Gender Discrimination in Workplace

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Words from author
By: Zul Amer
For the final assignment in English for Occupational Language UHL 1412, we, students from
Universiti Malaysia Pahang are required to do 2 major task. First, become a panellist and
discuss a topic that was given before in a forum. Second, make a E-magazine based on what
topic that we choosed. During the forum, we choosed to discussed one of the most problems
that always occurred in this world, gender discrimination, spesifically in workplace.
Special thanks I would like to give to my team members, Achmad Rizal Piliang Bin Yusrizal
and Rifqie Bin Mat Rahim for spending their precious time working and researching to fill in
the content in this E-magazine.
For the record, I would like to emphasize that the reason why we doing this E-magazine is
solely for completing the final assignment, neither for profit nor recognition from others.
Most of the articles that we put in this E-magazine were based on our researched from other
articles in the internet.
I hope that you enjoyed our contents and will learn something new about gender
discrimination that has chained our society for so long.
Figure 1: From left- Mr. Krisha as our moderator, me ( Zul Amer), Rizal and Rifqie after our forum finished
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1. GENDER DISCRIMINATION :PAST -THAT STUCK IN THE FUTURE - 4
2. CAUSES OF GENDER DISCRIMINATION- 5
3. EFFECT OF GENDER DISCRIMINATION-7
4. SOLUTION FOR GENDER DISCRIMINATION.- 9
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GENDER DISCRIMINATION: PAST THAT STUCK
IN THE FUTURE
By :Achmad Rizal Piliang Bin Yusrizal
Before civil war (1861-1865), women had no place and good status in everything. When civil
war begins, they realize they don’t have enough troops or worker to support in this situation.
So, they recruit some of women to fill empty space in army also in medical. After civil war,
women stand to protect their justice and want to stand as same as men status in work, politic
and many more. Even this statement has been agreed by all people, discrimination among
woman still looking active normal.
Figure 2 women working during civil war
In China, the role of women changed drastically during the Mao Zedong era (1949 – 1976).
Communism allowed women, who had previously been mostly limited to existence inside the
household, to become social beings. Despite constitutional enshrinement of gender equality,
gender gaps still exist. There is also evidence of gender discrimination in hiring practices.
Furthermore, according to All-China Women’s Federation, 30 per cent of women in China
experience domestic violence.
Figure 3 women in china
In the far eastern country of Malaysia, the local custom of habit dictates that the sons of a
family are an asset, and therefore they enjoy many rights and freedoms not afforded to the
daughters of the family. Despite this the Malaysian constitution affords the same legal rights
to men and women. Nonetheless, economic and social inequalities do occur.
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By: Achmad Rizal Piliang Bin Yusrizal
Stereotype
Stereotype is one of the big factor that bring gender discrimination. Not only women get this
gender discrimination, men also get this discrimination because of stereotype. Example of
stereotype that people always state is women just need to stay at home, while men take a job.
Another stereotype is nurse just only for women, not for men.
percentage teacher in Malaysia at 2014
male
27%
female
73%
female
male
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percentage nurse in Malaysia at 2013
male
15%
female
male
female
85%
Job opportunities
Many graduated was female student by looking at statistic, but most of them unemployed. Many
male student graduated get more this opportunity because many company need to recruit many
employer male than female. So, this will bring more competition for female graduated to get this
job. Sometimes they have job that specific for women such as teacher because women better in
teaching than men.
the number of graduated from university
male
40%
female
60%
female
male
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Effects of the discrimination
By: Amirul Rifqie Bin Mat Rahim
1. Causes stress on workplace.
As an example, a woman worker doing the same job as a man but not compensated equally.
The woman might be resentful of the difference in pay, and the male employee could feel
uncomfortable even though he is not the one to blame for the unequal treatment. The
tense atmosphere also affects productivity.
2. Give bad reputation to a company.
Some of jobseekers will research the company before applying. If that workplace or
company facing several discrimination issues and not handled properly, the company will
having less new employee and also current employee might be leave that company
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By : Zul Amer Bin Hamdan
Figure 4 Picture provided by Anthill Magazine
For centuries, women always fight for their right, to stand toe to toe with men especially in
professional carriers. According to According to Human Resource Development Malaysia’s
report in 2013, percentage of women that work formally is below 50% .Most of the women
prefer to work in field service and secretary instead of professional work such as manager
because the existence of this pay gap between men and women. Are there any suitable
solutions that can root out the gender discrimination and protect these women’s right?
Actually, there are various way to counter this problem, however, two of these are the most
stand up and effective than others which are oblige all companies to increase the quota of
women employees especially in board of directors and improvising the Title of Work Act
1955.
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Figure 5 Source of image : Pinterest
According to Ministry of Human Resource’s report, there are 600k peoples that hold the title
of managers and senior officers and only 200k women that hold the same rank. From 1990 to
2010, numbers of women that hold the rank is only increasing 3 %.This problem was due to a
rigid selection of every company when choosing the employee. Nothing wrong of doing a
rigid selection, after all, the company paying real money to the employee to do the job.
However the statistic concluded that man with lower qualification than a woman has higher
chance to become a professional.
By increasing the number of women employees especially in board of director, women
finally being given the opportunity to prove their self that they are competent as men. To be
fair, the company can make an evaluation on employee so they know if the woman is
competent or not when handling a task given instead of review from baseless assumption.
According to latest Catalyst Bottom Line Report, company with the highest percentage of
women board directors outperformed those with the least by 66% in term of return on
invested capital.
Increasing the numbers of women employee will give an advantage to the company,
however, need to take into account that every employee must be received equal training and
experienced before they can unleash their true power
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Figure 6 Image provided by Dreamicus
The Title of Work Act 1955 was created in Malaysia to protect the right of every workers
regardless their gender and race. However, the act that we have currently is still not strong
enough to protect women employee from being discriminate.
Bureau of Labour Statistics report in 2012 stated that women that worked full time were paid
20% less than men. Although the gap is decreasing slowly, American Association of
University Women predicted that women will receive equal salary in 2152. In Malaysia,
Ministry of Human Resource Report in 2008 stated that men that worked as manager or
senior officer received Rm 4k as their salary per month while women, that hold same position
as men, only received half of the salary.
How improvising the
Title of Work Act
Solved the Problem?
Employer will have
to give equal
opportunity to
every employee
regardless their
gender
If a woman feels
discriminate, she
can report it to
Department of
labour
If proven guilty, the company
will be fined RM 10000 for
each employee they
discriminated and maximum
imprisonment for 5 years
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In this issue, we have explored how gender discrimination begun
and when the women started to fight for their rights. We also
learned what are the causes the effect and the solution to root out
this gender discrimination. We also knew that the existence of
NGOs such as American Association of University women and
National Council of Women Organization in Malaysia are created
solely to defend women’s right.
We have to take into account that gender discrimination is one of a
problem that cannot be root out by the power of laws itself. We
must respect each other regardless their gender, race and religion.
Women must fight for their right and know where to voice out
their right so an action can be done to fix this problem. Mahatma
Gandhi once said “You must be the change you wish to see in the
world”. If the women just stay still and accept the norm, then this
discrimination will be continued forever.
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