Orthodox Sociological Understandings of Work, Employment and Professions

Throughout history, women have been regarded as of lesser value than men particularly in the public sphere. This is the result of gender stratification. Gender stratification refers to the issue of sexism, “or the belief that one sex is superior to the other” (Carl et al., 2012, p. 78). The theory that men are superior to women is essential to sexism. Sexism has always had negative consequences for women. It has caused some women to avoid pursuing successful careers typically described as “masculine”—perhaps to avoid the social impression that they are less desirable as spouses or mothers, or even less “feminine.”

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 –

Gender and work exist sociologically as a way to maintain both authority and inequality. Women’s roles throughout history shed a light on the expectations and stereotypes that exist today; however, navigating a gendered economy and overcoming sex segregation continues to be a challenging task for most women. Wages continue to be uneven, and wives continue to bear most of the child rearing and domestic responsibilities despite increasingly working the same amount as their husbands do. Becoming educated on these inequalities and viewing them with a sociological perspective will allow people to see gender and work in an accurate light and continue to develop

Sociologists have extensively studied the gender gap within the STEM field, while most theorists focus on gender socialization to explain this phenomenon; recently there has been a push to emphasize a more intersectional approach. As stated earlier gender socialization is “ the process of learning the social expectations and attitudes associated with one’s sex” (Gender Socialization Lesson 2017). It is built into our culture and it shapes how our society acts. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a prominent writer in the 1890’s who is now seen as a sociologist. She focused in on traditional gender roles and the effect they have on society. Gilman’s work Women and Economics looks at how women’s roles in society are not seen as valuable or economically beneficial to society. She states, “Economic progress, however is almost exclusively masculine” (Gilman 1898: 200). As well as stating, “The male human being is thousands of years in advance of the female in economic status” (Gilman 1898: 200). These quotes show that men are and have been superior to women in an economic stance. Gilman also touched on the idea that, “the labor now performed by the men could not be performed by the women without generations of effort and adaptation” (Gilman 1898: 200). Meaning that even if women were to take over male-dominated jobs, they would need a lot of time and change to achieve the productivity that men achieve. This all stems from societal ideas that women are not to be working in male dominated jobs, they should be cooking and cleaning. These gender roles

In the capitalist system, two types of labor exist, a division stressed by Marxist feminists like Margaret Benston and Peggy Morton. The first is productive, in which the labor results in goods or services that have monetary value in the capitalist system and are thus compensated by the producers in the form of a paid wage. The second form of labor is reproductive, which is associated with the private sphere and involves anything that people have to do for themselves that is not for the purposes of receiving a wage (i.e. cleaning, cooking, having children). Both forms of labor are necessary, but people have different access to these forms of labor based on certain aspects of their identity. Women are assigned to the domestic sphere where the

When speaking about women in work, it is important to talk about the typical jobs women take on that are sometimes low in status. First off, women are more likely to be employed in unpaid care work and housework. They take these jobs because of the time availability, relative resource perspectives, and the symbolic representation of their gender. When women take on paid jobs, it ends up being balanced with unpaid work because of maternity leaves. All these normality’s for women are often criticized because there is a double-shift which means women

3- Organizations invent and reproduce cultural images of sex and gender: Different cultures define what is valuable to their own societies. The example that the book gives is capitalism in the United States, and how it is dependent on, “...creating and maintaining a culture where people value materialism and purchasing power,” (Palczewski 190). In terms of work as an organization/institution, this means that people who work in higher paying jobs are seen as more powerful members of society than those who don’t. Despite the fact that poor women and men of color drive the capitalistic economy, their jobs don’t provide more than the bare minimum for them to

Every society in the history of mankind has assigned work by gender; without work done by each gender economies could not thrive. Chapter 12 of Hunter College Women’s and Gender Studies Collective fourth edition depicts the truth about inequality, discrimination in the workforce against women and how globalization overall effects women. As the Hunter College Women and Gender Studies Collective (HCWGSC, 2015) states, “…women complete more than two thirds of the world’s unpaid work.” (p. 350), this is an issue for women world-wide. Each culture has different values, roles, and social norms they follow, and this includes gender specific roles and jobs. There is more to work equality than feminism; status, race and value play a major role on equality

The reserve army of labour theory has been criticised as it fails to explain why there are women's jobs and men's jobs. It is seems to overlook the fact that patriarchy can be influential by itself. The Marxist feminists seem to imply that once capitalism is abolished, gender inequality will disappear, which might not actually be the case.

To continue, as the Industrial Revolution progressed, woman began to revolutionize their own roles within the workforce. “...the impetus of technology, science and medicine freed women from the biological constraints, opening up new job opportunities (Oxley, and Nicholas 724).” Not only could women now go out and seek employment, but they had the opportunity to shake the age-old tradition of a woman being caged within the walls of her own home. However, “...trades employing woman involved irregular employment, long hours, and poor pay (Oxley, and Nicholas, 739).” Woman had the opportunity to work, but most of the time they were better off staying at home due to the poor working conditions.

This paper will analyze the topic from a feminist theory perspective, specifically Marxist feminist theory, which defines gender inequality with women’s position in society.

Therefore, feminist sociology is not effective in leading women towards change or an end to dominant heterosexual assumptions that put patriarchy at power. Thus, it is difficult for women to breakthrough the oppression merely on theories and lacking practical action or reforms. When sociologists, such as Smith uses categories to analyze the relationship between women and her male counterpart, she draws on this notion that there is this believed or assumed natural heterogender relationship in society. As Smith proposed, men are able to work in the public materialist world and contribute to the everyday capitalist world is due to the existence of a female figure working within the private sphere to support the workings within the household, and in turn, make a patriarchal and capitalist society possible. Therefore, there is the assumed husband and wife, nuclear family in the household, with each playing their part and indicating that every individual is required to situate themselves as actors in this

Engraved in the mindsets of most people are the traditional foundations that men are the workers of the family. Women in the early ages were to stay home, cook, clean and care for the children. The ideology of separate spheres is one all history majors and students have come to know very well. But standing here as a woman, I see a greater future for myself than just remaining in the kitchen, or the birthing room. Overtime, the world still spinning, spheres have shifted. Men are not the only members of the working class society. A new ideology, one of inclusiveness and equality for all able bodied people, ready to work has arisen. The gender revolution as some call it, has taken over in America and other countries around the world. This gradual shift

The economics of intimate partner relationships play a role in patriarchy and the reinforcement of women abuse. Martin (1981) states that meritocracy is a discourse that everyone has equal opportunity in the workforce. It fails to recognize the barriers that prevent people from having the same opportunities as others. For instance, women face many social pressures that prevent them from working in the public sphere such as discrimination, sexism, being pushed down to apply for certain jobs because it dominated by males and may not have the physical requirement like body mass. Martin (1981) argues that capitalism supports patriarchal families and the idea that a woman's place is considered to be in the private sphere, the home, while a man is to be in the public sphere. Martin (1981) states that capitalism is about competition and succeeds when barring disadvantage or vulnerable populations including women from advancing to the top of the hierarchy so that people, predominantly white males, would remain in power. One strategy to prevent women from advancing in their career is to receive minimum wage and less income than men which therefore makes them easily replaceable in the work force. This defines women as temporary workers (p. 41). This leaves women economically dependent on men and gives a reason

Throughout world history, most societies have had the tendency of assigning men and women separate occupational roles based on biological abilities, where women tend to child-rearing and all that it entails while men pursue political and economic dominance, and the United States is no exception. Both these roles complement each other by serving to support the needs of the family unit. However, advancements in society opened up opportunities for both men and women to opt-out of traditional occupational roles. The feminist theory attempts to overcome these gender-based stereotypes to combat inequality, but the emergence of feminist thought did not exist much prior to the industrial revolution. As society became more industrialized as well as socialized, jobs transformed from serving the literal and direct needs of the family to those of society as a whole. While this shift made it so that women were particularly reliant on their male counterpart’s employment, there were exceptions and gradual opportunities to obtain work outside the home; and these opportunities increased as society evolved.