Gender Inequality is a social issue undoubtedly affecting promotions, morale and productivity of female officers within the Customs and Excise Department. As a female law enforcement officer I am experiencing many setbacks in the department which is due to gender inequality. After reading many articles and journals on the social issue in the workplace, I believe that this is highly prevalent and affecting the female working population in Belize. Using the department where I work as an example, the labor force is comprised mostly of men who men have better jobs ranks, get better pay and are promoted at a higher rate in comparison to females. According to a report by the American Association of University Women, “women of all ages, races, ethnic …show more content…
Simply let’s just look who governs our country. The present ruling party in the House of Representatives is comprised of all men. This is clearly showing and telling us something about the society in which we live. From my personal experience in the government department, I believe that men are way too privileged when it comes to getting promoted. In the hierarchy of the Customs department we have a Comptroller, four deputy comptrollers, four assistant comptrollers and approximately twenty senior officers. Out of all the high ranking positions, only one female holds post of assistant comptroller. This clearly shows we have a problem to promote female customs officers. There are many aspiring and qualified female officers waiting for promotion but for some unknown reason they have not been promoted. As a matter of fact, when there were available posts for promotion, these were given to male officers who had fewer years and less experience within the government system than females. The question is why was this so? Aren’t the female officers capable of holding high positions in the Customs department? According to a journal, “Women at work equality versus inequality: barriers for advancing in the workplace” after a study conducted in Cyprus, data collected showed that several barriers prevented women from advancement such as stereotype, conflicting work and family obligations. Moreover, the study shows that men there were also controlling the “higher positions” in organizations and society. In Cyprus, companies’ recruit large numbers of women but unfortunately most of them are not promoted as they should also. They are left at lower and middle