Introduction
This critical review will examine and analyze the article No Longer ‘One of the Boys’: Negotiations with Motherhood, as Prospect or Reality, among Women in Engineering written by Gillian Ranson (2005) and published by the CRSA/RCSA. This article provides an overall assessment of the challenges women face in the male dominated field of engineering. Specifically, it addresses how women handle the stresses of being engineers and mothers. This critical review will analyze the content of the article, explore the strengths and weaknesses, critique the methodology and consider what could have been done differently.
Summary
In brief, this article presents a view that women in engineering must enter the field as “conceptual men”. This means that in order to succeed in a male dominated field, women must essentially “become like men”. The article goes on to interview women in the engineering field. In particular, Ranson (2005) interviews women with and without children. This provides differing views of how women in engineering with and without children in engineering have approached their jobs.
Evaluation of the text
Ranson (2005) begins the paper by noting that motherhood leads women to leave their jobs in engineering (p. 146). What she fails to do is provide evidence on how this is true. Furthermore, in the article the author mentions that motherhood is an obstruction to a women’s career, yet the article fails to provide evidence as to why this is true. It is also mentioned by the author that family friendly policies that have been introduced in engineering are not helping the women in engineering (Ranson, 2005, p. 149). Ranson (2005) fails to state examples of how this is true and does not draw on specific policies th...
... middle of paper ...
...d had no evidence to back them up. With interviews, Ranson (2005) provided views from different women, but by using a small sample size the opinions still appeared to be biased. She also solely focused on the effect children would have on the women’s careers but failed to mention the financial penalties children would have on the women as well. This review considered the strengths and limitations of stating that motherhood is barrier to women’s careers, critiqued the methodology of the article and stated different approaches the author could have taken.
Works Cited
Jovanovic, M. (2014). Lecture on Gender Inequality. Personal Collection of M. Jovanovic.
McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario.
Ranson, G. (2005). No longer ‘one of the boys’: Negotiations with motherhoods, as prospect or reality, among women in engineering. CRSA/RCSA, 42(2). 145-166.
Even Though women have revolutionized themselves in relation to the world many other aspects of society have not. This phenomenon, originally coined by Arielle Hochschild in her book The Second Shift, is known as the stalled revolution. In essence while female culture has shifted male culture has not. This has created an unequal, unfair and oppressive atmosphere for women across the nation. The title of Hochschild's book tells it all. The second shift refers to the second shift of work women are and have been burdened with at home. Although they have made enormous leaps within the economy and workforce their gender roles at home and within society remain the same. Male culture and their ideas of female gender roles have not progressed. As a result needs of females have not been met. Working mothers today work more than any other demographic, a rough estimate of this comes out to be a whole extra month of work consisting of twenty four hour work days.
In an excerpt titled "The Feminist Face of Antitechnology" from his 1981 book Blaming Technology, Samuel C. Florman explains why he thinks so few educated women in modern society are engineers. The excerpt was written shortly after he had visited an all-female liberal arts school, Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, to convince a few young women to become engineers. His mission failed and his essay makes clear why he had such trouble.
Cech, Erin, et al. "Professional Role Confidence and Gendered Persistence In Engineering." American Sociological Review 76.5 (2011): 641, 642,646 Academic Search Premier. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.
We found literature that supported our survey results. The article, “Inequality quantified: Mind the gender gap,” shows that an established gender gap amongst college majors may have started years ago. In the 1970s, Lynne Kiorpes was one of the few females at Northeastern University who was an Engineering major. Her professor discriminated against her and the other few women in the class by saying that they have no business being in his class, and that he was going to fail them just because they are females. Kiorpes then left the engineering program...
to the conclusion at one point that the whole thing was hopeless because it is a biological fact women have babies and that is always a career breaker. I end this paper rather disappointed that now, as it was centuries ago,are allowing their lives to be run by male views and stereotypes. The world is moving forward but unless women stop allowing
On the other hand, studies show that the number of women working has dramatically changed since 1970. These studies show that back then, the workforce was made up with 37.97 percent of women. Comparing this percentage to the studies made from 2006 to 2010, the presence of women in the workplace has increased at least 10 percent. In the 1970’s, it was really rare to see a woman working as an accountant; today, 60 percent of those accountants are women. Also, they have kept their own “careers for women” because more than 90 percent of dental assistants, secretaries and other work fields are composed by
Story’s article, “Many Women at Elite Colleges Set Career Path to Motherhood,” introduces Cynthia Liu, an ambitious student at Yale who plans on going to law school. However, she expects a different future by the time she is thirty. Cynthia states, “My mother always told me you can 't be the best career woman and the best mother at the same time” (Story, 2005, p. A1). This particular situation sets up the rest of the article, focusing on this idea that the nation 's most elite colleges say they 've already decided to set aside their careers to take care of their children instead. The article further supports the situation of working women in the past couple decades, and how this influence has changed over time. “What seems to be changing is that while many women in college two or three decades ago expected to have full time careers, their daughters, while still in college, say they have already decided to suspend or end their careers when they have children” (Story, 2005, p. A1). This is evidence supporting why gender in the workplace has worsened in the past two decades, because women are being stressed to make decisions based on other people 's judgement instead of their own. The article continues to talk about this trend of women 's set career paths to motherhood, but they also address how social change plays into the decision making.
Jerrie Cobb is a brave woman who dreams of becoming an astronaut. She quit her job to participate in astronaut tests in order to achieve her dream. It is hard for a woman pilot to find a job in the male dominated field of aviation and, before taking the test, she was told that women were not allowed take it. With the development of society, men and women should be gradually become equal because we are in a society with laws of equality. However, in some places, women are still seen as inferior. One of the most obvious ways to prove this, is how hard it can be to find a job. Some companies prefer male employees and even though gender discrimination in hiring is illegal, businesses find ways to work around it. Both Stefan Eriksson and Michael Firth argue, “Women may get fewer firm contacts”(Eriksson, and et. all 307, Firth 891). Sometimes, they consider the gender, not the abilities. According to Garber, the author of “Sex bias in hiring”, “requirement of skills that are not evidenced in the application materials is common”(Garber, 308). This is an unfair situation that leads to the unequal status of men and women that needs to be changed. Women should get more opportunities to find a job because they possess qualities that could be beneficial to companies, such as powerful communication, organizational skills and good focus. Most women even can balance the relationship between family and work.
Another disturbing fact in gender discrimination in the work force is that women who are more likely to be married or have children are more likely to be a low earner and work fewer hours on the ...
Most Americans would say women are still being oppressed, even if inadvertently, by society’s current structure. Women are typically paid less, put under more pressure to have a career and a family, and are often underrepresented in high profile career fields. Anne-Marie Slaughter would agree. In her essay, “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All”, she outlines the ways women are still unable to have a career and family life successfully. She especially focuses on the ways women are constantly being pressure to choose one over the other, or to try to accomplish both, and how much damage this pressure can cause. She writes, “I had been the one telling young women at my lectures that you can have it all, and do it all, regardless of what field you’re in. Which means, I had been in part, albeit unwillingly, of making millions of women feel they are to blame if they cannot manage to rise up the ladder as fast as men and, also have a family and an active home life.” (679). This passage captures the amount of pressure put on young women to commit 100% to their families and their careers simultaneously. Unfortunately, as she also points out, there will be criticism for choosing one over the other as well. Ellen Ullman also understands the pressure on women in their career fields. Her essay, How To Be A Woman Programmer, explores the difficulties for women in a male dominated field.
Women have persistently been challenged with issues regarding what it means to be a ‘good mother’. Although times continue to change, issues confronting 21st century mothers, remain similar to the ones addressed in past generations. An abundance of mothers in the 21st century are still faced with the complex issue regarding the ‘stay-at-home mom’ stereotype, in spite of the fact that the feminist movement has provided women with more rights in the present-day, then ever before. However, while strides have been made, these changes have had an affect on society’s notion of motherhood. The portrayal of motherhood is determined by countless expectations in which society has established. Such expectancies have expanded, which now effect how motherhood is depicted in different cultures. As a whole the feminist movement has strongly influenced Western Society, which has resulted in women’s suffrage, the right to make individual decisions, and has also led to wide-ranging employment for women at more equivalent wages. However, the emergence of female employment has created a war between ‘stay-at-home’ and ‘working’ mothers, which is often referred to as ‘Mommy Wars’. In addition, female employment provides men with the opportunity to stay at home and become the primary caregiver, which has ultimately had a large impact on societies notion of motherhood, treating them differently than primary caregivers of the opposite gender. This paper will examine how the feminist movement has altered societies notion of motherhood in the 21st century in comparison to past generations as a result of working mothers and stay at home fathers.
These traditional roles and consequently women’s identities have been formed and maintained by the workplace, therefore understanding any gender differences in labor requires an examination in this light. Grant and Porter remind the researcher that the concepts of male and female are not independent relationships of the workplace, but have been strongly influenced and determined by the relationships of male and female in society at large.
Carol B. Muller, “The Underrepresentation of Women in Engineering and Related Sciences: Pursuing Two Complementary Paths to Parity.” National Academies Press (US); Web. 2003.
“Women have talent and intelligence but, due to social constraints and prejudices, it is still a long distance away from the goal of gender equality” (Pratibha Patil). A common misconception that is prominent in many modern day ideologies, is that gender does not have as much of an effect on workplace experience as it did several decades ago. This is untrue. “Most occupations remain skewed toward either men or women” (Jacobs 32). This occupational gap is an unmistakable reason for men and women being treated so vastly differently. Many people tend to believe that after women gained the right to vote and became eligible for many workforce positions,
...d women’s biological purpose has provided men a source of comparative advantage in work. It is, therefore, natural for most companies to think that women cannot be as capable as men in terms of assuming strenuous or challenging positions because women, by default, become less participative and more vulnerable when they start to have family and children. Apparently, this situation has led to various gender discriminations in the labor market.