ABSTRACT
Women have always worked but in the past few decades, increasing numbers of women are working outside the home in paid employment. Economic forces are the primary reason for women’s increasing profile in the workplace. Yet, myths regarding women’s role in the workplace—such as their lack of physical prowess and negative concomitants of the menstrual cycle—are referred to in stereotypes regarding the limitations of women workers. Some of the more intense criticism of women concerns their dual roles as mother and worker. Unfortunately, society’s ambivalence toward women workers impacts women’s views of themselves as workers and mothers.
Occupational segregation within industrial societies continues at overwhelming rates. “Women’s work” and “men’s work” remain divided, with women crowded into fewer and lower-paying jobs than men. Women receive 77 cents for each dollar that men earn. Furthermore, women of color experience additional discrimination due to race and ethnicity, with fewer African American women and Hispanic women working as managers and professionals than White women. Studies of the differences in political views of women with different career histories points to fears regarding integration of women in high-level positions. Some women may have “feminist” viewpoints, which threaten traditional managerial or corporate perspectives. Women are not a homogenous group, and that is especially true when querying women about their perspectives on workplace justice, such as affirmative action.
Post–World War II ideals were the foundation of many boomers born during the 1950s. These ideals collided with the economic realities that greeted their generation: stagnant wages and downsizing. Many women raised during the rhetoric of the 1960s and 1970s women’s liberation movement sought outside 239employment. A major revolution accompanied the rise of women in the workplace. Women sought empowerment through education and work, and many families benefited. Yet, even as many women were seeking a collaborative couple approach to work, contingent work in the United States began to erode prior gains for many workers, men included. The collaboration between the sexes that is needed at home to nurture family members is still not apparent in the workplace, as the distribution of women in jobs that pay well falls far short of that of men. In fact, researchers note that what is perceived to be a necessary trait for a job is based on highly stereotypical assessments of both the job and gender. Skills that are required to perform one job (e.g., appliance sales-man) may not be different from those required to perform a job dominated by women (e.g., cosmetics saleswoman). Yet many employers simply hire men for jobs, because men are preferred by the employer. Furthermore, if a job attracts more women, incumbents begin to fear that womanly traits will characterize a job, demeaning men’s skills and masculinity. Extensive research demonstrates that men are paid more simply because they are men, not because of special masculine traits. The endurance to keyboard all day at a computer is considered equal to the endurance and physicality required to be a truck driver. Unfortunately, however, so-called women’s work has been traditionally devalued, regardless of the cultural or social context.
Whereas once certain individuals would have easily reported that women’s “proper” work was in the home, these individuals now suppress such comments. It is not that they want to be “politically correct” as much as they don’t want to reveal their deeply held sexist or racist beliefs and therefore be “incorrect.” Aversive sexism, a covert form of discrimination, continues unabated in the arena of workplace discrimination. Women not only experience a work-related penalty (salary) but a personal cost (stress) from discrimination. Enforced heterosexuality in the workplace extracts a penalty from lesbian women workers although preliminary evidence supports the notion that the primary discrimination they face is gender based, not due to sexual orientation. The very legal and social development that created opportunities for women has reinforced patterns of gender inequality. Such inequality in the workplace results in an unearned male privilege that men take for granted and women concede. When women do not conform to the stereotypes that define working women, they may experience a “penalty” and need to be “put in their place” through sexual harassment or bribery. The effect is to confer special privileges and status upon male workers, such as those in the mines or in military schools. Women who describe themselves as careerist tend to believe in the meritocracy of the workplace and are less likely to interpret sexual aggression as a function of male social dominance, which intends to discriminate against women.
Although many people do not want to recognize their own disadvantages vis-à-vis others, women in nontraditional professions expose themselves to greater health risks. Women in both traditional and nontraditional jobs do have similar responses to stress, however. Married women are less subjected to sexual harassment in private firms than are single women. Women who cope most successfully with their stress are those who take an active approach to their problems—Super Moms excluded. Women who manage careers and family successfully do so only if they have strong support systems. However, even women who think they have good family support systems would be surprised to learn that male spouses, on average, perform less than half of the housework that women perform. Yet, given the obstacles women face at work and at home, children of working moms are no different psychologically than children of non-working moms, perhaps due to the higher self-esteem that women in multiple roles exhibit.
Employment arrangements, such as nonstandard or “contingent” work, may ameliorate some work–family conflicts, but part-time work is not possible for single mothers who need income to support their families. Nonstandard work is less likely to offer benefits, such as health care or pensions, and such employment may impact women in retirement. Alternatively, some parents choose to work full time and withdraw from the home, practicing an emotional asceticism as they live a workaholic lifestyle.
Despite the multiple problems and issues that women confront in the workplace and the challenges 240of balancing work and family, women continue to enter and stay in the workforce over the course of their lives. Movement to a more progressive society may be perceived as occurring at a glacial rate. Women continue, however, to press for greater equality in the home and workplace, and change is occurring, however slow it appears.
