Gender and Work

Social Construction of Gender Based Work

Gender based work refers to the way in which the division of labor in society has been shaped by gender. Gender, or the social construct used to define masculine and feminine roles, plays a large part in shaping a sex-segregated work environment that allows for sexual inequality. Sexual inequality in the workplace is manifested in the type of occupations generally reserved for women, the lower wages given to women and the stunted development of careers for women.

Gender based work and sexual inequality is not simply a product of the workplace. The workplace is merely one of the many places that reflect the gender bias celebrated by schools, the media and the home environment.

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ore than a decade ago. Working in a world dominated by male decision-makers and their established practices, women encounter a variety of barriers impeding their entry to certain occupations and advancement to the top of their careers. One of the most significant factors is cultural stereotype. To many CEOs, women cannot compete against their male counterparts because they get pregnant and are responsible for domestic tasks. One of the primary obstacles that prevent women from improving their status in society is sex segregration in the workplace. Even though women received 54 percent of bachelor's and master's degrees and 38 percent of doctorates, they only constitute about 20 percent of lawyers and 20 percent of physicians. Seventy percent of working women remain in jobs associated with women's work: clerical, service and sales. Employer gendering can also be seen in the setting of pay levels. In 1986, when I was hired to work at UCLA as a computer operator, I realized that the earning power of men compared to that of women (within a specific career) was nearly 30 percent higher. Therefore, I challenged my manager, citing sexual discrimination in the wage differential between men and women performing the same tasks. Within
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Approximate Word count = 3505
Approximate Pages = 14 (250 words per page)

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