As part of this assignment, the Assistant Chief of the local fire department is examining the potential problem of gender barriers that may exist in employee promotions. To do so, data from fifty employees who applied for promotions were collected and formed into the crosstab shown below. At first glance, it appears that the number of women promoted is significantly higher, while the number of men who could not be promoted is also higher. This creates the assumption that a gender barrier exists and that women have some privilege in a professional promotion. To examine this effect, Pearson’s chi-square test was conducted for the data collected and showed that χ2(1) = 3.6845, p =.0549 (Laerd Statistics, 2020). It is not difficult to see that the corresponding p-value was above the critical alpha level (.05), indicating that the null hypothesis should be accepted (Taylor, 2019). In other words, the statistical analysis performed showed insufficient meaningful evidence to determine the relationship between gender and career promotion; that is, it cannot be said that men and women are not equally promoted in the local fire department.
In examining the phenomenon of gender inequity in local firefighter promotions, the Assistant Chief must consider several aspects. First, the very decision to remove gender barriers is dictated by the public agenda, including the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN, 2020). Consequently, dealing with gender inequalities in the workplace must be promoted by a desire to be in line with the public agenda. Second, the assistant supervisor must consider that the gender barrier works both ways: not only can women suffer from unfair treatment, but also men (Baron, & Bielby, 2018; Manzi, 2019). Third, when promoting employees, the critical factor tends to be the talent and competencies of the employee, regardless of age (Granat, 2019). It is possible that women in this department appear to be more effective workers, showing higher performance than men. For these reasons, the gender barriers in this fire department should be considered holistically.
As the statistical test showed, no correlation between career promotion and gender differentiation of employees was found: there is insufficient evidence that progress depends on gender. These statistics should form the basis of the report that the assistant superintendent will provide to the department supervisor for decision-making. Among the specific reasons for the lack of gender bias in the fire department, the Assistant Chief can cite, on average, an equal degree of preparedness among employees and a cumulatively lower number of men (46%, n = 23) who applied for promotion as opposed to women (54%, n = 27).
However, the absence of gender bias in promotion decisions, in this case, does not mean that the phenomenon is absent in the professional industry as a whole. On the contrary, many reports report that men and women have unequal rights in professional promotions (Zakaras et al., 2021; ShapeTalent, 2020). If there is a gender bias in the fire department and more men or women are promoted, this will form the foundation for long-term problems. First, the prevalence of a particular gender in higher positions can create pressure for employees of the opposite gender, resulting in the development of job-associated stress (Bader et al., 2018). Second, if gender bias in the fire department becomes public knowledge, it will create a reputational blow to the organization. Third, if a gender barrier does exist, it is assumed that more promoted employees of a particular gender were not due to their competencies or talents but to subjective factors affecting career development. In this case, the quality of management and operational efficiency would be threatened because higher organizational positions would be occupied not by more experienced or qualified employees but by those who had a comfortable gender for promotion. Thus, gender barriers to career rise would become a severe problem for the local fire department.
References
Bader, B., Stoermer, S., Bader, A. K., & Schuster, T. (2018). Institutional discrimination of women and workplace harassment of female expatriates: Evidence from 25 host countries. Journal of Global Mobility, 6(1), 40-58. Web.
Baron, J. N., & Bielby, W. T. (2018). Organizational barriers to gender equality: Sex segregation of jobs and opportunities. In A. S. Rossi (Ed.), Gender and the life course (pp. 233-252). Routledge.
Granat, J. (2019). Four benefits of promoting talent from within. Forbes. Web.
Laerd Statistics. (2020). Chi-square test for association using SPSS Statistics. LS. Web.
Manzi, F. (2019). Are the processes underlying discrimination the same for women and men? A critical review of congruity models of gender discrimination. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 1-17. Web.
ShapeTalent. (2020). The 10 barriers blocking female progression in your organisation. Shape Talent. Web.
Taylor, C. (2019). What is the difference between alpha and p-values? ThoughtCo. Web.
UN. (2020). Take action for the sustainable development goals. Sustainable Development UN. Web.
Zakaras, J. M., Sarkar, U., Bibbins-Domingo, K., & Mangurian, C. V. (2021). Not just surviving but thriving: overcoming barriers to career advancement for women junior faculty clinician-researchers. Academic Psychiatry, 45(2), 180-184. Web.