Free Essay Sample: Gender Diversity at Workplace

The article Long Road Remains to Gender Equality in Business, Executives Say written by Rachel Feintzeig and Christina Rexrode is a probe to understanding the extent to which gender equality has been adopted in the business sector. According to Feintzeig and Rexrode, PepsiCo Inc., Facebook Inc. top executives and American corporations are far from achieving gender equality at the workplace. Besides, they further state that there are several challenges faced by women that hamper their attempt to rise in the career ladder. For instance, Views aired by the top executives in the meeting point out several barriers towards achieving gender equality in American corporations (Feintzeig and Rexrode 5). This paper seeks to analyze the views of employers towards women holding executive company positions. It also explains some of the barriers to successful implementation of the gender equality in American corporations

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Feintzeig and Rexrode state that one of the major challenge facing women involves striking a balance between family responsibilities and work. Also, it becomes a problem to assist fellow women in the workplace achieve the work-family balance. Coincidentally, both women and men are comfortable working with men as top position holders as compared to women. The preference is as a result of their ability to channel all energy into work. They have few family demands such as cooking, washing, and other duties. After all, female rush home after working hours to ensure all chores are in order (Feintzeig and Rexrode 5).

Gender equality at the work place is still a mirage. While admitting that women are yet to reach where men have reached, top executives from PepsiCo Inc. and Facebook Inc. state that there is still a lot that ought to be done if women have to be equal to men in top American corporations. It is believed that deep-seated biases by men and women form the obstacle that limits the ability of women to achieve success. Sheryl Sandberg explains that for women executives to reach the same level as men there has to be a free environment that presents equal opportunities for all. While addressing an audience that included her parents, Ms. Sandberg said, Companies say that diversity is important, that they want more women in leadership. Our employees dont believe thats true, (Feintzeig and Rexrode 5).

According to Feintzeig and Rexrode, the dual responsibility for women both at home at work is a deterrent to their progress. Research has established that women struggle a lot to reach certain heights of leadership. In an interview with the executives of salesforce.com Inc, the bank of America Corp. and PepsiCo Inc. there is agreement that blending family responsibilities and work is no mean task. The CEO of Pepsi was surprised when her kids expressed willingness to sacrifice career for family. The children exclaimed, We grew up with a mom who was never there.Women still have a lot of baggage from family responsibilities irrespective of their positions at work (5).

Some women are career oriented. Marc Benioff, the CEO of Saleforce.com said that not all women have similar views on motherhood. According to him, There are many different types of women, and you better be ready to include them all.Besides, some executives expressed their dissatisfaction with the discussion since not much had been achieved from the previous debates. To them, this amounted to time wasting. He further expresses his pessimism to the matter of having more women climb the career ladder. In response to a research that revealed that, only 15% of executives in 26 companies dealing in technology comprised of women Benioff states I think its actually much worse than what the research showed, (Feintzeig and Rexrode 6).

On the other hand, when the global managing director of McKinsey & Co., Dominic Barton announced that he was planning to make women a priority in the company, very few believed him. Besides, women appeared to oppose that kind of move. They said, If you make it easier for us, we will kick your ass, thats not the way were going to do it, that will not help us long term. (Feintzeig and Rexrode 6).

According to Tinsley, Cheldelin, Schneider, and Amanatullah, tackling gender inequality is also the right thing to do, as inequality increases womens vulnerability to poverty and suffering (3). Also, Women not only constitute the vast majority of the world's poor, but they are at a higher risk of poverty compared to men, (Mann 6).

In conclusion, it is important for employers to include women in the workplace, however, different they are. Also, companies ought to shun the idea of choosing between family and work. Both are important and to assist female employees achieve their best; it is vital for the corporation to implement training sessions on how to create a balance between the two. Besides, women in business ought to receive equal treatment as their male counterparts during when striking business deals. Provided they are capable and possess the required qualifications to undertake a project, gender should never act as a reason as to why women lose jobs.

Works Cited

Feintzeig, Rachel, and Christina Rexrode. "Long Road Remains to Gender Equality in Business, Executives Say." THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (n.d.): n. pag. Web. 30 Sept. 2015.

Mann, Barbara J. "1999 World Survey on the Role of Women in Development: Globalization, Gender and Work." Journal of Government Information (2001): n. pag. Print.

Tinsley, Catherine H., Sandra I. Cheldelin, Andrea K. Schneider, and Emily T. Amanatullah. "Negotiating Your Public Identity: Women's Path to Power." (0): Print.