Gender Inequality in the Workplace and How Women can Navigate it

Hello everyone, this is the third blog of the series of blogs on gender inequality in the workplace. Enjoy!

 

 In my last blog (http://careercenterpeers.typepad.com/my_weblog/), I talked about the ways in which gender inequality manifests itself in the workplace today. These manifestations are occupational sex segregation, lack or cap on promotions, recruitment issues, difficulty to find or afford child care, tokenism, punishment for maternity leave, and sexual harassment. In this blog, I will provide explanations for these gender inequalities that beset many women.

We often think of the concept of the family as natural. We take it for granted and don’t give it much thought.  However, the concept of the family is socially constructed. The family is a social unit. Within this social unit there is a gender division of labor. Women and men have different roles in the family. Often women’s roles are considered lesser. Women are traditionally the ones to stay at home and take care of the family and the household chores. The men traditionally work outside the home in the paid workforce. The notion of women’s work as lesser stems from this gender based division of labor in the family. Women who work outside the home have been subjected to domestic and service sector labor. Examples include working in hotels as maids or working for a family as a nanny or even primary school teachers. All these jobs are consistent with the gender based division of labor. These jobs are considered suitable for women. They use supposed skills that women “naturally” possess. In fact, these skills are not natural. Women have many other skills and are not naturally suited for any certain work, but have been socialized into these positions. Within our society and many others, women have been shunned out of many fields and higher education.

Here are a few theories that have been used to explain workplace gender inequality. The human capital theory asserts that inequalities between men and women in the workplace are due to differences in skills and experience (human capital), not overt discrimination. I highly disagree with this theory. The gender socialization theory claims that women and men are socialized to behave in gender appropriate ways from an early age. Therefore, women seek out jobs that best allow them to “do” their gender and so do men. This theory was truer in the past, but today both women and men are breaking out of this. More women are entering previously male dominated fields and some men are entering women dominated fields. For example more women are becoming engineers or architects or obtaining high level managerial positions. Men are becoming elementary school teachers or nurses. The last theory is gender organization theory. This theory states that organizations and everyday workplace interactions contain normative gender expectations that privilege men and disadvantage women. This was definitely true in the past and unfortunately still persists today.

Gender inequality in the workplace effects women in a myriad of different ways. Women receive lower pay for the same job with equivalent qualifications. They are often passed up for promotion, or do not get hired over men. Women are also subjected to sexual harassment. Also, they often feel the need to be overaggressive to assert competence, especially in male dominated fields. This over-aggression then reflects poorly on women by fellow workers. Tokenism places extreme pressure on the women who represent their gender at their place of employment. Being the only or one of few women at your workplace causes everyone to consider you as representing your entire gender. All these effects create added struggles that women face everyday at work. I encourage you to look for these and be aware of such issues.

In the next blog, I will discuss how women can survive the workplace and possible solutions to alleviate these problems. The next blog will be the final one in this series, so be sure to look out for it. This next entry will bring together all the issues I’ve discussed so far, and helpful, hopeful strategies will be presented in the face of such serious issues.

 

Comments

[Sarah]

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

Sarah

http://www.craigslisttool.info

[lineage 2 cd key]

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

[daysofmb.com]

Family represents people living together by ties of marriage, blood or adaptation, thus representing a single household

[buy darkfall gold]

I highly disagree with this theory. The gender socialization theory claims that women and men are socialized to behave in gender appropriate ways from an early age.