Savanna Williams

Did you know that only 5.7% of employed women in the US are working in the computer industry? With such a low percentage it would be understandable to assume that it may be difficult to make a company based on computers to be a gender diversified workplace, but does that mean that it is impossible? How about for other fields of business? I chose the ethical issue of gender diversity in the workplace because I believe it is one that is still very popular and is still evolving, and can be viewed from many different perspectives. I believe that the push for gender diversity should not exist in any work place because it promotes unequal hiring processes, pushes for unfair treatment due to gender in a society, and finally that no matter what the gender the hired person should be a great asset to the team. When hiring in any level position, job title, or industry, the urge to find a female or male should not exist if the company’s real goal is to find the truly best candidate for the position. If the chances of someone being hired should be determined upon their gender that would also to be saying that it is ethically correct to hire someone solely based upon their skin color, religion, body type, sexual orientation, age, perfume usage and any other ludicrous reason there may be to want to hire someone over someone else. In today’s age you do not hear that a company is looking to increase the “diversity” of their leadership because they don’t have a sufficient enough ratio of African Americans to Caucasians. If that was to hit the news there would be much more significant response then there is in regards to having the issue of gender diversity promoted within different job levels, job titles, and industries, and this is simply because of how our society has grown and still sees the segregation between men and women still. As a society we would find the example just given in reference to the concern of ratios between African Americans to Caucasians as a race and ethics issue. People in Americas society today would see that if this topic was to be brought into light that the company or person posing the argument would exhibiting a racial bias. Although racism still exists in today’s world, as it probably always will, it is not as prevalent. Younger generations have been raised to view people with contrasting race, gender, or religion to be more equal generations have been raised. That being said a blog at McKinsey University poses a good point that the gender segregation and stereotypes still lie within the working generation. Generations such as the “Baby Boomers” were raised into racial segregation and gender stereotypes, but with momentous political movements they are to fall into compliance and acceptance that integrated races will be within the workplace. Younger generations again view women more openly to as equal, but there is not such a social and political push for these older generations to see the issue the same as they racial diversity. Although there were political movements as well that manifested into much more acceptance of women in the workplace as there would have been 100 years ago where in 1913 there was less than one-fourth of all adult women working outside of the home. Despite the fact that it is much appreciated that society is more excepting that women work outside of the home, it does not constitute unfair treatment due to gender. Women entered the workplace because they worked for it, and to now be searching for women and practically handing them jobs just to raise the percentage of women is violating the whole purpose of women pushing for equality, and also ignores basic human rights. For a company to be truly neutral they cannot be mixed together and be confused. During the hiring process, as odd as it may sound to some, it is violating both equality and these basic human rights to ignore ones potential and success in life just because one gender appeals more to the company, consumers, and public’s eye as a whole. When hiring a person the decision should be based exclusively on the candidate’s abilities and propriety within the proposed seat. It would be against business ethics and general logic to hire someone based on gender and not due to what they may be able to bring to the team. Regardless to the gender whoever is hired needs to be able to do the job the best, and if that happens to be a female so be it, but if at the end of the day every position in a company is filled with one gender there is no need for an uproar as with today’s society there is plenty of ways to integrate the opposite gender within the company. To combat the war on gender diversity concern I think the only fair alternative is to simply ignore it. As stated earlier, for the best health of a company all employees should be fairly hired solely on their qualifications and capabilities which will assist the company as a perspective employee. Also to have significantly larger companies ignore what backlash comments that many be said is going to be the most profitable way to make today’s society open their eyes to the point that not forcing all aspects of life to be equal and letting them happen naturally as they will is still promoting equality in society by now allowing any special treatment. Morally removing the differentiation between genders gives each side a level of equality and will slowly remove the presence of stereotypical past roles or special treatment due to hardships that an individual may have had due to being a prior minority. Also it is the duty of the employer to support neutrality. People are often swayed on their beliefs due to fear, and when leadership removes any bias or alternatives on a situation other than anything neutral it leaves the workplace and the public to only sit with their own opinions on the subject It is the duty of the company not to please the public, but to run a successful business, which includes producing quality products and services that people are paying for, not to be a billboard for people’s ideas and opinions. As with any subject everyone will have their own opinions, and challenging people’s beliefs like this would easily upset people, but change always takes time for people to see the good in. In a denouement I believe both ethically and morally the focus of gender diversity violates gender equality in the workplace, it violates the fairness of hiring based on one’s accomplishments, and also shaped how society still sees a difference in genders. I believe there needs to be a push for the removal of gender diversity and a greater push for equality to promote better businesses and also a more open minded and accepting society.

http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/women-high-tech-globally http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/organization/lessons_from_the_leading_edge_of_gender_diversity http://fortune.com/2014/11/06/men-talk-gender-diversity/ http://www.scu.edu/r/ethics-center/ethicsblog/business-ethics-news/17664/TWITTER-IPO:-Where-are-the-Women? http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/1988/02/art3full.pdf