Band 6+: In many workplaces, men and women are still not treated equally. Some people argue that governments should enforce laws to ensure women with equal opportunities as men.To what extent do you agree and disagree?

Some people say that women are not treated as well as men in workplaces; thus, governments should enforce laws to ensure equal chances for both genders. While I agree that laws play a crucial role in ensuring fairness, I also believe that forcing people might have side effects like a decrease in business efficiency.

On the one hand, laws are essential for ensuring women have the same rights as men in many business workplaces. Imposing new laws and strengthening their strictness ignites the fear of business owners, who usually prioritize men over women in an unequal way, and forces them to follow the legislations of government to ensure women have jobs as men do. For example, in Saudi Arabia, because of the new laws introduced in 2018, many women have been given the rights to drive and to work even in higher positions, as well as to travel internationally like men. Prior to this, Saudi Arabia used to have strict laws against women, hindering women from earning money, driving a vehicle, and travelling internationally.

However, compelling people, especially business owners, to hire women might lead to job inefficiency. Governments usually demand to hire a number of women for each business, which is compelling to hire candidates even with a low level of education. This might lead to inefficiency in business by shifting focus on satisfying legal quotas rather than hiring them based on their skills and experiences. Gender quotas in Norway can be the evidence of this, when the government introduced a law that requires that each business has to have 40% of their staff consisting of women. After a certain time, law succeeded in treating women equally, but according to the statistics shown by Nord University, the productivity levels decreased unbearably, with 61% of efficiency declining from what it used to be.

In conclusion, imposing laws as well as strengthening them might lead to increased fairness like in Saudi Arabia, but it often compels enterprises to reward governmental laws by plunging the efficiency of work like in Norway.