Gender In CommunicationChapter 9 Work

By Jason

Brace

Introduction

Chapter 9 is about Work and its relationship

with Gender in Communication. The chapter is

broken down into different sections and they will be

our jumping off point. The Key Concepts of the

chapter will be addressed and we will sees

examples of what they mean and how it effects

people. I hope that you enjoy this power point

presentation and get useful information you can

apply in your future.

Key Concepts

Capitalism

Critical Organizational communication

Emotions

Girl Watch

Hostile Work

Paid Care Work

Quid Pro Quo

Sexual Harassment

Work-Family Tensions

Work Is a Gendered/Sexed

Institution

Work Is a Gendered/Sexed

InstitutionWorkplaces are never just about doing work

because they are populated with people doing gender. Evidence that gender/sex matters at work can be found in pay statistics (DeFrancsico p. 186).

Inequality based on sex (and exacerbated by race, nationality, and relation to the globalizing economy) is undeniable (DeFrancsico p. 186)

U.S General Accounting Office (2010) found that “Female managers earned 81 cents for every dollar earned by male managers in 2007” (DeFrancsico p. 187)

Gendered/Sexed Wage

Disparity

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/04/pdf

/equal_pay_day.pdf

This is a chart full of information to support the claim

that women make less money then men do in the

same positions of responsibility.

Gendered/Sexed Organizational

Structure and

MicrocommunicationSociologist Joan Acker pioneered the study of

how work is gendered, particularly through its

organizational structure. Her research and theorizing

make clear that “Organizational structure is not gender

neutral” (Acker, 1990, p. 139).

Daily practices, which often appear insignificant

when viewed as isolated instances, accumulate to create

masculine gendered work organizations (DeFrancisco p.

189).

Work also is gendered/sexed in the way people

and cultures define work (DeFrancisco p. 189).

The Definition of Work Is

Gendered/Sexed/Nationali

zedCapitalism depends on creating and

maintaining a culture where people value materialism and purchasing power.

In the United States, if people are asked to define work, they will most likely define it as paid work outside the home.

Child rearing is work, but because it is not paid, people do not think of it as work. (DeFrancisco P. 190).

Who Should Work (Outside

the Home) Is

Gendered/SexedMany women and men parents work and so

place their children in day care or seek the help of

extended family. While women who work outside

the home are criticized for placing their children in

day care, poor women who have had to rely on

welfare f they remain home to care for young

children are considered bad mothers because they

do not work (DeFrancisco p. 190).

Occupations Are

Gendered/Sexed

PrivilegedMany professions are sex segregated

(e.g., men tend to be firefighters, women tend to be nurses). Predominantly male occupations possess more social value, as indicated by more pay, prestige, authority, and opportunities for advancement (DeFrancisco P. 191).

Numerous studies demonstrate that if an occupation is female dominated, it tends to carry less prestige, authority, and autonomy. Even in part-time work, people (usually young men) who mow and care for lawns tend to be paid more then people who babysit children (usually young women) (DeFrancisco P.191).

Occupations Are

Gendered/Sexed

PrivilegedOccupation Total Population

Employed in this

Occupation

Percentage Of

Female EmployeesMedian Salary,

FemaleMedian Salary,

Male

Registered

nurse

2,843,000 91.1% 53,768 56,212

Maids and

housekeeping

cleaners

1,407,000 89.0% 20,384 24,596

Elementary and

middle school

teachers

2,813,000 81.8% 48,516 53,142

High School

Teachers1,221,000 57.0% 51,428 54,548

Physicians and

surgeons872,00 32.3% 79,404 100,620

Police and

Sheriff‟s Patrol

Officers

714,000 13.0% 48,776 49,296

Construction

Laborers1,267,000 2.7% No data

available

30,524

Workplace Organization is

Gendered/SexedHow the structure of work-both paid labor and housework- is

gendered becomes most evident in work-family tensions. The

institutions of work and family generate tensions, causing many people

to feel they must choose one over the other. These choices are

gendered, raced, and classed (DeFrancisco P. 192).

Nordic countries, work pay continues even during parental leave;

benefits provided at the birth of a child are reduced if both parents do

not take time off work; and parental leave is nontransferable, thus

prompting both parents to take time off (DeFrancisco P. 192).

Unfortunately, U.S. family leave is not structured this

way, meaning the tensions between work and family persist, leading to

the very challenges the Slaughter essay with which we opened the

chapter outlines (DeFrancisco P.192).

A Vivid Illustration: Transgender

Workers‟ ExperienceIn a study of their work experiences, sociologist

Catherine Connell (2010) found that “transgender workers who transitioned on the job described changes in their employers‟ assumptions about their abilities” (DeFrancisco p. 193).

The person is the same person; the only thing that changes is the sex designation. Yet, that alone is enough to trigger different treatment from their employers (DeFrancisco p. 193)

Transwomen are more likely to face workplace barriers than transmen DeFrancisco p. 193)

“The Workplace is not a gender-neutral location that equitably rewards workers based on their individual merits… but rather „a central site for the creation and reproduction of gender differences and gender inequality‟(DeFrancisco p. 193)

Gendered/Sexed Communication

in the Workplace

Gendered/Sexed Communication

in the Workplace

Recent research makes clear that “gender differences in

actual communication and leadership behaviors are

light, although expectations of gender differences are strong.

The situations that remain most problematic for women are the

ones in strongly male-dominated or culturally masculine

organizations”. Thus, the reality is not that women and men

communicate differently but that they are assessed differently

because people impose gendered expectations on them, and

these expectations benefit some and disadvantage other

(DeFrancsico p. 194)

African American Women

and WorkStudies of African American women and work make

clear that their experiences of subordination at work begin

in school, when counselors and teacher tend to steer them

away from particular work aspirations (DeFrancisco p. 195)

The problems African American women face are

intensified at the time of job entry and then exacerbated

with job advancement (or the lack thereof) (DeFrancisco

p.195)

Attention to how institutional structures of work affect

African American women differently than White American

women should make clear that a critical gendered lens

applied to the institution of work does not generate a simple

list of different experiences for women and men

Paid Care Work

Historically, women have tended to be the primary

caregivers to small children, and women of color have often been

hired by White women to be caregivers. Job segregation not only

occurs across sex lines but also across race lines within sex

(DeFrancisco p. 196).

Paid care work is segregated along race, class, and sex

lines. We would add age, with young and old women being

valued less, paid less, and more often hired as care workers

(DeFrancisco p. 196).

Violence, Gender/Sex, and

Work: Sexual Harassment

Violence, Gender/Sex, and

Work: Sexual HarassmentPerhaps the issue that makes most evident the

power relations present in work is workplace aggression.

Research has found that “workplace aggression and

violence… does not affect men and women equally”. In a

meta-analysis of 57 empirical studies, found men tended

to be more aggressive at work than women (DeFrancisco

p.196).

The law recognizes two types of sexual

harassment. Quid pro quo, pressures to provide sexual

favors in exchange for job security, and hostile work

environment, meaning behaviors create a negative

culture where work becomes impossible (DeFrancisco p.

197).

Violence, Gender/Sex, and

Work: Sexual HarassmentGirl watching, a form of harassment that

tends to be labeled as such by women but is defined

as play by men who engage in it. In the activity, the

woman being watched may be unaware, although

other women may not be. Thus, it seems that the

target of the action may not be the particular women

being watched but may be other men and, indirectly,

other women in the organization (DeFrancisco p.

197).

Work as Liberation and

Locations of Empowerment

Work as Liberation and

Locations of EmpowermentTo balance work-life demands, many African

American women have been found to develop

communities of “othermothers and fictive kin to help

each other with balancing work and Family. Five

forms of resistance and empowerment that

individuals, in this case African American

women, use a. developing and using voice, b. being

self-defined, c. being self-determined, d. connecting

to and building community, and e. seeking spirituality

and regeneration through spiritual growth and

church support (DeFrancisco p. 199)

Work as Liberation and

Locations of EmpowermentKnowing one‟s options can both protect one‟s

own self-esteem and also create potential solutions.

When one confronts an instance where work has

been gendered/sexed, as when a man is

discouraged from pursuing a profession that

traditionally has been populated by

women, understanding that such job segregation

can be challenged may enable him to pursue his

career dreams. And , when enough people follow

this man‟s lead, more pervasive changes in the

nature of work are possible (DeFrancisco p. 199-

200).

Conclusion

Work is something virtually every person does, whether it is

paid or unpaid (such as housework or yard work), and if one does

not work that in itself is a basis for judgment. Work can be

extremely rewarding, and people can consider their jobs a core

part of their identities. However, work also can be extremely

dehumanizing, something done only as a way of earning money to

pay for the necessities of life (DeFrancisco p. 200).

Work as an institution both genders and is gendered. The

jobs people do, people‟s interaction with other at work, and law

and discourse all influence the performance of gender/sex. In

turn, gender/sex influences how people understand work and its

relation to family, identity, and culture (DeFrancisco p. 200).

Conclusion

In showing this chapter in a power point I hope that you were able to get some of the important things out of the presentation that I got out of the book. I chose this chapter because it was something that all people do and that many people judge for what type of jobs that people do. I am in the military and I see this from a different point of view as the military is a place where you can move up the ranks on what you have done and not who you know or what color skin, amount of money your family has and what gender/sex you are.

Some people will say that women are just being let into combat jobs now and they are not out in left field but women have been doing these jobs for a while now but just in different ways. They will have the same opportunity as a male soldier to make it up the ranks and achieve the positions that they want if they are good enough to do the jobs just like everyone else. The pay will not be different as everyone is paid the same depending on the pay chart. They don‟t have one that is for males and one for females.

With this being said I think that if a place exists where people are place where they are based on how good they are at the job no matter what or who they are will give all of us hope that we can live in a place where this can happen in every work environment.

Citation

DeFrancisco Palczewski 2007 Chapter 9 (work)

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevinwax/files/2012/07/mom.jpg

http://thescrapheap.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/largemenhousework_12.jpg

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1227553/thumbs/o-WORKING-MOTHER-facebook.jpg

http://images.sciencedaily.com/2013/12/131205091902-large.jpg

http://www.compliancetraininggroup.com/photos/woman-harasser.jpg

http://cdn.madamenoire.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/office-worker.jpg

http://acquandastanford.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/580828_372264992840797_1336160827_n.jpg

http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/archive/2010/07/1_123125_123112_2240728_2262207_090730_rec_girlwatchingarticle.jpg.CROP.original-original.jpg