Thai Culture and My Career Choice to Study Gender-Based Stereotypes

These perceptions however may not be true. According to organizational behavior scholars, ‘women are evaluated negatively when they adopt a stereotypically male leadership style and occupy traditionally male-dominated positions’. The employees in the case assume that Sally being a woman should be ‘nurturing and … care about their workers’ suggesting preconceived notions of how women should behave. This notion of stereotyping can result in misinterpretation of information because not all people are the same, and many in the same social category may demonstrate inconsistencies with the stereotype.

Growing up the main question a child is asked is, “What do you want to be when you grow up? “ , and most kids respond saying a doctor, lawyer, or a cop. In reality not everyone sticks to their first idea, and it’s slim that they actual start working in the chosen career. In my case, I have always wanted to work as a social worker or a therapist, but I realized it wasn’t in my budget. Therefore, I have decided; as well as, grew interest in being a dental assistant for a pediatric office.

have a lot of ambitions for myself, including going to a university and having a family. I dream of traveling the world and either volunteering, studying or working before settling down and starting a life. I have always seen myself working some sort of branch of psychology, such as therapy, counseling, or rehabilitation. I feel as though in whatever I do, I want to be a place of comfort and reliability; a safe haven for someone in

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and being squeezed out of organisations due to preconceptions about their dedication to a long term role, based on outdated gender stereotypes.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

Gender bias has continued to be constructed in communication through marked forms. In Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg discusses, “When people talk about a female pilot, a female engineer, or a female race car driver, the word “female” implies a bit of surprise”(Sandberg, 140). If everyone continues not to discuss gender bias then the world will continue to use marked forms, which Sandberg sees as a tool for people to be-little others (Sandberg, 140). She concludes this thought by saying “We can no longer pretend that biases do not exist, nor can we talk around them. The result of creating a more equal environment will not just be better performance for our organizations, but quite likely greater happiness for all”(Sandberg, 158).

“Stereotypes are categories that constrain and shape what a person believes about, and expects from, other people” (Bartlett 1910). The workplace is one of the most active environments for women to be stereotyped against. Women are judged in ways such as being weaker than, and not as active as a man. This can be a problem for a woman in a male dominated occupation by making them feel, or seem, not as valuable as a man. For example, women in the police field will face the struggle of being seen as weaker, gentler, and to submissive to fight crime compared to men. This type of behavior leads to women not receiving much earned promotions, and having more struggles applying to male dominating jobs.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” As a child, we have all been asked this question; and as unrealistic children, we all had dreams of being a superhero, princess, cowboy, or astronaut. Later on in life, as time went by, and as we became more knowledgeable, our answers became more serious. Some of us wanted to be teachers, business owners, or a veterinarian. However, I have always wanted to be a doctor, but not just any doctor. For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to be a pediatrician. Now, half way through my junior year in high school, I have started to question the details of this career, and all the hard work it takes to become a part of the medical field.

When initially asked what do you want to be when you grow up, prior to about sixteen years old, my response was an early childhood psychiatrist. I perceived a need in both the world and my personal life that there were many children in need of someone who would understand them, communicate with them, and advocate for their needs. I strongly agree that callings may arise out of a response to specific challenges or issues in our individual or collective lives, such as the call to early childhood psychology correlating with a traumatic personal childhood. Yet as A Sacred Voice is Calling, stresses your call story to a particular vocation may require a change of heart through personal conversion and transformation.

In the fight for equality, it is obvious to defend against forms of sexism that are used for antagonization. However, chivalrous attitudes that cast women as weak and in need of men are often ignored. Social psychologists have studied the effects of benevolent sexism using experiments testing one’s performance shortly after being labeled as incompetent. Benevolent sexism is not a series of compliments, but rather a threat to one’s ability to think, learn, and perceive information. The workplace is an environment of which benevolent sexism occurs most often and one of which most are familiar with. Benevolent sexism in business does not allow men and women to achieve the same goals within the work place. Forcing an individual into a social role can limit them to only specific simple tasks that do not allow for maximum personal growth.

There are many stereotypes about women, blacks, and black women in the United States. These negative stereotypes flourish in part because whites have a history of viewing Black “as an undifferentiated mass of people” without individual characteristics or identities (Fordham and Ogbu 1986). Negative stereotypes of whites tend to be less to identify in this majority-white culture (Kennelly 1999). There are of course negative stereotypes about white, they are just harder to identify. Positive and negative stereotypes play a major factor in decision making for employers, such as women in the workforce as

Gender plays a huge role in workplace 'success' and can be a big challenge especially if the employee is a woman in a male dominated workplace or career. No matter how 'hard-nosed,' 'ruthless,' 'workaholic' a woman may be, or how much personal success she achieves, there will always tend to be some type of obstacle to keep her from getting completely to the top of the corporate ladder. She must also still fight stereotypes that undermines her confidence or limits her potential. Since the early 20th century, women and minorities have sought equal opportunities in education and in the labor force with little success. These obstacles or barriers are all known as the glass ceiling.

Stereotype threats are negative consequences about one’s race, sex, nationality, or social group. Stereotype threats are used a lot more frequently than people realize. Gender is a powerful stereotype that affects many people’s decisions and actions. The stereotype of women in the workplace has come a long way even in the last twenty years. Many businesses tend to want to diversify their demographics by making the ratio of men to women almost equal. “Demographic projections anticipate that by the year 2000 women will exceed 50 per cent of the total workforce…” (Johnston and Packer, 1987). Women were able to make their way in to the workplace when men were off at war during the 1950s. During this time, women proved their ability to do the same kind of jobs men did. Many women worked as machinist, factory workers, and clergies.

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.

To think women as inferior, often pave the way for incivility. Chui & Dietz (2014) mentioned an incident of that in their paper “I recently saw an incident between our female administrative assistant and two male senior architects. The secretary asked a question to one senior architect, but he pretended not to listen to her. When she insisted, he told her not to bother him. Then the other senior architect said in a very loud and sarcastic way, ‘Wow, even the secretary of our office seems to believe that she has power and authority.’ It was really unpleasant for everybody around, and the administrative assistant walked off upset. Neither I nor my other colleagues did anything; we just continued working” (2014, p.95).