Psychology Essay

Effects of Perceptions of Women’s Intellectual and Leadership Abilities on Workplace Experiences
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How Perceptions of Women’s Intellectual and Leadership Abilities Influence Their Workplace Experiences
Although women’s contribution in areas anciently believed to be for men has increased in the past one century, there is a lot of understatement of their capabilities at work and in academic fields. In their recent study, Smith, and Gayles (2018) note that women struggle more than men do, not only in getting jobs but also in keeping them, to be promoted, and in attaining pay equity status. Therefore, the perception of females’ intellectual and leadership abilities negates their workplace experience since their capability is misjudged and their efforts underpaid.
In most cases, women’s performance in workplaces is misjudged since they are considered inferior to men in most tasks. Despite having attended the same classes and gone through the same education training with men, women are downplayed during interviews for jobs, and getting their promotion. For example, an interviewee in the study by Smith and Gayle (2018) explains how men in her engineering class would question her being engineering yet they were exposed to the same training and class test. Conclusively, underestimating women’s power is an indicator of sexism at the workplace, and this victimizes woman more in earning their livelihood.
Another effect of the wrong perception of female intellectual and leadership is the widening pay gap even in the worlds most developed industry.

For example, in Hollywood, women pay rage has remained below that of men regardless of their character roles in a play. Adler (2017) reveals that women are paid 79 percent of the pay men receive, irrespective of their education and education achievement. Such phenomena in job market undermine women’s growth and discourage them from seeking equality since there is less likely to change.
The same cases apply in leadership sector where women leadership is below that of men. Apart from Hollywood where there is less number of women directors and cinematographers than men (Lang, (2015), there are other areas where women are underrepresented. Fortune 500 survey in 2017 revealed that women occupied 31 percent of board seats of companies listed in fortune 500. Although this is a double fold improvement from 13.6 percent in 2003 (Chugh, 2017), the stereotyping of women has continued to bar them from the top positions in boardrooms.
In brief, the prevailing negative prevailing perception on women’s capabilities and intellectual at work and leadership undermines the society’s growth and development. Evidently, women have underperformed economically since their opportunities of employment, promotion, and equal pay have shrunk. For this reason, there exist needs for promoting the terms of equal employment opportunity and equity pay to not only empower women but also boost society’s economic and political progress.
References
Adler, K. W. (2017). The Truth about the Pay Gap. Retrieved from https://www.marieclaire.com/career-advice/a22033/wage-gap/
Chugh, S. (2017). Gender Diversity in the Boardroom: Have Women Reached the Top? Aweshkar Research Journal, 22(1), 120-144.
Lang, B. (2015, October 27). Women comprise 7% of Directors on Top 250 Films (Study). Retrieved April 15, 2018, from http://variety.com/2015/film/news/women-hollywood-inequality-directors-behind-the-camera-1201626691/
Smith, K. N., & Gayles, J. G. (January 10, 2018). “Girl Power”: Gendered academic and workplace experiences of College Women in Engineering. Social Sciences, 7, 1.)