The end of gender bias in the workplace. How can the gender gap be reduced in order to provide equal opportunities to women?

Abstract

Is the end of gender bias in companies, and ultimately in society, something that the human race could achieve some day? Gender bias is unfortunately highly prevalent in the workplace nowadays, even though there are measures that are slowly dissipating inequalities. The purpose of this paper is to analyse, through an extensive literature review and carrying out several interviews, which aspects are the most pressing for women’s equality and what can be done to reduce the gender gap in the workplace. Women are faced with many issues in the workplace, from discrimination in the stages of recruitment to the motherhood penalty. Gender bias is behind the formation of the gender gap in many cases and scenarios, so the focus of this paper is to study what pulls women back in their jobs. The support of data and statistics from sources such as the World Economic Forum or the Global Gender Gap Report has been sought throughout the paper to provide credibility. In addition, a total of eight interviews have been carried out to both men and women to allow further insight in what different people, from different ages and economic sectors, with different experiences, believe is happening due to gender bias in companies. The final findings of the paper conclude that gender bias is not a myth; it is hard to measure, but it can be easily identified. There are several measures and actions that can be taken in order to reduce the gender gap, but society still has a long way to go in the fight against women’s inequality in the world of work.