Organizational Communication: Gender at Work

1
Organizational CommunicationGender at Work

• Business organization speech communities are
  masculine speech communities.

2
The Wage Gap and Pay Equity

• Women make an average of 74 for every dollar men
  earn
• The structure of pay inequity
• Banking Tellers
• Hospitals
• wage disparity is greater than can be explained
  by differences in education, experience, and time
  in the workforce.

3
Glass Ceilings vs. Glass Walls

• glass ceiling an invisible barrier to
  advancement beyond a certain level
• glass walls segregation into job areas that
  allow little chance of advancementno career
  ladder

4
The Mommy Track

• Proposed by Felicia Schwartz in the Harvard
  Business Review
• women in management positions cost more than men
• greater costs are due to womens values and
  expectationsones inconsistent with those of
  organization
• two types of women
• career primary
• career and family primary

5
The Mommy Track

• identify a female employee early
• two tracks
• different opportunities
• different challenges
• different levels of training
• different expectations for advancement

6
Formal and Informal Structures Encode Gender
Inequity

• Which are pay scales? Separate tracks? Glass
  ceilings?
• Other formal structures
• leave policies
• work schedules
• Other informal structures
• work environment
• old boy networks
• mentor relationships

7
Redressing Gender Inequity

• Affirmative Action (present and past, groups,
  qualified individuals)
• Goals (flexible, difficult to enforce)
• Quotas (specific, rigid, easy to enforce)
• Equal Opportunity Laws

8
Equal Opportunity Laws

• Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (1964)
• Title IX (1972)
• Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
• Limitations
• Types of relief