In chapter 10: “Gender Issues and Dual Careers” of the textbook, Career Counseling: A Holistic Approach, Vernon Zunker addresses gender issues, particularly with women and dual-career couples, in the workplace. This paper analyzes two relevant articles: 1) Pearl Jacobs’ and Linda Schain’s Professional Women: The Continuing Struggle for Acceptance and Equality and 2) Pamela Stone’s Opting Out. Both articles discuss the issues women face in the workplace and provide counselors, employers, and women with facts and tools to help achieve the goal of gender equality. In Stone’s Opting Out, she discusses the findings and implications of a study she conducted on a sample of professional women forced to restructure their careers after having children. …show more content…
For example, the behavior of men and women in the workplace was surprisingly found to be similar. While differences may have existed in the past, those differences are disappearing. According to Walston, this is due to more fearless women in the workplace insisting on credit for their accomplishments. Women are actively working to shatter the “glass ceiling”. Once can assume with the continuation of dual-earner households and shared roles, there will be no place for gender stereotyping in the future workplace. Therefore, if employers are recognizing the shared work and family roles of both genders, while aware of the fact that businesses with family-friendly policies have more reliable employees, then they should be putting effort into more gender research and implementing effective family-friendly policies. After all, a work environment with gender equality benefits the entire workforce and increases productivity. While some of these policies have major kinks to work out, recent research shows these problems will be resolved in
1. Present your informative speech’s anticipated topic, general purpose statement, specific purpose statement, and thesis statement. - Topic: The impact of media in society, The experiences and joys of nursing homes facilities - General Purpose Statement: Is to inform the audience on how nursing homes facilities are beneficial as well as common for elderly people to embrace as their live out their latter or rehabilitation years. - Thesis Statement: In todays’ world, nursing home facilities purpose is to bring health and awareness to those who are in need of special treatment and care. 2.
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
This generation has experienced an unprecedented upsurge in the number of women in the workplace, thus the need to understand diversity. Changes in family structure mean there are no traditional family roles, this shows that the issue of diversity cuts across both gender and race.
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).
In this paper, I will focus on the case examples of Maria and Richard to demonstrate ways that gender expectations and family life can influence the process of career counseling.
While women have made substantial gains towards achieving equality in the workplace, this goal has yet to be completely achieved. Even in 2017, women still only earn approximately 80 percent of the salary that a man earns. Given the continual lack of equality in the workplace, the natural question is “How can women help close the wage gap and achieve true equality in the workplace?” Sheryl Sandberg reasons in her book Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead, that women face many internal barriers, such as a hesitancy to speak up and take risks in the workplace, which ultimately, hinder their ability to advance in the workplace and achieve true equality. However, Sandberg fails to acknowledge the true significance of the presence of external barriers that women face, assuming that society as a whole in the United Stares has progressed to a point where these outer obstacles no longer exist. Unfortunately, society is not as progressed as Sandberg believes, as women continue to face many barriers outside of their control. Ultimately, holding women back in the workplace is the lack of public policy to support women and society’s expectations for women: to be the primary caretakers of families, and to exhibit stereotypically feminine traits in the workplace.
Robert Dorment’s summary from his article talked about that women always complained about men did wrong but men who worked so hard for their family and work-life balance. Richard used that word “castigate” for men that means women scold men, but they did not realize men worked so hard. Other quote about the castigation of men, “…person whose husband, by her own admission, sacrificed much in his own academic career to do other heavy lifting with their children, all so she could pursue her dream job and then complain about it, bitterly, in the pages of a national magazine” (Dorment 708). Anne-Marie Slaughter explained that women who get promotion from other positions that they realized they do not have spent time with their family and some women who leave their jobs because of their family reasons. The quote said, “It is unthinkable that an official would actually step down to spend time with his or her family that this must be a cover for something else” (Slaughter 682). Third article called Women, work and work/life balance: Research roundup talked about the wage inequality and unequal responsibilities between men and women. Women have more family responsibilities than men do because some women are staying at home while taking care of their kids. Last article, Work-Life Balance – An integrated Approach: The case for joint and several responsibility talked about the
Researchers have proposed a variety of explanations for systematic gender inequality in the workplace. Cultural benefits, the actions of male employees, the actions of the female employees, and the actions of the employer can contribute to intentional or unintentional gender discrimination (Ngo, Foley, Wong, & Loi, 2003). It has also been mentioned that women make less money because their work environment is generally safer than the stereotypical male work environment; childcare, cashiers, and secretary positions as opposed to firefighters, truck drivers and construction workers (Parcheta, Kaifi, & Khanfar, 2013). Perhaps the most dominant reasoning for women receiving less pay is the carrying over of biological roles into the workplace. Female employees often take time off to have a family, take care of a family, and are the primary caregiver of said family.
Inequality has been a dilemma for several years in countless different ways. A persistent problem with disproportion of income between women and men has been lingering within many companies in the United States. It has been said that women earn less money than men in the workplace for many different reasons. Some of these reasons are that women have not spent enough time in the office to be rewarded with raises and bonuses because they are busy with their home lives and taking care of their children, they, unlike men, have been taught to be timid and unaggressive which ultimately steers them away from requesting higher pay, or they do not meet the qualifications to receive promotions (Hymowitz, 2008). This essay is in response to On
For my research question I will be asking: “How is America making progress on gender equity?” Fundamentally, I believe that women are still misrepresented, and are still facing many challenges in the workplace, especially in the business world. The gender stereotypes play a considerable role in the way the society sees women as leaders. However, it will be judicious to consider the small but noticeable changes that have been made over the past years concerning gender equality in the American workplace.
The generation now has made it easier to equalize men and women but there is still a substantial amount of places where gender inequality is still happening in the workplace and where females still face discrimination. Women are often discriminated in the workplace and are usually not promoted as quickly as men are and they also receive less pay. History shows that women have not always been defined as property and thought of as second class citizens. But in the 21st century many have seen a drastic change in the so called “traditional” family ways where women are suppose to stay home and take care of the household chores, food, and children and men are suppose to work to support their family and provide financial stability. Many assume that in the workplace women are more vulnerable and less competent than men because women 's instincts are to put their family before work or anything else. Whereas men are the ones who will usually stay the late hours to work. People on both sides of the political spectrum and everywhere in between seem to be fearful of what is to come and more fearful of others than they are often willing to admit.
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
"Many individuals believe that men and women are fundamentally different by virtue of their different reproductive functions, and that a women's reproductive role has ramifications beyond bearing of a child. These individuals claim that there are immutable differences between the sexes which are manifested in their emotional, physical, and intellectual traits." (19, Samuels) This is a sad but unfortunate truth about the attitudes of the American work force. Every day, women face inequality and discrimination in their jobs. Men overwhelmingly dominate both blue-collar and white-collar jobs in the United States. As more women have begun assimilating into mainstream jobs, men have become emasculated and threatened; thus creating excuses and
With the increase of married women in the work force, more companies have recognized the stressful situation of dual career couples and they have decided to incorporated more flexibility in their policies and personal selection, and in career planning, placement and promotions. 2.2. The relocation issue
Much has been made over the last several decades about equality for the sexes within organizations. Men have historically been paid higher wages for similar job responsibilities and been given more opportunities for career advancement. The question has been raised by society whether or not real equality has actually been achieved. Societal expectations of a woman's role impacts her opportunities as a primary earner. Throughout time men have been expected to be the primary provider for a family, while women are the primary home maker (Wood, 2013).