Gender Bias – Truths and Myth

Gender Bias – Truths and Myth

Girls like pink, boys like blue!

Girls grow up with dolls, boys grow up with toy cars!

Aren’t these some inherent gender bias existing in the minds of people?

We claim that all humans are equal, irrespective of their gender but still the standardized social and patriarchal gender role gravitates a person to behave in a certain manner which makes the bias and restricts the holistic growth of a person. Gender bias is expounded as distinguishing individuals based on their gender and treating them unequally. It is the propensity to favor one gender over the other for no valid reason. The sexist stereotype considers women as docile, emotional, caring, and less aggressive whereas men are considered totally opposite. For a long time, women have consistently tried to obtain fairness, regard, and indistinguishable rights from men and fought against patriarchy. If these gender disparities are abbreviated, it will lead to their enormous advancement of people striving for gender equality and yield humongous benefits such as increased productivity and wider social cohesion.

In modern times, women have become significant at workplaces. They have entered different arenas and have outshined men but still, sometimes they are held back by the structure at the workplace that underrepresents women and it hampers the advancement of women and limits them to achieve leadership positions. Treatment of two equal people differently based on their gender in various aspects like the job per se, training and development, remuneration, recognition, equal opportunities etc. is considered as the prevalence of bias at the workplace.

Women have now shifted from household work to commercial employment which uplifts their interest and their existence in the world and it does not imply that their participation in household work has reduced but it continues to be the same. But still, they have to face inequitable treatment at their workplace which can be called occupational inequality.

There was a time when men and women were paid differently for the same job. This has hence been largely done away with. However when people at the organization have a “taste of discrimination”, it develops prejudices and favoritism due to which the other forces find it difficult to mitigate that bias against female gender.

The world has moved a great deal from those primitive social methods. Women get the same returns and are chosen for almost all levels of performance in all realms. There are ground rules in all organizations and even on the public areas that protect women and prevent discrimination against them. Women today are an empowered lot and have very few things to complain about.

Today the counter is slowly showing its ugly face. There are occasions where women are using the excuse of bias for non-delivery. There are also the rare occasion where imaginary instances of imaginary bias or gender inequality quoted to settle personal hatred. There are even unreal stories of attempted assaults on women, just to put the men in a place or to destroy careers and lives.

It is time that the protective mechanism set in place for women’s safety and equality be revisited and scaled to realistic levels. A woman’s word against all tangible proof is no longer an acceptable option and will end in major revolt, especially from younger generations. It could well turn out to be an indicator of a sign of helplessness of a male society and may be the hub of inequality yet again.