Feminist organizational behaviour is a field of study that investigates the impact of individual men, groups of men, and masculinist values and ideas on behaviour within organizations, for the purpose of identifying and addressing sexual discrimination. Cultural and social factors are the major factors of gender disparity. Before industrial evolution, in many patriarchal societies, women were restricted to the housekeeping tasks and were more focused on raising children. In these instances, they may not have equal access to education and have fewer opportunities to develop professional careers.
Theory
Men assumed supervisory roles over women and received higher wages, whereas women had limited employment opportunities. Women may be subjected to discriminatory hiring practices, since they may take time off to have children and hence be considered less productive. Young women may switch fields due to lack of mentors and role models in the field. In modern organizations for instance, women are facing a lot of difficulties during this pandemic situation especially pregnant working women who are more prone to the virus, have asked to stay at home, even if other staff are continuing the work at the workplace. This is a challenging approach in this changed world for women. Feminist researchers gave the theory that explains the effect of sexuality and gender on the organizational behaviour for example, on organizational structure and culture, perception, promotion, learning, motivation, socialization, communication, stress, strategy, power and leadership and other fields of behaviour.
Application
Economic development of any Biotechnology industry and gender equality go hand-in-hand. Pay equality within the organization is one of the factors that affects the culture of that organization. For example when an organization pays a woman less than it does a man who is committed in same work, it is not only discrimination but it is demotivating for all the women working in the organization and would affect the teamwork and economic growth of the organization in the long-term.
In modern organizations, by recognition of the gender disparity, there has been a push for policy changes at high-levels of academia and industry to address the challenges women may face. Some new initiatives include family-friendly policies to ensure gender parity in recruitment, promotion, and awards. For example, some Biotech industries have begun providing support to women faculty affected by pregnancy and childbirth by reducing work load, extending the tenure clock, and providing maternity pay and child care facilities. Recognising the achievements of women employees through award programmes is another major global initiative. An example is of the China Young Female Scientists Award, an extension of the prestigious UNESCO for Women in Science Award, Presented annually to 10 candidates, the award honours young women who have made notable achievements in their field of work.
Evaluation
It is expected that women will be more satisfied with their careers and more dedicated to the organization the more they perceive the organizational culture to be portrayed by collectivistic values because these values will in general to be more in accordance with women’s natural inclinations. Women (perhaps because of biology) were more likely to “tend and befriend” in midst of stress – that is, to exhibit behaviours that protect them from harm and associate with their personal network for empathy and support.
Recently, two women from different continents were awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry on Oct 7, 2020 for their pioneering work on CRISPR, a gene-editing tool that gives scientists the power to change the behaviour of living cells and potentially cure diseases. Fortunately, there are several other talented female role models in synthetic biology. Christina Agapakis, Jenny Rooke, Una Ryan, Vonnie Estes, and Jaleh Daie are five incredibly driven women paving the way for gender equality in synthetic biology. All five have not only extensive science backgrounds but also years of experience leading and investing in biotech and synthetic biology companies by following these feminist approaches.