Despina Stratigakos's Article, Where Are The Women

Her Mexican background and female gender both carry negative connotations that can affect her experiences within an occupation. In addition to herself, gender and race-based discrimination affects many people and so, by bringing attention to the issue, she and her fellow feminists could make an enormous impact on the affected population- women and people of color. At her conference, Ana, Bose, and Whaley would propose introducing affirmative-action legislation that would aid in desegregating occupations, which would in turn, help reduce discriminatory treatment of workers. Abandoning stereotypical lessons of masculine men and feminine women in regards with the academic fields/occupations people decide to go into also would also aid in reducing sex

According to Metz (2011), women are being deprived of opportunities and being squeezed out of organisations due to preconceptions about their dedication to a long term role, based on outdated gender stereotypes. In general, women experience higher rates of harassment at work, compared to men(McLaughlin, Uggen and Blackstone 2012).

This concept illustrates gender inequality because even in a field that is dominated by women, gender perceptions about men’s roles, abilities, and skills, privilege them and ease their advancement within the occupation. (Wingfield, p363-365)

Gender stereotypes are one of the most common encountered on a daily basis. The infamous ‘Glass Ceiling’ still exists in many areas of the professional world, restricting valid promotions simply based on gender. This type of concept can be verified by looking at comparative weekly wages of other professionals in a variety of industries. Most people will generally see female dominated occupations, such as nurse, teacher and secretary as requiring feminine personality traits and physical attributes for success; whereas male dominated occupations such as doctor, lawyer, and business executive are seen to require male personality traits for success (Sanderson, 2010, p. 344).

Throughout American history, people have been categorized based on what gender they are, and what their race is. In order to explore these ideas and come to terms with their importances many musicians, film makers, and authors have described the inner-workings of this societal construct. Indeed, both racial and female identities have been at the epicenter of many works of art throughout American culture as can be seen in: Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane, film “Modern Times,” Bessie Smith’s “T’ain’t Nobody’s Bizness If I Do,” and James Weldon Johnson’s Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man.

While many Americans and Farrell overlook sexism in careers, it is extremely evident in academia. The ratio of female to male positions and the salaries of those positions are blatant examples of unfairness. Linda Krefting, human resources professor at Texas Tech University and co-editor of Human Resource Reality, depicts the depressing reality for women in her article concerning the academic field. Though women earn 44 percent of doctorate degrees, only 33 percent of them have faculty positions. One would not expect a perfect 50:50 ratio, but this deficit is unacceptable. Additionally, on average women receive salaries 33 percent lower than what a male in

In almost every professional field, in business and in the arts and sciences, women are still treated as second-class citizens. It would be a great service to tell girls who plan to work in society to expect this subtle, uncomfortable discrimination--tell them not to be quiet, and hope it will go away, but fight it. A girl should not expect special privileges because of her sex, but neither should she "adjust" to prejudice and discrimination.(Freidan)

Promoting women’s equality in the workplace has been a central focus throughout my professional life. As a journeywoman carpenter (prior to my current academic career), I volunteered as a project leader for the Oregon Tradeswomen Inc., OTI (http://www.tradeswomen.net/) in Portland, Oregon. In this role, I taught women in OTI’s apprentice program introductory skills that allowed them to enroll in various trade union training programs throughout the Pacific Northwest. The goal of this work was simple, to increase the number of women in careers that were predominately male-dominated. At every stage of my academic career, I’ve made a concerted effort to mentor female students, and took great joy in watching them succeed. I believe that serving

Females are labeled as being too assertive, but as an attorney, one would think that it was good to be assertive. It is much harder for women to get employment at a law firm. Some go on to work for a private practice. Gender bias also affects hiring and promotion. Female lawyers perceive that it is harder to get hired, and once hired they are paid less and have fewer opportunities for promotion (Neubauer, 2008).

As longs as humans have existed, women have been oppressed. Men were generally seen as the breadwinner, the man in the relationship, the man of the house. This theory, or belief further lead to what was known as the retro-era. The retro-era, around the 1950’s, was the epitome of gender-based stereotypes, where women were only valuable to household skills such as cooking, cleaning and housework. In more modern times, women gradually received more rights to pursue careers men would stereotypically take over. Pursuing “manly” careers, which include lawyers, actors, politicians and anything that requires exceeding cognitive function, as a woman elicits criticism. It’s clear to see women have much more limitations, restrictions and expectations than

Women have pushed forward in the struggle for equality. Today women are staples in the professional world. More women are attending college than men as proved in recent studies. Women have outnumbered men on college campuses since 1979, and on graduate school campuses since 1984. More American women than men have received bachelor's degrees every year since 1982. Even here on Haverford's campus, the Admissions Office received more applications from women for early decision candidacy than men for the eighth straight year. The wage gap is slowly decreasing and the fight for proper day care services along with insurance coverage for birth control pills are passionate issues for women across America.

Before the end of my second year at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute School of Architecture, I began to ponder on the possibility of quitting architecture. It was a convoluted time of uncertainty; I wasn’t sure whether I was prepared to become an architect and take on the responsibility and commitment to better the built environment. Nevertheless, I decided to give myself one last shot at architecture before giving up – I accepted the internship offer from MAD Architects in Beijing, China. There, I got to meet many young architects

Women have experienced a historic situation of inequality in the social as well as professional aspects. Women were normally the ones that would take care of children, do the chores in the house, and in rural areas; they would work in the field with the rest of the family. However, today’s women have become more self-sufficient and independent from the predominant male figure within every historical family. Gender inequality in the workplace is becoming less common; yet, gender is a factor that affects men and women. Especially women have been subjected to a historical discrimination that has influenced society to decide which job is more suitable for women than men. However women have confronted and tried to break down the barriers that

A study on the implicit and explicit occupational gender types, Sex Roles, “Occupational gender stereotypes are activated when men and women are considered to be more suited for certain occupations based on stereotyped characteristics and temperaments” (White and White 2006). Matheus represented the following examples, “a stereotypically feminine job would be associated with attributes such as nurturing, caring, and being sensitive to the needs of others and a stereotypically masculine job would be associated with attributes such as decisiveness, coldness and toughness” (Matheus 2010). Nowadays, women are usually seen in the workforce as secretaries and nurses. Meanwhile, most doctors and construction laborers are men. In addition, Anker points out that “Occupational segregation by gender is prevalent in most if not all countries” (Anker 1998). “Women and men work in different fields and within fields at different levels” (Anker 1998). Diekman and Wilde explained that “men’s concentration in leadership and other high power roles led to the assumption that men have “agentic characteristics” such self-assertion and dominance and women’s concentration in subordinate and caretaking roles lead to the assumption that they have “communal characteristics” such as being kind and supportive (Diekman and Wilde 2005).

In striking resemblance to the aforementioned issues, women experience ridicule and other problems in the work place. As lending evidence, “According to the National Association of Women in Construction, less than 10 percent of women are in [the] industry” (Godwin, 2010, ¶ 9). Since I have worked in a few construction fields over my lifetime, I can personally attest to the mentality of numerous male workers in the business, regarding women infiltrating the ranks. Most often, men believe that women are inferior in the strength, endurance and mental abilities, which all are presumably necessary to be even moderately effective in the trade. Comparatively speaking, as much as nursing is customarily seen as a female position, due to its caring nature, construction is expected to be a man’s job, because of the assumed prerequisite of toughness.