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Gender Roles In The Workplace Essay

Gender roles in the workplace • Nursing industry and how it is only for woman • And if this is so male and female roles is this an outdated concept. Nonetheless before we can start to understand gender within the workplace I think understanding and looking at Hawthorne’s studies or theories on the organization and workplace as an example of how even though studies were done on treatment of workers on a whole was explored but the idea of gender wasn’t.

Hawthorne’s studies on organization and workplace that suggested that there was a shift from the tayloristic way of seeing the organisation which was scientific management to a newer way of viewing and highlighting workers as been seen as human beings within the workplace (human relations school). The Hawthorne’s theory address that people felt more positive about their place at work when being seen as human instead of being discriminated against or grouped together (Alison M Konrad, Pushkala Prasad and Judith K Pringle).

Many researchers have re-examined this concept and started to question the direction they took with with this piece of research the most notable researches are Acker and Van houten because after their finding their findings which were to start with that the treatment of men and woman were different and in addition the recruitment process that took place was different. Because of this Acker and Van houten accused the original theorist of being biased and not taking this area into to consideration.

Landsberger in 1958 also re-examined this theory and noted that some of the woman involved were also mmigrants, which promotes the idea that woman face workplace discrimination but it also affects women who were not from the country the work in. According to Bakan stereotyping are that” men and women are thought to differ both in terms of achievement-oriented traits, often labelled as “argentic,” and in terms of social- and serviceoriented traits, often labelled as “communal” (Bakan, 1966) Within the workplace there is a clear divided between both men and women e. g. gender. This plays into the idea that there is a big gender divide based on stereotyping within the workplace between men and women.

An example of this would mean taking sick leave and it being ok however when women take maternity leave there is a stigma behind it. Catalyst did a peace of research on who makes more money within the workplace after analysing their research they found out that” men still make more money than women and men (particularly white men) are over-represented in top leadership positions” (Catalyst, 2004) This can be referred to as the glass ceiling” the “glass ceiling,” which presents an impenetrable barrier at some point in a woman’s career” (Morrison, White, & Van Velsor, 1987).

Because of that will affect women at some stage of their career because of them being unable to go forward within their workplace or go higher up after a position within the workplace ladder. Even though sex discrimination has been introduced within the workplace many women are still in low pay, low status, gender segregated jobs (Davidson 1992) Fordism and post Fordism which is marked by increasing levels of jobs.

Men were twice as likely as woman to work in highly segregated jobs and half as likely to work in unsegregated jobs. ) This is very apparent when looking at the socialistic approaches to society that “there are a few places other than the workplace where gendered patterns are more apparent. There are sexsegregated jobs: “pink” collar jobs for women and “blue” collar jobs for men. “(Jacquelyn W. White) Another person who discusses the idea of gendered forms of work are Jacquelyn

White who believes there is a current trend of sex-satisfaction when it comes to giving certain jobs to people depending on their sex this is present when looking at roles such as nursing jobs which may full under the “pink” collar category of jobs for example the idea that men cannot be nurses because it’s a women’s job since she is more caring “within occupational categories, there is a sex-satisfaction, with men more often holding the higher, more prestigious and better-paying position, such as anaesthesiologist versus the paediatrician or corporate lawyer versus family lawyer.

Once again this idea or concept that woman have other agreements pre-set on them such as having kids and looking after the family and will eventually have to pick a side is apparent in many types of theory and research Jacqueline white further touches on this idea that the reason for woman earning less and inability to get certain jobs are due to “family obligations” which are things such as child birth, as well as dual-career conflicts, or later on having to follow their spouse who to a new job which can improve his status.

In addition she touches on the idea that many people believe that Job interruptions and lower wages are result of women having or later experiencing self-esteem problems and feeling less accomplished. However she later states that if people took things like child bearing into consideration that would be a better improvement.

Another example of how gender plays a key role into why woman can’t move forward are that according to The annuals of American academy of political and social science which states that many females associates or lawyers have lower or a fewer opportunities to than male associates to develop “social capital” within the law firms. The journal latter reveals research that addressed that when scholars interviewed female lawyers that they reported on sex discrimination as a one of the many reasons why they have abrasions from private firms and low rates of promotion to partnerships.

Gender communication: Many feminist believe that learning and studying about communication and gender is as an imperative thing. They feel like this since language is seen as a vital agent when creating and maintaining the gender system. (Elizabeth L. Paul 2002) also agree to that statement because learning about different forms of languages or communication can help develop peoples understanding of gender.

Look for Cheris Kramer, Barrie Thorne and Nancy Henley “perspectives on language and communication, ‘signs: Journal of Woman in culture and society Vol. 3, 1978) this journal had 3 central research questions 1. Do men and woman use language in different ways? 2. In what ways does language-in structure, content, and daily usage reflect and help constitute sexual inequality? 3. How sexist Language change? In my opinion I believe that these 3 questions are something that is still unanswered when talking about gender communication.

Gender segregation (Over time there has been a variety of studies on gender segregation with in the workforce. They have found multiple things that show that men and woman have been concentrated in different industries and that woman are over-represented in the least skilled and lower paid within the same ones. Woman are under-represented in the most powerful positions at the top of occupational hierchies and in skilled, working class jobs, and are concentrated in a much narrower range of occupations that are men. )

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