Gender Imbalance and Diversity

Slide Transcript:

Slide One: Gender Imbalance and Diversity

Slide Two: Introduction

• Diversity is a concept that has gained extreme popularity by triggering concrete public debates as it affects almost every aspect of the contemporary society, including individual’s perceptions, behaviors, choices and attitudes.
• According to Kerkhoven et al. (2016), gender imbalance is one of the leading diversity issues that affect society today, which has existed for decades.
• The masculinity culture is particularly dominant, and thus, women are required to work extra hard to reach the set limits of men.
• It is worth recognizing that several strides have been made in covering gender-related gaps within the education system.
• In fact, in the past women were unfairly denied education opportunities, but at the moment, even with the increased enrollment, their capabilities are interpreted discriminatively while compared to those of men. Concerning the issue of gender diversity, it is clear that gender imbalance is highly dominant against the female gender.

Slide Three: Gender Imbalance at its Origin

• Women have always been perceived as the inferior gender based on the differentiated interpretation of their skillfulness and competence across different fields.
• According to Heisook (2015), while education has always been perceived as a tool of promoting social change while creating substantial grounds for a just society, women have historically been subjected to rather intense discriminations.
• Due to issues of religion and culture, particularly in the developing nations, men have been found to discriminate against females, thus denying them opportunities that are likely to equip them with exceptional experience, skills and knowledge.
• The discrimination originated from the prevalence of the assumption that men are well built to handle physically and psychologically challenging tasks when equated to women.
• Since the issue is prevalent, more men are awarded mathematics and industrial related degrees than women each year.
• Gender diversity within the education sector has been a pressing historical issue since initially, and women were denied opportunities for education access. The issue resulted in increased unequal representation and illiteracy among women in both the workplace and education sectors (Klawe, 2011). The subjects that are perceived as weak, such as those relating to humanities and languages are awarded to women while men resist pursuing them to preserve their dominance

Slide Four: Impact on the Society

• The dominance of gender imbalance has detrimental effects on society in general. It is clear that gender inequality weakens individuals and societal abilities to achieve certain goals.
• Unarguably, the main determinants of a country’s wellness are its social and economic stability, which cannot be present in the prevalence of gender inequality.
• One of the main observations is that gender inequality in the education sector promotes violence and discriminative behaviors against women, thus making it rather hard for them to talk about issues relating to power.
• Also, this type of discrimination is one that usually limits access to education by women, thus limiting their skills and competence (Joan, 2018).
• As economic and social development relies on skillfulness, it automatically implies that society is likely to suffer from poverty, which will be passed to other generations.
• Women play a crucial role in promoting social stability, and this might not be achieved in the case that they are denied essential opportunities to advance their skills and competencies.
• In other words, gender imbalance promotes social injustices as women are treated as weak and less critical, while men are left to dominate and promote bad choices due to their gender-related privilege. Furthermore, it is not just about denying them the opportunities to pursue educational advancement, but an educated woman is subjected to low-income access (Klawe, 2011). The implication of such issues means that the affected women are unable to take proper care of their families, including health.

Slide Five: Impact on the Society (cont’d)

• Limiting women to specific gender responsibilities that are attached to less value has been established to be a significant source of mental defects such as depression.
• The affected persons tend to devalue themselves in the quest of trying to reach certain levels leading to mental disorders.
• In turn, both their families and communities are affected as productivity is lost while the financial burden intensifies rapidly, which affects their wellbeing (Joan, 2018).
• Besides, when women are denied participation in economic activities, they tend to rely on the income gain of their husbands or children, which leads to increased dependency equating to poverty.
• The main focus of education is to promote social stability and economic growth.
• It is rather apparent that an equally educated population leads to a desirable economy for the respective society. It is widely noted that the quality of providing education is more critical than quantity. In this case, gender imbalance tends to promote an unsafe learning environment which hinders women from major life-based success due to poor performance (Klawe, 2011).

Slide Six: How Society Impacts Gender Imbalance

• The root source of gender imbalance is society itself.
• For the most prolonged period, society has promoted the norm that men are the superior gender while women are inferior and are not as equipped in terms of competences as men.
• Even though the standard is not grounded on any proven facts, it has for the most extended period dictated how the society functions (Nagaraj, Goh, Cheong, Tey & Jani, 2017).
• Gender roles, as designed by society highlights that, women have the obligation of taking proper care of the households while men participate in economic and decision-making activities.
• This assumption has negative impacts on the wellness of men, which therefore implies that it promotes the continuity of masculinity as a whole.
• By creating the opportunity for such standards to grow, it is evident that society has encouraged the growth of gender inequality in general

Slide Seven: Individual Framework of Perception

• The critical analysis of the issue of gender imbalance has positively informed my framework of perception. Gender inequality is widely perceived to be a minor issue given that its effects are not widely assessed.
• However, following the analysis, it has come to my attention that gender inequality is shaped by societal norms, traditions, culture and norms and adversely affects the society.
• From the analysis, my perception of the world has changed as it has become rather clear that male privilege is dominant, and it continues to disadvantage women across different sectors.
• Studying diversity is critical in highlighting some of the most pressing issues within the profession in the next five or ten years.

Slide Eight: Society

• Studying diversity is essential as it enhances an individual’s capability to engage with society constructively.
• Analyzing the issue of diversity adds value by shaping how I interact with people and at the same time, understand social affairs and events.
• In that, the investigation creates awareness and familiarity about some of the most pressing societal problems and their effects on individual’s behaviors and perceptions towards life (Nagaraj, Goh, Cheong, Tey & Jani, 2017).
• When one understand such issues, it is easier to interact with others in general. For example, I can no longer perceive that men are more competent than females.
• It is without a doubt that this kind of critical analysis is vital for meeting both personal and professional aims.
• In that, I am driven by the need to offer help to those in need, while relying on teamwork.
• Through the analysis, it is clear that the collaboration between men and females is essential as it leads to success and boosts the ability to meet the set objects.
• Teamwork is also crucial in the professional field because it helps in brainstorming and integrating useful skills leading to productivity. Professionals can utilize diversity in addressing their day to day responsibilities by ensuring that they act reasonably and not just an individual’s based on their gender

Slide Nine: Conclusion

• In summing up, diversity is one of the most important subjects today, as it continues to dominate across different aspects of life.
• Diversity is an all rounded concept that is crucial in promoting social and economic wellness.
• The presence of gender inequality is one that fosters instability as it is based on discriminating against females on the assumption that they lack the necessary skills and knowledge to participate in demanding tasks.
• In this context, a critical analysis of the issue leads to an enhanced understanding of how society operates, which leads to the ability to interact with individuals in both professional and personal setting.
• In other words, it creates awareness of the issue and eradicates discrimination, which is vital in minimizing social based assumptions about females and males.

Slide Ten: References

• Heisook, L. (2015, October 1). Why science is gender-biased — and what we can do about it. Elsevier, 5-10. Retrieved from: https://www.elsevier.com/connect/why-science-is-gender-biased-and-what-we-can-do-about-it
• Joan, W. S. (2018). The Persistence of Gender Inequality: How politics constructs gender, and gender constructs politics. Social Science, 50-62. Retrieved from: https://www.ias.edu/ideas/scott-gender-inequality
• Kerkhoven, A. H., Russo, P., Land-Zandstra, A. M., Saxena, A., & Rodenburg, F. J. (2016). Gender stereotypes in science education resources: A visual content analysis. PloS one, 11(11), e0165037.
• Klawe, M. (2011). Increasing the participation of females in computing careers. Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, 27(1), 98-100.
• Nagaraj, S., Goh, K. L., Cheong, K. C., Tey, N. P., & Jani, R. (2017). Gender imbalance in educational attainment and labour market dynamics: Evidence from Malaysia. Malaysian Journal of Economic Studies, 51, 127-145.