Gender Segregation in the Worplace Separated by Vertical and Horizontal Hierarchy

Organisations are a key to understanding gender inequality. gender inequality within organisations has been debated for several years and yet still today is a touchy subject with organisations being discriminative right from the interview stage.Some organisations prefer to hire a man rather than a women because women are more likely to take maternity leave and days off to look after sick kids they are considered 'weaker' than men even though women may perform better than men at certain tasks within an organisation and yet still may receive a lack of encouragement from men.Formal rights have now been put in place in certain country's though not all countries have these rights in place In certain countries they have laws in place thats state that women cannot own land or property and in certain institutions and organisations they go through terrible actions such as violence and sexual harassment. In Australia we have the violence against women's act and the civil rights act for women so that they are treated equally but these certain acts don't stop women from being discriminated against at work where women earn 81c to a mans

There are two types of sex segregation, namely vertical and horizontal segregation. On one hand, horizontal segregation refers to the concentration of genders in different fields that are relatively similar in regards to educational and skill requirements, and this explains why men tend to dominate fields that have higher wages and women dominate fields that have comparatively lower wages. On the other hand, vertical segregation refers to the hierarchal division of genders in the same profession, according to the difference of skill, experience, and education; this is worse for women, as it limits females to advance to high ranked positions within the same field as men, making the pay gap further

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).

Traditional gender roles (men performing instrumental tasks and women performing expressive tasks) are viewed as important not only for the individual but also for the economic and social order of society. Failure to maintain the traditional division of labor is believed to lead to destruction of family life as well as higher rates of crime, violence, and drug abuse. Human capital theorists claim that sex differences in promotion rates are due to sex differences in commitment, education, and experience; women are believed to have less to offer employers. Even if these differences exist, this position ignores the fact that women are in a system of inequality, where social expectations prevent them from having qualifications that are similar to men. The conflict perspective emphasizes men’s control over scarce resources. The gendered division of labor within families and in the workplace results from male control of and dominance over women and resources. Differentials between men and women may exist in terms of economic, political, physical, and/or interpersonal power. Men remain the head of household and control the property. Also, men gain power through their predominance in the most highly paid and prestigious occupations and the highest elected offices. Liberal/Equal Rights Feminists – seek equal access for females within the current social system; focus is on equality of opportunity (e.g., civil rights and occupational equality). Radical/Transformative Feminists –

Occupational segregation is seen almost everywhere. It refers to the fact that men and women are concentrated in different types of jobs, based on prevailing understandings of what is appropriate ‘male’ and ‘female’ work. Occupational segregations have both vertical and horizontal components. Vertical segregation refers to the tendency for women to be concentrated in jobs with little authority and hardly any room for advancement, while men occupy more powerful and influential positions. Horizontal segregation refers to the tendency for both men and women to occupy different categories of job. The reasons for the persistence of occupational segregation are rooted in a complex interplay between societal and personal gender stereotypes, discrimination by power-holders against out-groups, habits and social inertia-and the repeated impact of all these on individuals’ choices and behaviours. Though increasing number of women now work full time outside the home, a large number are concentrated in part-time employment. Men, by and large, do not assume prime responsibility for the rearing of children. However, it is also seen that women have started bagging some important positions in jobs. Several processes have affected these trends. One significant factor is that more women are moving into higher paying professional positions than was the earlier case. Young women with good qualifications are now as likely as their male counterpart to land into lucrative jobs. The improved

Those jobs often provide less opportunity for training and career development (ibid.). Lastly, there is a sex-segregated workforce in Australia (Healy 2004). For example, men and women still tend have separate occupations and to work in different areas of the workforce and industries (ibid.). In addition, historically, male dominated occupations and industries have been more greatly valued with men’s work rewarded more than women’s work (ibid.). Pocock and Alexander (1999) studied the impact of sex-segregation on the Australian wage gap. They draw the data from the Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey (AWIRS) in 1995 and it reports an overall gender wage gap of seventeen per cent (ibid.). Moreover, they argued that both human capital and sex-segregation variables could not explain the gap (ibid.). However, they could explain the gap using their regression model while the rest was linked with being in female dominated work (ibid.). They also argued that comparable worth policies, that revaluate the women’s job, could help to reduce the pay gap (ibid.).

Most people think that gender equality is now common place in Western societies, but research shows that gender equality, which gained momentum in the 1970s, has since stalled, particularly when we look at class issues. Some issues have been hit head on, issues relating to sexist job ads and some sexist behavior at work…but we still have a long way to go. The wage gap between men and women is especially concerning.

Sociology Topic 6 ‘Using material from item A assess sociological explanations of gender inequality in todays society’ In the last 30 years women in the UK working has risen to 2.45 million whereas men working has risen by 0.5 million. Item A suggests a variety of gender inequalities in today’s society

Gender Pay Gap: Inequity, Work and Society In Australia over the last 20 years, it is documented that a person’s income and wages, differs based on one’s gender, known as the gender pay gap (The Conversation, 2017; Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), 2017c). This paper will discuss what a gender pay

After reading the chapter, the author of the textbook mentions that inequality towards women is one of the main reasons why several occupations are dominated by females because of “occupational sex segregation”, which is basically employing men and women in occupations according to their gender, in addition to separating women from manual labor and high-paid positions. This type of segregation mostly puts limits upon women on what they can and can’t do because of expectations/stereotypes being augmented towards children as they grow up, also known as gender roles. Society contributes to this by socializing children of what is expected of them according to their sex, “what is appropriate behavior for girls and boys. This includes defining appropriate occupations for women versus men” (Leon-Guerrero, 106).

What does it mean to say that work organisations and workplace cultures are gendered? Connell (2005) argued that institutions such as work act as a site of ‘gender configuration’, in which gender is created, reinforced and internalized. Work organisations can be gendered in many forms; this could be through the occupations held by each sex which could result in them being gendered for example women are associated with being emotional and caring. These attributes are prevalent in the types of jobs they undertake, for example they may work as nurses or teachers which entail a caring approach whereas men may work in occupations such as Construction which involves physical labour thus allowing men to exert masculinity. Another way in which the workplace is gendered can also be seen in the positions that men and women reach such as senior managerial roles which are predominantly occupied by males. To say that workplace cultures are gendered however involves looking at the practices, behaviours and values of the individuals within the workplace which results in them being gendered. These cultures may be based on stereotypes, prejudices and ideals held by both men and women. In order to find out how work organisations and workplace cultures are gendered I will be looking at the occupations within the public sphere undertaken by each gender, the segregation that occurs within occupations as a result of them being gendered, the problems associated with work such as unequal pay and

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).

Gender stratification is the cuts across all aspects of social life and social classes. It refers to the inequality distribution of wealth, power and privilege between men and women at the basis of their sex. The world has been divided and organized by gender, which are the behavioural differences between men and women that are culturally learnt (Appelbaum & Chambliss, 1997:218). The society is in fact historically shaped by males and the issue regarding the fact has been publicly reverberating through society for decades and now is still a debatably hot topic. Men and women have different roles and these sex roles, defined to be the set of behaviour’s and characteristics that are standard for each gender in a society (Singleton, 1987) are

Gender is the socially- constructed role and explanation of relationships between men and women. (Sport & Dev) In my opinion, I define Gender inequality as the unfair treatment amid both sexes. According to Sage Knowledge, "Gender inequality is allowing individuals of different opportunities due to perceived differences based solely on issues of gender."

Evidence 3 Further inequality is outlined in Table 2, which shows that women in professional and manager positions are unemployed at higher rates compared to men. However, it also display that women achieve higher rates of employment in education and health care positions. This is consistent with the ‘soft roles’ that women in rural agriculture are generally employed in, highlighted in pink.