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omen in the Workplace: Issues and Challenges

As a student studying BTech in Public Relations Management in Faculty of Informatics and Design at Cape Peninsula University of Technology, I decided to write a blog on a number of challenges that women face in the workplace as a result of their gendered status and what can do to improve their chances of getting ahead in the industry.  This blog will help women who need tips and tools in the workplace.  

In the past couple of years, by a number of women trailblazers who have attained high-profile leadership positions in the business world and in politics. There are several new women CEOs in Fortune 500 companies, a woman Speaker of the House, a female major network news anchor, and several women in South Africa who make names for themselves in their industries and they have overtaken well known male roles e.g Prof Nirvana Bechan, Oprah (richest women in the world) same level as Bill gates, Pumzile Mlambo Ngcuka   (Former deputy president)  and Businesswomen Elbeth Gills. if you can look out there, there is still a shortage of women in top leadership positions.  

Although women are attending university and graduate schools in record numbers, and hold about half of the general “management and professional positions” in organizations, but they still include only about 15% of the officer level positions in the largest global companies, are simple 7% of the top wage earners, they hold only about 2.5% of the CEO positions and, on average, that makes only 73% of what men do.

Historically, men have dominated the workplace and established the rules of the organizational culture. As more and more women enter this domain, they encounter ingrained male dominated environments that, to them, are unwelcoming and inflexible.  And no wonder!  woman’s working styles and talents are very different from men’s and the “rules” men have created don’t fit women.