Women in the workplace
2712 mots
11 pages
Sebag Raphaëlle 07/05/2010B00072650
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Organizational Behavior
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Women in the workplace
Introduction
A few weeks ago, The Economist published a shocking article tackling the issue of the Gendercide occurring in Asia. It gave us the figure of at least 100 million baby girls who were killed, aborted or neglected in Asian countries including China or Armenia. The natural ratio of 105 boys at birth for 100 girls is completely skewed, with an example of 121 boys for 100 girls in China or 117 in Armenia.
But baby girls’ cause is not lost. South Korea, which had the worst birth ratio of all those countries succeeded in weakening this Gendercide thanks to the government action which introduced quotas of women in public companies, thus promoting the rights of women. Between 1992 and 2010, number of women applicants for the Government’s Foreign Service examination jumped from 3 to 83, which represents more than half of the candidates. In 2008, the passing rate of women for Foreign Ministry was twice the men’s one. The flow of women in the public sector had such an extent that the government also had to put in place a quota for men.
But there is still a long haul to change the attitude. According to an article of the International Herald Tribune, 33% of South Koreans still think that women’s place is at home.
Fortunately, the problem doesn’t have the same size in the West, but we could ask ourselves where exactly we are up to.
In the West, mentalities have changed (?)
Nowadays, as Elisabeth K. Kelan and Rachel Dunkley Jones demonstrate in their article, the mind-set around women seems to have shifted, at least in the West. It seems we are really far from considerations like Nixon’s one during his presidency (1969-1974): “I don’t think a woman should be in any government job whatsoever… mainly because they are erratic. And emotional. Men are erratic and