We at 123RF are strongly advocating for Women’s Rights, and the most important day of all – National Women’s Equality Day. Make use of 123RF’s stock photos and vectors to fight the conventional, all-controlling patriarch.
A right to receive proper health care. A right to take maternity leave without feeling like you’ve lost your chance to advance your career. Ending the unnecessary bias against mothers who work. A right to an equal pay ratio regardless of gender or ethnicity. A right to have equal standing as a man in the working world, especially in a corporate environment. Putting a stop to the gender pay gap – and not just in the USA, but on a global scale, especially in Asia. Women deserve the right to earn as much as a man would. As AAUW states: no matter how you analyze it, the gender pay gap is real, persistent, and harmful to women’s economic security.
Women Who Work
Length of leave can be a factor in the perceptions of co-workers as well – women who take longer leaves are often seen as less committed to their jobs than women who take much shorter leaves.
— Harvard Business Review
What challenges do women face in the workplace?
Key in equal pay or gender equality when you’re searching on 123RF’s library of content for more stock photos like these.
Here’s a scenario for example. If you’re a working woman and you’re sick, you take sick leave. That’s normal. Men do it too. But imagine working in a completely male-dominated workplace. If your sick leave reason is for a female health problem, male co-workers regard you as weak and a handicap to the team. God forbid if you decide to start a family. Expect to get passed over for opportunities that should have rightfully been offered you, simply because you’re, well, a woman. You attempt to raise the issue of maternity leave and career advancement with your superiors. Your sexist male boss, who’s still living in the 1950s, says you’re too emotional and it’s probably the best for everyone if you just keep your ideas to the kitchenette. By the way, the coffee machine needs refilling, Jane, just letting you know. In all honesty, if you’re experiencing this, read up on your federal employment laws. It’s probably high time to consult your local Labor Department. But most women would rather avoid having to go to such lengths. They just resort to quitting to save their own sanity. And well, who can blame them?
It’s a huge hurdle. We still don’t hear of many female CEOs dominating the global workforce. As of June 1, 2019, Fortune 500 reports an all-time high of 33 female CEOs.
On Working Mothers
In truth, it’s not just single or unmarried women who face these gender inequalities on the daily. Let’s look at mothers who hit the daily grind to put food on the table for young ones. Women deserve a right to receive proper health care. A right to take maternity leave and ending the unnecessary bias against mothers who work. No more damaging a woman’s career by taking away opportunities she has a right to have simply because she is with child, or has children.
Around the world, we are seeing a trend towards legislating longer, paid parental leaves for both mothers and fathers. Earlier this year, for example, Canada expanded its paid parental leave program from 35 weeks to 61 weeks; several Scandinavian countries have already made similar moves. These changes are motivated by a progressive concern to improve the work-life balance for working parents and encourage greater parent/child contact in those crucial first months of a newborn’s life. But while the sentiment behind these new policies is well-meaning and commendable, there may be a “dark side” to longer parental leaves. Harvard Business Review
Use the keywords working mother on 123RF to explore similar stock photos in our library.
At this point in time, it’s still fairly impossible for mothers to work and climb the ladder while juggling childcare. For the average working mom, there’s a distinct lack of work-life balance compared to a man. A working mother often loses out on a possible promotion, like that managerial post she was working so hard for. Her priorities are assumed as less committed in the workplace, instead toward her household. Like it or not, motherhood comes with a career penalty across the globe. It’s the same with female athletes. But with major brands like Nike updating their contract policies for their sponsored pregnant athletes, there’s hope for change in the future.
Workplace Harassment
Working in selected occupations that have a higher male concentration, women not only receive much less for equal work in a pay ratio, but often face harassment as well. We know that workplace harassment isn’t limited to physical acts like creepy male co-workers who grope, grab, or make unwanted advances. Unwelcome verbal behavior is also part of workplace harassment tactics, many of which go unreported, because:
The women are too intimidated by their male co-worker’s scare tactics, primarily because they may be their superior. Any chance of these women climbing the ladder if they file a harassment report is crushed.
Helpless, these women buy into the “I’ve got a great work record here, no one will believe you anyway.”
Their HR department fail to actively pay attention to how women are treated in the workplace. A high tendency to brush these topics aside in favor of ‘keeping the peace’ or ‘let’s not make this into a big deal’ is widely practiced.
All of which generally results in the victims undoubtedly quitting their would-have-been-great jobs.
Check out contributor Aleksandra Sabelskaia for more creative works such as the above illustration. Search with the keywords workplace harassment on 123RF and narrow it down to vector illustrations for similar stock content.
Here’s some details on harassment conduct according to an article by The Balance:
Harassing conduct may include offensive jokes, slurs, name-calling, physical assaults or threats, intimidation, ridicule, insults, offensive pictures, and more. Workplace harassment isn’t limited to sexual harassment and doesn’t preclude harassment between two people of the same gender. The harasser can be your boss, a supervisor in another department, a co-worker, or even a nonemployee. Interestingly, the victim doesn’t necessarily have to be the person being harassed; it can be anyone affected by the harassing behavior.
Celebrate National Women’s Equality Day with stock photos from 123RF and continue to fight the good fight. Check out our Women Of The World photography collection while you’re at it. For more inspiration on equality, especially in stock photos, read about embracing the skin positivity movement.