Gender and Value: Inequality in the Workplace Environment and Affirmative Action - Essay Example

Gender and Value: Inequality in the Workplace Environment and Affirmative Action Introduction A fact of culture is that the work that women do, whether it be in non-traditional roles or traditional roles, is routinely given a lesser financial value than that which is traditionally done by men. Skills that are associated more often with male abilities are paid better than those skills associated with women. Therefore, the ability for women to make a living within current cultures is diminished in comparison to men, even though it is far more often that a woman is solely responsible for her own survival as well as that of the children she has born with male counterparts. One of the reasons that this continues to be the case is that women are fighting for an existence that has never happened within history, thus their position in history is in conflict with the position that they desire. Instead of trying to compete on the terms that the male gender has proposed, women might do better to compete on terms of the value of what the female gender contributes to the world. Society should neither be patriarchal nor matriarchal, but the nature of life supported through a mutual respect for what is contributed by the attributes of both genders. One of the remedies that society has asserted as relevant and effective in creating a more equal work environment is through affirmative action initiatives. While these actions have shown some success in creating a more equally spread wage and opportunity equity, there is a condescension involved in suggesting that women need special treatment in order to compete. In addition it perpetuates the concept that the nature of the inequity is justified and can only be made fair by lowering standards and making concessions. The situation provides for a reverse discrimination where no one gets the opportunity or wage based on their own achievements, but based on an unbalanced set of rules. Therefore, affirmative action initiatives do not help to dispel unequal problems in the work force as the initiatives suggest that in order for women to compete they need a less difficult set of requirements. Matriarchal Society In sociological terms, society has been defined through the concept of gender within a balance of power. In these terms, societies are either patriarchal, meaning the power is focused within the male gender, or matriarchal, which means the balance of power is in the female perspective. In known history, there has never really been a matriarchal society. There has been known to be some matriliny in which children took their mother’s name and were attached to her family, and matrilocality in which husbands went to the families and locations of their wives. However, a true matriarchy is not recorded (Eller 44). The supposed nature of a matriarchal society would be very different than a patriarchal society. In the matriarchal society, motherhood is the focus from which power is attained. According to Grint, Engels put forth the argument that the power within a patriarchal society is based upon the premise that “as production - the sphere of men - began to provide surpluses, so it achieved predominance over reproduction” (192). Elements of modern life - social classes, private property, and the state - are a direct result of the production over reproduction power balance. Grint once again quotes Engels as suggesting that “In theory, since patriarchy was derived from private property, and since working men’s exploitation of their female partners was a reflection of their own exploited position within capitalism, the elimination of capitalism and private property would reintroduce sexual equality” (192). This position is supported by Marx who believed that in eliminating capitalism, equality of the genders could be achieved (Grint 192). In this paradigm, capitalism and consumerism are the keys that gave all of the power to the male gender, leaving the domestic sphere outside of the valued skills that had financial equivalencies. Even through the advancements and enlightenments of feminism and efforts towards female equality, the core issue is rarely addressed and has yet to be made in regard to the inequities experienced through financial disparities where work in the public sphere is concerned. Skill Values When the public and domestic spheres became divided, the nature of public life having a division from home, the nature of the patriarchal control and power emerged. Gender relations are actually far more complex in regard to Engel and Marx, but in regard to the nature of value and skills, this dynamic is a reduced and simplistic perspective on how the disparities between the genders has occurred. The skills that are traditionally women’s skills provide enough for the family, where in the public sphere, there is the potential for surplus. This imbalance begins the gender imbalances that have occurred in society. As the genders are acculturated within society, a system of skill deficits and skill specialization and the ways in which the genders develop to compliment and unify under these aspects of their gender roles allows for an understanding of how genders are divided in skill sets that are intended for the perpetuation of the species (Dindia and Canary 145). As a society, the nature of defining gender roles is often rejected as a subject that creates an unequal status between men and women. However, gender roles have a function as they relate to the balance that must be created within social settings. The problem isn’t in having a division of roles, it is in devaluing one side of the gender role equation. Women and men are shown to incline towards stereotypical roles, both in social and in workforce roles. According to Worrell, young men and women will align themselves with career choices and ideas of competency through roles that suit their gender. Women will navigate towards service and human relation type positions, where men will navigate towards science and mechanically oriented jobs (49). However, typically the female oriented positions will have lower pay than will the male oriented positions. This disparity, despite no actual differences in intellectual or physical requirements, is a direct result of asserting values on male skills over female skills. Wage disparities are universal and are globally varied, but consistently existent in almost every society, and apparent in all Western based cultures. Women earn an average of 80.91% of the wage earnings of men in the work force even though education levels have little significant gaps (Pasero 122). Female work experience is more often higher than male work experience in the same types of jobs. However, men do have a higher average number of hours worked per week than do women which is attributed to the family constraint hypothesis that asserts that women, on the average, take more time within the domestic sphere than do men (Pasero 122). Affirmative Action The definition of affirmative action is in referenced to “an organization’s explicit efforts to ensure that people are not discriminated against on the basis of race or gender” (O’Brien 18). It can also be described as “an umbrella concept that subsumes different types of policies and practices tailored to meet specific, context-derived problems of discrimination and unfairness (Zamani-Gallaher xiv). However, the unfortunate existence of an affirmative action plan is that it presumes the existence of a problem, thereby effectively perpetuating it. In striving to specifically target a race or a gender for specifically different treatment will create a situation in which the ‘cure’ for the social disparity points a specific and discriminating finger towards that disparity. It provides a form of reverse discrimination. The reason that affirmative action still exists as a remedy for the problems of disparities in opportunity and wage is that while recognizing that women have equal achievements and can do the same jobs as men and deserve the same level of respect through compensation, the reality is it still does not exist. According to Zamani-Gallaher, “(there is a) yawning distance between the nation’s aspiration to be an exemplar of democratic practice and equality, and the realities on the ground” (xi). The reality is that these problems have not gone away and while the gap has crawled painfully towards closure, it has yet to fully close. The first argument against affirmative action can be shown through Rosenfeld’s argument against affirmative action from a libertarian’s point of view. From this perspective, affirmative action denies the right of an employer to give a job or compensation to whomever he or she believes is deserving. This ties the hands of an employer to pass up more deserving candidates for candidates that match a racial or gender based criteria (Rosenfeld 52). From this perspective, the needs of the employer are superseded by the needs of the state to implement actions that reach a certain goal towards equality. The second argument against affirmative action is that it increases self doubt within a group that policies target. The policies assume that the individuals not only cannot meet the standards that have been imposed, but that they have no hope of attaining their positions in fair competition. This reinforces the arguments that are made to support the inequality that exists. This concept assumes a degree of condescension towards the group and further divides the social and cultural beliefs on the way in which the division impacts equality. Affirmative action is merely a bandage that does nothing but protect the wound of inequality from further damage. However, just like the bandage, the wound is not healed by it. Other actions must take place from within to create healing, just like other actions within society must take place before equal states within career oriented situations can move towards equality. The average pay of a teacher, as an example, a female oriented career that requires a university education has an average starting pay that is near that of the average sanitation worker, public transportation driver, or postal worker, all jobs that are male oriented, but do not require a university education. The inequity is not in the ability of a female to work or to do quality jobs, but in the attitudes that society has perpetuated towards careers with traditions of high female participation. Value and Skill The way to approach inequities in pay across gender lines is to address the requirements of each job and the expectations with respect to the needs of the job. A firefighter, if they are required to lift a certain weight, should be required to do that whether they are male or female. As well, the number of years required to train at a university and the value of a position to society should have enough value to be considered for a reasonably high level of pay. Some of these inequities have been addressed, but many still exist. As well, appreciating the role that mothers play, the sacrifices and the importance of motherhood as they nurture the next generation, should be highly valued, making the importance of women equal to that of the assumed importance of men. The needs of procreation should be taken into consideration in the public sphere, as much as they are valued in the domesticate sphere. The child that a mother raises goes on to become the next national leader, the next innovator, or the next mother or father responsible for that next generation. Parenthood is important and has been valued throughout history, but has diminished during the period of time that production has become more important than reproduction an important part of public life. Conclusion Affirmative action is a remedy that presumes that a group within society needs considerations and lowered standards in order to compete. This is never a solution or a viable way to truly address a problem. It does provide opportunities that might not have come to certain social groups, such as defined by gender, but it doesn’t change the nature of prejudice and inequality that results from those prejudices. Reconditioning society to appreciate the skills of both genders and the traditional roles as equally important is a start towards creating equal appreciation for skills. When the social roles of both men and women for the domestic sphere and the public sphere become balanced in respect and value, the concept of equality in the work force will begin to be achieved. Works Cited Dindia, Katheryn and Daniel J. Canary. Sex Differences and Similarities in Communications. London: Taylor and Francis, 2009. Print. Eller, Cynthia. The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory: Why an Invented Past Won't Give Women a Future. Boston: Beacon Press, 2000. Print. Ferrante, Joan. Seeing Sociology: An Introduction. Wadsworth Pub Co, 2010. Print. Grint, Keith. The Sociology of Work: Introduction. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2005. Print. O'Brien, Jodi. Encyclopedia of Gender and Society. Los Angeles: SAGE, 2009. Print. Pasero, Ursula. Gender, from Costs to Benefits. Wiesbaden: Westdt. Verl, 2003. Print. Rosenfeld, Michel. Affirmative Action and Justice: Philosophical and Constitutional Inquiry. Yale U.P, 1993. Print. Worell, Judith. Encyclopedia of Women and Gender: Sex Similarities and Differences and the Impact of Society on Gender. San Diego, Calif: Academic, 2001. Print. Zamani-Gallaher, Eboni M. The Case for Affirmative Action on Campus: Concepts of Equity, Considerations for Practice. Sterling, Va: Stylus Pub, 2009. Print. Zhou, Minglang, and Ann M. Hill. Affirmative Action in China and the U.s: A Dialogue on Inequality and Minority Education. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Print. Read More