Kaleidoscope Of Gender

The structure of work has generally been segregated between the sexes. In the Kaleidoscope of Gender, “Gendered Organizations in the New Economy” discusses the differences in work that are based on gender assumptions. Previously, males were viewed as the breadwinner and females as the nurturer. Joan Aker’s Organizational Logic states that jobs are catered to males as the construct of work creates gender inequality. Jobs were rigid system will long hours and specialization was a key factor. The worker performed the specified task at a particular time with supervision from their managers. It was a stable job that allowed for to a set form of promotion or career development. This type of work was catered to males, as family life is not a gender …show more content…
By examining the lives and choices of several mothers, Opting Out? questions the factors that lead mothers toward domesticity. The women chosen for this study were exceedingly educated, elite women who had previously held high positions within the workforce. One of the major common factors that pull a woman away from the public sphere is childbirth and childrearing. Through the institution of gender, women are typically conditioned into performing the role of femininity, which include nurturing others and housework. Thus, the role of masculinity, within the family unit, is to be the “breadwinner.” The gender construct of the family dynamic has led mothers away from their jobs and fathers to further in their careers to compensate for the new single …show more content…
Although some positions may allow for flexible hours, some mothers still decided to leave the public sphere. This has social consequences for all women within the public sphere as they are placed in the “mommy track.” It limits the opportunities a woman may receive, as employers may fear that she will abandon her job to have a family. Women are not hired or promoted to higher positions if employers believe they will leave once she starts a family. The employer will not use the resources to train a woman and will invest in a man instead. This “mommy track” perpetuates gender inequality within the workforce. Linda Hirshman’s “Homeward Bound,” criticizes women who leave their jobs for their families to become stay-at-home mothers. Hirshman uses Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique to question the stance of the feminist movement on choice. Caring for the family and home is not rewarding for an individual, like a career. Forcing a woman into this position is just as unjust as a woman placing herself in it. Hirshman states, “In fact, if half or more of feminism 's heirs… are not working seriously, it 's because feminism wasn 't radical enough: It changed the workplace but it didn 't change men, and, more importantly, it didn 't fundamentally change how women related to men” (Hirshman, 2005). The relationship between males and females has not changed for many