It turns out that gender discrimination in the workplace is even more harmful that previously thought. The ways in which women are discriminated against in professional settings in Rhode Island and around the country have insidious effects, causing the abilities of women to be wrongfully called into question.
It is true that it’s not just women who are impacted by these inequalities. According to a report that the Academy of Management Journal has published, both men and women experience a reduction in their sense of belonging when the place where they work discriminates based on gender.
But it is with women in particular that their own sense of self-efficacy has been shown to decrease due to this longstanding trend of workplace discrimination. This means that women affected by such discrimination have a lessened belief in their own abilities, thus further perpetuating the beliefs that are ingrained in these types of prejudices.
Men are still making most of the decisions
With a still largely male-dominated executive suite at most companies, it’s all too easy for the patriarchy to guide all the decisions made from the top. Unfortunately, what this means is that outdated and downright incorrect assumptions about gender are directly influencing company policies.
This patriarchal influence can be subtle and hard to trace, while other times it is as blatant as telling an employee to her face that she’s unable to handle the same type of tasks her male colleagues are. Even offhand comments from coworkers involving things like sexist humor have much deeper psychological effects than most people realize.
Women have been dealing with adversity in numerous forms and in just about every imaginable setting. With the new information that clearly shows how gender discrimination in the workplace has a very real effect on women’s own belief in themselves, one can only hope that we will move even further as a society away from this detrimental behavior.