Inequality in the Workforce
We see many injustices in the world. In the work place we often see this inequality. This is part of gender stratification. We see unequal distributions of power and wealth in the workforce. White males make up 40% of the population and hold 95% of the senior positions (Rhode 55). That leaves a meager number for women and people of different races to make up the rest of the senior positions. That is a severe gap and justifies my argument of gender stratification. About half of these men then think that they are subject to unfair penalties for advantages that others may have had in the past (Rhode 55). This simply means that they are unwilling to change and that our placement of gender has that strong of a hold on our society. It takes raising awareness like this to start to a change. “In other words, the difference between femininity (passive, dependent, intuitive, emotional) and masculinity (strong, independent, in control, out of touch emotionally) are made to seem natural and inevitable despite the fact that gender is a social script that individuals learn” (Shaw and Lee 126). That is why we are seeing such high levels of stratification. We believe this is natural and has no need to change. We are also seeing that even after women complete college, they are still getting placed into clerical or low level administrative jobs (Baxandall and Gordon 29). Women are often thought to be uncommitted when they begin to have children because they have to take more time off. They are not often given positions of power afterwards either and are not usually given a chance for advancement (Crittenden 35). “In sum, women may have come a long way, but mothers have a lot farther to go. This is particularly true in business. A recent Catalyst survey of male and female M.B.A.s revealed that among those who have risen to within three levels of the CEO position, fewer than half (49 percent) of the women have children, compared to the 84 percent of the men” (Crittenden 35). Women face the decision of moving up in life or having children. It may be a tough decision to make for some women. If the work and effort was more evenly divided between partners and if the absentee average was equal for both men and women, there probably would be more equal chances for women to move up to higher positions. Then we wouldn’t be seeing as much gender stratification in the work force. Maybe if men were more aware of their privileges, they would be willing to fight for more equality as well. “we experience ourselves as ordinary people who struggle daily with the inequities in our lives who usually take the privileges for granted” (Shaw and Lee 63). We do not always think of how much better we have it as people, we often look at what we don’t have. If everyone actually realized what was going on as a larger picture, some of the problems such as gender stratification would be solved.
A lot of the problem of gender stratification in the work force is also due to gender ranking. Look at all the characteristics of men and you will see that masculine traits are more desirable in the workplace. “Those traits assigned as feminine are less valued that those considered masculine, illustrating why men tend to have more problems emulating femininity and trans people moving into femininity are viewed with somewhat hostility than those transitioning toward masculine identities” (Shaw and Lee 136). Even if women do act like men in the workforce, they are still regarded as less compitent and labeled awful names for it. The labels aren’t very pretty sometimes and they are not seen as equals even then.
Gender ranking also sets the stage for sexism, as I had previously defined on my homepage. “Sexism is the system that discriminates and privileges on the basis of gender and that results in gender stratification” (Shaw and Lee 137). Sexism is a big reason as to why there is gender stratification. Our nation has supported and raised up the qualities of men and women are often seen as objects with less than desirable characteristics. “Judith Lorber writes, “When genders are ranked, the devalued genders have less power, prestige, and economic rewards than the valued genders” (Shaw and Lee 136-137). We need to stop ranking genders and we need to start making a change.
