Women face a myriad of challenges in their field at work, in school and other places. Dealing with these challenges is a great uphill task which requires great commitment and dedication to set things straight. Over the years, women have had to make lots of sacrifices and face hard challenges along the way as they try to attain the same positions as men. It is very hard for women to be treated with equality just as men, which makes it hard for them to be great leaders and gain the same wealth as men, among other things. There are several powerful reasons as to why women do not get to the top of the ladder, which leaves a huge gap between them and the men.
Men have a huge role to play in ensuring women are supported and incorporated to lean in. The aim of the essay is to analyze the reasons and ways men can help to bridge the gap that exists between them and women. Women often have the will to lead and become better people in their workplace, which they can do with the help of men.
Women are move advanced in the current age than in the past, however, men still run the world and are better placed. Women have a hard to task to balance between work and family as well as make decisions which greatly impact their lives. There are several small decisions which impact the lives of women and their development in different capacities. Women loose several opportunities in life even without realizing them. “ Sometimes they have a hard time pursuing prestigious employment opportunities after they get married and children come into the picture.
In fact, raising children is a major reason why women leave the professional world which impact their progress in life”(Tanner) said. Sometimes women are required to scale back at certain points in life which impact their development. There are numerous things which can be done to change the situation and make it easy for women to get to the top of the scale however it is marred with several challenges which make it hard for them to maximize on their opportunities. Sandberg, a technology executive, author, activist and chief operating officer at Facebook states that women have ceased to make any real progress at the top of any industry. The voices of the people are not heard equally which is a major setback for the progress and development of women. Sandberg defines ways in which women can lean in and form a major part of the top people in different industries (Sandberg, 202).
One of the ways is not to leave before they fully decide to leave. Instead of women striving to be perfect, they should aim at sustainability and fulfillment. It is possible to change the power structure of the world and expand on different opportunities which result in sustainability. Women need to make several decisions which require empathy and higher levels of cognitive developments. Equality is within the reach of many people through the hard work of several generations with men on the forefront towards helping to attain the equality pact.
Women need to stop trying to have it all rather be grateful for what they have. People, men included, have to make compromises, adjustments and sacrifices in all situations which require several decisions to be made. Women need to define their priorities in life well and through shared experiences; they can lean in to be better people (Sandberg, 200). There is a great link between success and likability which makes women rated as lesser people than men.
There is a great bias which holds back the women in different aspects of life. Perhaps it is time people stop victimizing women based on their gender and award them the same outlooks and opportunities as men. This is a major challenge which requires each person to change their perspective about women. Changing these stereotypes however is a challenge which continues to demoralize women and leaves them out of the box in work and leadership. Men should encourage women to take up competitive positions within the workplace. Men can help women reach their optimum rather than view them as inferior. Women need so much to attain their goals despite the challenges they face at different stages in life. According to Alexis, a New York Times author, women face several challenges which stop them from reaching their goals successfully.
Several women at executive positions state that reaching the top is not an easy task and there are numerous setbacks which impede their progress. Among the things which women require to reach the top are enhanced literacy on different feminisms and inter-sectionality (Strauss). As women share their stories, their conscious inner self is captured. Women face several challenges among them a huge wage gap between them and men and harassment as a result of their perceived capacity to build the world. Men should realize that harassment is not conducive for women growth and development therefore abstain from it.
Gender equality and cultural norms are some of the greatest hindrances which prevent women from attaining their true potential. “ I would also like to see equal opportunity and access to education, health care and job opportunities for women; with these tools, our women can empower themselves, rise above their circumstances and contribute to our people alongside our men” (Strauss). It is important and necessary to meet more like-minded women and men to create programs that work universally on minimum resources delivering value for business while growing with the communities. The global challenges are of an unprecedented scale, and women have a long way to go in terms of raising the living standards of its entire people to a satisfactory level. Men should also chip in to help the women as well. Lisa Wade, professor of sociology at Occidental College, says there are natural corollaries for this in other kinds of workplaces.
“ Depending on what kind of workplace you’re in, I can imagine women being held responsible for a lot more of the emotion work that comes with mentoring,” she says. “ Or imagine if a client is irritated, that a team might send in a female worker to go in and soothe the person’s feelings because they think women are better at doing that than men.” Because this labor is “ invisible,” it can be hard for women to shirk these responsibilities (Carpenters). Especially if you’re worried about who picks up the labor when you drop it. Men should be aware of the invisible labor and assist women wherever they can instead of waiting on them to carry out all duties. Many men see a clear tie between the emotional labor they carry and the worth they have in the workplace. So when women consider dropping the emotional labor draining their energy, they worry about foisting it onto someone else. “ I do work with a lot with women on being able to build the capacity to make other people uncomfortable,” Julia says.
The little efforts such as asking, about company-wide gender dynamic that needs to be fixed or how a colleague is doing goes a long way in boosting the development of women. The central thesis of sociological accounts of gender relations is that these biological facts by themselves do not determine the specific form that social relations between men and women take. This does not imply, however, an even stronger view, that gender relations have nothing to do with biology. Gender relations are the result of the way social processes act on a specific biological categories and form social relations between them. One way of thinking about this is with a metaphor of production: biological differences rooted in sex constitute the raw materials which, through a specific process of social production, get transformed into the social relations we call “ gender”. Men have a great role of supporting their women towards development and attaining their goals in a number of ways. A way of thinking about sex and gender leaves entirely open the very difficult question of what range of variation in gender relations is stably possible. This is a critical question if one holds to a broadly egalitarian conception of social justice and fairness.
From an egalitarian point of view, gender relations are fair if, within those relations, males and females have equal power and equal autonomy. This is what could be termed “ egalitarian gender relations.” This does not imply that all men and all women do exactly the same things, but it does mean that gender relations do not generate unequal opportunities and choices for men and women. In as much as women should lean in, men can help them to attain their goals in life.