2. Chapter 9: Work
• Understanding the ways in which work relates to gender/sex requires one
to also comprehend intersectionality
• Intersectionality was a term first used by Kimberle Crenshaw who used it to
explore “how the law, meant to prevent discrimination, was failing Black
women because it did not recognize the intersecting ways in which they
faced discrimination.” (p. 199)
• The issues of race, class, and nationality also need to be considered when
studying gender/sex in the workplace
3. Working Moms
• The term “off-ramping” is used
to describe an increasing number
of women who are leaving their
careers to temporarily be stay-
at-home moms
• Factors for this decision include:
economics, work structure, http://liberatingworkingmoms.com/category/
family structure, and the struggle working-it-out/the-choice-to-work/
to “on-ramp”
• Society’s definition of work is
associated with being paid and
making money, because child
rearing is not paid, people do not
http://www.examiner.com/article/working-mother-s-guilt-how-to-deal-with-absence-and-emotional-conflic
4. Work as a Social Institution
• According to the U.S. Bureau of the
Census in 2006 98,000 men out of the
26.5 million who are a part of a
heterosexual marriage, are stay-at-
home dads
• Work is perceived to be a masculine
institution with more social value
towards male occupations due to more
pay, authority, and opportunities for
advancement
• Women tend to be criticized for being
bad mothers when placing their child in
daycare
5. Maternity Leave
• Pregnancy
Discrimination Act of
• Family Medical
Leave Act of 1993
1978
• Allows up to 12 weeks of
• According to the U.S. Equal unpaid leave
Employment Opportunity
Commission the act is
designed to prohibit sex • Reasons include: pregnancy,
personal, or family reasons
discrimination on the basis of
pregnancy
6. Maternity Leave
• This chart shows where
the U.S. is in comparison
with other countries in
regards to maternity
leave
• What are your thoughts
on this chart? Do you
think that the U.S. is
unfair with it’s maternity
http://womeninpublicservice.org/2012/06/01/comparing-paid-maternity-leave-around-the-world/
leave?
7. Lori West Peterson & Terrance L.
Albrecht (1999)
• “Found that in discussions of work and women’s
childbearing processes, maternity leave was
interpreted as a benefit, and pregnancy was
interpreted as a disability” (p. 204)
• A study was also done by Patrice M. Buzzanell and
Meina Liu (2005) which concluded women’s
satisfaction of a company’s leave policy influences
their ability and willingness to return to work
following childbirth
8. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Labor Force
Participation Rate (2011)
• Mothers with infants under 1 year: 55.8%
• Mothers with children under 6 years: 63.9%
• Mothers with children 6-17 years: 76.1%
• Unemployed, married mothers with infants under 1 year: 6.4%
• Unemployed mothers with a different marital status: 24.2%
9. Characteristics of the Workplace
• Expression of emotion is
considered inappropriate
• “Emotions are considered
organizationally appropriate
when expressed by a man are
perceived as inappropriate when
expressed by a woman” (p. 206)
• Men socializing at work is
considered to be an effort
towards advancing their career
http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/w/women_at_work_gifts.asp
• Women socializing at work is
perceived as a waste of time
10. “The Top 10 Facts About the Wage Gap”
• In an article for the Center for American • 5. Women are more likely to work in low-wage,
Progress, Sarah Jane Glynn and Audrey Powers “pink collar” jobs such as teaching, child care,
listed and described the following as the Top 10: nursing, cleaning, and waitressing
• 1. In 2010 women who worked full time, year • 6. The wage gap accumulates over time
round, still only earned 77% of what men earned
• 7. As women age, the wage gap continues to
• 2. The gender wage gap does not only affect grow
individuals- entire families are impacted by
women’s earnings
• 8. Single women are even more adversely
affected by the wage gap than married women
• 3. Women earn less than men within all racial and
ethnic groups
• 9. More than 40% of the wage gap cannot be
explained by occupation, work experience, race,
• 4. Even though women are out pacing men in or union membership
getting college degrees, that’s not close enough to
close the gender pay gap
• 10. Mothers earn about 7% less per child than
childless women
13. Race, Gender, and Work
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2012/07/diversity_brief.html/
14. Race, Gender, and Work
• African American
women face oppression
and subordination from
both White men and
White women
• The practices may be
more subtle such as who
is asked to do certain
tasks
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2012/07/diversity_brief.html/
15. “The Office: Diversity Day”
• “The Office” is a comedy show on NBC based on the everyday lives of office
workers at a paper company Dunder Mifflin. It sort of pokes fun at the
stereotypical office worker.
• The following is a link to a clip from the second episode of the first season entitled
“Diversity Day.” The Manager Michael Scott (Steve Carell) is forced to give his staff
a racial diversity seminar after he imitated comedian Chris Rock. He assigns each
employee a card with a different race written on it which they put on their
foreheads. He instructs them to interact with each other while treating them
based on what their race card says so they will know what it is like “to be a
minority” when in reality, it leads them to stereotypically treat each other.
• Diversity Day Clip
16. Sexual Harassment
• There are two types of harassment
• The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network defines them as:
• Quid Pro Quo- when a perpetrator makes conditions of employment
contingent on the victim providing sexual favors.
• Hostile Environment- when unwelcome, severe, and persistent sexual
conduct on the part of a perpetrator creates an uncomfortable and
hostile environment (jokes, lewd gestures, inappropriate touching) This
type of harassment is responsible for almost 95% of cases.
17. Sexual Harassment
• The most common normalization form of
violence in the workplace is sexual
harassment
• The most predominant form is men
harassing women
• “Most studies indicate that 40% to 70% of
women and 10% to 20% of men have
experienced sexual harassment in the
workplace.” (p. 211)
18. Sexual Harassment
• A man who has learned to perform masculine
behaviors simultaneously learns to not exhibit signs of
empathy
• This is why they fail to see their behavior as
harassment
• “It is not enough to inform people about actions that
constitute sexual harassment. It is also necessary to
challenge prevailing notions of masculinity that
discourage empathy in men.” (p. 212)
19. Conclusion
• Whether work is paid or unpaid, basically every person takes
part in it. The many aspects of it such as occupation itself,
the interactions with others that occur, and the laws that are
created/upheld all play a role in a person’s performance of
gender/sex.
• “In turn, gender/sex influences how people understand work
and its relation to family, identity, and culture. The tensions
and intersections that exist between work and family, work
and leisure, work and law can only be improved if one
overtly considers gender as part of that mix.” (p. 215)
20. Sources
• Glynn, Sarah Jane & Power, Audrey. (2012, April 16). The Top 10 Facts About the Wage Gap. Center for American Progress.
Retrieved from http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2012/04/wage_gap_facts.html
• Pruin DeFrancisco,Victoria & Palczweski, Catherine Helen. (2007). Communicating Gender Diversity. Sage Publications.
• Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2012, April 26). Employment Characteristics of Families 2011. Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/
news.release/pdf/famee.pdf
• Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network. Sexual Harassment. Retrieved from http://www.rainn.org/get-information/types-of-sexual-
assault/sexual-harassment
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