Introduction We live in a world that lacks understanding regarding gender binaries. Concepts surround gender binaries such as values, beliefs and attitudes from culture to culture. Gender binaries create categorization and regularization of men and women biologically as masculinity and femininity. Sex is a biological characteristic that distinguishes male and female (which is determined by our physical body) while gender is socially constructed and a cultural meaning. Gender is experienced differently and we learn through interactions, media, institutions and religion. Unfortunately, the social construction of society has created norms that individuals unconsciously follow and pass on from one generation to another. With these norms intact,
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Women in male-dominated occupations face unique challenges and use distinct coping strategies affecting their motivation and retention in these occupations. It is evident that till today many jobs are 'gendered ', this means that some jobs are built in or believed to be for men while some for women. There are many characteristics that we associate with men and women which then translate into the types of work we expect to find men and women in. Some of these traditional characteristics associated with women’s work can include assistance, nurturing, and listening. While non-traditional characteristics would include dominance, handy work, and prestige which are often associated with men. For example, men are seen in the “blue collar” or “white collar” work like managerial/boss positions, engineering and so on while the women are often seen in “pink collar jobs” like nursing, teaching and so on. Men are also streamed into occupations that involve math, science, business, and trade and women are associated with jobs that include ‘assisting’ such as clerical work and health sector jobs which include nursing. The issue is not only the fact that there is such a separation within these jobs but that when women are found in traditionally male …show more content…
Work done by women is often undervalued when allocating raises, in other words, their work is often viewed as not as significant (Haarr & Morash, 2013). Statistically found by Haarr and Morash (2013) one-fourth of female lawyers face sexual harassment from their colleagues at work who are male. Same goes for females who work in the mining jobs, they are either called names like 'sexy ', 'hunnies ' which is also called gender disparagement or are being touched sexually by some of the men who works there. Examples of male dominated industries that women face these stigmas are, construction work, police force, law firm, politics, business, engineering and so on. Violence also occurs for women in the male-dominated industries. Violence and harassment on the job create multiple harms for women workers. “Symbolic violence is not physical, but may take the form of people being denied resources, treated as inferior or being limited in terms of realistic aspirations”. (Powell & Sang 2015, pg. 921) – this kind of violence can be emotional, social or
Women in male-dominated occupations face unique challenges and use distinct coping strategies affecting their motivation and retention in these occupations. It is evident that till today many jobs are 'gendered ', this means that some jobs are built in or believed to be for men while some for women. There are many characteristics that we associate with men and women which then translate into the types of work we expect to find men and women in. Some of these traditional characteristics associated with women’s work can include assistance, nurturing, and listening. While non-traditional characteristics would include dominance, handy work, and prestige which are often associated with men. For example, men are seen in the “blue collar” or “white collar” work like managerial/boss positions, engineering and so on while the women are often seen in “pink collar jobs” like nursing, teaching and so on. Men are also streamed into occupations that involve math, science, business, and trade and women are associated with jobs that include ‘assisting’ such as clerical work and health sector jobs which include nursing. The issue is not only the fact that there is such a separation within these jobs but that when women are found in traditionally male …show more content…
Work done by women is often undervalued when allocating raises, in other words, their work is often viewed as not as significant (Haarr & Morash, 2013). Statistically found by Haarr and Morash (2013) one-fourth of female lawyers face sexual harassment from their colleagues at work who are male. Same goes for females who work in the mining jobs, they are either called names like 'sexy ', 'hunnies ' which is also called gender disparagement or are being touched sexually by some of the men who works there. Examples of male dominated industries that women face these stigmas are, construction work, police force, law firm, politics, business, engineering and so on. Violence also occurs for women in the male-dominated industries. Violence and harassment on the job create multiple harms for women workers. “Symbolic violence is not physical, but may take the form of people being denied resources, treated as inferior or being limited in terms of realistic aspirations”. (Powell & Sang 2015, pg. 921) – this kind of violence can be emotional, social or