Gender in the Workplace

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Gender in the Workplace

• Presented by Christie Brinkmann

2
Authors Argument

• During the Pre-industrialization the roles of men
  and women were shared in everyday life.
• The beginning of the Industrialization brought a
  new division to their everyday life. Men were
  sent to paid jobs and the women were forced to
  stay home and take care of household jobs.
• The women continued their cottage industry for
  the first few years of the Industrialization.

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Authors Argument

• The Domestic code of Separate Spheres
• Women in the household and men in the workforce.
• Family was meant to be separate from work.
• Often leaving the woman to take care of the
  family and house and men to support the family.
• Until the 1970s if married women were found in
  the workforce it reflected poorly on their
  husbands.

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Evidence

• Personal writings 9 year old girl relives her
  life
• Observations from 1823 how women were worked
  treated
• Census data on the increase of women in the
  working world
• Married woman recount on how their husbands
  were tormented if they themselves worked, no
  matter how poor they were.

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Assumption of white middle class woman norm

• The author does not assume the norm in the
  writings.
• The author includes different races, ethnicities
  and genders.
• Such as
• Poor and Working class Both husband and wife
  had to work to maintain food on the table,
  defying the separate spheres
• African American It was not unusual for African
  American women to be found in the workforce, with
  no questions asked at one time they outnumbered
  white american women
• Single/Married The status of women in society
  defined whether they were in or out of the
  workforce
• Hispanic and Native American Were not often
  seen in the workforce because many thought them
  to be illiterate and savage

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Strengths

• Author presents several amounts of data with
  accountable resources.
• Author shows how women are getting somewhere in
  the workplace, but they have not yet achieved
  full status as men.
• Author presents worldwide contrast to the United
  States.
• Author also sees the problem with worldwide
  organizations and how they are hindering womens
  advancement by promoting no gender equality.
• Author presents the idea of separate spheres.

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Weaknesses

• The author didnt really explore the idea that
  maybe women were welcome to the idea of staying
  at home caring for their family.
• Women didnt really fight the idea of domestic
  work, so maybe they did not view it as a power
  over situation, but as a mutual agreement.

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Diversity Training Manual

• Society today still assumes the domestic code of
  Separate Spheres
• Men are put into the high positions
• Women are treated with much more leniency
• They can walk into work 15 minutes late without
  questions
• People, usually men, blow it off as women arent
  going to go any higher