A long time ago, before the First World War, women were generally limited to kitchen duties. It wasn’t until the war that they were allowed to work, stepping up to fill roles left vacant by men. It was as if they had been waiting for a chance to prove that they, too, could work in roles outside of homemaking as effectively as the men.
However, over a century has passed since then, and one might assume that women have outgrown the struggles they face in the workplace. Unfortunately, that is far from the truth.
Today, women still face a persistent gender pay gap, earning only 82 cents for every dollar a man makes. Working women are less likely to receive promotions and often hit a glass ceiling while men ascend the corporate ladder. In addition to this, women face gender discrimination, verbal and sexual harassment, and unrealistic workplace expectations that their male colleagues do not encounter.
For International Women’s Day, PaidHR is revealing the true cost of being a working woman, not just in terms of salaries but also considering the financial, social, and emotional burdens that often go unnoticed by society. They gathered real-life experiences from women across various industries, and the results are thought-provoking, raising questions about the potential for change in the workforce.
One striking statistic that stands out is regarding “office housework.” These are tasks often assigned to women that fall outside their actual job roles. A staggering 68% of female participants reported being assigned or expected to take on administrative tasks unrelated to their positions, compared to only 49% of men.
Additionally, 65% of women admitted to consciously altering their appearance at work to avoid unwanted attention or harassment. When it also comes to reporting workplace harassment or discrimination, there is a noticeable gender split: 70% of men feel comfortable speaking up, while only 55% of women feel the same. This discrepancy is not surprising, as women’s complaints are often dismissed, downplayed, or even used against them. Consequently, 26% of women expressed that while they might feel somewhat comfortable reporting harassment, they fear potential repercussions.
To shed more light on this, one woman shared her experience with workplace bias. She recounted an incident where a colleague asked her to cook for him, simply because she was a woman. “I asked why, he said that I’m a woman. If he asked me to cook for him, nothing’s wrong with it. This was among my other colleagues. Nobody took my side. I wrote a complaint to them and a meeting was called, and they said there was nothing wrong and it was a joke. After that, my manager made my life more difficult, became stricter, and would punish me ten times compared to others.”
Stories like this reveal the ongoing challenges many women face in the workplace and affirm the need for meaningful reforms.
In this report, PaidHR discussed steps organisations can take to drive meaningful change. You can read the full report here.
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