Gender status and Workability: Is male workability stronger than females?

Introduction

    Workability is the capacity of an individual to perform tasks assigned to them at a specific point in time. It is the ability to adapt and blend with a working environment. Attitudes, perceptions, handling stress levels, time and resource management, emotional stability, and communication skills all affect the workability of an individual in the workplace, as they determine the ability to interact with other employees. Gender is the status of being male or female. Industrialization in countries has seen a significant change in the demographic compositions as the workforce has increased. Education has also been perceived as one of the most critical foundations in life that requires people to attend training in college for a specific period before they can join the workforce to work in different capacities (Tavakoli-Fard et al. 78). Therefore, workplace environments attract people with relevant skills, knowledge, and experience to tender their interest in joining an organization. Work positions attract both female and male employees, and it is the responsibility of the human resource manager to select a candidate that is best suited for the job (El Fassi et al. 302). The entrance of women in the workplace has seen competition, increase since females compete with men for the same job positions in the workplace. Tavakoli-Fard et al. argued that factors like obesity, age, high mental capacity requirements, physical workload, and lack of free time to rest affect the workability of some professionals.

On the other hand, Padula et al. suggested that workability depends on the physical, psychosocial well-being, and environmental forces. Further, individual discipline and characteristics affect the workability of employees in the workplace. Productivity levels differ among employees depending on the positions they hold in the workplace as well as the intrinsic motivation to perform duties. In the modern day, work environments provide equal opportunities for both men and women, and employment is based on merit. Embracing gender neutrality in the workstation motivates all employees to work towards the promotion and career growth, decreasing the negative and different perception towards work ability among the female and male employees.

Key Words

Workability

Gender

Bias and discrimination

Research Context 

    The context of the research is the work environment. A work environment is surrounding that professionals engage with each other to provide services to an organization and help a firm reach its short-term and long-term goals. A work environment accommodates people with different academic backgrounds and credentials as they hold various positions in the workplace. Further, most organizations accommodate both skilled and unskilled personnel, all who hold different positions in the workplace. A work environment has both men and women working in various capacities (Padula et al. 4330). The human resource is the most critical factor in an organization that contributes to success. Both men and women work as a team as they work towards a collective goal, and are answerable to their supervisors. Most work environments use merit to promote employees from a junior to a senior position which supports equality among the workforce. It motivates both male and female employees as they stand equal chances of being selected for senior positions.

Gender status has been one of the emerging issues in the work environment, with the assumption that women’s working life and careers are negatively affected by their sex. Female employees, like their male counterparts, are expected to deliver results in the organization on time and perform their duties to the satisfaction of their employers. They go through the same education process and are psychologically prepared for the challenges that take place in the work environment. Tavakoli-Fard et al. (77) stated that younger women with no family responsibilities like marriage and children find it easy to concentrate on their career, compared to those with family duties. However, Padula et al. think that irrespective of whether an individual has personal responsibilities at home or not, it takes discipline to separate the work environment duties and those at home. 

The mind must be trained to shift from one place to another so that barriers and challenges in each environment do not affect the other. The self-confidence to do away with cultural prejudices and assumptions made about women requires personal commitment (Tavakoli-Fard et al. 89). This motivates females to work in a male-dominated environment and pursuing a career that derives satisfaction. Gender stereotyping has affected female’s workability as they are pre-judged and generalized. They are assumed to be emotionally unstable and considered unable to make serious decisions on a personal and professional level.

Rhetorical Analysis 

    Changes in the work environment are inevitable as the world is going through a tremendous change. Workability among young employees entering the job market depends on the duties they perform at the organization. Employees are prepared to work in different capacities in the workplace, but they also need time to engage in their personal lives. Maintaining good and healthy workability necessitates the employees to adjust their schedules so that they can handle all work-related duties as well as individual responsibilities (El Fassi et al. 78). The working conditions of a work environment affect the working ability of employees. Staffs are comfortable working in a surrounding that does not pose a danger to their lives, and for employees that work in dangerous work environments, they expect their employers to take precautionary measures to reduce the risks. For instance, staffs working in chemical manufacturing companies should be provided with safety gear that protects their bodies from touching or inhaling poisonous fumes. If employees perceive that a work environment poses a danger to their lives, then they have the right to resign (Padula et al. 4335). This means that both male and female employees can resign. Bias and discrimination against women, arguing that they may not work in harsh conditions is irrelevant since human beings choose conducive working environments and ignore the concept of being male or female. The risk factors in a workstation might trigger high levels of dissatisfaction among employees.

    Workability and satisfaction in employees are also affected by the organizational management and supervisory committee. Every employee desires to work in a team that works independently towards a collective short-term or long-term goal. It is also the wish of employees to be under management that understands. Leaders in organizations adopt different leadership styles, which affect the way they relate to their employees (El Fassi et al. 189). On the other hand, employees may also have a preference for a specific leadership style depending on their personality. An autocratic leader is most likely to trigger negative feelings and attitudes among the employees, because of the leadership style. The authoritarian leader makes it impossible for the employees to have personal space and perform their duties with ease because of the constant noise and disapproval. Employees’ dissatisfaction may motivate them to search for jobs in other workplaces where they can fit. Both male and female employees are affected by bad leadership in organizations and also decide to break away from an unhealthy environment.

According to the Work Ability Index or WAI which was first established in Finland, women are described as having significantly lower workability index compared to their male colleagues, and the main variation is mainly attributed to gender roles, social and economic functions considered by the society as appropriate for men women and men.  Gender coded factors are used to describe all the social variables that vary between females and males as a result of their gender assigned roles exemplified by the fact that women often perform much of the domestic chores. Therefore, the variations existing between female sand males workability in organizations may be linked to the continued imbalance in household duties. Female workers are considered to experience what is termed as ‘double work burden’ emanating from their simultaneous involvement in both paid job in addition to the complete or greater responsibility of the domestic work. The occupational role of women has changed devoid of concomitant alterations of their traditional functions for family and home contributing to long-term health risks and stress. Thus, the imbalance in gender work is a vital consideration when evaluating the relationship between work and gender.

Resolution of perspectives 

One way of promoting workability among women in the organization is through gender streaming entailing the integration of the gender perception in each policy processes including implementation, design, and evaluation and monitoring with the primary aim of ensuring equality between men and women. Gender streaming entails an assessment of the impact of policies on the position and life of men and women as well as readdressing them if it is required. Gender streaming in an organization promotes gender equality leading to the creation of space for every person with communities and the organization’s contributing to the articulation of shared vision vital in sustainable development and translation to reality (McGonagle et al., 2015).

From the evaluation of the article, it can be argued that the workability of women is lower than that of men because of the multiple tasks that women perform ranging from paid work to domestic chores. The various roles lead to the generation of cumulated conflict negatively impacting on the lives of the workers including depression, stress, and physical symptoms. Thus, a combination of domestic work and professional work plays a vital role when evaluating the effects of workload on female employees. It is recommended that further evaluations be done particularly those concentrating on the discrepancies and similarities between male and female employees using sufficient sample are critical in clarifying the various well-being and gender aspects as it relates to workability. The organization can improve the workability of its employees by creating opportunities that enable them to offer their professional services while at the same time able to handle their domestic roles. For example, the organization can increase chances for work flexibility where employees can perform their duties without necessarily being physically in the office. 

Conclusions 

The perceived differences in workability between women and men in organizations mainly arise from gender stereotyping and assumptions are emanating from culture and society. Research studies have shown the insignificant difference between workability of women and men considering that both undergo almost the same training and education system giving them the required knowledge, experience, and competence needed to deliver their specific professional tasks. Also, both men and women work in the same environment implying that both are provided with adequate and appropriate resources required to deliver particular functions and that both groups are expected to meet the organizations needs and yield target results, hence everyone is responsible for ensuring that the organization’s objectives and goals are achieved utilizing the provided resources (Leijten et al., 2014).

The issues of workability based on gender is considered as organizational issues and is dependent on the leadership practices, performance, promotion, and recruitment and can be addressed by the organization’s leadership. Leaders should create opportunities that promote employees’ abilities to be creative and innovative, and communication channels should be open to allow them to share ideas vital in fostering teamwork and problem solving all these are critical improving their workability index Workability can be enhanced among employees through the promotion of favorable working conditions such as promotion employee safety and health by proving them with personal protective equipment and this vital in increasing their workability especially those working in hazardous environments.

Also, leaders in the organization should employ leadership practices that foster employee satisfaction crucial in improving workability. Adoption of appropriate leadership styles motivate employees especially women to deliver their duties professionally allowing them to undertake in all aspects of the organization actively and the best method is the elimination of the gender-based discrimination and biases in the organization’s operations such as promoting equality in recruitment and promotion.

Works cited 

El Fassi, Mehdi, et al. “Work ability assessment in a worker population: comparison and determinants of Work Ability Index and Work Ability score.” BMC Public Health 13.1 (2013): 305.

Leijten, F. R., van den Heuvel, S. G., Ybema, J. F., van der Beek, A. J., Robroek, S. J., & Burdorf, A. (2014). The influence of chronic health problems on work ability and productivity at work: a longitudinal study among older employees. Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health, 473-482.

Padula, Rosimeire Simprini, et al. “Gender and age do not influence the ability to work.” Work 41.Supplement 1 (2012): 4330-4332.\

Tavakoli-Fard, Negah, et al. “Quality of life, Work ability and other important indicators of women’s occupational health.” International journal of occupational medicine and environmental health 29.1 (2016): 77.

McGonagle, A. K., Fisher, G. G., Barnes-Farrell, J. L., & Grosch, J. W. (2015). Individual and work factors related to perceived work ability and labor force outcomes. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(2), 376.