Women have a right to be proud of their achievements in the long-running fight for equal pay in the workplace. Women are developing a strong presence in practically every field that was once dominated by men. Nonetheless, there are still obstacles in the workplace for women. The majority of these key difficulties aren’t new.

Successfully overcoming these hurdles will include recruiting appropriate and strategic cooperation from others inside the company. Going it alone as a worker may result in you being labelled as a problem employee, limiting your capacity to advance in your profession. As an employer, you must support the initiative and demonstrate your dedication to your employees.

Motherhood

Employers are not allowed to discriminate or take adverse action against a woman because she is pregnant. However, an employer is not required to give paid maternity leave or paid child care leave in the future. A woman’s absence from work to care for a kid is likely to have an impact on her career advancement.

Negotiating an arrangement that offers flexible work choices such as telecommuting and working non-standard business hours can help a career woman who becomes pregnant or a working mother deal with this issue. Employer incentives such as flexible schedules and hours are becoming more common as a method to attract talented employees. In fact, professional flexibility allows both men and women to choose their family lives over career growth.

Equal Pay

On an average, women continue to earn less than men. Women are hired at lower pay rates in entry-level professions, and the wage gap widens as they advance in their careers. To discover if a pay gap exists, a company should undertake a pay audit. If there is no wage disparity, the company should consider releasing the information to employees and job applicants. Preventing pay negotiations is one approach to prevent a pay gap from forming.

A woman can request a pay audit from her company, but she risks being labelled a problem by management. The lady in that circumstance must determine whether or not she wants to fight her employer over a salary disparity. If not, the woman may want to look for a new career at a company where the pay gap has been bridged by management.

Leaving for a new job appears to be an excellent strategy to make up for the income gap. According to data, a woman with an MBA who switches professions two or more times is paid $53,472 less than a woman who stays at her initial job and rises through the ranks. Women who move careers must demonstrate their worth to their new bosses. Men with MBAs who switched jobs made $13,743 more than those who stayed with their previous workplace.

Fewer Leadership Opportunities

Many firms still have a male-dominated top management. What is the reason for this? It’s often because men are allocated to high-profile, mission-critical assignments that serve as professional stepping stones. This pattern could be a result of the organization’s decision-makers’ ingrained biases.

These can be huge roadblocks in a woman’s career path. To overcome this, a woman must contact an empathetic supervisor or decision-maker and negotiate meaningful assignments that will allow her to contribute significantly to the business.

Eventually, the employer will have to address the disparity in opportunity. Employers will need to encourage women to take part in significant projects. Employers can do this through mentoring and engaging their career-minded female employees by assigning them to project teams, keeping them accountable for their responsibilities, and giving them the opportunity to perform.

Sexual Harassment

In the workplace, sexual harassment is still a problem. When it occurs, women must report it, and management must investigate and take proper steps to correct it. Companies must put in place standard guidelines for managing complaints regarding sexual harassment at the workplace. Such guidelines must be public knowledge to all the employees – women and men.

Industry-Specific Bias

In some industries, the challenges women confront are more pronounced than in others. Women encounter considerable challenges in the high-tech industry. The same appears to be true in research labs, the energy industry, and other science and technology-based companies.

A woman attempting to forge a career in these fields must be aware of these biases, but she does not have to accept them. Employers in these industries must implement the organisational and cultural changes listed above to attract and retain the finest personnel, or they will confront substantial talent shortages in their workforces. They will simply be unable to attract or keep the high-skilled women and men they require. Those workers will seek employment in other industries where the work environment is more family-friendly and tolerant of diversity.