). Pay inequality can create some consequences for women and for the

entire population. This inequality can reduce the professional opportunities available to the most

disadvantaged groups in society and therefore decrease social mobility, limiting the economy's growth

potential, also talking about possible economic growth according to Milli (2017) “if women received

equal pay with comparable men, poverty for working women would be reduced by half”.

On the contrary, there are places around the world where the difference between men's and

women's salaries is not as noticeable or has been able to balance out over time. According to US

News (2019) one of the places where the gender pay gap is smaller is in California where a woman

earns 88 cents when a man earns 1 dollar. Another case is New York, which over time has

implemented extremely strict laws for gender discrimination in terms of pay gap in organizations.

These two places, and others like Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Finland that have the lowest gender

pay gap are proof that it is possible to reduce the gender pay gap in organizations with a good system

of laws, a good culture of society and awareness of the managers and leaders of the same

organizations. Also if we can notice. Also, if we take into account these places previously mentioned,

they are places with good economies, very developed and very famous for their jobs, life

opportunities, etc.

In conclusion, this is proof that the gender pay gap can affect the lifestyle of people living in a

certain place and how the development of the economy and people is also affected.
 With this, we can also analyse and compare and contrast the authors that I establish to analyse

this issue, their different perspectives, contexts, etc. for example in the case of the perspectives, I

chose two principal authors Ely & Padavic and Isbilir & Gül. In this case both authors talk and make

an investigation about the problems of equality in big corporations. But even though they both talk

about the same issue, they present different stances about the topic, Ely & Padavic state that “Women

are going to have kids and not want to work, or they are going to have kids and might want to work

but won’t want to travel every week and live the lifestyle that consulting requires, of 60- or 70-hour

weeks.” and Isbilir & Gül state that every copany should accomplish the Principle of Equal Treatment

that state that “all people have the right to receive the same treatment and not to be discriminated

regardless of a worker’s position, age, disability, sex, race and religion.”

In the case of the first argument, talking about the law I take in consideration some important

authors and governmental corporations, The Federal Trade Commission, H. Congress of Union and

the U.S. Department of labor, this 3 governmental corporations have a similarity on their declarations

speaking about the law for equal treatment on the oeganizacion, all of this cooporations specify the

legal rejection to all the types of discrimination and racism in jobs. But, in difference, the other

authors say “employers and service providers are not afraid to discriminate, knowing that they are

unlikely to be held to account”. In comparison with the other authors, Berska has a different opinion

about the law, he establishes that the law is but is not accomplished and it is not regulated.

In my second argument talking about my society's stereotypes towards a woman's working

life we can see how the authors Ely & Padavic state that organizations do not give the necessary

flexibility to a woman, and that a woman cannot have a good balance between her family and work

and that is why the difference in treatment towards them, however the CVC organization states that a

woman can have a balance in her work and personal life, but that organizations should have openness

and flexibility towards them. These two authors have in common that they admit and agree that a

woman has more "responsibilities" for their children such as going to leave them at school, sports

classes, etc.

In my third argument we can compare author Milli and US News, both agree that the wage

gap affects the economy of countries and women. However, Milli focuses on the countries with the
highest wage gap, so his data are larger and more surprising, while the US News study uses countries

with the lowest wage gap, so what he says is not so noticeable or may seem little difference and the

effects of this.

To finalize my analysis, I interviewed Brenda Galvan. In this interview I concluded that the

gender gap has decreased over time due to female empowerment, however, there are still different

obstacles. One of them is the law, the law does protect and is against gender discrimination in the

organizations, however, they do not have a consequence to people who do not fullfill it. Another

obstacle that women face is society since most people see them as housewives and therefore believe

them to be less capable or take them less into account when hiring and job opportunities. Also,

maternity obstructs many companies from hiring women which makes it difficult for many women

who want to work and support their families to do so. The obstacles for women are the most

notorious, but the interviewer also mentioned one for men, paternity should also be given the same

treatment to both at the moment the couple decides to have a child.

In conclusion, first to summarize the above information we can say that around the world

there is a difference in how women are treated as opposed to men in organizations and this is affected

by the lack of pressure on the law and lack of consequences to break it, the thought of society to see

the woman as a housewife, the different salary affecting the economy of women and their families and

the whole country. So, should it be allowed a different treatment between men and women in senior

management positions in companies? With the previous analysis we can conclude that no, it should

not be allowed, since this problem not only affects women but in the long term affects the whole

society and the economy of the world, changes must be made in the law and in the organizational

culture of the organizations. In my opinion, it is necessary that there is a change in this issue because

even though this is in decline it continues to happen, and even worse, neither the law nor the

organizations do anything about it. This is why the different treatment between men and women in

sentir management positions shouldn be allowed.

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I hereby affirm that I have done this activity with academic integrity.
SARA MAYELA CANTÚ GALVÁN