INTRODUCTION

In a world that has become more and more globalized and multicultural, diversity is surly a big advantage for companies who want to play in the international market.
According to Susan E. Jackson, who conducted a study on diversity in the workplace, during the past years, nature of the workforce, has grown.
The interest of firms in “diversity” and multicultural environment is sensibly grown. Companies have focused their attention on programs that intended to promote diversity, to reduce stereotypes, to create good and healthy multicultural environments.
Examples of such programs include, non traditional work ( i.e. home work stations), training programs, employee benefits such as parental leave and dependent care assistance.
The interest in managing diversity successfully is widespread.
Anyway, despite recognition of the importance of diversity, many firms are just beginning to evaluate and adjust human resources management in the direction of multicultural environments.
Many issues have to be discussed and solved yet.
Many problems are still present when we talk about diversity in the workplace.

WOMEN AT WORK

In the past women were generally hired on part- time positions or for low responsibility jobs because it was understood that their priority was taking care of their families and children.
Unmarried women left their position once they married. Married women instead, quit their job once they were pregnant.
Moreover, women were generally considered less capable than men and less oriented to high responsibility positions.
Today things are really changed. They are not seen anymore as inferior to men and a large number of them put their job first and family second.
Working is not longer seen as a “parking” waiting for a man to marry.
Organizations are gradually adapting them selves to this new vision of women, considering them equal to men and not inferior.
Nowadays , treating women in a sexual manner is forbidden by the law for instance.
However, some women still put their family first and their job second, and, according to Felice Schwartz (who conducted a study on this issue), organizations should create for them special positions that have to be flexible, shorter hour and with less responsibility in exchange of a lower pay. And limited career growth.
This new model created for women to whom family is more important than working, is called “MOMMY TRACK”.
Feminists worry that creating this “mommy track” could give to the companies the chance to discriminate women again.
According to them, women should have the same possibilities of career of men.
Anyway, numerous studies have demonstrate the big advantages of diversity in the workplace.
The impact of diversity on companies performances is very positive.
The problem is that there still are many barriers for women that want to achieve high power position in a firm.
The main issue is that women remain the centre of the family life, with all the attendant constraint, such as, maternity, child care, organizing family life, care of the elderly.
The impact of this kind of constraint may vary from country to country, it depends on the support that the states offer in terms of services.
Anyway , European women continue to spend twice the time of men for domestic tasks.
This “double burden” of work and family responsibility weights heavily on the career of women who want to have a family and it is not compatible with the performance model of companies that want a great mobility and a constant availability.
A linear career path is also difficult for women because of the maternity leave.
Other barriers exist because of women themselves. Many studies have demonstrated that women need to be more comfortable promoting themselves and to be assertive about their performances, abilities and ambitions.
A research conducted at Mc Kingsey highlighted how women have difficulties in identifying themselves with success. This attitude appears to hamper their professional development.
Moreover, the absence of a female role model in business amplifies the perception of difficulty in achieving high profile roles and success in the business environment.
So, the “OPTING OUT”, the voluntary decision to discontinue their career, is, for many women, the only answer. And it’s the result of both the barriers and a wrong attitude of women toward their job position.
In order to change this situation, human resources policies should change and programs for women who want to achieve a leader position in a company should be developed.
In this way women could build their own way to the top, mainly based on the supportive learning, coaching or mentoring initiatives that the companies put in place.
Achieving greater diversity is mostly about building a workplace where diverse talent can develop and grow without barriers.

Other kinds of diversities

The Chancellor’s committee of Diversity defines diversity as:

“The variety of experiences and perspective which arise from differences in race, culture, religion, mental or physical abilities, heritage,age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and other characteristics."

It’s very important to understand how all these dimensions and differences affect performances, motivations, success and interactions with others.
Institutional structures and companies who created barriers to some dimensions of diversity should be analysed, examined, challenged and removed.
Managing diversity means more than simply observing legal and policy requirements.
It means actively promoting community and comfort with differences.
Diversity is beneficial for both the organization and their members.
Diversity brings substantial and great advantages that may concern better decision making, improving problem solving, improving creativity, improving innovation and marketing strategies that can attract a larger number of consumers.
Diversity provides companies all the instruments to be competitive in the global market.
The “STAND POINT THEORY” suggest that marginalized groups bring new and different prospective to the dominant group, and help it to face new challenges.
The “stand point theory” is a post modern method of analysis about inter- subjective discourses.
The most important concept is that an individual’s own perspectives are shaped in his/her experiences in social locations and social groups.
It always involves more than one factor, for example gender, social economic status, geographical origin, cultural heritage etc.
According to this theory, diversity among groups is a big advantage because it is demonstrate that heterogeneous groups work better than homogeneous groups.
Of course, working in an environment reach of diversity is a challenge and can bring some problems.
Different race or social and cultural heritage can bring problems and groups of minorities may risk to be marginalized.
Diversity can involve almost every aspect of life, from religion to gender, from culture to habits.
The knowledge of cultures, the correct use of stereotypes, the respect of diversity can help to create an healthy and good environment in the workplace, converting the barriers and the difficulties in advantages.

Chinese women in the workplace: case study

The impact of globalization in China has been very important. It involved every aspect of life and many changes in the cultural sphere of the country are occurred.
The changes that have taken place during the 20th century have involved even the situation and the roles of women.
Globalization affected women’s right and the gender hierarchy in China, involving every aspect of women’s life, form domestic life style, to marriage and the primogeniture, and, of course, in the workplace.
These changes altered the quality of life and the availability of opportunities of women in different spheres that involve the globalization process.
The dynamics of gender inequity are always been related to the politics of Chinese regime and its ideological principles.
During the imperial era the social paradigm of CONFUCIANISM dominated. During this period women were totally oppressed.
Between 19th and 20th, with the born of Maoism, things started to change.
Since 1980’s, under the new communist party, the women’s right movement started to obtain some successes and the question of women in China has become a national issue and a sign of modernization.
In rural areas women work in the fields of rice and tea alongside their families.
In the urban areas women work in the factories faraway from home, sending their income to the family. They use to be young girls not married yet.
To help these young women and guarantee their rights , labor unions and organizations were recently born.
During the imperial era, working for Chinese women was forbidden. They took care of the house and the family, working at home.
In the early communist period equality rights for men and women were affirmed, but more in theory than in reality.
Women could aspire to work in factories or to become teachers or doctors, but they held positions with few power and low responsibility roles.
Even today women are encouraged to occupy positions of low profile, such as secretaries or hostesses, and they are the first to be fired because women’s unemployment is considered less “social destabilizing”.
Women traditionally control the family finances, making sometimes important investments and investing their family money in real estate and stocks.
For Chinese women personal success is very important. A survey conducted in 2000 by Walter Thompson revealed that personal success is the most important goal to achieve for 74% of women ranked.
Another survey conducted in 2008 by the University of China’s centre of Population and development Studies, revealed that 67.5% of Chinese women over 15 years old were employed, compared with the 82.7 % of employed men of the same age.
Even the salaries of women are lower. It’s been calculated that women in China earn only the 63.5% of men salaries.
We have to say, anyway, that the situation is rapidly changing.
Today in China there are more and more career women. Twenty per cent of managers in China are women, compared with the forty per cent of U. S. and the eight per cent of Japan.
Moreover, many Chinese women today declare that they put their job first and don’t want to get married or having a family to continue to work.
According to “the Economist” Chinese women are considered by foreign manufacturers harder-working and they are convinced that they tend to stay longer. That’s why they prefer to hire women.
Anyway, private sector employers are still reluctant to hire women because of Chinese law about maternity that implicates that employers have to cover maternity leave and childbirth costs.
Anyway, despite of the difficulties and the barriers that still exist, the situation of women in the work place in China is really improved, reaching the standards of other Countries more industrialized such as U.S.A.
The growing economy and the progresses made thanks to globalization, are making of China, not only one of the most important economies of the world, but also a modern and always more open and modern countries of the world.

Conclusions
Despite of the barriers and difficulties that still affect the question of diversity in the workplace today, we can affirm that, thanks to the globalization phenomenon, things in the last past years are really changed.
Managing diversity is still difficult, and many minorities groups such as women, gay and lesbian, or some ethnic minorities have still many problems of integration.
Moreover, phenomena such as immigration create in many countries big problem of integration, not only cultural, but also in the workplace.
Women and immigrants still not have the same treatment and rights of dominant groups about work, even in the most advanced economies.
Many companies still have difficulties to hire women for example, because of their role of “family keepers” and their will to have children.
Women are not still protected about it, even if in many countries there are laws and services that should help them to feel free to have a family and reaching high positions in the workplace at the same time.
Minorities groups have difficulties to integrate themselves because of prejudices and stereotypes that affect their chance to get to high positions in the workplace.
Cultural barriers are still very strong and difficult to demolish.
Assignment of human resources and policies of the companies is to go beyond all these problems trying to solve them in order to create good and healthy working environments because diversity is a big resource and surly a great advantage not only for the economy, but also for every aspect of life and culture.

Bibliography

file:///Users/elisaraponi/Documents/Diversity%20in%20the%20Workplace:%20Human%20Resources%20Initiatives%20-%20Google%20Libri.webarchive

file:///Users/elisaraponi/Documents/Gender%20Diversity%20in%20the%20Workplace.webarchive

file:///Users/elisaraponi/Documents/Gender%20Diversity%20in%20the%20Workplace%20Is%20in%20the%20Hands%20of%20Women%20-%20Room%20for%20Debate%20-%20NYTimes.com.webarchive file:///Users/elisaraponi/Documents/Women's%20Diversity%20Issues%20in%20the%20Workplace%20%7C%20eHow.com.webarchive file:///Users/elisaraponi/Documents/WORKING%20WOMEN%20IN%20CHINA%20-%20China%20%7C%20Facts%20and%20Details.webarchive