Her Brilliant Career is a documentary focusing on gender discrimination in the work places, politics women face, and many other workplace challenges faced by the women. The documentary asserts that a few women hold law or engineering professions unlike their male counterparts (Her brilliant career). The director asserts that for women to be successful in their workplaces, they must adjust and behave in the manner their male counterparts want them to behave.
For instance, he points out that when a female engineer request for a promotion her boss will request her to work harder like the male employees. At the present, workplace discrimination against any disadvantaged group is illegal. For women to be successful in their careers, Jean Holland has organized a women’s workshop in California (Her brilliant career). In the workshop, Holland teaches women how to succeed in the workplace by being nice. Through this, she encourages the workshop participants to always be smiling and be nice in their workplaces.
Based on the above documentary, it is apparent that gender discrimination in the workplace has never been addressed. The documentary supports the writings about the gender discrimination by illustrating how the vice is perpetuated in the workplace (Her brilliant career). According to the documentary, it is apparent that the daily activities carried out within an organization dictate the level of gender inequality.
As such, organization’s internal practices play a great role in the determination of gender equality. For instance, an organization can have women and men doing same responsibilities, but when it comes to the process of decision-making only men are engaged. Based on this, it is apparent that managers and leaders play a great role in promoting the gender equality within an organization.
The narratives presented in the documentary reaffirm that the workplace continues to be a place of disadvantages groups in a number of ways (Her brilliant career). First, the documentary acknowledges that workplace discrimination is illegal. Despite this fact, the documentary shows that currently the society is facing more gender discrimination issues.
Through this, it is apparent that workplace discrimination is still being carried out. For instance, the documentary illustrates that although some women have the same qualifications and experience as their male counterparts, the male employees would be promoted ahead of them. Equally, the documentary asserts that male workers enjoy development opportunities and exposure to various challenges compared to women. The increased number of male dominated corporations in the society confirms the above argument.
Women face so many challenges when trying to make to the top of their profession because of several reasons. The reasons are lack of organizations to value the gender differences, intense work demands, marginalization of women, and clash of family and work priorities. As such, male and females in the society are different in many core ways. Their dissimilarities are influenced by their neurobiology and their cultural factors.
Therefore, the manner in which we all behave is programmed in our brains and shaped by the cultural factors. In this respect, the corporate world has not comprehended or valued the dissimilarities between men and women. Equally, some positions require professionals to dedicate much of their time to working over family or life priorities. Such chores still prove challenging for most women who are still expected by the society to undertake a number of domestic chores.
There are a number of solutions that can be implemented to end gender discrimination in the workplace. The underlying aspect in the fight against inequality is awareness. It is important to note that the lack of awareness can be either intentional or unintentional. Therefore, awareness should be created in the corporations and societies. Everyone should be informed that women and men play equal roles in the society.
Equally, women should stop evaluating their competence in comparison to their male counterparts. Therefore, they ought to abandon the fact that they are female and should be treated equally as men. Instead, they should pursue careers that are friendly and put more effort without focusing on the gender equality discourse. In addition, corporations should lead by example by fighting gender inequality from within. Both men and women should equally be involved in the division of work and in the decision-making processes.
Based on my experience, the documentary’s arguments are valid. Usually, in my work place, most departments are male dominated as management structures and hierarchy places men in the top management as compared to women counterparts. I have also noted that most of my organization’s policies lack well stated strategies of addressing the gender inequality.
Often, male workers are usually insensible to issues related to gender and this is depicted in their daily behaviors and activities at the workplace. As such, male workers enjoy many privileges in the workplace as compared to women. I have also noted that women workers usually face masculinity and marginalization, while their male counterparts enjoy development opportunities and exposure to various challenges. Owing to this, I concur with the documentary’s arguments.
Works Cited
Her brilliant career. Dir. Patricia Gabel. Perf. Jean Holland. Filmaker’s Library, 2008. DVD.