Reflective Essay On Gendered Workplace Environment

Question

Task:
Your Task Write a self-reflection of about 2000 words. It will have two components:

1. Self-reflect on your Weekly case study project workshop on gendered workplace environment.
2. Self-reflect on the subject in total and how you have related to its content.

Answer

Introduction
The workplace environment sometimes appears to be an inhospitable place for any individual because of several factors of gender inequalities in the working environment. Gender inequality in a working place is a complex circumstance that appears in organizational structure, process, and working culture. Gendered work environments define the results of the organizational processes where work is properly defined, organized, and divided among the individual keeping the value and relationship between every gender. The essay reflects the whole context of my team’s 12-week project work. The way we approach the topic and the process in which we become successful in completing the task has been reflected. It discussed the project's outcomes and my contribution to making this project successful. The use of Bronfenbrenner’s theory has been discussed to show the societal events that can be created to give success to a person has been discussed below. At last but not least my opinion on the topic of the project has been analysed discussing how the workplace has been affected over the trimester.

Self-reflect on your Weekly case study project workshop
Gender equality in the workplace aims to provide equal opportunities for both men and women. Equality in a workplace will be attained when every individual gets access to equal opportunity, rewards, and resources irrespective of their gender. Although the world is changing and each individual is getting a chance to prove themselves but there is still some base in several countries where the workplace is still prevalent. The law chosen was “Sexual harassment law” we thought that in most of the workplaces women are sexually harassed in almost every country (France 24, 2012). Our team thought to address this law because this law was proposed to create a positive environment in a workplace. According to this law, people are not allowed to have a sexual connotation, create humiliating nature, or develops offensive situations. The decision of choosing this law by our team was what I think is appropriate in this current situation. We thought this law will be targeting both men and women who do such actions and makes another individual insecure in a working environment. Our team was aware of the #MeToo movement across the globe and hence choosing this law will be most appropriate to discuss in terms of gender equality.

Since there was a time where women and girls from different countries were coming forward to make people realize what they have been through. The shocking part was those women were from different professions which indicates that there is still inequality in every work profession. Hence introducing this above-mentioned law by our team was perfect for the ongoing situation. On the other hand “Equity in law for women and girls by 2030” that we choose for the week, 12 team project was another hope for women. It was introduced by UN Women in the year 2019 and it ensures providing women with legal protection in every possible situation (UN Women, 2019). We believed that this law will address some major issues that women are facing nowadays. The case study was taken by the team of inequality in sports wherein a junior surfing event a female competitor was paid half of what a male counterpart got as his prize money in 2018. The law will address gender pay gap for women getting half of what men are getting. The law mentioned above will help the female competitor to come against the dominating societies. The way she used to get paid will be changed since the law ensures women's protection in many other fields. Factors such as inclusive reforms, economic empowerment of women, rights of nationality, inequitable rape laws, etc. in more than 100 countries addressing legal needs for women and girls more than 50 million will be addressed.

The law will encourage the colleagues and her friends since it will motivate them to work because of equal opportunity. Believing equal rewards among both males and females in a workplace encourages them to work harder in the future (Marie et.al. 2021). A person feels demotivated when their work is not recognized and appreciated hence equity law will empower that person that is not willing to work because of inequality. Also, the fairness that will create after the implementation of equity law will boost the efforts of her colleagues. A dynamic culture set by equity law will strengthen the victim as well as her colleagues.

In most countries, women are not allowed to work since there are multiple inequalities in the workplace. Women face sexual harassment, gender pay gap, etc. for which some of the families don’t allow them to work. Being women they are not being treated equally as mentioned in the case study. With such incident, her family will not allow her to work where she is not treated as equal to men. But with equity law, her home life will work smoothly, where her family members will allow her to work in such places. A supportive environment will create which strengths her vision and she will focus to do lot more in the future.

According to Bronfenbrenner’s theory, the development of a person depends and gets affected by the surrounding environment they interact with. Human development becomes more complex when there is a rise in both physical and mental maturity occurs. Five different levels of this theory divide and shows different person’s environments (Oliva-Guy, 2029). The environment where people who have direct contact with an individual is known as microsystem such as, family, classmates, colleagues, friends, etc. According to this theory we not just received the experience but each one of us contributes to creating such collaborative environments. Just like the theory states that a person gets influenced by their environment likewise, it will influence her. The influence can be negative as well as positive depends on the situation and the environment. The family appears to be a backbone to achieve success in its career. They influenced each other and motivates each other creating a healthy environment where one can learn things from another individual. The relationship that has been created around the social events has enhanced and developed the way a person used to approach things. Overall the family, colleagues, and friends will lead a person to achieve success.

Gender equality is a huge issue that has been faced by people all over the world, the way that women are treated in comparison to men is unacceptable since these several years. Although, the changing world and changing thought processes of people have been resulting in a change in gender equality. However, the scenario has not changed drastically, but it’s in the process of evolution. There was a time where women are not allowed to be part of games but now there are several opportunities for women to be involved in such activities. According to World Surf League (2018), there will be equal pay for all surfers both men and women. These steps have created huge respect and payback for women who work equally hard like men. The way the world is approaching women in every single field is just good to feel and hear about.

The workshops were successful after a long journey of group activities. We as a team worked very hard to complete the workshop, but there is room for improvements where we need to focus and work harder to accomplish such projects in the future. While working together some of them were interacting for the first time but each member did their best to make this project a huge success (Guidant Global, 2019). Despite our success, there are certain things we need to keep in mind for the future. Since there was less time for us to be prepared for the project we were not being able to come up with perfect communication ideas or strategies in our work. The level of communication was not to the point that needs to be. The project was successful but it would have been more perfect if we would be able to adopt a proper communication strategy. Hence, in our group, there is a place for communication improvement which can be done by following several strategies. With the developing digital world, there are numerous platforms for communication that can be utilized by our team in our upcoming teamwork. With such an effective method we will be able to encourage and motivate each other in developing our critical understanding. All this will happen only if we will be able to communicate and plan our projects appropriately.

Self-reflect on the subject in total and how you have related to its content
I was very excited before starting the project since I am fond of doing group activities. I believe that these kinds of activities pump up one’s capabilities so as mine. The encouragement and support that I got from my teammates add value to my work. Also, I was quite active in my team with which I was able to communicate with more team members than some other members. I believe that I have contributed enough amount of my findings and analysis to my team members. I and my two other friends were assigned for collecting data and resources and we were able to collect enough materials to complete this project at the proper time. With those findings and resources, our project was successful to achieve its goals. I have contributed quite well with my analysis since it was not easy to collect data relevant to our given topic. Hence, my contribution in completing this project was fruitful and has helped to get success to our projects. However, my hard work was not the only one to get success but the effort of the whole team was the reason for our project’s success.

As far as my thoughts are concerns women are being vocal about their rights in every work field which was not there before a few years back. The male-dominated society has always been a barrier for women but with the increase in education and because of socialization, women are being loud and clear with their demands (Elwér, Johansson and Hammarström, 2014). As mentioned in the project work there were several movements that a woman has started to fight for their rights such as #Metoo. Although this movement was against sexual harassment it has created some sense of equality that women need to get when they are out for work. Looking back to the entire project it can be found that the world is changing and women are getting what they deserve. The thought process of people in regards to gender is changing and marching towards a better future where every single individual will be getting equal respect and equal opportunity in every workplace.

The overall project that we got to do and explore several things was a learning journey for me personally. Because both of us men and women knows that there is numerous place where women don’t get equal opportunity and placement that a man does (Marie et.al. 2021). In this project work, I was able to understand the feelings and the situation that women are facing all over the world. The level of inequality and situation depends according to on the place and the country. With this project, I came to know that several countries face gender inequality more than any other country in their workplace. It’s very disappointing that even in this 21st century women are forced to tackle these kinds of situations where they are not secure and free to work like men. According to the above-mentioned case study even if a woman gets a chance to stand in the same field with men they are paid half of what men get. Although there is a hope of a better world where everyone will get equal opportunity and equal respect which every individual deserves. I believe that this project will be able to contribute to society to bring change in some amount.The way I used to think before about gender inequality is a global issue that will never change. But since people are taking initiatives and women are coming forward to grab their opportunity globally is changing at its most. The way there is a change in peoples thought and the way several laws has been implemented to provide equality to every individual will definitely bring some changes all over the world.

Conclusion
This reflective essay has successfully reflected all my findings and our team’s 12-week project that we have been assigned. The way we worked to make this project and the places of improvement have been discussed above. Although it was a good experience to work in a team where I was able to communicate with my friends. The whole project was fruitful since the topic we worked with was relevant according to the current scenario. We were supposed to search and collect data from several resources that enhances our knowledge. We encountered several situations and cases all over the world regarding our topic where women are not being treated equally in comparison to men. The essay focuses to reflect on the laws that have been chosen to strengthen those case studies. Moreover, the essay also reflects on my opinion on the topic of a gendered equality environment that has been a change over the period.

References
Elwér, S., Johansson, K. and Hammarström, A. (2014). Workplace gender composition and psychological distress: the importance of the psychosocial work environment. BMC Public Health, 14(1).

France 24. (2012). French parliament adopts sexual harassment law. [online] Available at: https://www.france24.com/en/20120801-france-parliament-unanimously-adopts-new-law-sexual-harassment.

Guidant Global (2019). Gender equality in the workplace: everything you need to know. [online] Guidant. Available at: https://www.guidantglobal.com/news/gender-equality-in-the-workplace.

Marie FroehlicherLotte Knuckles GriekAzadehNematzadeh Lindsey Hall Nathan Stovall (2021). Gender equality in the workplace: going beyond women on the board. [online] www.spglobal.com. Available at: https://www.spglobal.com/esg/csa/yearbook/articles/gender-equality-workplace-going-beyond-women-on-the-board.

Oliva-Guy (2029). Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory | Simply Psychology. [online] www.simplypsychology.org. Workplace environment Available at: https://www.simplypsychology.org/Bronfenbrenner.html#:~:text=Bronfenbrenner [Accessed 5 Oct. 2021].

UN Women. (2019). Equality in law for women and girls by 2030: A multistakeholder strategy for accelerated action. [online] Available at: https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2019/03/equality-in-law-for-women-and-girls-by-2030.

World Surf League (2018). “Proud day”: World Surf League announces equal prize money for men and women. ABC News. [online] 5 Sep. Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/wsl-closes-gender-pay-gap/10207450.