Examining the Intersection of Gender and Work

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Examining the Intersection of Gender and Work

• Powell ix-xx

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In-class exercise 4

• COLOR BLIND
• In this provocative program, five students from a
  variety of cultural and ethnic backgrounds speak
  with candor about racial harassment at their high
  school in an effort to encourage teenagers to
  examine their own attitudes and behaviors.

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What causes the problems in society?

• Prejudice
• Discrimination
• Segregation

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Prejudice

• Attitude
• Based on false generalizations of properties
  attributed to racial-ethnic groups rather than
  ones own
• May or may not be used to continue inequality
• May or may not lead to discrimination

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Two types of Prejudice

• Stereotypes
• Cognitive aspect
• Come to know by judgment
• Exaggerations of behavioral traits
• Examples??
• Social distance
• Affective aspect
• Emotional aspect
• Discomfort with social relations
• Examples??

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In-class activity 5

• What did it mean to be prejudice?
• Are you???

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Discrimination

• Acting on ones prejudice
• Verbal or nonverbal acts that bring about
  negative consequences for the minority group
• Aimed at denying equal access to societal rewards

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Four types of Discrimination

• Individual
• Intentional attempts to harm (act on prejudice)
• Direct Institutional
• Incorporation of limitations into the legal
  structure
• Jim Crow Laws
• Statistical
• Based on a belief that members of a certain group
  are more likely to behave in a particular way
• Structural
• Outcome of different groups not taking advantage
  of available opportunities

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Two ways discrimination can take place

• Indirect (Covert)
• equal treatment
• equal circumstances
• Unequal social conditions
• Cafeteria not taking into consideration the needs
  of Vegans
• Direct (Overt)
• Unequal treatment
• Equal circumstances
• Unequal social conditions
• No Asians are allowed in that restaurant

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Segregation

• Physical separation due to negative feeling
• Complete elimination of the minority group or
  thing

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The other here has had negative connotations

• Other doesnt have to be negative

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Men-Women Relationships Through Time

• Past to present
• (Blau p 12-29)

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Men Womens Roles in Society are Changing

• Past
• Man is hunter (breadwinner)
• What characteristics would be seen here?
• Leader, decision maker
• Female is housekeeper and mother
• What characteristics would be seen here?
• Compliant, noncompetitive, nurturing, not
  instrumental
• Females position is to help the man

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Who has the power?

• Men and Women do have Physiological and
  Psychological differences but why are women seen
  as inferior?
• Ernestine Fried (anthropologist)
• Technology employed by society within the
  production process tends to determine the
  division of labor
• Man has the power because he leads the production
  process
• Other Scientists
• Disagree because slaves in the past were the main
  players in the production processbut did they
  have power?

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Hunting and Gathering Societies

• Men were the hunters of the meat
• Women were gatherers of fruits and vegetables
  (some small animals)
• Clear division of labor
• Male and female were equal partners in gathering
  the meal

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Horticultural Societies

• Men hunted and protected land
• Fruits and vegetables grown on plots of land near
  home (thus no real gathering for female just
  pick it)
• Female tended the home and cooked
• All other chores split equally

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Pastoral Societies

• Men herded large animals (usually farther away
  from home)
• Women tended to the home
• Women seen as secondary

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Agriculture Societies

• Women helped in the field
• Men worked the land
• Men received a dowry for the woman when they were
  married
• Woman seen as secondary in the family
• Responsibilities depended on gender (for children
  too)

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Industrialization

• Shift from working the land to working in a
  factory
• Women only worked to subsidize family income or
  save money for dowry
• Womans position is caretaker of family
• Labor force participation rates at the end of the
  19th century
• Male 84
• Female 18
• Married Female 5

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Early Traditional Family

• Male as primary income earner
• Female as primary household caretaker
• Shift from production unit to consumption unit
• Each now had Economic Roles
• Males role was to earn high enough wage for
  family
• Females role was to tend to the household

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Early Traditional Family Cont.

• Woman working was seen by society as
• Inadequacy of her husband
• Selfishness of the woman

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Circular Nature
Men and Women as equal partners
Hunting and Gathering
Horticulture
Pastoral
Men and Women as unequal partners
Agriculture, Industrialization, Early Traditional