NOW WHAT ACTION PLAN Policy Assignment The Now What Action Plan final project should be considered within the first few weeks of the course, as you are to submit your topic proposal for the final...

COMPONENTS OF THE PROFESSIONAL-LEVEL PROPOSAL
COMPONENTS OF THE PROFESSIONAL-LEVEL PROPOSAL
Table of Contents
Introduction    3
Context of the Problem to be addressed    3
Statement of the Problem    4
Significance of the Research    4
Literature Review    5
Work-Family Issues    5
Prejudice and Discrimination    6
Stereotypes of Gender and Leader    6
Organizational Barriers    7
Formal Proposal    7
Rationale    7
Overcoming Challenges and Providing Opportunities for Success    8
The ways these Strategies may Privilege or Marginalize Different Groups and Individuals    9
Specific Goals    11
Timeframe and Deadlines    11
Conclusion    12
References    13
Introduction
    This assignment addresses the necessity of developing equitable opportunities for every individual within organizations regardless of their gender identity. It may be said that in order to ensure the optimization of the effectiveness of leadership, it is of paramount importance for organizations to overcome the consideration of the simplistic generalized perceptions, pertaining to which elements make a female leader versus a male leader attain success and the biological sex of the personnel (Cundiff & Vescio, 2016). In this assignment, a policy will be developed, which will address overcoming gender-associated challenges within the higher positions of authority and providing opportunities for success to ensure equitable representations within the positions of authority.
Context of the Problem to be addressed
    It may be said in this context that throughout the globe, the progress of women's participation within major authoritative positions has been increasing at a very slow rate. Even today, female candidates have comparably lesser access than to men to the decision-making entities within both private and public firms. Despite being on the rise, the women parliamentarians' proportion within public offices accounted for only 22% as of 2015. Among the companies that have been positioned on the Fortune 500 Companies list, the number of women CEOs continues to be comparably lesser accounting for only 26 out of every 2000. It may be said that the existence of consolidated perceived social norms such as men can perform better compared to women when it comes to leadership makes the policy-based transition in organizational contexts promoting gender-equality and equitable opportunities for all extremely difficult (Seo, Huang & Han, 2017). In the areas where successful and effective policy and practice-based progress and transition has taken place, the key contributing factors included consistent efforts in order to transform norms, as well as, institutions pertaining to the participation of women in higher positions of authority and enhancing the capabilities of women.
Statement of the Problem
    Throughout the world, women have been experiencing an extremely slow rate of progress in terms of participating in higher authoritative positions. This continues to be an issue in both worldwide public and private institutions. The high instance of men being favoured more than women to carry out leadership and authoritative positions significantly diminishes equitable opportunities to self-progress and develop in organizational contexts. The United Nations council recognises this issue and considers the participation of female candidates within all decision-making levels to be a basic human right (Stamarski & Son Hing, 2015). Alongside, it is also one of the most promising elements for women empowerment. Nevertheless, as discussed previously, women are still underrepresented in higher authoritative positions and achieving complete equality in gender-based leadership roles still remains to be a distant objective. Leadership has the most profound implications in the context of gender equality. It may be said in this context that achieving gender-equality is almost impossible if leadership or authoritative positions are not shared by individuals of both biological sex equitably. Furthermore, the concerns of individuals of both biological sexes can be balanced more equitably by the governmental and organizational policies if women have unfettered access to leadership (Mendez & Busenbark, 2015). Yet, the unequal representation of men and women in higher positions of authority remains an issue.
Significance of the Research
    It is of paramount importance for worldwide organizations and governing authorities to commit towards bringing about positive transitions in policies and practices to further gender equality. This research will foster the comprehension of the elements, which enhance the access of individuals of both biological sexes to leadership positions. Furthermore, this research will also shed light on the elements, which influence the performance of both men and women in their roles. This research will also clarify the factors that contribute to the lesser access of women to major positions that involve decision-making within organizational contexts. In addition to developing an effective policy that would ensure overcoming the current challenges in this context and the manners, in which opportunities may be provided for success; this research will also draw light on mitigating ways. These could be the strategies or transitions in policies and practices may privilege or marginalize women and men to further equitable access as well as opportunities for individuals of both biological sex to positions of leadership, authority and decision-making.
Literature Review
    Achieving gender equality can be simply referred to as the process of achieving equal opportunities, rights and responsibilities for both men and women. It is implied that the necessities, priorities, as well as, the interests of individuals of both biological sex are recognized and considered to acknowledge the diversity of the distinct groups. In this section, a wide range of existing literature has been reviewed to address the prominent reasons and effects of gender inequality in the leadership positions in organizational contexts.
Work-Family Issues
    It is dictated by a division of labor that compared to men, women have more family-oriented or...