CHAPTER ONE
1.1
INTRODUCTION:
The discrimination women face in the
labour market has long been a subject of study with the increase in labour
force participation of women. Large number of women has over the years entered
into the male dominated workplaces mainly due to societal changes. A broad
distinction between men’s work in the public sphere and women’s work in the
private has been drawn, and the public is further divided by gender.
Occupational
segregation and discrimination reflects not only in the assigning of what kind
of job women do, but also in discrimination such as wage differential,
restricted career opportunities and the kind of reward accruing to the
occupational opportunity of women. Feminist scholars highlighted the
relationship between women gender based responsibility, child care and their
disadvantaged positioning the labour market.
Whilst
some women have moved into managerial positions and are making waves, many
others experience barriers in progressing to higher position of authority in
firms. Another major challenge woman in authority face is the difficulty for
male subordinates, counterparts and superior officers to accept their authority
and opinion. Some other reasons why women experience such barriers also include
home commitments, traditional and cultural beliefs (Fontyn, 2002).
The affirmative action
by the federal Government accounts for much change, motivated by the level of
development of women and of the Nation after the United Nations declaration of
1976-1985 as the Nigerian Decade for women. The political Bureau recommended in
1987, that five percent decision making positions in the country should be
reserved for women in all spheres of government (Akande, 1996).
This
has been utilized extensively both in developing and developed countries and in
turn has resulted in larger number of women participation in paid labour (UNDP,
1999). Even with women participation, the ratio of women compared with their
male counterpart still remains low. This is actually due to late entry of women
into paid labour force and also some constraint within such organisation they
find themselves.
The increase though not appreciable has
afforded women the opportunity to optimally utilize their potentials. However,
the fact still remains that traditional beliefs about the appropriate roles for
women and men exert a major influence on employment opportunities and
experience of women at work.
In
countries where agricultural sector employs important part of the labour force,
the female labour increases very slowly outside the agricultural sector
(Horton, 1999) and the labour force participation of women is also influenced
by many intertwining demographical
and social factors, these includes those related to women‘s responsibility at
home. This is not caused by the insufficiency of paid work outside the home but
also by the patriarchal mentality which are unfavorable to women’s work. In
contemporary African society, cultural values, pre-existing gender roles and subsequent
social discrimination still determine women’s position in the labour market
whether they are qualified or not.
Indispensability of domestic labour and
prevalent cultural norms defining women’s primary role as mother and housewife
explain their disadvantaged and subordinate position in the labour market. A
large number of women cannot leave the domestic sphere and those who are
educated and work as skilled personnel still face various forms of
discrimination at work.
These traits and behaviours stereotypically
viewed as appropriate and possessed by men and women and these is believed to
have influence on their performance at work:
Men Women
Forceful Intuitive
Independent Spontaneous
Logical Caring
Manipulative Cooperative
Competitive Flexible
Resilient Emotional
Decisive Thorough
Source: G Morgan
.images of organsation, cited in Traves op.cit, p.145.
All
traits inherent in men are believed not to be in women and as such they are not
suited for certain positions especially those involving leadership and
professional or technical skills (Worell & Rener 1996). On the other hand
stereotyped traits and behaviours seen as appropriate for women are associated
with a more narrow range of occupation clustered into care taking, low status
job and so on. Thus, the myths about the female and male managers, and beliefs
about appropriate roles for women and men are formally and informally
instituted into many employment structures.
Although
changes in women moving up the management cadre have began to erode the
stereotype of cooperate women as low in status and relegated to clerical or
support position, these have not been as profound as they seem especially in
male dominated work environment. Male dominated work environment refers to the
process by which cultural norms are actively reinforced by members of the
prevailing power elite and outsiders are repelled.
There
is a gender bias in predisposition to certain occupations. Gender bias in this
context according to Zunker, (1996) includes any factor, which depends solely
on the bias of being female or male. Thus gender based discrimination is
institutionalized in many political, economic, educational, occupational and
religious systems (Worell & Rener, 1996). Although overt sex discrimination
in employment practices is prohibited by law in many Nations including Nigeria,
such practices still overtly and covertly exist. These external negative
message is being stereotyped and the existing structural barriers impact on
women’s perception of themselves and their environment, and these internal
perception influence their career related choice and behaviour (Marshall,
1995). These to a large extent have sharpened their experience at work.
1.2 STATEMENT OF
PROBLEM
Women
as a group have long been denied the access to and benefit from development in
many societies. This might be due to the fact that such policies were built on
male perspectives (Boserup, 1970). She drew attention to sexual division of
labour and underlined the different impact of development on men and women. She
also challenged the controversy of modernisation school that development was a
gender neutral process, her study pointed to the fact that many development
projects not only ignored women but actually undermined their economic
opportunities and independence.
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