What Is Benevolent Sexism

American sexism has changed dramatically over the years, but it is far from perfect. Today many women in America face sexism in many areas throughout their lives; especially in workplaces. Women face sexist stereotype that holds them back from rising up as corporate ladders, especially in jobs that have a high ratio of men compared to women. Sexist comments such as “women are weak to do this kind of job” , “these are men 's jobs” and ”women are too emotional to work” often causes a woman to be cautious of how she acts, making sure she is not feminine or that she does not cause trouble or repercussions. But, that is not all sexism is doing, often times women face discrimination at workplaces especially after entering motherhood.

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

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).

Over the last several decades, great strides have been made when it comes to eliminating sexism and progressing towards gender equality. However, sexism is still ingrained in our everyday culture. This is evident in the fact that in 2017 women earn about 80 cents to a man’s dollar and are less likely to be promoted within the workplace. It’s an unfortunate fact the most women will experience some form of sexism throughout their lives. In this paper, I will address my personal experiences with both hostile and benevolent sexism, how the two forms of sexism differ, and how these experiences have affected me.

From a very young age, I contended with countless setbacks, but the vitality placed on our income at home was the leading factor to my family’s problems. I remember when my parents chose to buy me a new pair of running shoes over paying the electricity bill or when they stayed up all night making tamales to sell so they could afford to pay for medical bills. There never went a month without my parents constantly arguing over the monthly rent or not having enough to buy groceries for the family. I grew up with five siblings in addition to two cousins who were sent from Mexico by their parents and placed under the legal guardianship of my parents. Naturally, learning to adapt to unfortunate circumstances was not rare and I quickly understood

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.

Promoting women’s equality in the workplace has been a central focus throughout my professional life. As a journeywoman carpenter (prior to my current academic career), I volunteered as a project leader for the Oregon Tradeswomen Inc., OTI (http://www.tradeswomen.net/) in Portland, Oregon. In this role, I taught women in OTI’s apprentice program introductory skills that allowed them to enroll in various trade union training programs throughout the Pacific Northwest. The goal of this work was simple, to increase the number of women in careers that were predominately male-dominated. At every stage of my academic career, I’ve made a concerted effort to mentor female students, and took great joy in watching them succeed. I believe that serving

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

For many years in the United States, women have been faced with equality issues. Men were regarded as superior, which made women feel inferior and insignificant. One place this has occurred is the workplace. This type of inequality dates backs centuries and comes from the common belief that since men were the breadwinners, women should take care of the home and children. As a result, men were believed to be more efficient in their careers. This is also known as systemic discrimination (Kennedy et al., 2008). When women were given the right to vote, they began to progress and take their place in the workforce. As they increased in numbers, there became a need to for fair

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.

There are common beliefs about working women, including that they are expected to have kids and quit their jobs when they do, they are judged more harshly when voicing their opinions, they are expected to have good ‘soft skills’, they are still seen as secondary to their husbands even if they’re the primary breadwinner, they are perceived as naturally weaker than their male coworkers, and they are judged more on their looks than men. Even though most these stereotypes have mostly disappeared over the past few years, they still exist in some places. Today, women in America are becoming more and more powerful in many areas, especially when it comes to the workforce.

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.

Throughout many decades women have been struggling to be equal to men, both at home and in the work place. Women have come a long way and are certainly fighting to gain that equality, but gender roles are very important in our society. They have become important in life from birth, and society continues to push these gender roles. The treatment of the male gender is very different from that of the female, and this issue has become very important to me, as a woman. As children we learn and adapt to specific gender roles, and as we grow they become more evident and more important to our role in a society. There is a lot of discrimination against the female gender. Carol Gilligan argued that

“It’s not the profession that has the glass ceiling, someone has put it there” (Brower 162). Men need to change their attitudes and actions towards women in the workplace. They need to abandon believing that they are superior to women. Most men truly believe that a woman is simply not capable of doing as well of a job, or better, than a man can do. Therefore, they become extremely unsupportive of women and fail to recognize their accomplishments. They decline to give women raises, higher executive positions, more responsibility and overall respect. Many men have very subtle and low-key ways of showing their discrimination. These men know that it is unlawful to discriminate against women, so they do it ways that can have no reprimanding consequences. They will go out to lunch, dinner or drinks with the guys, claiming that it is just a time for male bonding. But the truth of the matter is that most business relationships develop over these “bonding times” therefore, leaving the female employees out of the equation (Brower 160). Other men are not so subtle. Male bosses often deliberately overlook a female employee for a promotion by making bogus credentials that only a male would be able to fulfill (Brower 162). Men aren’t planning to become pregnant and take maternity leave as often as a woman does. My mother has come into contact with both types of men. She has been scanned

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