I do not think this is an age old discussion, but more of a discussion that was left open ended. As the world we live gets highly connected by fiber optics through social media, many issues that do not get reported in the past gets "posted" within a few clicks.
Diversity had been the rage in the past decade or so, pushing for more female leadership within the male dominant corporate as well as political world. So what is diversity? what is equality?
Diversity: the condition of having or being composed of differing elements especially the inclusion of different types of people (such as people of different races or cultures) in a group or organization.
Equality: the state of being equal, especially in status, rights, or opportunities.
Why am I so vested in this debate? Well I do have a mother like everyone else, I have a sister too, like some of us and I wish to understand this more towards establishing a fair and just society not just for my family, but for the future generations.
On this note, there are just 3 specific areas which I wish to elaborate more about:
1. Inclusion of different types of people 2. Given equal rights or opportunities.
Let me define the different "Types" of people
1. Male vs Female
2. Single vs Married
3. Pregnant vs Married vs Single.
Different Opportunities
1. Consideration for a job ie. Interview
2. Promotion in a job
3. Appraisal for performance.
From my own point of view, the gender only matters when your marital status moves away from "single". The corporate angle would then be how much "time" and "effort" would a female colleague spend at work vs a male colleague.
At this junction, I personally feel that it is premature to judge "effort/time" because all female goes through the same education system and all of them do not serve the national service in Singapore which meant that they would have additional 2 years of work experience compared to their male counterpart. Also, there has been increasing statistics that on average, females are ahead of the curve in terms of performance and competence in recent times.
So if any judgement was made to opine that male colleagues have more potential than females should be deem unfair.
The main problem arises when the female colleague becomes pregnant. We all know that pregnancy do affect their condition, some more than others. There will be time where they can only work within their own confines of their condition, take sick leaves and medical leaves to visit the Gynae and eventually the maternity leave.
The below judgement had often been contentious and not openly discuss by the HR department nor the department heads.
A. Pregnant female vs single male do we judge them based on
i. Total deliverables completed within the year of 12 mths
ii. Total deliverables completed within the period which each person "has to work?"
B. Married male with kids vs single female
i. Total deliverables completed within the year of 12 mths
ii. Total deliverables completed within the period which each person "has to work?"
Singapore's emphasis on meritocracy would have severely handicapp female in such instances but what is truly the right thing to do?
Still do we work in a hectic, ruthless and dog eat dog corporate world or are we in a charity or government organization who can afford such luxuries due to the seemingly endless funds?
I am still at odds with these complications, one hand, i hope female would have a seperate progression path compared to male and that would "seem" to be fair BUT seggregation itself is epitome to discrimination itself.
Still i find myself at odds where singles are expected to step up because of circumstances and if they are not being rewarded or deem to have to deal with the aftermath or by product of "diversity" then what is diversity?
Then i found this: https://medium.com/inspired-ideas-prek-12/whats-the-difference-between-equity-and-equality-in-education-ef20971e7fda
We are so up to date with tech, designs and inventions but our moral value and education systems are way way out of date...
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