Why do many women cite discrimination at work when HR is a female-dominated industry? (employment, interviews)
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Most HR departments are majority (if not entirely) female so they're the one's doing the hiring, negotiating the salaries, handling the promotions, building the company policies, the EEO compliance, etc.
So why do women cite discrimination for being underpaid and promoted less when they have the most influence in the workforce?
Generally, an industry dominated by women is not influential. Male-dominated industries that shift to female dominated are generally losing their influence. Men go to the professions that pay the most, given their skillsets.
HR is a "nice" job and probably pays pretty well with good hours...but within a company, men will be where the money is. And that is not in departments serving support functions but in the departments that bring in the money.
This question shows how little is understood about this issue. What does the HR department have to do with the IT, trading sales, risk management, etc departments? HR doesn't set salary budgets and HR doesn't set individual salaries or bonuses. They also don't have the final word on how employees are paid. All of that is controlled by the hiring managers.
In most places I have worked, the HR manager is a woman.
However, the managers of other areas are generally male and HR can't police them 24/7.
Most managers are not dumb enough to talk to HR about discriminatory behavior that they are engaging in or thinking of engaging in. Also, I've found that employees in organizations I've worked in as HR were initially a bit intimidated about going into the HR office because they associated it with being in big trouble. HR sometimes does not get into the field often depending on industry and employees might not feel comfortable coming to them. Lots of reasons here.
Managers sometimes are not trained very well in matters of basic employment law.
I did once have a manager clueless enough tell me when I was recruiting a department lead for him that he didn't want a woman...
If as a woman you are underpaid and not promoted, you need to look in the mirror and reevaluate your skills, resume, presentation during interviews, job performance and salary negotiating skills. 99% of the time a crappy career is the job hunter's fault, and this goes for men too.
HR is basically a support service for the organization. They handle the paperwork and process people, but the big decisions on hiring/pay/promotions tend to be made by the unit heads.
HR is basically a support service for the organization.
HR is more like a union for management, like the unions regular employees once had. At least until recently, when employee unions were rendered toothless by corporate-supported politicians. HR, on the other hand, is stronger than ever.
HR departments are more for c.y.a. for the company and supervisors and above... they are not there to help or assist the actual workers for the company.
They do nothing about reverse discrimination or certain types of harassment. They almost always side with management and narcissistic employees or supervisors or managers are never dealt with.
I do not respect HR at any company I spit on them.
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