Sexism and Work Place - Assignment Example

? Sexism and work place Introduction Sexism, according to Cambridge dictionary, are those actions that are based on the notionthat members of one sex are inferior in terms of intelligence, skills, ability, etc., to members of the opposite sex, one of the most common assumptions being the belief that women are less able than men are. One of the reasons for invisibility of sexism in institutions is silence. Women and men experience social difference constantly. People always ask about the sex of a child when born, i.e. if it is male or female. Cultural beliefs, occupation, and other traits determine femininity of an individual. Socio-environmental factors like schools, employers, family, and peers cause the difference of sex in abilities, gender, and interests acquired and reinforced in childhood and adulthood respectively (Menendez et al., 2012). Factors contributing to Sexism Environmental factors contribute greatly to development of boys and girls by punishing and rewarding them based on what they have done. Labor division on sexes reflects occupational and domestic roles of men and women. Children should behave according to the roles of gender; boys, for example, are to behave in a muscular way and girls in a feminine way. Parents are responsible for shaping the behavior of boys and girls. Development of children’s gender roles is through contacts with peers, especially of the same sex. Children, once they go to school, are subject to the influence of a school authority figure. They spend more time with an adult role-model, from whom they choose and develop character. They get more punishment and rewards for their behavior. They receive first message of sex separation of positions in the system: male teachers run the school while women teach and are poorly represented in the administration. If a woman becomes an administrator, then she is at a lower lever. Both men and women graduate from colleges and universities more than before. Girls tend to have better grades than boys do, owing to their higher level of discipline, obedience, and orderliness. Sexism in organizations has been in existence since women started working. Disparity of wages and occupational segregation are the main inequalities affecting women. Separation of women and men is occupational segregation. For instance, men would choose to do a police job, firefighting, and engineering whereas women would become teachers and housewives. Disparity of wages is the difference in wages earned by women and men. Gender identifies an individual as either male or female; thus, ‘gender’ or ‘sex’ frequently refer to categorization of a group. The social role theory suggests that a demand generates roles exhibited by individuals. For instance, the role of women to raise kids needs nurturing character. The role of child-rearing is attached to women because of their reproduction function, tying women to nourishing and taking care of infants. Linking women, for instance, to rearing of infants attributes such traits to women as kindness, helping, and nurturing. The same theory associates men with traits like competitiveness, non-domesticity, aggressiveness and assertive roles, which need skills and bravery. The difference between men and women in status strengthens the expectations of gender stereo types. The stereotype is that female roles require fewer resources than male roles and that rearing of children is traditionally for women (Kurtz, 2002). Social punishment and rewards give incentive for individuals to behave according to expectations of group members. A person may act with the expectation of gender even when it is contrary to his/her personality. For example, a woman may act kindly contrary to her wishes just to avoid disapproval of others. Men and women act differently matching the stereotypes. The impact of this theory of social role for the difference in behaviors and traits is distinct. The theory suggests that beliefs of a cultural nature on both genders are not accidental. In this context, ideals of a cultural nature of masculinity and femininity could have been natured differently: if women and men equally contributed to raising children and working, then men and women could have same traits. The rise of women into paid jobs provides a natural test for social theory. Women now make part of paid workforce, but the roles at home have not changed. They are still the caregivers even when having a paid job. Women’s roles in others have changed; therefore, social role theory predicts that women stereotypes should change. Women are becoming aggressive, assertive, and ambitious due to their involvement in paid workforce; they are, however, traditional due to the role of rearing children. Contrary to them, men primarily are the breadwinners of the family, and this remains a constant. The same applies to difference and similarities in stereotype behavior. The distinction between intergroup relation and gender determines the measures of prejudice. This also determines tolerance of intimacy among members of different groups. For example, an individual may work with a member of another group but may not socialize with them and may not even will to marry them. Gender relations are vulnerable to oppression and discrimination, i.e. dominance and interdependence. Men keep positive approach towards women and acknowledge their ‘feminine’ traits. Women, on the other hand, are either discriminated against or given lower status and treated with cruelty. Ideologies of social structure have far-reaching consequences. Some propagated ideologies attract dominant groups and justify their dominion as fair. On the same note, the theory of social role results in the system of belief that assists in the maintenance of their existence (Paludi, 2003). The theories of prejudice have centered on justification of hostile ideologies such as having inferior staff. However, the combination of interdependence with dominance that shows gender relations needs an intricate balance. Researchers have laid great emphasis on sex and gender. Starting with feminism, it provides an impetus to determine the position of a woman in the society. Women are dissatisfied and are at ease with staying at home and doing domestic roles. In addition, they want to change this stay-at-home for paying jobs, free contraception, and equal education. Division of labor based on sexuality squarely lies on studies on men and women at the work place. Sexual harassment and under-representation of women in administration are the root causes of inequalities at men and women’s labor positions. The difference between how women and men are paid attracts many scholars’ attention. Salary and the wage gap of different countries vary. Sexual division of labor is of individual choice. Women tend to choose taking care of household. They choose low-paid and low-grade jobs to integrate with home responsibilities. They do not choose long working hours with huge salaries. Paludi (2003) came up with a theory that points at heterogeneity of women in work and distinguishes preferences of work (p. 220). The results are that women who prefer to be at home constitute 20%; another 20% preferred to be career women, and the remaining percentage preferred to combine family and work without prioritizing any. On the contrary, men have a pattern of continuous working with no other alternative. The researcher argues that sexual division of labor is a mechanism effective in women subordination. Sexism is associated with disrespect and discrimination of women. Powel (2010) showed that groups like Promise Keepers nurture ideologies of gender. He came up with an organizational portrait that attempts to achieve harmony. He came up with approaches of deeply understanding masculinity in Promise Keepers. The approaches were ‘traditionalist,’ which assumed that Jesus put authority on husbands and pastors. ‘Psychological archetypes’ were the second, based on cultures of the West. ’Biblical feminism’ was the third approach, and it focused on equality and unity of both women and men. ‘Pragmatism counseling’ was the fourth approach. This approach was less concerned with femininity or masculinity but rather concerned with what is best to do in any situation to help people to be in harmony. People may show extreme sexism towards men. For instance, women may become hostile by criticizing the greater authority of men in the society. They may also exhibit a caring attitude of admiration of men’s aggressiveness and their role of sort of a resource to women. The old type of sexism and modern sexism are different. The old type is blatant and usually connected with endorsing of traditional roles of gender at home and in the work place. Modern sexism encompasses toleration of sex discrimination, the opposition to the demand of women for discrimination of sex to be stopped, and lack of support for workplace programs to assist women against this vice. The old type of sexism states that women do not stick to their roles and cause problems in the workplace while modern sexism states that women tend to complain much about the problems they encounter in the work place. The above statement shows in different ways attitudes of sexists, but women are prejudiced against in the old sexism as well as women who play modern roles in place of work. Modern sexism associates prejudice with barriers in the way of executing female roles. Sexism has a negative impact to any organization, especially occupations considered to be masculine. For example, sexists reject discrimination of women as a major cause of sex segregation. This affects programs that assist women against sexism. Both hostile and friendly sexism among men create obstacles in establishing the status of women in the place of work. Adverse sexists prefer authority of men to women, putting male candidates on top positions and rejecting female candidates. The rise in the number of women on top seats of management has made sexism common phenomenon. A sexism victim elaborated the mechanism she encountered at work (Dik & Hil, 2012). It was directed not only at her as an Asian woman but also at Hispanic and black coworkers. Both her employees were female, but it is not them who discriminated against her but her co-workers (Dik & Hil, 2012). Kurtz (2002) studied emotions and reactions of women to sexist jokes. Undergraduate female students were given an audio tape of a male telling sexist jokes. He then assessed reaction to each joke and their facial expression. He concluded that listening to sexist jokes would lead women to feel adverse emotional effects. Work experience acquired by women affects the likelihood with which they link their experience to being exposed to sexual harassment. Dipboye & Colella (2005) carried out SEQ on undergraduate female students, blue-collar positions, and working women. Their findings noted that students were less likely to label their experiences as sexual harassment than women were. Women develop clearer expectations on what contributes to inappropriate conduct at work. Moreover, socialization of gender boosts men to develop competitive personality, affiliated with instrumentally and competency (Dipboye & Colella, 2005). Boys are oriented on paid work, and trained on mechanical and mathematical skills. Girls, on the other hand, see employment as their future; they are though still expected to have sensitivity, physical attraction, and nurturance. They come out of these processes with low esteem, low expectations as compared to their male peers. Both women and men ought to be assertive, competitive, and competent in their work place. On the same token, women ought to value family more than carrier, being non-assertive and expressive. The society we live in does not treat sexism as acceptable. Neither does it consider sexism expression openly as it may bring prejudice. Sexism is very unacceptable; thus, eradicating it is necessary. Nevertheless, if norms of society will permit its expression, then it is released. Societies’ attitude to women should be impartial, and then sexism will become unacceptable. Just like racism, workplace sexism exists at interpersonal level. The rising number of women occupying top seats of management gave rise to sexism. The sex differences in people are inborn, that is, a person is born female or male. Sex difference gives rise to gender identity, cognitive abilities and social traits that depend on the brain structure and the level of hormones. Statistics of health tend to differ on men and women; an average woman experience more disabilities and illness compared to men. Men experience depression, anxiety, headaches; they die in an accident or get murdered. Religion and sexism is clear through the differentiation of gender, intimacy, and paternalism. Conservative religions are associated with labor division, such female traits as nurturing and valuing of marriage. Research shows that those who embrace old gender roles are able to embrace benevolent sexism. That is why researches have put a critical look at religion as the source of benevolent sexism (Menendez et al., 2012). In general, religion and sexism have two things in common: religious fundamentalism and religious orientation. Another research indicates that women in Christian colleges experience greater inequities, in comparison to women in secular colleges. Efforts taken to address sexism in religious environments will have to distinguish between law protected sexism and one that is not under protection. Sexism protected by law, an appeal to justification by religion bolsters it. Discrimination mostly occurs in religious setups, especially when an informed gender affects behavior. To address sexism in the work place, leadership should provide full support; for instance, leadership should address motivation for the harassment of gender. When gender-related changes get support, then the eradication of sexual harassment is achievable. The elimination of sexual harassment is achievable through rewarding of changes in an organization’s structure, for instance, taking appropriate action whenever sexism occurs and through the support of initiatives and policies that facilitate change. Another way of eliminating sexism in the work place is by increasing the number of women in leadership, religious organizations, and workplace. The more there are women in the work place, the less is the gender harassment. Exposure to sexism is a threat to the performance of women at the work place. It is a hindrance to their success, especially when they want to develop new skills and flourish. Sexism, from stereotyping to sexual harassment, is the risks of performance of women. In the work place, success indicators involve the presence of women and professional development. In education, when women should stay at home, they are unable to compete with male counterparts in job market due to lack of adequate resources. Female representation is generally low in well-paying occupations like engineering, law, and university teaching. On the contrary, women tend to take up occupations like nursing and school teaching, which are low-paying. Women working in the same profession as men are underpaid, even when they posses greater skills than men. Statistics indicate that women constitute 60% with men in similar positions (Tarkan, 2012). The rising question is why is this case? Studies have shown that women take much time to raise children, thus interrupting their career path. The conflicting demands clarify why women having children often leave their job unlike their colleagues who do not have. On the same note, men are breadwinners, and thus they ought to get more money than women do. Paying men more than women for equally same job is pure discrimination. Conclusion The latest trend shows that there is an influx of women joining top-level management. Nevertheless, none or few are at the top positions, an indication that there is still a glass ceiling. Equality will not happen on its own. It must take application of ideals and initiative without assuming time as the best healer. Until we realize that there is a large gap between the current women presence in the workforce and that there is still a glass ceiling to be broken, sexism will remain an obstacle to women’s development. It is therefore imperative to create an enabling environment in the work place with zero tolerance of sexism, by either employees or anybody in the work place. In addition, any person found guilty of sexual harassment is to face the law accordingly. Managerial training and formulation of policies to curb sexism are appropriate ways of passing the message to employees that sexism is unacceptable in the organization. Women believe that better representation across all business setups will lead to profitable and better businesses, having a huge benefit for men and women in the work place. The bottom line is that it is everyone’s responsibility to shun sexism in the work place. If we allow sexism to flourish without taking action, then it is as if we instigate it. Evelyn Cunningham said, ‘women are the only members in our society living in intimacy with their oppressors.’ References Dik, B., & Hil, P. (2012). Psychology of Religion and Workplace Spirituality (Hc). IAP. Dipboye, R., & Colella, A. (2005). Discrimination at Work: The Psychological and Organizational Bases. Psychology Press. Kurtz, S. (2002).Workplace Justice: Organizing Multi-Identity Movements. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press. Menendez, C., Wagner, K., Yates, D., & Walcott, Q. (2012). Engaging men and women as allies: A workplace curriculum module to challenge gender norms about domestic violence, male bullying and workplace violence and encourage ally behavior. Work 42 (1), 107-113. Paludi, C. A. (2003). Academic and Workplace Sexual Harassment: A Handbook of Cultural, Social Science, Management, and Legal Perspectives. Greenwood Publishing Group. Powel, G. (2010). Women and Men in Management. SAGE. Tarkan, L. (2012). Subtle sexism common at work, experts say. 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