Gender Discrimination in Organizations

Abstract

Women and men are treated differently in the workplace. Sometimes, women are treated less favorably than men. Other times women are treated more favorably than men. Although male and female employees may come to the workplace with some preexisting gender differences that provide reasonable explanations for the differential treatment they receive, often differences in the treatment of men and women are linked to the inaccurate perception of differences (Cleveland, Stockdale, & Murphy, 2000). For this reason, it is important to document the kinds of gender discrimination that occur in the workplace and the kinds of psychological processes that contribute to gender discrimination at work. However, it is also our contention that a narrow focus on documenting gender bias and gender discrimination process strictly within the temporal, physical, and social confines of the workplace masks some important differences in the way men and women experience work. It leaves us wanting with respect to explanations and solutions for well-documented differences between men and women on important work outcomes, such as compensation. Understanding variations in the experiences and outcomes of men and women at work requires that we look beyond the immediate work environment to the societal and cultural context in which work takes place and to the developmental history that people bring with them to work. We believe that a broader perspective on the antecedents of gender discrimination and the outcomes of workplace gender discrimination will provide industrial/organizational psychologists with a richer understanding of the phenomenon of workplace gender discrimination and with insights into the kinds of interventions that may address injustices that discrimination creates.

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