Stereotypes In Recruiting Case Study

Throughout history women have had to fight to break into traditionally male working environments. During World War II, women began working in factories to support war efforts. Today, there are successful women lawyers and construction workers. While women have had to fight to get into the workforce, one career that has been traditionally always been a “women’s job” is teaching. Valerie Archetto, a 55 year-old single mother of four, has been working in the teaching field for nearly twelve years. Prior to teaching, Valerie was an active Human Resource Manager working for nearly 8 years. Throughout her career, Valerie has noticed differences between male and female leaders in the education world, felt intimidated recruiting in human resources,

Within the 8 years, Valerie was a manager of a department store and a corporate recruiter for Lechmere retail stores. In her time recruiting, she found herself interviewing primarily men who were her parents ages, had more education than her, and more experience. Valerie expressed that she found herself being intimidated by the task because she felt a shift in power. While Valerie was the interviewer and held the power, society taught that the man who was older and more educated should hold the power. During interview, there were times when men turned on their charm in hopes of winning over Valerie. As a women working in recruiting, Valerie had to set aside her insecurities and keep control of the interviews. Many times even when women rise to higher power positions there come insecurities that they may not be good enough, smart enough, or experience enough. The mental disconnect is one the biggest trouble women face in the work force because a sour thought can change a person’s personality rapidly and in turn affect their overall work output. One anecdote that Valerie shared that when it came to firing employees she had a way of always sending the ex employees out with a smile on their face, thanking her for the experience. She noted that if one of the men who do the job, people would leave the room angry and resentful. “I guess I just have a way with people that they don’t”, Valerie

Valerie was fortunate enough to be able to take off from work for thirteen years to raise all four of her children; however, when her youngest turned two years old and her and her husband went through a divorce things changed. Valerie had to go back to work sooner than she had wanted to support her family. Valerie start part time until the youngest child was old enough to begin school. From that point on, Valerie was fortunate enough to alway work in the same school district as her children, but still she faced difficulties. Whenever a child was sick, it was her responsibility to drop everything to tend to their needs. Valerie noted that while she always planned to return to work, she felt “guilty that [she] could not give the younger two children as much attention as [she] gave the older two children” (Archetto). One major impact, balancing work and family life has on women is the internal guilt that mother’s feel for leaving their children. Society makes it clear that when a child needs something it is the mother’s job to drop everything, but if she is working and not able to do as much women feel a tremendous guilt. In Valerie’s case, she had to call for extra help when her schedule and her children’s schedules differed. She hired a woman to come to the house in the morning and afternoon to get the children ready for school and to pick them up until Valerie