Gender
Gender differences have historically been used to justify treating men and women differently in the area of employment.
Some reasons why:
- women may need to take time off during a pregnancy or to undertake caring responsibilities
- a gender's inherent strength or ability to perform particular physical tasks
- stereotyping of ‘appropriate gender roles’ may view women as the ‘homemakers’ who stay at home to look after the children whilst the men go to work and are the primary ‘breadwinners’.
During the past few decades attitudes have been changing and legislation has been introduced which has led to an increase in equal treatment of the genders. Women have made huge inroads into the labour market, changing the view that they should be ‘homemakers’ or part-timers and are taking their place in employment alongside their male colleagues.
There is an increasing awareness by organisations of the need for work-life balance policies as the old ways of working are simply not flexible enough to meet the pressures on people’s time. Changes in circumstances, combining work with education and training, and needing time for family commitments and travel all call for employers to have good work-life balance arrangements.
With the skills shortage, the changing balance of the population and the demands of customers those employers offering an improved work-life balance with working arrangements that meet individual needs and preferences can get the right people for the job and allow them to work effectively.
Sexuality
There are a number of sexual orientations. Sexual orientation has been defined as enduring emotional, romantic, sexual or affectional attraction to another person. It is easily distinguished from other components of sexuality including biological sex, gender identity and the social gender role.
A person’s biological sex can be defined as being either male or female, as determined by chromosomes and body chemistry. Gender identity is a person’s internal self-awareness of being either male or female, masculine or feminine, or something in-between and is the gender to which a person feels he or she belongs. The social gender roles are the roles which society consider appropriate for men and women.
Sexual orientation ranges from exclusive homosexuality to exclusive heterosexuality and includes various forms of bisexuality. People who are bisexual can experience sexual, emotional and affectional attraction to both their own sex and the opposite sex. Persons with a homosexual orientation are sometimes referred to as gay (applies to both men and women) or as a lesbian (applies to women only).
Incidents can occur where people are discriminated and prejudiced against because of their sexual orientation. In the workplace people may not reveal their sexual identity for fear that they may be treated unequally or even be harassed.
Legislation has been introduced to help prevent people being discriminated against in the workplace for their sexual orientation and also to give same sex couples the right to have a Civil Partnership.
Gender Equality Scheme
The draft Gender Equality Scheme has been published as part of an ongoing consultation exercise which ends on 31 July. The feedback will be considered and the draft Scheme will be amended in light of that feedback and formally published on 1 August 2007
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