Does gender difference concern women’s career or work path? Is today’s workplace essentially the same for women as it is for men?

Important gender differences remain when it came to career choice and development. For one thing, most women still subordinate their career goals to their husbands. This is even the case with academically gifted women. If a married man wants or needs to move to another job, his wife typically follows him and takes the best job she can find in the new location. Hence, married women usually have less control over their career than married men do. The high divorce rate means that many women will have to provide for themselves and their children. One study reported that after a divorce, the woman’s standard of living drops 27 percent. Today’s women need to take these factors into account as they consider their career Options.

Another gender difference concerns career paths. Men’s Career paths are usually continuous, whereas women’s tend to be discontinuous. In other words, once men start working full time, they usually continue to work. Women are more likely to interrupt their careers to concentrate on childrearing or family crises. Still, because women are having fewer children and are returning to work sooner, the amount of time they are out of the work is decreasing. Research says that work discontinuity is a factor in women’s lower salaries and status, while others fail to find a “family penalty” women who do not have a children usually remain in the work and tend to have a pattern of career advancement.

Work is an activity that produces something of value for others. Recent years have seen a dramatic upsurge in the number of females in the workplace. Is today’s workplace essentially the same for women as it is for men? In many respects, the answer appears to be NO. Although job discrimination on the basis of gender has been illegal for more than 30 yrs, women continue to face obstacles to occupational success, as evidenced by recent court decisions that found few of the MNC guilty of sex discrimination. Foremost among these obstacles is job segregation. Jobs are simultaneously typed by gender. Most women tend to be concentrated in female dominated jobs where there is little opportunity for advancement or increase in salary. Workers in female dominated fields typically earn less than employees in male dominated fields, even when the jobs require similar levels of training, skill, and responsibility.

Still, more women are entering higher status occupations, even it at a low rate. Unfortunately, they still face discrimination because they are frequently passed over for promotion in favor of men. This seems to be a problem especially at higher levels of management.

When there is only one woman in an office, she becomes a token or a symbol of all women community; Tokens are more distinctive than men. Distinctiveness makes a person’s actions subject to intense scrutiny, stereotyping, and judgments. Thus if a man makes a mistake, it is explained as an individual problem. When a token woman makes a mistake, it is seen as evidence that members of female community are incompetent. Hence, women experience a great deal of performance pressure, an added source of job stress. Interestingly, if women are perceived as being “too successful” they may be labelled “workaholics” or may be accused of trying to “show up” members of that community. These unfavorable perceptions may be reflected in performance appraisals. The performance of successful men is less likely to be interpreted in these negative ways. Another way the world of work is different for women is that they have less access to same gender or same group role models and mentors. Finally, sexual harassment is much more likely to be a problem for working women than for working men. Women face discrimination on the job in a number of forms. Negative feelings about affirmative action prompt some to automatically assume that all women co workers have been hired only because of their gender. Obviously, these assumptions can be quite harmful to an employee’s success. For instance, several studies have demonstrated that attaching an affirmative action label to an employee results in negative attribution and perceptions of incompetence. The good news is that this potential negative effect can be eliminated when people know that decisions are based on merit as well as on group membership.

Women before you enter the working world, it’s important to get your bearings women either should make her work a way to earn a living OR a way of life. And make yourself aware of six important trends:

• Technology is changing the nature of work. Digital workplace demands more education and skills than were previously required, so keep upgrading yourself in terms of technology skills.
• New work attitudes are required. In the new work environment the key to job success are self direction, self management, up to date knowledge and skills, flexibility, and mobility.
• Lifelong learning is a necessity. Workers who know “how to learn” will be able to keep pace with the rapidly changing work place and will be highly valued. Those who cannot will be left behind.
• Independent workers are increasing. Just thrive on contract work which have freedom, flexibility and high income. But for this you need to have skills and entrepreneurial spirit. Lack of this may cause risk and stressful work experience and that’s why many employees prefer to work for someone else than to work for themselves.
• The highest job growth will occur in the professional and service occupations. Yesterday’s jobs were in manufacturing, construction, agriculture and mining. Now among the professional occupations, jobs in the computer and health care industries, in education (at all levels), social services, and business services.

Women must move and look beyond gender differences in their career or work.