Gender Sensitivity Among Advocates - A Conceptual Analysis
Abstract
As the world comprises of different professions, some professions are extremely
hectic in its execution. One among them is the advocates. They play a vital role in providing legal
assistance to the public in areas such as civil and criminal issues. Working as an advocate is highly
stressful in nature by dealing with different types of people with different types of problem as well as
their behavior. This profession comprised of both men and women and a high level of gender
sensitivity is believed to affect the professional ambience. This study is going to find the prevalence
of gender sensitivity which helps as well as affects the performance of the advocates in the firms
and in the court of law. Advocacy seems to be tough in nature which requires high level of
intelligence in terms of lateral thinking, swift decision making and emotional balance, the concept
of second chance might be more hectic in terms of winning. The differences in sensitizing an issue
may vary from men when compared to women. Here arises the concept of gender sensitivity and it
prolongs throughout their career. Some facts which cannot be omitted like mundane tasks,
compliance of tough formalities, dealing with multiple assignments, time pressures, client tolerance
level etc. will be sensitized by men and women in a different way.
Key Words: Gender Sensitivity, Performance, Decision Making, Emotional Balance, Lateral
Thinking.
Author :
[Link] Kumar M.B.A., [Link]., (Ph.D)
Research Scholar
Department of Business Administration
Annamalai University
Annamalai Nagar
Chidambaram.
Mobile : +91-9994106364
Email Id : arunarshmba86@[Link]
Co-Author
[Link]
Assistant Professor
Department of Business Administration
Annamalai University
Annamalai Nagar
Chidambaram.
Mobile : +91-9487435223
Email Id : sudha79ganesh@[Link]
Introduction
Gender Sensitivity refers to the awareness about gender. It is also seen as an attitudinal
(Informed Disposition) formation which aroused over gender discrimination. It is a process which
contains the concept of behavioural modification forming through the awareness about own as well
as the counter gender. It also plays a vital role in the work place in terms of individuality and also
team performance. The effectiveness of the individual as well as the team will also be measured by
means of gender sensitivity issues in formation, cohesiveness and performance .Gender sensitivity
is not about pitting women against men. On the contrary, education that is gender sensitive benefits
members of both sexes. It helps them determine which assumptions in matters of gender are valid
and which are stereotyped generalizations. Gender awareness requires not only intellectual effort
but also sensitivity and open-mindedness. It opens up the widest possible range of life options for
both women and men. (UNESCO. (2004). Gender Sensitivity - A Training Manual). Even if legal
equality of men and women has been achieved in our society in theory, equality in real life is still a
long way off. There are undeniable indicators that this is the case, such as the pay gap that still
exists between men and women. That is why we need to take a look at the realities of the lives of
women and men in their entirety, taking into account the factors that might potentially impact the
differences they face as regards their situation within society .(Renate Brauner ,Sandra
Frauenberger .(2014). statistik journal wien 2/2014 . Gender-sensitive statistics: Making life’s
realities visible)
Analysing Gender
Before going further , it may be useful to discuss briefly what is meant by the concept of
gender. Gender and gendered power relations are major defining features of most organizations and
managements. Organizations and managements are not just structured by gender but pervaded and
constituted by and through gender; at the same time, organizational and managerial realities
construct and sometimes subvert dominant gender relations. When gender is referred to it is usual to
think of ‘men and women’ and ‘relations between them’; these are certainly part of gender, but only
a part. Gender is just as relevant in relations between women and between men, for example, in
gendered hierarchies within genders. Gender has also taken on other more complex meanings. Such
wider understandings of gender are both contested and central to analysing management and
organizations. The distinction between sex and gender was recognized in the 1960s in feminist and
other critical accounts of women's and men's positions in society. These highlighted how what was
often thought of as natural and biological was also social, cultural, historical and political (e.g. see
Stoller, 1968) Even with such difficulties, the sex–gender model has prompted path-breaking work
on gender relations, some attending to attitudes, self-concepts and identity, others focusing on social
categories and structural relations. In this, gender has often been understood as a way of
recognizing socio-cultural relations and as relatively autonomous from biology. Such approaches
articulate structural concepts of gender relations, as in sex–gender classes, patriarchy, gender
systems and gender orders.(Broadbridge, A., & Hearn, J. (2008). Gender and management: New
directions in research and continuing patterns in [Link] Journal of Management,19(s1).
Gender Sensitivity in Organisations
The existence of sex role stereotypes, that is, beliefs that men and women differ in many of
their characteristics, has been convincingly documented (e.g., Ellis & Bentler, 1973; Rosenkrantz,
Vogel, Bee, Broverman, & Broverman, 1968; Sherriff & Jarrett, 1953). The degree to which these
widely held beliefs represent myth or reality is less easily determined. Evidence seeming to suggest
that these beliefs have at least some factual basis can be found in studies in which subjects are asked
to rate not only the typical man and woman on a series of attributes but also themselves. Spence, J.
T., Helmreich, R., & Stapp, J. (1975). Ratings of self and peers on sex role attributes and their
relation to self-esteem and conceptions of masculinity and femininity. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 32(1), [Link] stereotypes have frequently been used to explain why
women are not hired into positions leading to organizational power and prestige. I, however, am
positing that the effects of gender stereotypes continue to dog women as they climb the
organizational ladder. These ideas contrast sharply with other explanations of why there are so few
women at the top organizational levels, such as “pipeline” theories that lay the blame on time and
supply (e.g., Forbes, Piercy, & Hayes, 1988), and “deficit” theories that presume women to be
deficient in the characteristics necessary to fulfill traditionally male roles (e.g., Feuer, 1988). They
also expand our thinking about the ways in which gender stereotypes contribute to the
discriminatory treatment of women in work settings. There is evidence that traditional stereotypes
of women and men predominate in work settings as well as nonwork settings. Research has
demonstrated, for example, that even when they are depicted as managers, women are characterized
as less agentic than men (Heilman, Block, & Martell, 1995). Although in Heilman, Block, and
Martell’s study, working managers from a range of industries described women managers as more
competent, active, and potent than women in general, they described women managers as decidedly
more deficient in these same attributes than men managers. It was only when the women managers
were depicted as highly successful that this gender difference in trait characterizations was found to
abate. Thus, the increased presence of women in the workplace and their assumption of new roles
do not appear to preclude gender-stereotypic perceptions. Heilman, M. E. (2001). Description and
prescription: How gender stereotypes prevent women's ascent up the organizational ladder. Journal
ofsocialissues, 57(4),657-674.
Gender Sensitivity in Advocate Profession
Women's entry and rising representation in the legal profession is one of the most
remarkable social changes in the recent years, often termed revolutionary (Abel, 1988) in the legal
profession over the past 90 years. The influx of women into the legal profession has prompted a
great speculation among both academics and political activities as to the changes women would
bring about in the nature and administration of substantive law as well as the way the law is
practised. More working professional and career oriented women are facing transcendental
problems for remaining professionally required time out of their homes still governed by traditional
outlook towards their womenfolk. For the first time in India, the pioneer in the movement for entry
of women to the legal profession. [Link] Sigh Gaur, moved the following amendment concerning
entry of women to the legal profession, to the resolution adopted by the Central Legislative
Assembly of India to remove the sex disqualification against women for the purpose of entry on the
electoral roll for elections to the legislative assembly on 1 st February 1922. The prospects of women
in securing a decent position in the profession, which for decades had been competitive and male
dominated, were grim indeed (Paul 1991). There are various reasons like religious break ups,caste
composition, marital status, age composition,experience, job satisfaction,choice factor and family
members influence has impact on professional practice of women advocates.(Saurab Kumar Mishra
(2014) Women Legal Professionals in Lucknow: A Study of Gender Discourse in Courts of India).
Conclusion
Based on the literature review in this study, gender sensitivity can be divided into six
stages: Denial of difference, defence against difference, minimization of difference, acceptance of
difference, adaptation to difference and integration of difference. Normally gender differences
affects people’s ideologies and behaviours. A team often includes people from different cultural
backgrounds. Successful teamwork has the following characteristics: Adequate communication,
great leadership, efficient collaboration, common goal, respect and trust,better gender composition
etc. If these attributes found to be present in the team then it will be easy to balance the sensitivity
concept which arises out. The aim of this conceptual study was to evaluate and measure how
gender sensitivity affects teamwork. Sensitivity has more impact on people's ideologies and
behaviours; and ideologies and behaviours have significant impact on team effectiveness and
performance. But there are a lot of factors that also could influence the teamwork. Such as personal
ability, responsibility, benefit, team rules, etc. that mixed-gender teams will increasingly be called
upon to perform work. From this study it has been found that gender sensitivity is a concept which
has both positive and negative stereotypic effect while working as a team and in turn it helps in
measuring the effectiveness of individual as well as group performance.
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