family (28-29). De La Cruz notes the opposition she encountered from Hispanic male agricultural workers when she became a union organizer, "Many of our people my age and older were raised with old customs in Mexico: where the husband rules, he is the king of his house" (491). In factories and warehouses, where women have succeeded in landing positions in traditionally male occupations, embittered men still taunt female workers by telling them that they should go home and take care of their children (Braden 75). Although it is often an economic necessity for minority, working class women to enter the labor force, men still see their entry as a threat to their masculinity.
Given the fact that women have a significant presence in the workplace, it is discouraging that the ideal of woman as homemaker persists. Ideals die hard, especially when they are perpetuated in the popular media. In modern films, for instance, women are rarely shown as professionals, and when they are depicted in these roles they often knowingly violate professional ethics by having sex with their male clients. Men, on the other hand, are regularly portrayed in films as having to cope with the ethical challenges of their professions, challenges that have nothing to do with affairs of the heart. Such gender stereotyping implies that women rarely place their occupations ahead of emotional concerns.
Social and cultural traditions tend to keep women's salaries low in relation to men's and to limit their job options. Women are not expected to commit themselves to their careers with the same intensity that men do. Consequently, many segments of society still have problems perceiving women in positions of authority. Mansbridge noted that a relatively small proportion (20 percent) of Americans would favor electing a woman president (38). A similar mindset carries over into the corporate world where executives who oppose putting women in positions of authori...