 | This article possibly contains original research .(October 2018) |
The feminization of the workplace is the feminization, or the shift in gender roles and sex roles and the incorporation of women into a group or a profession once dominated by men, as it relates to the workplace. It is a set of social theories seeking to explain occupational gender-related discrepancies.
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The feminization in the workplace destabilized occupational segregation in society. [1]
Women are entering any form of profession and feminizing the labor force, which was once restricted and dominated by men. From exporting personal labor, entering the labor market, challenging the field of science and engineering, and participating in the sports environment, the power and role of women in the society have dramatically changed.
Feminization of survival is a term that feminists use to describe a social condition where women are forced into inhumane conditions for the survival of themselves and their families.
In 1888, the government of Canada decided to invite skilled Chinese men to work in a gold rush and the Canadian Pacific Railway to reduce the cost of labor wages and to make these projects affordable. The Chinese were motivated by desires to leave China and to earn higher wages. [2] Although these immigrants were earning a higher compensation in Canada compared to that in China, they experienced exclusion and occupational inequality. Even though the issue of racial exclusion is currently desensitized, there are workers who encounter violence and abuse in their working environment, a majority of which are women. [3] Exporting labor to developed countries is still booming since it creates economic growth and diversity. The globalization of labor eases the government debts and unemployment rates of developing countries. Women, especially in southeast Asian countries, are attracted to this money-making opportunity. [4]
The mostly poor and low-wage women were often considered burdens rather than resources, but now an increasing number of women are earning a profit and securing government revenues. [5] Several developing countries in southeast Asia, especially the Philippines, have seen the emergence of exporting labor to developed countries due to high foreign debt and unemployment. [4] Filipino women working overseas in the United States of America sent home almost $8 billion a year in 2003, and most of these women entered the fields of health care, domestic service, and child care. [4] Filipino overseas workers have earned the title of "migrant heroism" for sacrificing their family lives and normalizing migration remittance-sending to their motherland. Not only do these women hold a higher responsibility in their family and country, but they are also faced with racialization, violence and abuse. [5] : 503
In the new era, women restricted the 'spatial reach' of their job searches due to childcare responsibilities. [6] The open employment for middle-class women catalyzes the growing use of domestic workers for household cleaning and childcare. There has been a complexity in the modern economy with women's responsibility at home and at work. [7] Cultural theories maintain that lower wages in female-dominated occupations are the product of societal bias against the work typically carried out by women and that the sex composition of occupations affects wages directly. In contrast, recent human capital theories maintain that the wage penalties associated with working in female-dominated occupations result from different requirements in specialized training and that the effect is indirect. [8] Many feminist scholars insist that sexual difference is the primary reason for differences between both sexes in the labor market outcomes. [9]
Women face discrimination in the workplace, such as the “glass ceiling,” although female participation in the labor market has increased markedly during the past twenty years. [10] However, even with increased participation in the labor force and the high levels of commitment that women give to their workplace, women's work is still undervalued. [11] Additionally, many times a woman's work schedule is structured in such a way that it conflicts with her care-giving responsibilities. [11] The women who are also union members at work feel “side-lined” and “downgraded” about the workplace issues that they face that are apart from the union's agenda. [11] However, high levels of unionization strongly correlate with a lower wage gap as well as a lower gender gap. [12] One way in which people have tried to help working women is through legislation. [13] In late 2003, Norway passed a law that advocated for forty per cent of representation of gender public board companies. [10] The main objective for this was to increase the representation of women in top positions in the top sector and decrease gender disparity. [10] The result, however, had very little impact on women in business, especially those who made it into corporate sectors. [10]
The "Glass ceiling" has proven to prevent women from attaining higher levels of professional success. The development of the glass ceiling has influenced gender discrepancies within the labor market. The development of the phenomenon is affected by several factors, such as gender roles, gender bias, and sexual harassment. In addition to outmoded institutional structures, conscious and unconscious biases play a substantial role in hindering the promotion of women within the labor force. [14] Additionally, the difficulty of achieving senior and executive level positions is due to the practice of utilizing "male" characteristics as the standard expectation when assessing, hiring, and promoting women workers. [15] Despite the phenomenon, women have proven to be beneficial in business leadership. Researches have found that improvements within firm value, financial performance, economic growth, innovation, and philanthropy has been due to the inclusion of women leadership within companies. [16]
On the other side, something that is often ignored is the "glass escalator", in which a man enters a female-dominated workplace and is quickly promoted through the ranks. Several fields such as education, nursing, and social work demonstrate this phenomenon. Many factors affect this outcome, such as societal pressure on men and women alike to conform to gender roles, i.e., men seeking managerial positions and women seeking more domestic roles. Also, even within female-dominated professions, men are usually the ones making promotion decisions.
Despite these setbacks, women have been performing their jobs well. Women make up 40.9% of the American workforce, and they are CEOs of some of the largest companies such as PepsiCo, Archer Daniels Midland, and W.L. Gore. [11] Women also earn almost 60% of university degrees from America and Europe. [10] They make up the majority of the professional workforce in many countries, for example, fifty-one per cent in the United States. [10] Even with this high percentage, women's earnings are far less than what men are paid on average. They are also intensely under-represented at the top of their organizations. Surprisingly, feminization of the workplace has been driven by the relentless drive of the service sector and the equal decline of manufacturing. More women than ever before are willing to work outside their homes. Even after having children, 74% of women in the workforce manage to return to work, and 40% return to their full-time jobs. [11]
According to the American Association of University Women, young boys' and girls' capabilities and interests in science, mathematics and engineering are equally well established; however, most girls begin to lose their interest in their high school years because of the gap in gender representation in both science and engineering. [17] : 94 As a result, women are underrepresented in science-related occupations due to the gendered interactions early in life. [18] Researchers claim that the segregation of men and women into different occupations is the principal reason for earning differences between men and women. [9] They argue that occupational segregation restricts people's choice of career. [9] Researchers also observed both gender's general behaviors that can represent their preferred profession, finding that the boys are encouraged (and assumed) to be outgoing, analytical, and aggressive, while girls are encouraged (and assumed) to be passive, dependent, and nurturing. [18]
In the last 25 years, increasing involvement of women and minorities has prevented a severe shortage of science and engineering workers; but if current rates of gender and ethnic participation in these bachelor's degree programmes do not change, the number of qualified workers will soon be inadequate to meet the science, technology, and engineering needs of society. [19]
There is an under-representation of women in the STEM fields. [20] According to a study done by the U.S. Department of Commerce, in the United States women account for approximately twenty-four per cent of the STEM workforce, while making up forty-eight per cent of the overall workforce. [20] There are a variety of factors that contribute to this discrepancy such as lack of female role models, gender stereotypes, and sexism in hiring. [20] The roots of under-representation are in grade school, where girls fall behind boys in math because they are led to believe they are not as intelligent as boys and therefore incapable of being good at math. [20] Other influences include teachers, family, culture, stereotypes, and role models throughout school. [21] Women are earning the same number of bachelor's degrees as men but only account for thirty per cent of STEM degrees. [20] Women who earn these degrees are more likely to go into healthcare or education rather than STEM professions. [20]
Women are adequately represented in healthcare professions. Women constitute for 44% of doctors and 89% of nursing, health visitation staff, and midwifery. [22] However, women are disproportionately represented in different specialties in comparison to men. In surgical specialties, women represent 3.5% compared to 16% representation of men. In general practice, women represent 47% compared to 37% representation of men. [22] The discrepancy between men and women in certain specialties are due to factors of inherent differences and discrimination within the workplace. Researchers argue that specialties within the medical field for women are influenced by personal affairs that include family commitments, work-life balance, and sense of selflessness. [23] Additionally, researchers claim that women are deterred from pursuing certain clinical specialties due to difficulties of indirect discrimination such as a male dominated work culture, gender stereotypes, and unsocial hours. [24] Despite these barriers, women in healthcare professions have proven to deliver better health intervention and health care system savings in comparison to their male counterparts. [25]
The wage gap with in STEM jobs is smaller than in non-STEM jobs. [20] Women in STEM careers earn thirty-five per cent more than women in non-STEM careers. [20] They also earn more than men with non-STEM jobs. [20] Female engineering majors match their male counterparts in number who go into the engineering occupation, but physical and life sciences majors turned toward a broader range of careers outside STEM. [26] Within these career fields, there is a pattern of sexist hiring practices that lead to less women being hired in these fields. [26] The lack of women in these fields creates a cold work environment that causes women to quit. [21] In the life sciences, women are earning more doctorates than men, but only one-third are hired as assistant professors after completing their PhD. However, once hired, they are more likely to prosper in the STEM profession. [26] Women who have a family are more likely to switch to a non-STEM major or work fewer hours than men in the same fields. [21]
In the United States, women are seen as 'ill-equipped' to participate in sports, and their involvement was viewed as unfeminine and undesirable. [18] : 155
Today, women represent forty-one per cent of high school athletes and thirty-seven per cent of college athletes. Increasing numbers of women are participating in sports at the professional level as well. The passage of Title IX sparked the increase in women participating in sports throughout high school and college in the United States. Title IX of the 1972 Educational Amendments Act prohibits discrimination based on gender to any educational programme receiving federal funding. Since the passage of Title IX, women in collegiate sports has increased dramatically. [27] In 1981 the number of women participating in collegiate sports was 74,329, and by 2001, that number increased to 150,916. In addition, the number of female participants have increased from about twenty-five per cent of the student athlete population to forty-two per cent. [28] Before 1972 and the passage of Title IX, women were, for the most part, absent from sports in high school. In 1972 only one in twenty-seven women participated in high school sports, but by 1998 that statistic became one in three. [29] Following the passage of Title IX, the number of girls participating in athletics rose from 294,015 to 817,073. After only six years that number increased even more to over two million girls getting involved in high school sports. Prior to 1972 girls only made up seven per cent of student athletes and that number rose to thirty-two per cent in 1978. [28] This was a momentous time for women in sports because there was finally more representation across the board. Compared to women, one in two males participate in high school sports. [29]
After the passing of Title IX, the number of women managing and coaching sports in general has decreased. [28] The number of women in administrative positions within sports declined seventeen per cent from 1972 to 1987. It was also found that in Texas schools women only made up six per cent of the athletic directors and that in Florida only thirteen per cent were women. In addition to administrative positions, women coaches have seen a significant decline in count after Title IX was passed. [28] In 1973, women coaches were at an all-time high of around eighty per cent, but over the next ten years that number rapidly declined to around forty per cent despite the increasing opportunities for women. Ever since Title IX was passed, female head coaches have been harder and harder to find, especially from 1977 to 1982, when there was a thirty-six per cent decrease. This issue has still not improved much since 1972, even though Title IX was implemented to prevent this from happening. [30]
Women represent a significant majority of education professionals -- particularly in early childhood and elementary education. Not all roles of education sector are majority female, tertiary educators across the OECD in 2014 is 43% female. [31]
Across the OECD 68% of teachers were female in 2014. Women make up 97% of teachers in pre-primary education, 82% in primary education, 63% in secondary education. In primary school, the proportion of female teachers exceeds 60% in all OECD countries apart Saudi Arabia and Turkey. [31]
Between 1988 and 2012, the number of women employed in the United States' labor force accounted to 67 million; in those 24 years, there was a 56% increase in women teaching K-12 education. [32]
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A glass ceiling is a metaphor usually applied to people of marginalized genders, used to represent an invisible barrier that prevents an oppressed demographic from rising beyond a certain level in a hierarchy. No matter how invisible the glass ceiling is expressed, it is actually an obstacle difficult to overcome. The metaphor was first used by feminists in reference to barriers in the careers of high-achieving women. It was coined by Marilyn Loden during a speech in 1978.
A pink-collar worker is someone working in the care-oriented career field or in fields historically considered to be women's work. This may include jobs in the beauty industry, nursing, social work, teaching, secretarial work, upholstery, or child care. While these jobs may also be filled by men, they have historically been female-dominated and may pay significantly less than white-collar or blue-collar jobs.
A double burden is the workload of people who work to earn money, but who are also responsible for significant amounts of unpaid domestic labor. This phenomenon is also known as the Second Shift as in Arlie Hochschild's book of the same name. In couples where both partners have paid jobs, women often spend significantly more time than men on household chores and caring work, such as childrearing or caring for sick family members. This outcome is determined in large part by traditional gender roles that have been accepted by society over time. Labor market constraints also play a role in determining who does the bulk of unpaid work.
The gender pay gap in the United States is a measure comparing the earnings of men and women in the workforce. The average female annual earnings is around 80% of the average male's. When variables such as hours worked, occupations chosen, and education and job experience are controlled for, the gap diminishes with females earning 95% as much as males. The exact figure varies because different organizations use different methodologies to calculate the gap. The gap varies depending on industry and is influenced by factors such as race and age. The causes of the gender pay gap are debated, but popular explanations include the "motherhood penalty," hours worked, occupation chosen, willingness to negotiate salary, and gender bias.
In sociology, feminization is the shift in gender roles and sex roles in a society, group, or organization towards a focus upon the feminine. It can also mean the incorporation of women into a group or a profession that was once dominated by men.
Since the industrial revolution, participation of women in the workforce outside the home has increased in industrialized nations, with particularly large growth seen in the 20th century. Largely seen as a boon for industrial society, women in the workforce contribute to a higher national economic output as measure in GDP as well as decreasing labor costs by increasing the labor supply in a society.
Gender inequality is the social phenomenon in which people are not treated equally on the basis of gender. This inequality can be caused by gender discrimination or sexism. The treatment may arise from distinctions regarding biology, psychology, or cultural norms prevalent in the society. Some of these distinctions are empirically grounded, while others appear to be social constructs. While current policies around the world cause inequality among individuals, it is women who are most affected. Gender inequality weakens women in many areas such as health, education, and business life. Studies show the different experiences of genders across many domains including education, life expectancy, personality, interests, family life, careers, and political affiliation. Gender inequality is experienced differently across different cultures.
Occupational inequality is the unequal treatment of people based on gender, sexuality, age, disability, socioeconomic status, religion, height, weight, accent, or ethnicity in the workplace. When researchers study trends in occupational inequality they usually focus on distribution or allocation pattern of groups across occupations, for example, the distribution of men compared to women in a certain occupation. Secondly, they focus on the link between occupation and income, for example, comparing the income of whites with blacks in the same occupation.
Occupational sexism is discrimination based on a person's sex that occurs in a place of employment.
Occupational segregation is the distribution of workers across and within occupations, based upon demographic characteristics, most often gender. Other types of occupational segregation include racial and ethnicity segregation, and sexual orientation segregation. These demographic characteristics often intersect. While a job refers to an actual position in a firm or industry, an occupation represents a group of similar jobs that require similar skill requirements and duties. Many occupations are segregated within themselves because of the differing jobs, but this is difficult to detect in terms of occupational data. Occupational segregation compares different groups and their occupations within the context of the entire labor force. The value or prestige of the jobs are typically not factored into the measurements.
Women's work is a field of labour assumed to be solely the realm of women and associated with specific stereotypical jobs considered as uniquely feminine or domestic duties throughout history. It is most commonly used in reference to the unpaid labor typically performed by that of a mother or wife to upkeep the home and children.
Gender pay gap in Australia looks at the persistence of a gender pay gap in Australia. In Australia, the principle of "equal pay for equal work" was introduced in 1969. Anti-discrimination on the basis of sex was legislated in 1984.
Women are often under-represented in the academic and professional fields of engineering; however, many women have contributed to the diverse fields of engineering historically and currently. A number of organizations and programs have been created to understand and overcome this tradition of gender disparity. Some have decried this gender gap, saying that it indicates the absence of potential talent. Though the gender gap as a whole is narrowing, there is still a growing gap with minority women compared to their white counterparts. Gender stereotypes, low rates of female engineering students, and engineering culture are factors that contribute to the current situation where men dominate in fields relating to engineering sciences.
The motherhood penalty is a term coined by sociologists, that in the workplace, working mothers encounter disadvantages in pay, perceived competence, and benefits relative to childless women. Specifically, women may suffer a per-child wage penalty, resulting in a pay gap between non-mothers and mothers that is larger than the gap between men and women. Mothers may also suffer worse job-site evaluations indicating that they are less committed to their jobs, less dependable, and less authoritative than non-mothers. Thus, mothers may experience disadvantages in terms of hiring, pay, and daily job experience. The motherhood penalty is not limited to one simple cause but can rather be linked to many theories and societal perceptions. However, one prominent theory that can be consistently linked to this penalty is the work-effort theory. It is also based on the mother's intersectionality. There are many effects developed from the motherhood penalty including wage, hiring, and promotion penalties. These effects are not limited to the United States and have been documented in over a dozen other industrialized nations including Japan, South Korea, The United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Poland, and Australia. The penalty has not shown any signs of declining over time.
In 2021, China ranked 48th out of 191 countries on the United Nations Development Programme's Gender Inequality Index (GII). Among the GII components, China's maternal mortality ratio was 32 out of 100,000 live births. In education 58.7 percent of women age 25 and older had completed secondary education, while the counterpart statistic for men was 71.9 percent. Women's labour power participation rate was 63.9 percent, and women held 23.6 percent of seats in the National People's Congress. In 2019, China ranked 39 out of the 162 countries surveyed during the year.
Gender inequality in the United States has been diminishing throughout its history and significant advancements towards equality have been made beginning mostly in the early 1900s. However, despite this progress, gender inequality in the United States continues to persist in many forms, including the disparity in women's political representation and participation, occupational segregation, and the unequal distribution of household labor. The alleviation of gender inequality has been the goal of several major pieces of legislation since 1920 and continues to the present day. As of 2021, the World Economic Forum ranks the United States 30th in terms of gender equality out of 149 countries.
The gender pay gap or gender wage gap is the average difference between the remuneration for men and women who are working. Women are generally found to be paid less than men. There are two distinct numbers regarding the pay gap: non-adjusted versus adjusted pay gap. The latter typically takes into account differences in hours worked, occupations chosen, education and job experience. In other words, the adjusted values represent how much women and men make for the same work, while the non-adjusted values represent how much the average man and woman make in total. In the United States, for example, the non-adjusted average woman's annual salary is 79–83% of the average man's salary, compared to 95–99% for the adjusted average salary.
Misogyny in sports includes different discourses, actions, and ideologies present in various sporting environments that add, reinforce, or normalize the objectification, degrading, shaming, or absence of women in athletics.
Even in the modern era, gender inequality remains an issue in Japan. In 2015, the country had a per-capita income of US$38,883, ranking 22nd of the 188 countries, and No. 18 in the Human Development Index. In the 2019 Gender Inequality Index report, it was ranked 17th out of the participating 162 countries, ahead of Germany, the UK and the US, performing especially well on the reproductive health and higher education attainment indices. Despite this, gender inequality still exists in Japan due to the persistence of gender norms in Japanese society rooted in traditional religious values and government reforms. Gender-based inequality manifests in various aspects from the family, or ie, to political representation, to education, playing particular roles in employment opportunities and income, and occurs largely as a result of defined roles in traditional and modern Japanese society. Inequality also lies within divorce of heterosexual couples and the marriage of same sex couples due to both a lack of protective divorce laws and the presence of restrictive marriage laws. In consequence to these traditional gender roles, self-rated health surveys show variances in reported poor health, population decline, reinforced gendered education and social expectations, and inequalities in the LGBTQ+ community.
Christine L. Williams is an American sociologist. She is a professor of Sociology and the Elsie and Stanley E. (Skinny) Adams Sr. Centennial Professor in Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Austin. Her areas of specialization include gender, sexuality, and workplace inequality. Her research primarily involves gender discrimination at work.
