CHALLENGES FACED BY WOMEN WHEN MOVING UP THE LADDER AFTER THE 2OTH CENTURY

      

The male and female gender are known to face different realities across the globe, and this exposes them to different opportunities as well as challenges. Every adult with a good mental health knows that the challenges faced by women since time immemorial till date are more than the opportunities which knock on their doors. An integral part of a woman’s life is balancing the expectations of work and family, this is what pushes some women to face the home fully because it is priority especially for those in Africa, making them lose opportunities to be a better individual and contribute to their societies immensely. What it takes to be a woman who can utilize as many opportunities as possible that crosses her path in different geographical locations is different just like different shades of a color- The same color but different shades.

It is no news that times have changed and the myth that women cannot be successful in careers that need physical or mental strength is long erased. The female gender can now be found in every field, in every department, in every system and in every hour of the day, which is a breakthrough for all women and for the younger generation of women who have dreams, but this does not come on a platter of gold, it is two sides of a coin, rare opportunities and daily challenges. Moving from finance, health, law, aerospace, engineering, technology, theology to academics and art, women are expressing themselves every second, but the percentage of women compared to men in various spheres are low due to the perceived challenges by young women who want to work in these fields and the stories shared by women in various platforms, especially through the media on the challenges being faced daily and why their growth is either slow or stagnant.

Unfortunately, these challenges aren’t improved by the societies we live in, males aren’t the only ones shoving stereotypes down the throats of women, other genders included, most painfully women to women. Its absurd that in the 21^st century, skin color is still a challenge for black women working in white dominated environments, that is if they get the job. Religion is another big issue which I don’t see fading soon. A Muslim woman doesn’t have the right to cover her hair due to her religious injunction or can’t identify with Islam because she would be perceived as an advocate of terrorism. The place one is raised affects the accent one speaks with, and this is usually a problem for women who can’t speak in a certain “accepted accent” even if they are more intelligent, hardworking and have the required skills to work efficiently in a particular field. We forget all these women want is to contribute positively to their society outside her homes and these stumbling blocks are the greatest causes of unequal representation of genders across all spheres.

To begin with, Women in Arts, Media and Entertainment have a higher statistical representation compared to other fields. According to the National Museum of Women in Arts, women earn 70% of Bachelor of Fine Arts and 65-75% of Master of Fine Arts degrees in the U.S, though only 46% of working artists are women, whereas only 5% of displayed arts in the museum belong to women and only a third of representation in the gallery is designated to female artists. This affects the visibility and influence women have in the world of art, hypersexuality, also being one of the major challenges. The opportunities are there but what is the price and after paying what percentage of visibility will be earned? Bocart et al stated in ‘Glass Ceilings in the Art Market’ that there are no women in the top 0.03% of the auction market, where 41% of the profit is concentrated, 96% of art works sold at auction are by male artists. Nearly half of visual artists in the United States are women; on average, they earn 74cents for every dollar made by male artists, was published in National Endowments for the Arts. The Association of Art Museum Directors is dominated by 47.6% women, although they are mainly the ones with the smallest budgets. Writing for Artnet News, Ben Davis pointed out how the pay gap for female college graduates affects artists. Averagely, women have access to 22% fewer resources to create a product and have to work 22% harder to compete at the same level for scarce opportunities. It was also noted in Artnet News that 13.7% of living artists represented by galleries in Europe and North America are women. Artsy database stated that women in the arts are found not to experience the “motherhood penalty”-lost or stagnant income after children but men in the arts do receive an income bump when they become fathers. While women are well represented early in the career pipeline in media and entertainment, they are a minority at the highest levels, with women accounting for only 27% of C-suite positions. It is also observed that women’s day-to-day workplace experiences in media and entertainment are worse than men. The San Diego State study found that in 2020, the percentages of women working behind the scenes collectively as directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors, and cinematographers on the 100 top grossing films barely moved from 20% to 21% while 67% of films employed only 0-4 women in these roles.

Moreover, in the world of STEM, specifically, in the field of architecture, only 7% of Pritzker Prize winners and less than 3% of AIA Gold medal winners were women. CNBC news stated the major challenges faced by women in STEM are confidence, understanding wages/salary and lack of mentorship. Other challenges include myths about mental capacity and motherhood. Negative gender-based experiences, such as sexual harassment, are more likely to occur in male- dominated settings like the sciences and men are far more likely to direct sex-based mistreatment toward women in male dominated careers as a means of penalizing them for violating gender role norms and stereotypes. Also, the cultural stereotype of the scientist as objective, rational, and single-minded is consistent with prescribed norms for men.

Furthermore, women in finance also have their share of challenges, Karen Penney, the Vice-President of UK Payments Products at Western Union mentioned some of these challenges in her interview with Finance Monthly. The inability to put oneself forward for opportunities due to low self esteem, the Zeal to achieve perfection which isn’t possible, thereby spending more time on a task when more tasks should have been executed and the inability to plan for positions, women wish to occupy ahead of time. Karen thinks the challenges she faced in her career are intrinsic not due to anybody or an external impact, she believes males and females have the same opportunities and gender isn’t an excuse not to achieve your dreams in the financial sector. She added that 40% of the executives at Western Union are women while 50% of their employees are also women. In Investopedia, lack of role models, work-life balance and manager support were some of the challenges listed. Investopedia also stated that 44% of students who enrolled in Harvard Business School in 2020 were women while at Wharton, only 41% of those enrolled in the MBA program in 2020 were female.

In addition, there are fewer female academicians compared to males because of the commitment women put into trying to balance their academic schedules like publishing articles, preparing, and giving lectures, attending conferences/meetings and their social roles in the family like babysitting, doing house chores amongst others, affecting the representation of women in this sector. Women make up to 13% of professors and 22% of associated professors in Finland, in Sweden, women professors made up to 9% of the whole academy while in Netherlands, they are 5%. Despite over half of all PhDs being awarded to women, the percentage of female tenured faculty hovers between 20% -33% in the EU and US and falls to as low as 5% in fields like engineering, demonstrating the difficulty women face moving up in academia. The obstacles for women are present at all stages, including hiring, letters of recommendation, student evaluations, peer reviews, awarding of grants, funding, requests for service and promotion to tenure. The pay gap is also significant, in UK, female academics earn 12% less than their male counterparts. Unfortunately, despite the numerous advantages of the presence of female professors- increasing class participation, providing diverse perspectives, acting as a role model for female students and increasing female student grade performance – women in academia, especially in male dominated fields are at serious disadvantage.

 In conclusion, the challenges faced by women in all, spheres start from the home. There are few families who don’t discriminate between the male and female child and few husbands who don’t feel the woman should pay more attention to the home and leave the work and ambitions to her male colleagues to scramble over. In the 2021 Nigerians in Diaspora meeting, the Director General of World Trade Organization mentioned her husband is a key influential person in her success story, they had domestic staff who took care of the home while they supported their children in the best way they could. We can’t argue that opportunities given to women across all walks of life have increased but the challenges faced by these women in the path of their careers are not reducing neither are policies which can erase them being put into action. A sentence all 21^st century women in any field should hold to is ‘’ Believe in yourself and follow thy heart”.