Women in Paid Work - Research Paper Example

Women in Paid Work # TA Outline Definition - The essay is based on women’s role in paid work and social, economic and personalimplications of this propaganda. Women in paid work have to face gender stereotyping, conflict of priorities between work, home and family and other evils of society which doesn’t readily accept women empowerment in economic world (Sayer, 2005). Detailed abstract - The contemporary role of women in paid work is substantially growing and gaining attention with the passing of years and development of social awareness by masses. My research will primarily focus on the chronological progress and history in this regard from the time of women’s movement that began in 1960s to modern world. I shall investigate into hardships faced by working women and career-oriented females who are unable to find an opportunity suitable to their credentials or any job at all due to gender biases. My methodologies would include conducting interviews and market surveys to understand better how different people perceive to this agenda. There are several feminists, pressure groups and activists who can be interviewed as well to collect strong arguments and any instances of unfair treatment with women at paid work. On the other hand, people having opposing and contradictory views will also be approached so that comparison enables me to reach a conclusion in favor or against the theme according to weightage of justifications and arguments collected to support each case. I have derived few preliminary conclusions at this stage, which shall be strengthened or proved wrong in later phases of the study. I believe that women have always been a target of stereotyping and harassment at places of business. They do not get equivalent treatment as they deserve and have to pay big prices for bearing the so-called inferior gender. Major steps and measures need to be taken at national and organizational level in order to bring about the needed fundamental changes in attitudes of people towards sexual equality and female empowerment. However, these conclusions are only preliminary and I will carry out various research procedures with a neutral and skeptical mindset and caution not to be absorbed by subjectivity or tempted to agree to preconceived notions. My final conclusions shall be backed by strong arguments, documentary evidences and thorough research work. Annotations 1. Gutek, B A. "Women and Paid Work." Psychology of Women Quarterly. 25 (2001): 379-393. Print. The main purpose of this book is to highlight the gradual changes in attitude of society towards working women since the beginning of women’s movement in 1960s. The workforce of any organization, which once constituted of male employees, is now proportionately composed of skilled women who are paid competitively and hold equal positions therein. Nevertheless, the author is certain that as of today, still many entities do not provide equal opportunities for both genders. To develop her argument, she author uses two past literature works which entail experiences learned by women deployed in paid work. The author emphasizes on topics that have not been much talked about in the past regarding implications of working women. One of them relates to leadership demonstrated by women. She sells the idea of women equally capable to be effective leaders for success of an organization. But the gender stereotyping exhibited by the society has always hindered women from obtaining equal chance of proving themselves. Preferential selection by entities results in acquisition of influential positions by incompetent men which could have been better led by a proficient female candidate. She also talks about emerging complications in this area regarding the mentoring necessary on organizational level for employees to accept women colleagues amongst them and the evils of sexual harassments of young females by men working in strategic capacities. She concludes that results from research in women in paid work need to be materialized to benefit the community on the whole. This source will be helpful to develop strong arguments for the topic and generate a stronger conclusion. 2. Cornwall, Andrea, Elizabeth Harrison, and Ann Whitehead, eds. Feminisms in development: contradictions, contestations and challenges. Zed Books, 2007. This book studies the relationship between paid work and empowerment of women, which in turn are linked to their poverty, independence and status in society. It challenges the assumptions of independence of women and their capability to support their household through paid work. The authors recognize the gendered responsibilities of women towards home and family, which overburden them if they are engaged in paid work as well. They argue that though women have been participating substantially towards national economies over the years, through increased earnings generated from employment, domestic production at home or otherwise small-sized business offering services, it is not sufficient to make drastic contributions to propaganda of equality or empowerment of women. The society must be more open and positive towards this agenda wholly and take measures to promote it. The authors concludes that our society needs radical breakthrough behavioral modifications in order to be ready to accept empowerment of working women and their needs for proper working conditions. This book will help me in developing a thorough and detailed understanding of feminist approach and demands of women in paid work such as equal pay, progression, flexible working hours, maternity paid leaves and protection from harassments etc. This book entails how and what steps need to be taken to enable women to be equally treated in working environment and hold powerful positions to support their household needs. Bibliographic information 1. Sayer, Liana C. "Gender, time and inequality: Trends in women's and men's paid work, unpaid work and free time." Social forces 84.1 (2005): 285-303. This scholarly article investigates the gender biases demonstrated by people of different eras. The author discovers through research that women are expected to focus more on household chores such as cooking, cleaning and looking after children. The author concludes that in recent years, both genders tend to dedicate their unpaid working times to family-oriented activities. This source will help me develop how trends in women’s paid working practices have changed over the time. This is resourceful in understanding how the two different genders manage their paid working times and unpaid times, prioritizing between work and family. It will also be useful in identifying the role of men at home as compared to the primary role of women. 2. Blau, Francine D, and Lawrence M. Kahn. "The Gender Pay Gap: Have Women Gone As Far As They Can?" Academy of Management Perspectives. 21.1 (2007): 7-23. Print. This article has been highly acknowledged for its consideration of economic impact on society due to differences in salary scale of the two genders. Therefore, this article is helpful in quantifying the effects of stereotyping on national economies. The authors talk about the changing attitudes of companies towards hiring of women and offering them substantial emoluments for their services. Though there has been stability in earning rates of female employees in recent years, yet there is more to achieve to bring them to equivalent rates of earnings of men. The author speculates how this unfair imbalance might possibly be mitigated or be further amplified in future years. 3. Lewis, Jane, Mary Campbell, and Carmen Huerta. "Patterns of Paid and Unpaid Work in Western Europe: Gender, Commodification, Preferences and the Implications for Policy."Journal of European Social Policy. 18.1 (2008): 21-37. Print. This article revolves around the conflicting social roles and roles at paid work. According to a traditional model, male members of family were always termed to be the breadwinner of any family or household while women were the caretaker for household activities, children and daily routine tasks of running a home. However, there have been contrasting statistics in recent years showing how women have emerged out to be primary source of income for significant number of houses and families. This in turn refers to complications of women balancing between paid work and her essential need at home. This article gives me a different point of view to the topic from perspective of political sciences, emphasizing on roles of women to work and take care of family simultaneously. 4. Duncan, Simon, Rosalind Edwards, and Tracey Reynolds. "Motherhood, paid work and partnering: values and theories." Work, Employment & Society 17.2 (2003): 309-330. This article explains the combination of mothering and paid work from a woman’s point of view. The decline of breadwinner model and uprising of adult worker family model is the primary focus of this article. The authors claim that women are equivalent part of labor force and a material contributor to total household income for supporting family. This article is valuable for my research since it signifies the role of women as a paid worker, mother and husband’s partner and indicates how time and effort is bifurcated by them towards each role on basis of priorities in each case. The authors conclude that through individualization and powerful position at home, women play crucial part in acting as catalyst for change management and as decision maker at home and a parallel strong role at paid work by benefiting the organization through her effective services. Read More