Customer Profile Research Paper : Upscale Success

After World War II, the nation was blooming. Everything was growing, people were going to college, and wealth grew. The idea of the perfect American life was developed, this included a husband that worked and a wife that stayed home and took care of the house and children. To look at how women are affected by this perfect life I am analyzing “Governor Adlai Stevenson Tells College Women about Their Place in Life, 1955” and “Good Housekeeping: Every Executive Needs a Perfect Wife, 1956”.

"In 1950 about one in three women participated in the labor force. By 1998, nearly three of every five women of working age were in the labor force" (Heatherfield, n.d., para. 4). In 2008, the U.S. Department of labor estimates that women will make up 48% of the workforce (Heatherfield, n.d., para. 6). As the number of women in the workforce rises so do the numbers of women who hold higher titles such as Chairman, CEO, Vice Chairman, President, Chief Operating Officer, Senior Vice President, and Executive Vice President. This number has increased from 7.3% in 2000 to 9.9% in 2002 (Diversity statistics, 2006).

These figures demonstrate significant trends in the changing profile of today’s labour pool. Not only are companies forced to recruit and hire from an increasingly diverse workforce, but companies intent on succeeding also will have to retain, motivate and engage the most talented women. Flexible work arrangements are options for helping working mothers integrate work and family responsibilities, so that women can function better both at home and in the workplace.

Over the past few decades, great strides have been made by women in the workplace. This increased number in women in the workplace does not mean equality however. Even with equal qualifications and achievements, women are still not given all the opportunities that men have. The chapter in the textbook, “Gender at Work”, shows us more of these inequalities in the workplace. Such inequalities cause gender segregation of jobs and can be linked with the pay inequality in the labor force. Even in jobs that are predominantly filled by women, men earn more than women. Women are often stereotyped as being family focused and not as able to travel, therefore they tend to get passed up for promotions (Garson p.353). This invisible barrier that keeps women from moving up the executive ladder is referred to as the “glass ceiling” (Baxter and Wright p. 346). Women also tend to do more domestic work, or unpaid labor and caregiving. This extra unpaid work is referred to as “the third shift” and is largely rested on the shoulders of women (Gersel p. 352). Consequently, this seems to be one of the biggest things holding women back from taking on jobs that are normally considered male

“Look at us! We’re just like everyone else. We’ve bought into the same ridiculous delusion; this idea that you have to settle down and resign from life.” (April Wheeler, Revolutionary Road). It has become a society norm that women are meant to serve housewives; to cook, clean, garden, and nurture children, even though they are much more capable of other things. The role of women is greatly overseen, as they are not perceived to be of their full potential, rather than as societies idealistic expectation. This is because men and those who are wealthy are unable to look past gender and accept women as of equal significance.

A woman has many decisions and sacrifices to make when balancing work and family. Ann-Marie Slaughter is the author of “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All” where she explains what it is like to hold a higher ranking position and have children at home. She begins by building her credibility with personal facts and sources, citing other women in younger and older generations. Slaughter fills her essay with high emotion to empower women to be able to have a higher profession without giving up the time with the ones you love. She describes what it is like to lead her business life, and struggle to guide her children, when she doesn’t even have time for herself.

Before 1939, the “ideal woman” was the devoted housewives whose sole purposes in life was to be devoted to her husband, raise the children, and keep a tidy house. However, all

Women are known to be the nurturing part of human nature. It is women who birth and generally care for the young of human kind; however, the roles of women have progressed to be so much more in today’s society. Now women are looked to not only as a homemaker, but a breadwinner as well. In many families, the women provide a major source of income and are responsible for the wellbeing of the family. “More than a quarter century has passed since Arlie Hochschild’s The Second Shift powerfully made the case that women cannot compete fairly with men when they are doing two jobs and men are doing only one.” (Moravcsik). He goes on to say that women’s roles have shifted to being able to balance a job and a family at one time. Despite the many jobs that

Marilyn Monroe’s character was an of one of these women. She is unmarried and mentions no family throughout the movie. She stays in New York working as a model and actress and makes just enough to get by. Even though she is not married to Richard, she still shows a sort of dependence to him, like when she asks to stay the night for his air conditioning, which begins to show an example of gendered personalities, or females depending on the males in their lives. Another example of the division of labor would be Richard’s secretary. Although her role is quite minor and it is never explicitly stated, it can assumed that she is not married through Richard’s daydreams about her. She works in an office doing whatever Richard, her boss who 's a male, tells her to do, even though he treats her poorly.

Garcia 1 Kevin Garcia Professor Caputo ENG 099 13 October 2016 Taking risks worth it ? The stereotype of a woman is very strong, and men view it commonly the same way every other corporate woking person, or high class man views it, just a housewife who stays home to take care of the house, and not work to be independent. Sheryl Sandberg tell the story how women should “Lean In” into actions they are not comfortable with, while bell hooks explains why Sandberg's explanations are useless.

From 1950 to the late 1960s it was a fact that women and the workplace met in few places, for only a brief time and very rarely in the general public eye. If seen in

The “weaker sex”, “hysterical”, “overly emotional”, “pushy”, and “bossy” are epithets that have served as excuses against women in defense as to why they don’t perform jobs as well as men and therefore aren’t worth as much to companies. However, the days in which we taught our young women to find a “good man” to provide for them and the family they were to keep the house and raise children, have come and gone. Just as the days when women were sold for the good of the family. The dream of finding an obscure man who will go to work, while the wife stays home to keep the house and raise the children, are obsolete. Nowadays, women have been taught by their mothers, who began the second feminist movement in the 1960’s and 1970’s that women can

Perhaps you are saying to yourself "I already knew this but couldn't prove it." Whether or not you could have guessed this information or have possibly lived to tell your own stories about juggling the responsibilities of family-life and work, the underlying and disturbing question is, how can this be so today? How can it be that modern women who have seemingly come so far in becoming recognized as thriving active members of business, politics, and society in general still be struggling with the same gender roles with which their grandmothers dealt? How is it that women have broken out of many of the confines holding them back from the public sphere, but women are still expected to fulfill traditional roles within the private sector?

There are common beliefs about working women, including that they are expected to have kids and quit their jobs when they do, they are judged more harshly when voicing their opinions, they are expected to have good ‘soft skills’, they are still seen as secondary to their husbands even if they’re the primary breadwinner, they are perceived as naturally weaker than their male coworkers, and they are judged more on their looks than men. Even though most these stereotypes have mostly disappeared over the past few years, they still exist in some places. Today, women in America are becoming more and more powerful in many areas, especially when it comes to the workforce.

In this paper the history of women in the workforce will be outlined, as well as the challenges they face. The changing attitudes towards women taking over family businesses will be looked at briefly, how women lead in comparison to how men lead, and a comparison of their leadership style will also be discussed.