The Role Of Gender Stereotypes Of Careers In Occupations

We live in a society where men and women are not see the same nor are treated equally. Gender inequalities have always been an issue in our society. Women have always gain less respect than men based on their sex. The society has developed certain images and roles for males and females. Men are seen to have masculine traits such stability, independence, and confidence; whereas, women have more feminine traits such as nurturing, affection, and patience. As well, the society has developed the division of occupations for genders. Females are expected to work in caring professions such as: a nurse, sectary, or teacher. While men are expected to be: doctors, lawyers, and construction workers. These stereotypes of gender should not state what a woman can do. A woman should have the same opportunities as men when is come to issues such as paying rate and job positions. This paper will address gender inequalities that women face in their occupations.

Over the past few decades, great strides have been made by women in the workplace. This increased number in women in the workplace does not mean equality however. Even with equal qualifications and achievements, women are still not given all the opportunities that men have. The chapter in the textbook, “Gender at Work”, shows us more of these inequalities in the workplace. Such inequalities cause gender segregation of jobs and can be linked with the pay inequality in the labor force. Even in jobs that are predominantly filled by women, men earn more than women. Women are often stereotyped as being family focused and not as able to travel, therefore they tend to get passed up for promotions (Garson p.353). This invisible barrier that keeps women from moving up the executive ladder is referred to as the “glass ceiling” (Baxter and Wright p. 346). Women also tend to do more domestic work, or unpaid labor and caregiving. This extra unpaid work is referred to as “the third shift” and is largely rested on the shoulders of women (Gersel p. 352). Consequently, this seems to be one of the biggest things holding women back from taking on jobs that are normally considered male

Whether it is on TV or movie screens, the faces of white actors and actresses have always been prevalent in the media. For generations, many teenagers have been exposed to countless movies with white people in major roles. Moreover, the few roles that are cast to minorities feature the characters in their stereotypical personas (Bonilla-Silva 179). Even in advertising, Asians are placed in business settings, upholding the hard-working Asian stereotype (Taylor and Stern 50). As Taylor and Stern mention in their paper, the “model minority” has made the issue of stereotyping seem less important for Asians. The majority of these actors that are examined, regardless of race, are typically middle-age and well established in their acting careers. However, there is a lack of research behind Asian youth acting and their perceived roles. To account for this knowledge deficit, I examine how whiteness influences the media to portray youth actors as individuals that stray from their stereotypes in an attempt to achieve whiteness. My research site centres around Fresh Off the Boat (FOB), a comedic television series featuring a Taiwanese family. The title of the show Fresh Off the Boat or “FOB” is also a term used to describe a person that is considered too ethnic and as a term of denigration. I utilize Pyke and Dang’s categorization of “FOB” and “whitewashed” to analyze the narrator, Eddie Huang. I chose to limit my research primarily to the first “pilot” episode where the audience is

The workplace and its employees are crucial to the population and should treated as such. With 60% of the American population employed (United States' Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2017), businesses have a great effect on the country economically and socially. Employment provides people with the means to buy and participant in the economy. Additionally, people strongly center their self-concept around their occupation. For example, Child care workers and teachers define themselves as smart or caring, and painters define themselves as creative. Because the workplace has such a heavy influence on society it is important the workplace is heavily structured and monitored for equality and productiveness.

While the significance of gender roles has declined in the past fifty years, they still play an integral part in our perception of others based on their gender. Gender roles create gender stereotypes that influence our view of someone and their aptitude in work and child caring. Gender stereotypes depict women as caring, compassionate, and kind; however, gender stereotypes also imply negative qualities for women such as cranky, overly emotional, and submissive. On the other hand, gender stereotypes classify men not only as dominant, assertive, and powerful, but also as aggressive, violent, and uncaring. Many people apply gender roles in how they view other’s aptitudes and responsibilities in a work or home setting, but by doing so they subconsciously discriminate against a person for his gender. Extreme Feminists focus on the discrimination and harassment women face in everyday life due to traditional gender roles and complain that “men have it so good”. However, extreme feminists fail to realize, due to their blind but justified hatred for traditional gender roles that supposedly benefit men, traditional gender roles disadvantage men as well. Similar to how many women fail to climb up the corporate ladder because their superiors view them as too caring and soft to hold a demanding leadership position, many people look down on men when they care for their own children considering them too tough and insensitive to take care of children properly and label their care as

51 percent of the United States is female but only 34.4 percent of doctors are women. While 90.4 percent of nurses are female (“Women in Medicine”; “Male Nurses Becoming”), the women who do become doctors earn an astounding 25 percent less than their male counterparts (Groves). These staggering figures are only a single piece in the larger overall lack of women in STEM, or science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, which has remained prevalent since the beginning of these fields. Although women are underrepresented in these STEM fields, this is not due to ineptitude, but instead it is a result of the force of societal stereotypes coupled with their wider range of abilities. The recent increase in women’s association with STEM seems

It is still common in today’s society to dismiss women’s experiences in the workforce. According to pureresearch.org, women are more likely than men to adjust their career in order to take care of their family. Anne-Marie Slaughter’s article has given me a lot of insight on how America is structured in terms of women in the workforce. She explains in her article “Why Women Can’t Have It All”, the difficulty of keeping a high profile job while taking care of her family. Her experiences is very common among women all over the spectrum of the workforce.

This study and what was found in the Lit Review both agree that television does indeed have some correlation with interest in STEM fields. The research studies reviewed stereotypes of women seen in the media as a whole, which is related on a macro level. However, this study tries to look at stereotypes of women in STEM. The questions asked in this study looked into changing perceptions of women in STEM by having female scientist characters as the main character, in that it would hopefully put them in a more positive light. The ones described at the very beginning of the Lit review ended up not being as useful information than thought. However, the research conducted by Kimberly(2002), Orithia and Morgain(2013), Deegan(1983), and Stienke and

Behrend, T. S., Thompson. L. F., Meade, A. W., Grayson, M. S., & Newton, D. A. (2007, April). Gender differences in career choice influences. Paper presented at the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, New York.

Past research has shown that due to social pressures women are steered toward less rigorous or demanding college majors and career choices (Chamberlain, 2016). This is to allow for gender norms of women taking a disproportionate level of child-rearing and elder care, which put pressure on women to accept jobs that are more flexible with lower pay (Chamberlain, 2016). Fields such as finance and medicine (high pay sectors) are less flexible and more demanding (Miller, 2016). Women tend to hold more caretaking jobs, e.g. teaching, education, healthcare and social work (low pay sectors) and men hold more technical jobs, e.g. engineering and computer science (Frank, 2015). Current research also found evidence of a motherhood penalty for women and a marriage premium for men (Blau & Kahn, 2016). As motherhood is associated with a wage

According to the latest survey by the United States Census Bureau, there are about 330,000 male nurses in America. However, there are approximately 3.5 million nurses total, which means that only nine percent of people in this profession are men; the percentage has increased 6.9 percent in the last forty years. I believe that both genders should have the option of becoming a nurse. Males pursuing the nursing profession is sometimes frowned upon, since society has a negative stigma that males should be doctors if they enter the health field. This harmful stereotype causes unnecessary hesitation for men wanting to become a nurse and makes them feel judged. Male nurses can supply strength for tasks that many female nurses do not possess, and

Throughout history, humans have always been expected to act a certain way depending on their sex. These societal expectations are called gender roles. (Rathus, 2010, p.447). These roles begin to develop even before a child is even out of the womb. A mother may decorate their nursery pink if they are having a daughter because “girls like pink,” and “boys like blue.” Gender roles should not be confused with gender stereotypes. A gender stereotype is a narrow way of thinking about how men and woman are obligated to behave. For example, men have always been considered to be the breadwinners of the family. Females, on the other hand, are seen more as the gentle homemakers that stay home to clean and take care of the children. (Rathus, 2010, p.447). These types of stereotypes have caused certain out-of-the-home jobs to be mainly categorized for either women or men, causing an even more distinct line between the genders.

The topc from all of the four articles talked about work-life balance between men and women. The article from Robert Dorment and his article called Why Men Still Can’t Have It All and his points talked about hard to get women to understand that men have struggles with work-life balance too. Second article called Why Women Still Can’t Have It All that Anne-Marie Slaughter wrote about women can successfully balance professional advancement with women and work-life balance. Third article called Women, work and work/life balance: Research roundup by Margaret Weigel and she wrote about work-life how to face this situation between men and women. For example, work-life balance and wage inequality

Children learn at a very early age what it means to be a boy or a girl in our society. As children grow and develop, the gender stereotypes they are exposed to at home are reinforced by many elements in their environment and are thus perpetuated throughout childhood followed by adolescence. One major societal issue uprising with the way children are raised in today’s society is the gender specific dressing for boys and girls. The history with gender specific dressing is a one sided masculine enforced point of view for centuries. As children move through childhood and into adolescence, they are exposed to many factors which influence their behaviors and attitudes regarding gender roles. It is difficult for a child in today’s society to grow to adulthood without experiencing some form of gender bias or stereotyping. The question lies whether the view of gender specific dressing shall change or stay the same. As society continues to evolve and grow so does the tolerance of new uprising views for the general purpose of equality and freedom to do as pleased. Children regularly learn to adopt gender roles which are not always fair to both sexes. These attitudes and behaviors are generally learned first in the home but then reinforced by their environment, school experience, and media viewing. Nonetheless, the strongest influence on gender role development seems to occur within the family setting. Culture, values, and beliefs are the parents early role for passing on, both overtly

A study on the implicit and explicit occupational gender types, Sex Roles, “Occupational gender stereotypes are activated when men and women are considered to be more suited for certain occupations based on stereotyped characteristics and temperaments” (White and White 2006). Matheus represented the following examples, “a stereotypically feminine job would be associated with attributes such as nurturing, caring, and being sensitive to the needs of others and a stereotypically masculine job would be associated with attributes such as decisiveness, coldness and toughness” (Matheus 2010). Nowadays, women are usually seen in the workforce as secretaries and nurses. Meanwhile, most doctors and construction laborers are men. In addition, Anker points out that “Occupational segregation by gender is prevalent in most if not all countries” (Anker 1998). “Women and men work in different fields and within fields at different levels” (Anker 1998). Diekman and Wilde explained that “men’s concentration in leadership and other high power roles led to the assumption that men have “agentic characteristics” such self-assertion and dominance and women’s concentration in subordinate and caretaking roles lead to the assumption that they have “communal characteristics” such as being kind and supportive (Diekman and Wilde 2005).