2618 Gender and work Maitlin, 7

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2618 Gender and work Maitlin, 7

• Predictors of women working
• Several decades ago, one of the best predictors
  was whether she had children or not.
• Today, one of the best predictors is education.

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Percentage of women in the labor force

• Women with 4 or more years of college are more
  than twice as likely as women with less than 4
  years of H.S.
• Af-A, Latinas and AS-A are more likely than
  Euro-A to work.

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• Growing research on immigrant employment.
• Immigrant women face a significant barriers
• Language
• Not full reciprocity for their educational
  degrees, professional licenses or work
  experiences.
• Stereotypes

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Women and welfare

• Welfare comprises only 1 of the Federal budget.
• In 1996, Clinton abolished Aid to Families with
  Dependent Children (AFDC)
• Women without college degrees are 10 times as
  likely to live in poverty.

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Work discrimination

• Access discrimination
• discrimination used in hiring
• Treatment discrimination
• discrimination women face after they have
  obtained a job.
• Salary discrimination
• promotion discrimination
• Heterosexism
• sexual harassment

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Access discrimination

• Factors that foster access discrimination
• strong gender-role stereotypes
• prestigious positions
• gender-inappropriate jobs
• applicants qualifications are ambiguous
• Employers will hire a male when both candidates
  are not particularly qualified for a job.

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How does access discrimination operate?

• Employers have negative stereotypes about women.
• The employer believes stereotypical masculine
  characteristics are needed for success with the
  job.
• Employers pay attention to inappropriate
  characteristics when female candidates are being
  interviewed.
• In each case, stereotypes encourage employers to
  conclude that a woman would be unsuitable for a
  particular position.

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Treatment discrimination

• Salary discrimination
• As of 2000, in the US, women earned 76 of the
  median salary of men.
• Female high school graduates made an average of
  only about 600 more per year than males who did
  not graduate high school.
• One reason for the discrepancy is that men enter
  jobs that pay more money, ie., engineer vs
  teacher.

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US median annual salaries

• Wage gaps are found in other countries as well
  Great Britain, Switzerland, Germany

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Comparable worth

• The strategy of comparable worth is to pay the
  same salaries for mens jobs and womens jobs
  that are matched in complexity, skill, or
  responsibility.
• The components considered are education,
  training, previous experience, skills,
  dangerousness, dirtiness, and supervisory
  responsibility.

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Answer this

• I want you to imagine that you are an
  undergraduate who has been employed as a research
  assistant to Dr. Johnson, a professor of
  psychology. You will be working with him all
  summer, entering data that are being collected
  for a summer research project. What hourly salary
  do you believe would be appropriate for this
  summer job.

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• In the study by Bylsma and Major (1992), men
  reported expecting 1.00 more than women.
• Women tend to exhibit denial of personal
  disadvantage, they believe that they personally
  are not affected by injustices that harm the
  group to which they belong.

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Discrimination in promotions

• Glass ceiling
• a presumably invisible barrier that seems to
  block the advancement of women and people of
  color in many professional organizations.
• Sticky floor
• women are not promoted out of low-level jobs.
• Glass escalator
• when men enter fields often associated with
  women, they are promoted to management.

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Other treatment discriminations

• Women are evaluated more negatively they are
  downgraded if they are assertive, independent,
  and unfeminine.
• Sexual harassment
• deliberate or repeated comments, gestures, or
  physical contacts of a sexual nature that are
  unwanted by the recipient.
• Women are not invited to informal social outings.

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Heterosexism

• Discrimination against lesbians, gay males, and
  bisexual.
• Lesbians are likely to experience workplace
  discrimination.
• They may be fired because of their sexual
  orientation.
• They feel it necessary to hide their sexual
  orientation.

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What to do about treatment discrimination?

• Know the law
• Find support
• Give support

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Womens experiences in selected occupations

• In traditional jobs, (Table 7.1), women face low
  income, underutilization of abilities, and lack
  of independence.
• For example, domestic work and garment work
• Where were your clothes made?
• www.nicnet.org
• They do not have identical styles.
• In traditionally male jobs, men and women tend to
  be similar in personality, cognitive ability, and
  commitment to work. Differences often found in
  self-confidence.

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Workplace climate for women in traditionally male
jobs

• Women may experience a chilly climate
• Men may be patronizing
• Women may not have a role model.

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Employment in blue collar jobs.

• Barriers
• stricter standards
• sexual harassment
• Advantages
• more than traditional feminine work.
• Sense of pride in their work.

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Why are women scarce in certain occupations?

• Riger and Galligan (1980) propose fewer women in
  managerial positions because
• women are not socialized for the characteristics
  of a manager. (A person-centered explanation
• access discrimination blocks womens promotions
  (A situation-centered explanation)

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How to overcome?

• Person-centered perspective
• Women should take courses in finance, etc.
• Situation-centered perspective
• Change the situation not the person.

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Help wanted

• Requirements
• Intelligence, energy, patience, social skills,
  good health.
• Tasks
• At least 12 different occupations.
• Hours
• About 100 hours per week must remain on stand-by
  24/7
• Salary None
• Holidays None
• Advancement None
• Job security Layoffs likely as you approach
  middle age
• Fringe benefits Food, clothing, and shelter but
  any additional bonuses will depend on the
  financial standing and good nature of the
  employer. No pension plan.

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Homemakers

• The variety of tasks is immense.
• 73 of American and 69 of Canadian women said
  homemaking was just as fulfilling as paid work.
• Displaced homemakers are women who have lost her
  primary source of income through divorce,
  widowhood, extended unemployment of her spouse
  and must go to paid employment.

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Coordinating employment with personal life

• Most college women plan to combine a career with
  family life.

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Marriage

• In 53 of married couples both partners work.
• Dual-career marriage both husband and wife have
  high-status occupations
• Geographical constraints.
• Women perform about 2/3 of household tasks
• Androgenous or feminine men are more likely to
  help with housework.
• Women are less satisfied with the marriage if
  they are not happy with satisfied with the
  division of housework.

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Children

• 70-72 of mothers in US and Canada are employed
  outside the home.
• Fathers have substantially increased their
  child-care responsibilities.
• Fathers are less likely to say they are unhappy
  with their relationship to their children.
• When father are involved, children show greater
  cognitive and social skills.

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Effects of maternal employment

• The cognitive development of children who have
  been in a day-care center is similar to that of
  children cared for at home. For low-income
  families, day care may even provide cognitive
  advantages.
• Children are just as securely attached to their
  parents.
• Children in day care tend to be more
  cooperative/confident.
• Not as gender-stereotyped.

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Personal adjustment

• Role strain
• People have difficulty fulfilling all their
  different role obligations. For example, a
  conflict between work and family
  responsibilities.
• Health
• Employed women are healthier. Only one group is
  less healthy women in low-paying jobs.
• Women with challenging jobs coped well with
  problems at home.