I want to first state that I support Google's effort in
decreasing gender bias in the workplace. It is a problem that has existed for
all of history. However, that doesn't mean that women should be given easier
entry requirements. It is important to give everyone the same chance. Even in a
perfect world, one without any bias, it’s not likely that certain workplaces
would be without gender or race domination.
It isn't bad if a workplace is dominated by one gender or
race, but only if all applicants were processed equally. If Google were to
prove that they were free of bias (which is practically impossible) and yet the
percentage of males to females, then people would have no reason to be upset.
Getting rid of gender inequality is a very large task to undertake, one that
needs all companies, large and small, to participate. It also requires the
individual effort of us as people to make a conscious effort to
realize where inequalities are and point them out.
Google taking action is just the first step in the right
direction. They are smart about it, they know that it isn't something solved
alone or easy; but instead a task that should be treated with an urgent
caution. They aren't striving for perfection, they plan for something way
better than it is now. Better is a word of opinion, but in this case it might
as well be fact. It’s a fact that women have never been treated equally even
when the only difference between them and a male candidate is the fact that she
is a female. Gender should be no factor in jobs like engineering or in the
technical field. It shouldn't matter in anything accept for gender specific
jobs.
You make a good point when you say that women should not be given easier entry requirements in order to try and solve the gender inequality within the workplace. Everyone should be equal and should be evaluated with the same perspective. If it is easier for a woman to be hired than it is for a man, that the gender bias shifts from women to men. It is going to be difficult task to try to fix and prove that they are solving this unconscious bias behavior. If men are still being hired over women based on qualifications and not gender, some might see it as them failing to actually rid this issue. However, I think what matters is that these companies are making people aware of these biases so that individuals can take part in bettering themselves.
ReplyDeleteYou brought up a great point about how women shouldn't necessarily have a better chance of getting the job, but as equal. In my article I also briefly mentioned that. However, I respectfully disagree with your statement regarding that it shouldn't matter if one gender/race dominates the employee workforce. I believe everybody should have an equal chance at being hired. Thanks for the great read. Check out my blog!
ReplyDeleteGoogle never said that women had lower standards for entry. I like the points you make in paragraph three about moving forward rather than trying to achieve perfection.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your writing and I agree that equal chance needs to be achieved, however I have to disagree with one of your points of avoiding shifting bias to females. In nearly 200,000 years of human history the woman has never been on top or even close to even. I don't believe we should be worried about giving women an advantage because it would basically be the first one they've had and this is still a mans world with no sign of changing anytime soon, so i think efforts to get rid of discrimination need to be made and can't be held back by worries that will really never come to realization.
ReplyDeleteTo add to your point, Derek, in the early periods of civilization, it was necessary to divide occupations by gender because of the physical difficulty of the tasks at hand. This divide has affected the education and social status of women over time because they have been stuck at the bottom and have never had the opportunity to rise to the status of men. Now that we are in a (mostly) developed world, many of the high end or advanced jobs do not require intense physical labor that only a man could provide. Men and women are nearly intellectual equals and should be able to collaborate in these positions in order to provide separate perspectives and various ideas.
DeleteI agree with the part in your first paragraph where you were talking about women not receiving an easier requirements. Even though women aren't truly being treated equally as men in terms of jobs, that doesn't mean that threquirement.ey should get a simpler
ReplyDelete*That doesn't mean that they should get a simpler requirement.
DeleteMuch like everyone has said, I too agree that women should not receive easier requirements to enter certain jobs. However, I apply this to a more diverse audience, such as every race. You noted that jobs should have a work force supplemented by those qualified to work there and that is a great point. By denying this simple rule, a company may begin to stock up or hire incompetent or inept workers unable to perform their jobs.
ReplyDeleteThis point was one of my favorite of reading all morning: "It is important to give everyone the same chance. Even in a perfect world, one without any bias, it’s not likely that certain workplaces would be without gender or race domination." Which really kind of aligns to my ideas as well. if there are some points in life where people need to work hard for their goals and stop being a victim and overcome, take the job, get the promotion, no matter their race or gender. If you allow your race or gender to become a problem to yourself in the workplace, then how can you expect to be viewed as the same. Although inequality is a problem, it is not nearly what it was 50 years ago as this is a continuous movement, we cannot expect anyone, let alone google, to change at the flip of a switch
ReplyDeleteYour opinion on this topic is very different than the others I have read. You state how it is okay to have a gender or racial domination as long as everyone gets the same fighting chance. I like how you said that women should not be given the job more easily because of their gender. However, men should not either. This is not a perfect world and I do not see this happening any time soon unless we take action.
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