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Gender at Work

WGS 101 Fall 2018

Gender Divide: Highest Paying Occupations (2015)

Source: Washington Center for Equitable Growth

Gender Divide: Lowest Paying Occupations (2015)

Source: Washington Center for Equitable Growth

Gender Earnings Ratio 
 1955 - 2017

Source: Institute for Women’s Policy Research

Average Annual Earnings & Earnings Ratio Race & Gender

Source: Institute for Women’s Policy Research

Understanding the Persistence of Job Segregation

• England argues that ‘equal opportunity individualism’ and ‘gender essentialism’ explain the persistence of gender segregation at work

• Acker argues “Inequality Regimes” create & perpetuate existing race, class & gender inequalities at work

The More Things Change… • The ‘gender revolution’ resulted in uneven changes in women’s &

men’s lives • Laws against discrimination don’t address the persistence of

inequalities rooted in gender essentialism • Women have made gains into male dominated fields with no reciprocal

movement of men into female dominated fields • Workplaces remain structured by a male breadwinner model / the

‘unencumbered worker’ (Acker 206) • Work traditionally done by women is still devalued (often unpaid) • The gender division of labor still holds

• A 2018 UN report shows women complete 2.6 times more unpaid domestic labor than men

• The hierarchical organization of women’s work vs. men’s work still impacts women as workers

Unencumbered Worker • The ideal worker is one without obligations outside of

work

• Home, family and/or kids are cared for by an unseen & unpaid laborer

• Based on breadwinner, heteronormative nuclear family model — doesn’t reflect growing number of families

• Assumes 1 wage earner per family unit

• Gender essentialism (and gender division of labor) places women at home doing unpaid work & men in the public sphere earning a living wage

The Glass Ceiling • Invisible barrier that blocks women

from top tier positions

• Suggests a single barrier but women face multiple challenges

• Broader definition: a ’cumulative disadvantage of blocked opportunities’ (Acker 200)

• Acker introduces ‘Inequality regimes’ as a more comprehensive conceptual strategy

Inequality Regimes

• An intersectional & ’analytic approach to identifying inequalities at work’ (Acker 201)

• Made up of ‘loosely interrelated practices, processes, actions, and meanings…’ (ibid)

Components of Inequality Regimes:
 The Bases of Inequality

• The bases of inequality — discernible patterns in the organization of inequality

• What patterns do we see among those in leadership positions?

• Hair color? Eye color?

• Leaders tend to be wealthy white men

• Those features (class, race, gender) are (some of) the bases of inequalities

• Inequalities are both created on the bases of these differences & perpetuate the differences we see in social life

Components of Inequality Regimes, Cont.

• Steepness of organizational hierarchy

• The distribution of power & privilege, inc., wages, decision-making & work load

• Degree & pattern of job segregation

• Extent to which diversity exists at all levels of workplace hierarchies