Beyond Glass Ceilings and Brick Walls - International Labour ...

The experience of a Guest Relations Officer of a hotel provides an
insight on this issue. As a woman (particularly as a single woman), she says
that her colleagues/superiors constantly monitored her conduct with foreign
male guests. Unlike male hotel employees, she was not encouraged to
fraternize overly with male clients despite job duties that involve engagement
with guests.
Here we see an example of the extent to which society and in this instance,
the workplace, places moral/cultural constraints on the manner in which a
woman executes her job duties. Differential gender standards/expectations
are imposed on women, and often these attain a certain moral colouring
designed to regulate women through notions of shame and fear, norms and
frames. These are based on sexist ideologies that seek to oppress women
into dependent and submissive positions. Often, these notions are propagated
by women workers as well as men workers due to ignorance, upholding of
traditional values, and the fear of being labeled as socially different and
objectionable. Such gender-based ideologies are the seeds of sexual
harassment that women face at the workplace and elsewhere.
Lessons to be learned
Chapter one gives testimony to some of the existing work structures, practices,
conditions and culture from the perspectives of women workers from within the
Sri Lankan private sector. It was founded on the surveys and case studies
undertaken for this book, as well as on research from secondary sources that
deal with women workers in various sectors of the Sri Lankan economy. Based
on the perceptions and experiences of women workers the following barriers to
gender equity and equality in the workplace were identified:
1) There is gender stereotyping with regard to what constitutes men’s work
and women’s work at the workplace-resulting in vertical, horizontal, and
divisional segregation of men and women. In particular, women workers
may face a “glass ceiling” that prevents them from accessing management
and leadership positions beyond a point. Furthermore, structural limitations
of certain job categories do not provide clearly-defined work ladders for
promotion or opportunities for career development. These are particular
areas of concern for employers to focus on if workplaces are to be desegregated
in the interests of gender equity/equality. It would require
multiple strategies to address the three-dimensional aspects of gender
segregation: institutional action to encourage deserving women workers
into management tiers and the creation of new job ladders for dead end
jobs to ensure that upward mobility can take place. Moreover, policy
decisions need to be taken to overcome horizontal and divisional
segregation. This involves training women and men in non-traditional skills
and absorbing them into non-traditional jobs, as well as the recruitment of
suitable women and men into work divisions that are gender segregated.
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