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Role of Equity in Solving Women's Challenges at Workplaces

Women face quite a number of challenges at the workplace and in the world in General. These challenges are a mix of discrimination harassment and lack of opportunities that abound in the daily lives of women worldwide. One of the solutions that can help to tackle these challenges that women face is to promote equity; equity at the workplace and equity in all facets of life.

Equity refers to fairness in the distribution of resources and opportunities. This article seeks to explore the role of equity in solving women’s challenges at workplaces.

It is often mistaken for one another, but equity is distinct form equality. Equality on one hand refers to treating everyone the same, without prejudice or distinction, while equity refers to treating people differently, but in a bid to achieve fairness. In the context of the workplace, equity for women means providing women with the resources and opportunities that are needed by them to excel. This is to say that equity ensures that women have access to opportunities and resources the same as their male counterparts.

There are quite a few of women’s challenges that are abundant at the work place. Before talking about the role equity plays in solving women’s challenges at workplaces we must first understand some of the challenges that women face. Some of the women’s challenges are things we overlook, but are stumbling blocks that are constant.

Challenges faced by women at the workplace:

Discrimination: It is actually quite an often occurrence and one of women’s challenges that face at the workplace. They may be remunerated lesser for a job that would ordinarily have a man receiving more. They might even be paid a lesser salary to a man who is doing the exact job or even less in a company.
Harassment: This means to create an unpleasant or hostile situation for especially by uninvited and unwelcome verbal or physical conduct. It is nothing new that this is one of the many women’s challenges that abound at the working place.
According to Inc. Magazine, 54 percent of women report workplace harassments. This is just the ones who are bold enough or have enough of an enabling environment to report such dastardly acts. Women may be subjected to sexual harassment, verbal abuse, and a host of other types of ill treatments meted out to them at their various work spaces.
Balancing Life and Work Schedules: Women, especially those who have decided to take the family route might find it really hard juggling between taking care of toddlers and meeting up with tight deadlines simultaneously. This in many cases can lead to burnout and stress leading to poor performance at the workplace which in turn leads to negative appraisals.
Limited Opportunities: Due to dominant biases that are present in the workspace, women may be limited to having fewer opportunities and are all together, sometimes neglected by supervisors in places of recruitments or even promotions. There is the notion that certain jobs aren’t a woman’s fit, this doesn’t help to fight against the bias that women face in the workplace.

Promotes Fairness: The introduction of equity helps to promote fairness especially in the discharge of responsibilities, opportunities and resources.
At the workplace this might mean paying equally for the same job description, creating transparency in the negotiation processes that take place in the company, and also occasionally audit the promotional and payment processes to fix any disparity that might be in them.
Supportive Work Environment: With equity being a constant action being shown at the workplace, this can help women be more expressive, without fear of prejudice. They can think outside of the box without the fear of being perceived as behaving out of the status quo. Everyone must play a part.
Helps Create a Balance between Work and Life – This has a major effect on women and helping creating a balance with their work life and their social life. This helps promote flexible working time for women. If the appropriate slack and leeway is created for women who may have decided to go on a career path to help mitigate the actual loss of time and as a result, work done when they must attend to care duties of themselves or their immediate family members.

Stops Harassment – Stopping the incessant and unwarranted harassments that occur at the place of work is one of the reasons while equity should be practiced. This helps to provide a safe space for women to voice their concerns or grievances with respect to things that happened while they are at their work space.
Employers can also create anti-harassment programs for women in the work place, and also provide easy and confidential environments of women to be able to report any form of harassment and also put in place stringent laws for any defaulter or harasser that has been found culpable.
Bolsters Career Progress – the creation of mentorship programs, leadership programs, and different avenues for professional development is a clear and evident effect that equity has at the work place. There is so much a woman can do. All she needs is an opportunity that acts as a stepping stone to achieve here dreams.

Conclusion

Women are the foundations upon which humanity is built, the propeller for a continuous future of all humanity. The list is endless. But like in some warped world that only exists in the movies, they are for some reason given a back seat in all of the happenings and strategic positions that are instrumental in the progression at the work place. Ignoring the need for equity at the workplace in this present world is quite costly. Equity to women is pertinent for addressing women's challenges that are present in the workplace. Any work place that takes equity seriously must make it evident in the increase of women's roles, responsibilities and statuses. Finally, we must admit, a lot has been done to promote equity in the work place and address women's challenges that they encounter, especially in developed and developing countries. But we must admit that more must be done to get more favourable working conditions for everyone, gender regardless. Therefore, all stake holders, employers, employees, those in charge of policy making and the whole society in general must ensure to work together to ensure equity in solving women's challenges at workplaces.