Role of Women in the Workplace

II. Background ................................... 2

A. Theoretical Positions ..................... 3

B. Research findings, data ................... 4

IV. Summary and Conclusion ........................ 6

V. References ..................................... 10

Popular wisdom has it that the role of women in the workplace has drastically changed over the past few decades. That the role has changed is a given, but what is not so apparent is the manner in which it has evolved  particularly over the past ten years. This paper will examine the question, "Is there discrimination in the workplace?" Looking at the role of gender within the occupational force, the paper will analyze type of occupation, availability of jobs, hiring, firing, and promotion. All these characteristics will be evaluated in relation to certain roles within the job market.

It is not new to realize that there is something inappropriate about a woman's position within the working world. Women tend to be segregated into certain positions, positions which society has defined as strictly female. Similarly, there are occupations that are primarily staffed by women, and in which it is difficult if not impossible for a man to get a job. What is even more common however, is that gender specific jobs are often given different titles and have different job descrip

. . .
ive in limiting the number of women within male dominated occupations. For example, women are usually relegated into lower paying clerical jobs (38 percent female to 6 percent male) and into service oriented occupations (10 percent female to 5 percent male). By an overwhelming majority, women are less likely to be in skilled or managerial positions (3 percent female to 19 percent male), and in the intellectual or technical areas, women are still underrepresented (21 percent female to 35 percent male) (Nieva & Gutek, 1981, p. 3). The overwhelming majority of gender specific occupations, researchers argue, are those in which traditional or psychological pressures exist in which to place one gender in a sublimated status to another (Illich, 1982). Whatever its cause however, segregation by gender is one of the principal sources of inequality within the occupational force. Recent research shows that this differentiation has changed very little since the turn of the century, when compared to statistical models of genders within the working world (England, 1981). A recent study even placed gender segregation at the organizational level within occupations as much more common and pervasive than previously thought, with men and wom
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2543
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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