Examining the Impact of Gender Discriminatory Practices on Women’s Development and Progression at Work

Abstract

Although there has been a worldwide cry for gender equity within organizations, gender discriminatory practices continue to be a challenge. Many women still suffer from gender discrimination and remain at the bottom of organizational structures despite their efforts to ascend. This paper seeks to examine the link between gender discriminatory practices and women’s skill development and progression within the workplace. The study espoused a quantitative approach. A questionnaire survey was self-administered online to 412 women through a convenient non-probability sampling method. Descriptive tendencies, test normality, validity, reliability, and regression analysis were performed using the statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS), AMOS 27. The results reveal that women’s skill development is impacted by workplace gender discriminatory practices, and the career progression of women is linked to their skill development. Yet it rejects the claim that workplace gender discriminatory practices impact women’s career progression. While having a gender-friendly work environment is applaudable, developing women’s skills and promoting their advancement at work will require more effort from companies. Organizations need to be deliberate about the skills development and career progression of women and institutionalize initiatives that directly encourage women to engage in developmental activities as well as initiatives geared towards promoting women’s career advancement.

Impact of Gender Discrimination on Women's Skill Development in the Workplace in a Northern Region of Peru – 2023

“…The instrument used in this study was designed, validated, and applied by Fitong Ketchiwou & Dzansi (2023) to women working in the service sector in South Africa, aiming to provide insights into attitudes, opinions, and trends about gender discrimination practices, competency development, and professional progression in their respective workplaces. However, after a thorough literature review, no studies have empirically corroborated the effect of gender discrimination practices on competency development and professional progression in the post-COVID-19 context.…”

“…To gather information from the study population, an online survey was designed using "Google Forms". With the assistance of a professional translator from English to Spanish, 17 items proposed in the instrument were adapted from Fitong Ketchiwou & Dzansi (2023). The adapted questionnaire was then evaluated by six experts in writing and in the field of study, with favorable results.…”

Exploring practices that impact women’s career advancement within the workplace: a qualitative approach

“…Kobayashi and Kondo (2019) and McKinsey and Company (2019) reveal that treating women fairly (as reflected through strategies and measures to eliminate disadvantages that prevent women from operating on the same level as men) benefits women’s careers. Likewise, prioritizing the career needs of women communicates to female employees that the firm values them and wants them to progress (Fitong Ketchiwou and Dzansi, 2023; Kurniawati and Sari, 2019). When firms are committed to grooming female role models, aspiring women perceive the possibilities of their internal growth and are motivated to pursue senior positions (Fitong Ketchiwou et al ., 2022; Moalusi and Jones, 2019).…”

“…Researchers examined labor laws (Pienaar and Kok, 2017;Pienaar et al, 2018), gender equality (Gouws, 2017;Moleko, 2019;Naud e, 2017) and gender representation in fields in which women are under-represented (Botha, 2017;Mathur-Helm, 2018;Wright, 2018). Research indicates that women in South Africa continue to be under-represented in the workplace across various sectors (Department of Trade and Industry, 2018), they still experience barriers to their career advancement (Pienaar et al, 2018) and face challenges in their ascension to senior roles (Department of statistics South Africa, 2022; Fitong Ketchiwou et al, 2022), managerial positions (Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, 2019; Matotoka and Odeku, 2021), and subsequent advancement to upper hierarchies (Fitong Ketchiwou and Dzansi, 2023;Moalusi and Jones, 2019). The sluggish ascension of women into senior positions in South Africa has resulted in the promulgation of laws to facilitate gender equity and women's progression in the workplace.…”

The role of personal factors and skills development in women’s career advancement

“…Jansen van Rensburg (2021) states that in this country fewer women than men occupy influential positions, and that only 32% of women occupy a managerial position. In the past, research on barriers to women's promotion have focused on organisational factors that hinder career progression, such as organisational culture (Fitong Ketchiwou et al 2022;Moalusi & Jones 2019), gender and labour laws, sexual harassment (Pienaar et al 2018;Oosthuizen, Tonelli & Mayer 2019), gender and equality (Coetzee 2017;Naudé 2017), the evolution of the gender struggle (Barclay 2018;Gouws 2019;Lewis 2019), strategies to increase women's representation in certain fields (Mathur-Helm 2018;Matotoka & Odeku 2021), and women-specific experiences impacting their careers (Chetty & Naidoo 2017;Fitong Ketchiwou & Dzansi 2023). In women's studies factors outside the workplace that impede women's skills development and career advancement have also been considered, such as social roles (Ahmad & Khan 2020;Taşdelen-Karçkay & Bakalɪm 2017), family responsibilities (Kobayashi & Kondo 2019;Kumara 2018), and pregnancy, marriage and motherhood (Moalusi & Jones 2019;Rath, Mohanty & Pradhan 2019).…”