Gender Segregation in the Worplace Separated by Vertical and Horizontal Hierarchy

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and being squeezed out of organisations due to preconceptions about their dedication to a long term role, based on outdated gender stereotypes.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).

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).

A way to approach sociology is to carry out a sociological imagination. One way to describe sociological imagination is"the ability to think yourself away from the familiar everyday life”(quoted from C. Wright Mills) and to look at society with an entirely different perspective. Its about thinking outside of your own mind and your way of seeing things. This essay will discuss gender inequality by looking at society with a sociological imagination. Candace West and Don Zimmerman stated that “gender is a routine accomplishment".

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.

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 for example the pay difference women receive as it is suggested according to item A that women earn a quarter of a million pounds less than men and this is without women not having any children if she did have children it would be £140,000 less. The pay gap reduces family income overall which isn’t beneficial for families. Another issue is that women mainly work in low paid sectors like retail or caring and due to women having a glass

Considerable changes have taken place over the past two decades (WGEA, 2017c). Women have become more prominent within the workforce (WGEA, 2017c). Participation of women in the workplace has risen from 45% to 60% over the last 40 years (WGEA, 2017c, ABS, 2017a). Women’s education attainment has risen, showing a 28% increase since 1996 (ABS, 2017b; WGEA, 2017c). Despite this, earnings are not equal between male and female undergraduates (WGEA, 2017b). One suggestion is that women are choosing lower paid professions, contributing to an unequal distribution among part-time and full-time work (WGEA, 2017b).

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

In many cultures today, gender equality is unequal and being fought for. Occupational segregation is the division of occupation divided by a

Labour Market: Kew & Stredwick (2010) note a feminisation of the workplace with female participation rates increasing from 33 % in 1951 to 70 % in 2008. Giddens (2006) attributes this to three key reasons; changes to family life, financial pressures and personal fulfillment.

For example, men are over represented in ICU, OR, and ER while women are over represented in outpatient, post anesthesia, labor/delivery, and general medical-surgical departments (p286). When interviewed about why they chose their specialization, men seemed aware of the gender connotations of their job, while women rarely mentioned it as a factor. This is a direct cause of why segregation across different areas of work is much more prevalent than segregation through the administrative ranks.

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."

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

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).

The concept of gender denotes the distinction between culturally driven and created roles of masculinity and femininity. These specific and normalized attitudes and behaviors transcend and effect how differently men and women live their lives. Based on society’s continual re-enforcement of such gender stereotypes, we see an on-going dilemma of gender inequality. Though some may argue that men experience gender inequality, this seems to exist on a much more invasive level for women. As of recently, the awareness of gender inequality in the workplace has increased. With the fight for equal pay and equal respect, society is already making strides towards the equality of women. With that being said, one aspect of gender inequality that seems