Women in the Workplace

2405 Words5 Pages

Executive Summary Women across the globe are shattering glass ceilings one at a time, and it is time the world takes note of it. Chief executives express their commitment to the advancing equality between men and women by actions such as advancing women in the workplace. Areas of such empowerment include: market and community progress through the use of sex, disaggregated data, and other benchmarks (Chakabarti). Times are changing in the makeup of the workforce today. Females are quickly becoming a major factor in the business world. Families are seeing that one salary per household is simply not enough to maintain a comfortable lifestyle. Just a few decades ago, women were left at home raising children and left to depend on a spouse's income to satisfy their needs and wants. This summary will review a brief history of women in the workplace, discuss the current World and U.S. status on female workers and their rights, and offer examples of resources that can be used to not only educate women, but to empower them as well. Companies should embrace this growing trend, as it will not disappear, in order to achieve maximum societal welfare. According to a study by the Center for American Progress, today's United States workforce consists of nearly fifty percent female workers. These women are “the primary breadwinners or co-breadwinners” in nearly two-thirds of American households (Boushey and O'Leary). This is a dramatic change from almost a century ago. However, the growing number of female workers has developed major concerns and issues that must be dealt with by society in order for females and the business world to prosper. By evaluating the history of women and mothers in the workforce, as well as reviewing the w... ... middle of paper ... ...ain the benefits that these valuable women can potentially contribute to society. Many variables contribute to the formation of such a profound social change, but the momentum it creates holds the potential to revolutionize how America operates in the most basic of terms. For the most part, the world has surpassed America in terms of women's wage and childcare. Previous expectations of women in the workforce, the ease of change, cultural acceptance and cultural resistance, the presence of women in today’s college systems, the topic of children and childcare, roles of governments and corporations in this trend, as well as issues with speeding up such a radical movement: these matters both captivate and concern the followers of this front. In order to track these changes, women must motivate and educate themselves to embrace these happenings and better their cause.

The Second Shift
1735 Words | 4 Pages
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.
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Working Women In The 1950s
731 Words | 2 Pages
During WWII, women took over the work force, and had such inspirations as Rosie the Riveter. This created a generation of women who wanted more out of life than birthing children, and keeping a nice home for their husband. The end of the war, however, brought with it a decrease of working women. In the 1950’s the rate of working women had slightly rebounded to 29% following the post-war decrease in 1945. These women were well rounded, working outside the home, and still having dinner on the table by 5PM.
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Hairspray Gender Roles
974 Words | 2 Pages
It is fundamental to define “old” and “new” roles of women to make a comparison between them. The “old” role of women in the workplace involved menial jobs, and before World War II, women were expected to remain at home and raise kids. Roughly thirty states enacted laws to prohibit married women from working
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Women in the Workplace
2444 Words | 5 Pages
In many cultures throughout the world women are patronized and viewed as the weaker sex. Women are commonly perceived as being unfit for any forms of higher education and because of societal pressure and expectations retreat to a life of raising children and cooking meals for their husbands. Our society’s stereotypical views about women’s suffrage, educational expectations and athletic abilities have all advanced over the years. In many aspects of our society, women are now expected to compete with their male counterparts. Currently, it is not uncommon to hear of a women CEO or Vice President in businesses or even a women politician. Women have now emerged from laundry rooms and kitchens across the country and changed the demographics of the American workforce. However women are yet to take the medical workplace by storm and redefine the preconceived notions society upholds about leaders in medical professions. To illustrate this idea I conducted an ethnographic study of a local dental office that I am employed at. I believe that the medical field has hardly been affected by the advances in women’s rights and is a common ground for the influences of gender stereotypes that have been outdated for many years in American culture.
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Gordon Allport's Theory Of Gender Injudice In The Workplace
1990 Words | 4 Pages
Also, the majority of women have been able to secure employment from traditionally female occupations such as teaching compared to male-dominated careers like engineering. Moreover, democratic country like the United States of America has recognized gender inequality as a fundamental issue and espouse equal right between men and women in contributing to social, economic and cultural life. Despite this improvement, gender inequality persists as women are not represented and treated equally in the workplace (Michialidis, Morphitou, & Theophylatou, 2012). The increasing number of women in the workplace has not provided equal opportunity for career advancement for females due to the way women are treated in an organization and the society. Also, attaining an executive position seem impossible for women due to the glass ceiling effects which defines the invisible and artificial barrier created by attitudinal and organizational prejudices, which inhibit women from attaining top executive positions (Wirth
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Alice Paul
1573 Words | 4 Pages
U.S. Department of Labor. (1980). Bureau of labor statistics: Current population survey. Perspectives on working women: A databook.
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Macro View on Gender Discrimination
1102 Words | 3 Pages
One of the finest think tank of the planet, Harvard Business School recently came up with dozens of open access working papers and research essays addressing the theme of “Gender and Work: Challenging Conventional Wisdom” held between February 28 - March 1, 2013. Another leading organization International Monetary Fund (IMF) published a report titled as “Women, Work, and the Economy: Macroeconomic Gains from Gender Equity” where the researcher have discussed the specific macro-critical aspects of women’s participation in the labor market and the constraints that prevent women from developing their full economic potential. (Katrin Elborgh-Woytek, 2013)
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Women in The Workplace
1051 Words | 3 Pages
. 1975 The second wave of women entering the job market was motivated less by desire and more by necessity and the need to earn money. Everything cost more now and the amenities of middle class existence can no longer be maintained on a single income. With the rising cost of houses, cars, college, private schools. The economic facts are clear, women must work. Now is the time for women's equality from Congress to all other government and corporate decision-making levels. With men, we get rhetoric, more problems and no answers, but lots of excuses. In the political arena women are making strides throughout America. Although women elected to positions of prominence do not always take pro-women positions, their presence makes a difference. The transnational company that works within government structures and agencies is in an ideal position to use its home country experience working with women managers, and executives to positively reinforce the role of women in government in those jurisdictions where the company has subsidiary operations. Although there are many ex...
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Women's Roles In The 1920s Essay
895 Words | 2 Pages
During the Great War and the huge amount of men that were deployed created the need to employ women in hospitals, factories, and offices. When the war ended the women would return home or do more traditional jobs such as teaching or shop work. “Also in the 1920s the number of women working raised by fifty percent.” They usually didn’t work if they were married because they were still sticking to the role of being stay at home moms while the husband worked and took care of the family financially. But among the single women there was a huge increase in employment. “Women were still not getting payed near as equally as men and were expected to quit their jobs if they married or pregnant.” Although women were still not getting payed as equally it was still a huge change for the women's
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Women in the Workforce
1494 Words | 3 Pages
Equality for all sounds like a simple concept for everyone to live by, but it seems that even in today’s society around the world women are lacking the equal rights they deserve. Ever since we can remember in our history, women have always received the short end of the stick when it came to their rights. Right to vote, right to a job, right to equal pay, and the list can go on and on. There have been many attempts for women to receive the same rights as men, but not all have been successful. This is especially true in the workforce. The workforce is the main issue when it comes to equal rights for women in today’s society. Women have been mistreated in the working environment and have affected them socially, but throughout all of this there have been attempts to stop it.
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Discrimination Against Women in the Workplace
1196 Words | 3 Pages
Another problem women have in the workplace is getting promotions. Woman who have worked for their company for many years, receiving great reviews and employee-of-the-year awards are often filled by less qualified men (Armour, 2008). The next problem women face is unfair pay. The U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics found that women working 41 to 44 hours per week earn 84.6 percent of what men working similar hou...
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Gender Inequality at a Workplace
1117 Words | 3 Pages
Gender Inequality at a Workplace Historically, males and females normally assume different kinds of jobs with varying wages in the workplace. These apparent disparities are widely recognized and experienced across the globe, and the most general justification for these differences is that they are the direct outcomes of discrimination or traditional gender beliefs—that women are the caregivers and men are the earners. However, at the turn of the new century, women have revolutionized their roles in the labor market. Specifically in industrialized societies, the social and economic position of women has shifted. Despite the improving participation of women in the labor force and their ameliorating proficiency and qualifications, the labor force is still not so favorable to women.
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How Our World is Changing
1511 Words | 4 Pages
Women were drawn into the work place in the 1960's when the economy expanded and rising consumer aspirations fueled the desire of many families for a second income. By 1960, 30.5 percent of all wives worked and the number of women graduating from college grew. (Echols, 400) Women soon found they were being treated differently and paid less then their male co-workers.
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Women's Perception of their Value in the Workplace
352 Words | 1 Pages
A few decades ago the number of working women was very few and they were reluctant to work outside the house. People also used to think that the appropriate position of the women is inside the house, but now the trend is changing .All the countries and nations are now realizing the importance of working women in their economy. It has been also observed that different nations are trying to develop awareness about the importance of working women. But the questions arise that the working women are satisfied with their jobs or not? Are the working women is given by all the rights which they deserve? Is all the opportunities are available to a working women? And what are their perceptions about their value in the work place? The answers of these questions are very disappointing. A research study shows that the number of women in managerial position has been increasing in recent years all over the world. But statistics reveal that these opportunities are quite limited and similar to the U.S "glass ceiling" exists. In 1981 a research study found that the number of woman employees had grown to 40 percent of the work force in the large firms (Hodgetts&Luthans 483). But disappointing fact is that only 0.5 percent of the total woman work force is in management group. These facts clearly show the limited opportunities for the working woman and violation of equal employment opportunity laws.
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The Challenges Faced By Women
1571 Words | 4 Pages
It can be concluded that women are treated in terms of stereotyped impressions of being the lowest class and greater evidence can be found that there are large disparities between the women and the men 's class. It can be seen that women are more likely to play casual roles as they are most likely to take seasonal and part time work so that they can work according to their needs. They are hampered from progressing upward into the organizations as they face problems like lack of health insurance, sexual harassments, lower wage rates, gender biases and attitudes of negative behavior. However, this wouldn’t have hampered the participation of the women in the work force and they continue to increase their efforts which is highly evident in the occupational and job ratios of females in the industry.
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Women in the Workplace

The Second Shift

Working Women In The 1950s

Hairspray Gender Roles