The
21st century has come with so many changes in almost every field of
life, so it is widely expected that things should also improve in terms of the gender
pay gap between men and women, and both should get an equal amount of pay. But
in reality, things are still quite different because the gender pay gap has
never been equal, and it seems that women will always be paid less as compared
to men. Ideally, if a man or woman works for a particular job, then they should
be paid equally without considering any gender inequality and discrimination,
but the fact of the matter is that it does not happen like this in the business
world, and women are paid less as compared to men handling the same kind of
job. The issue is not specific to any particular region; rather, it is an issue,
which is persisting all around the world. In previous few years, the progress
may have been made by the developed world to work for gender equality in terms
of squeezing the gender pay gap, but the situation is still far worse than what
is ideally expected to be achieved. So, it is important for firms to come up
with policies as well as management practices to diminish the gender pay gap
with steady progress so that objective of mitigating this gap can be achieved
with the passage of time. So, the focus of this particular research work will
be to analyze current firm based policies and management practices, which play
their part in encouraging gender pay gap, and then issue is discussed with
stakeholders to develop firm based policies and management practices, which
encourage a more equal status for men and women at the job especially with
regards to their pay (Rubery & Koukiadaki, 2016)
Why am I Interested in this Project?
It is a fact that a vast amount of
research has been conducted to identify the determinants, which play their part
in gender pay gaps. The labor market has always shown characteristics, which
have been encouraging this pay gap in every field of business, and no considerable
efforts have been made to diminish this gap. The overall things may not look as
bad as they are, but the fact of the matter is that gender pay gap has never
been squeezed to a level, where one may say that now it is conforming to the
standards of gender equality. There must be various reasons, which have been
playing their role in sustaining this gender pay gap between men and women, and
lots of research has already been conducted on the issue. I am interested in
this project to dig out with more specific terms that what firms based
policies, attitudes and management practices have been encouraging this gender inequality,
and what factors are behind such injustice happening with working women all around
the world. Just to get an idea of how worst the situation is, it is crucial to
look at some facts and figures from the real business world. A report released
by the European Commission revealed that in the EU region, the average amount
of earning of women is 16.4% less as compared to the men (market-inspector.co.uk, 2018)
In one of the recent reports
released by World Economic Forum, it was revealed that global gender gap
between men and women might take 108 more years to get squeezed and come to the
level, where it can be said that gender inequality has been mitigated. In terms
of economic gender equality, it will take 200 years to make things equal
between men and women. These facts released by WEF are shocking in so many ways
that in today’s modern world, where people think that the world has advanced in
so many things, but still world believes men to be more superior as compared to
women, whereas women have shown in every field of life that they can achieve
the same level of performance as men can do. The data was surveyed by WEF from
149 countries’ men and women, and report said that “Stagnation in the proportion of
women in the workplace and women's declining representation in politics,
coupled with greater inequality in access to health and education, offset
improvements in wage equality and the number of women in professional
positions, leaving the global gender gap only slightly reduced in 2018,”
(Martin & Gould, 2019). So, these stats are
good enough to establish the fact that why I am interested in this project,
because the issue is global in nature, and it is going to take so many years to
get diminished. Therefore, I am going to conduct more research with a depth of
analysis for the firm based policies, attitudes and management practices, which
encourage gender pay gap, and how these policies, attitudes and management
practices can be changed to discourage this gender inequality from the firms.
It is important to mention here that
my research project will be an additional resource for the stakeholders and
policymakers to see that how things are initiated on firms’ level, as various researches
have already been conducted on social and other relevant issues, which
encourage gender gap and inequality. My project will be an addition to the existing
research data to get more insight on the issue that why firms develop the
practice, attitude and policies equipped with gender pay gap, and what factors
are more important than the others. I have been looking at this topic with
great attention to details that how the issue has been persisting over the
years, and what kind of particular efforts have been made by the world to
mitigate gender pay gap between men and women. I have analyzed large datasets
and tried my best to come up with a research project, which helps firms as well
as all other stakeholders to develop policies, attitudes and practices to
encourage more gender equality. I believe that issue has not been taken as
seriously as it should have been taken by the firms and all other stakeholders.
So, it is vital to get concerned stakeholders on one page by looking at more
specific terms of the issue, and then developing a dedicated policy and
practices to diminish the gender pay gap.
The Research Methodology and Data
Collection of Diminishing Gender Pay Gaps by Developing Firm Based Policies,
Attitudes and Management Practices
It is always the most crucial part
of a research project on how research is going to be conducted. In this
research, the selected research method is to conduct primary research with the
help of quantitative research method. So, data will be gathered by selecting a
sample of firms from the United Kingdom. It is advised that 5 firms from
different field of businesses will be selected and the survey questionnaire
will be used to collect data from stakeholders in these firms such as
directors, managers, as well as employees. The collected data will then be
analyzed using any statistical data analysis tools such as SPSS. The most
important thing to keep in mind for this research is that I am going to collect
data from the UK firms, so results and analysis made in this research will be
more specific to UK population, but general recommendations made in this study
can also be used for the global population as well. I would like to mention
here that when primary research is conducted, then it is always considerable
and beneficial to take the information from existing research studies to get an
idea that which elements have been covered in previous research studies, and
what research gaps can be covered in future research studies. So, qualitative analysis
of existing literature will also be made with adequate details in the Literature
Review section.
Research Questions of Diminishing
Gender Pay Gaps by Developing Firm Based Policies, Attitudes and Management
Practices
This independent research study will
try to answer the following research questions:
·
Why Firms based policies are made to
persist with gender pay gaps?
·
What kind of management practices as well
as attitudes is there to encourage gender pay gap and gender inequality?
·
What factors lead firms to make policy decisions
supporting the element of the gender pay gap between men and women?
·
How firms based practices and policies can
be developed to ensure that gender equality is encouraged more?
·
What kind of attitude and thinking
perceptive can be developed to change the mindset of policymakers in the firms?
The
important thing to keep in mind that these are not the only questions to be
answered by this research project, rather there can be many other relevant
questions, which may also be added in this project in later stages.
Conclusion and Recommendations on Diminishing
Gender Pay Gaps by Developing Firm Based Policies, Attitudes and Management
Practices
In the end, concluding remarks will
be made after analyzing the collected data as well as a review of literature
that how gender pay gap has been encouraged by firms and what kind of firms
based policies, attitudes and management practices. Moreover, the research will
also make specific recommendations for all the stakeholders including firms
that what practices and policies will help them to diminish the gender pay gap
and encourage more gender quality with the passage of time because it is
something, which cannot be achieved in few days, months and years. The research
will also lay out the roadmap for future research studies with regards to this particular
research topic.
References of Diminishing Gender Pay Gaps by Developing Firm Based
Policies, Attitudes and Management Practices
market-inspector.co.uk. (2018). How to Decrease
Gender Pay Gap in 7 Steps. Retrieved June 3, 2019, from
https://www.market-inspector.co.uk/blog/2017/06/decrease-gender-pay-gap
Martin, W., &
Gould, S. (2019). The global gender gap will take more than 100 years to
close — here are the countries with the highest and lowest gender gap around
the world. Retrieved June 3, 2019, from https://www.businessinsider.com/the-countries-with-the-highest-and-lowest-gender-gap-around-the-world-2018-12
Rubery, J., &
Koukiadaki, A. (2016). Closing the gender pay gap: A review of the issues,
policy mechanisms and international evidence. Retrieved June 3, 2019,
from
https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---gender/documents/publication/wcms_540889.pdf