After learning about the definitions and history of gender bias, we can learn that such gender issues will result in inequality between women and men in the workplace. Focusing on this issue, we can discover that gender bias still exists widely in the workplace in the United States, and it causes a glass ceiling in the workplace, results in women’s stress and anxiety, and reinforces gender inequality in the US society.
First of all, gender bias causes a glass ceiling in the workplace. Stereotypes about women in the workplace can be one of the biggest factors that prevent them from being promoted or taking higher-level positions. Sufficient evidence and statistics have shown that women are less likely to be promoted to a higher position in the US. For example, according to the latest studies, in the United States, women only make up 23 percent of C-Suites positions; and women of color make up only 4 percent (Reiners, 2019). Also, a survey among employers in the US shows that male employees are 30 percent more likely to be promoted into managerial roles than their female peers (Reiners, 2019). In the global context, among the Fortune 500 companies, there are only 3 female CEOs. All these data unveil the underrepresentation of women in the higher-level positions in the US, and the “glass ceiling” is the most important factor that causes this issue.
Even if a woman gains a higher position in a company, the glass ceiling still prevents them from achieving better performance or accomplishment. For example, Sangita Woerner, the Senior V.P. of Marketing and Guest Experience at Alaska Airlines, can be an example. Though as a senior manager, Woerner still confounded biases due to her height and her role as a woman and as a mother (Marcus, 2020). In the interview, she revealed that she was frequently introduced as a mother of four rather than her professional position, title or accomplishment. Also, she would frequently receive an uncomfortable compliment on her height—5 feet (Marcus, 2020). All these comments and description of her suggest that people are questioning her competitiveness in the workplace and her abilities to balance family and work. To prevent the negative impacts caused by such maternal wall bias and gender discrimination, Woerner has to work much harder than her male peers so as to meet the expectations of employees and investors.
Secondly, gender bias results in women’s stress and anxiety in the workplace. Stress and anxiety can be an indirect factor that causes the underrepresentation in higher positions in the workplace, and it may even lead to the higher unemployment of women. In a research study of gender biases among resident physicians in the United States, the research results showed that female residents confronted implicit gender bias in the process of training (Hansen, 2019). For example, female residents are less likely to take the leading roles in teams, their medical decisions are more frequently challenged by supervisors than male peers, and they worry more about violating gender behavioral norms when having direct physical contact with patients, such as in the process of cardiac resuscitation (Hansen, 2019). From this research study, we can know that comparing with explicit gender bias, implicit gender bias is the source of female employees’ stress and anxiety, making them less competitive than male peers. Moreover, implicit gender biases among residents will finally turn to explicit gender biases in hospitals. When female residents are more likely to be disqualified in their training phrase, they are more likely to give up their career development due to the high pressure—and that’s the reason why the number of female doctors is less than male doctors in the US (Hansen, 2019).
Last, but not least, gender bias reinforces gender inequality in the US society. According to Sheth (2020), Gender-based wage gaps still exist in the United States. For example, according to the US Census Bureau, in 2018, the average gender pay gap was around 18.9 percent, which means that women can only earn 81.1 percent salaries as much as their male peers (Sheth, 2020). Seattle is the city that features the biggest gender-based wage gaps, and women averagely earn around 78 percent of their male peers (Sheth, 2020). In Los Angeles, though featuring the least gap, women still earn salaries less than 9 percent than males on average. When taking race into consideration, it is discovered that black women confront the greatest gap, around 34 percent, while Asian women confront the least gap of just 3 percent (Sheth, 2020). The gender-based income gap is one of the fundamental factors that will reinforce gender inequality or sexism. When women cannot earn an equal wage as men, they will be exploited as cheap labor, or they cannot remain equal in family or society. More importantly, gender-based income gaps will make women trapped in poverty because mothers, especially single mothers, have to spend more money raising children. As a result, if women earn less than their male peers, they will be more vulnerable to diseases, unemployment, accidents as well as domestic violence and so on.