Women in the workforce earning wages or salary are part of a modern phenomenon, one that developed at the same time as the growth of paid employment for men, but women have been challenged by inequality in the workforce. Until modern times, legal and cultural practices, combined with the inertia of longstanding religious and educational conventions, restricted women’s entry and participation in the workforce. Economic dependency upon men, and consequently the poor socio-economic status of women, have had the same impact, particularly as occupations have become professionalized over the 19th and 20th centuries.
Use the information you learned in the Explore learning module this week about women in the workplace, as well as the articles and websites below to develop an essay answering the question – “Have women been able to overcome inequality and discrimination in today’s society?” Use additional online resources, as needed, to develop your argument.
Women in the Workplace 2018
Women in the Workplace 2018: Key Findings from the Women in the Workplace 2018 Report
Women in the Workplace 2018
Women in the Workplace 2018: Women Are Doing Their Part. Now Companies Need to do Their Part, Too
Women in Majority-male Workplaces Report Higher Rates of Gender Discrimination
Women in the Workplace: A Research Roundup
Relationships and Social Identities Across Contexts
How Sexism Follows Women from the Cradle to the Workplace
The writing assignment should be a minimum of 500 words and include an introduction with an overview of your essay, ending with a thesis statement answering the question “Have women been able to overcome inequality and discrimination in today’s society?” in your own words.
The essay should also include a body with support for your claim. You may use the City College library’s databases to locate outside resources to provide support.
Be sure to end your essay with a solid conclusion that wraps up and summarizes all of the ideas presented throughout your essay.
Your paper should be formatted in APA style with an APA-formatted title page. Any outside resources should be included on a separate reference page and also formatted in APA style.
Click the icon below for an APA template that you can use to assist in formatting your paper:
https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/gender-equality/women-in-the-workplace-2018https://leanin.org/women-in-the-workplace
https://www.wsj.com/news/collection/women-in-the-workplace-october-2018-ee3482bf
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/women-in-the-workplace-2018-women-are-doing-their-part-now-companies-need-to-do-their-part-too-300735820.html
Women in majority-male workplaces report higher rates of gender discrimination
https://hbr.org/2013/09/women-in-the-workplace-a-research-roundup
https://books.google.com/books?id=c1vWDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA39&lpg=PA39&dq=accommodation+theory+%22minorities%22&source=bl&ots=VhVdaN_XGo&sig=asTcWhi4NYB-bh5JoFj32Fd23sc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjl4cGkrsDfAhUn2FkKHTlfCho4ChDoATABegQICBAB#v=onepage&q=accommodation%20theory%20%22minorities%22&f=false
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/19/…/sexism-women-birthplace-workplace.html
modle for these week
Since women outnumber men in the United States, it may be hard to think about women as a minority group. But women share the same characteristics with other groups classified as minority groups.
Minority-Group Characteristics
Back in week one (Parrillo, p. 9), we learned the major characteristics of minority groups. This week we learn that these characteristics also apply to women.
Minority-group characteristics are:
The group receives unequal treatment from the larger society.
The group is easily identifiable because of some distinguishing physical or cultural characteristic that is held in low esteem.
The members feel a sense of group identity.
Membership in the minority group has ascribed status.
The minority group is in a subordinate status to a more powerful group (Parrillo, p. 428)
Conflict Theory
One of the major theories in sociology is conflict theory. As the author of the textbook points out (p. 450-451), conflict theory can be very useful in helping us understand how women can be see as a minority group, especially regarding the last point made on the previous slide, i.e., women’s subordinate status to a more powerful group.
Conflict Theory starts with an analysis of power and control over scarce resources. Scare resources are limited. That is, they are not abundant. They are insufficient. Land, money, buildings, equipment, air, water, electricity, the number of seats in the United State Congress, the position of CEOs in the top 30 major corporations and banks are all examples of scarce resources.
Conflict theorists ask who has power and control over the scarce resources in a society. In most societies, the answer is, men. Men have power and control over these resources. Therefore they can then shape the society in their own interests. Conflict theorists argue that norms (folkways, mores, and laws) are weapons used by groups in power to maintain the political and economic status quo. What is normative in a society reflects the interests of those in power. The powerful benefit from the norms established by them in their interests.
Sexism
In most societies, sexism is the dominant norm. Sexism is “an ideology, or set of generalized beliefs, that one gender is superior to the other. For centuries, the presumption of male superiority led to patterns of prejudice and discrimination against women, and many of those patterns still persist today despite numerous advances in gender equality” (Parrillo, p. 428).
Legal Restrictions
Historically, “legal restrictions denied U.S. women any right to self determination. They could not vote, own property in their own name, testify in court, make a legal contract, spend their own wages without their husband’s permission, or even retain guardianship over their own children if their husband died or deserted them” (Parrillo, p. 430). Please recall the discussion
Sexism
In most societies, sexism is the dominant norm. Sexism is “an ideology, or set of generalized beliefs, that one gender is superior to the other. For centuries, the presumption of male superiority led to patterns of prejudice and discrimination against women, and many of those patterns still persist today despite numerous advances in gender equality” (Parrillo, p. 428).
Legal Restrictions
Historically, “legal restrictions denied U.S. women any right to self determination. They could not vote, own property in their own name, testify in court, make a legal contract, spend their own wages without their husband’s permission, or even retain guardianship over their own children if their husband died or deserted them” (Parrillo, p. 430). Please recall the discussion week five about institutional discrimination as illustrated by the legal limits placed on women in combat and Sharia Law.
Gender roles, the way men and woman are expected to behave in society, also illustrate sexist ideology.
Men are expected to be assertive, woman passive.
Men are expected to be dominant, women submissive.
Men are expected to the breadwinner, women the housewife.
Men are expected to be sexually aggressive, women the sex object.
Men are expected to be medical doctors, women nurses.
Men are expected to be managers, women secretaries.
Men are expected to be independent, women dependent.
Men are expected be intellectuals, women emotional.
Men are expected to sleep around, women virginal.
Socialization and Gender Roles
Recall the discussion during week two about socialization. We learned that culture is taught by four agents of socialization (family, schools, peers, and media) during three phases of socialization (childhood, adolescence, and adulthood).
So it is with gender roles. Gender roles are norms that are taught, by the four agents of socialization, during three phases of socialization.
Occupation and Income
Social indicators of women’s status in society, especially occupation and income, illustrate their subordinate status. A huge pay gap exists between men and women in the United States. “Among year-round, full-time workers ages 18 and older, for example, women in 2011 earned 82 cents for every dollar earned by men” (Parrillo, p. 445).
Dual Labor Market
One of the main reasons why women earn less than men is because men and woman do different jobs in the labor market. The author of the textbook refers to the jobs women hold in the labor force as a female occupational ghetto. “Approximately 60 percent of all working women are mired in lower-paying clerical and sales jobs” (p. 442). Please review Figure 13.2 and Table 13.5, both on page 443 in the textbook for occupations dominated by women compared to those occupations dominated by men.
But the lower pay received by women exists not only across occupations but within occupations as well. There are women doctors, lawyers and business executives in the labor force. But even within these occupations, the income disparity exists. The pay disparity exists within occupations because men and women doctors and lawyers practice different medicine and law, and men and women managers manage different businesses.
For example:
Men are brain surgeons while women are pediatricians in general practice.
Men practice financial accounting law while women practice family law in small town USA.
Men are presidents of international banks while women are presidents of local branch banks.
Men and women might hold the same occupational title, but the pay gap is huge.
these is what they except to see
Provides an extermely clear, organized, and logical description indicating an excellent understanding of the week’s topic, course content, and the ability to use in-text citations to support ideas. The submission meets the 500-word requirement.
Student demonstrates excellence in the ability to apply the course content by providing examples from their job, career, or personal life.
Student demonstrates excellent writing, organizing, and formating skills.
