The Changing Status of Women in Employment

4189 Words9 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Gender inequality in the work force

The Changing Status of Women in Employment

Introduction

The subject areas which I have chosen to focus on are work and

employment and women. I have chosen these particular areas of

sociology because as a female myself I am fascinated by the changing

aspirations of women

At the beginning of the twentieth century, it was considered that

women would orientate to a domestic role, women were to dedicate their

life to bearing and nursing children. Women were dependant on men for

money and support; they faced discrimination at work and education as

many opportunities were barred to them. The women's movement has

challenged the conventional stereotype that "a woman's place is in the

home," and many women now look beyond the archetypical

housewife/mother role as their main role in life. In the last fifty

years, the labour market has changed dramatically; women have obtained

job opportunities that were previously denied to them. Women

constituted 38% of the labour force in 1971 but almost half in 1988

(McDowell 1992)

Hypothesis:

"Women have more status in employment because it has become more

socially acceptable for a woman to put her career before starting a

family"

I have chosen this hypothesis because I want to find out

Aims:

1. If women have achieved equal status with men in employment.

2. If women are putting their careers before starting a family.

3. If this is socially acceptable and if this means that they have

equal status in employment.

(236)

Methodology

Having decided upon my research topic and hypothesis I have chosen to

conduct questionnaires to find out if women are putting their career

before starting a family, and if women have achieved equal status with

men in employment. The advantages to this type of method are that

questionnaires can be distributed to a large amount of people and

therefore is possible to study a larger and more representative sample

which provides an overall picture of society.

Show More
Related

  • No Longer one of the Boys

    944 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...d had no evidence to back them up. With interviews, Ranson (2005) provided views from different women, but by using a small sample size the opinions still appeared to be biased. She also solely focused on the effect children would have on the women’s careers but failed to mention the financial penalties children would have on the women as well. This review considered the strengths and limitations of stating that motherhood is barrier to women’s careers, critiqued the methodology of the article and stated different approaches the author could have taken.

    Read More

  • A Historical Perspective: The Wage Gap

    1598 Words  | 4 Pages

    For several decades, most American women occupied a supportive, home oriented role within society, outside of the workplace. However, as the mid-twentieth century approached a gender role paradigm occurred. The sequence of the departure of men for war, the need to fill employment for a growing economy, a handful of critical legal cases, the Black Civil Rights movement seen and heard around the nation, all greatly influenced and demanded social change for human and women’s rights. This momentous period began a social movement known as feminism and introduced a coin phrase known in and outside of the workplace as the “wage-gap.”

    Read More

  • 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

    Read More

  • Women in the Workplace

    2059 Words  | 5 Pages

    The "glass ceiling" has held women back from certain positions and opportunities in the workplace. Women are stereotyped as part-time, lower-grade workers with limited opportunities for training and advancement because of this "glass ceiling". How have women managed their careers when confronted by this glass ceiling? It has been difficult; American women have struggled for their role in society since 1848. Women’s roles have changed significantly throughout the past centuries because of their willingness and persistence. Women have contributed to the change pace of their role in the workplace by showing motivation and perseverance.

    Read More

  • The Changing Roles and Status of Women

    719 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Changing Roles and Status of Women In 1903 the suffragette movement was born with the formation of the Women's Social and Political Union (WPSU) by Emmeline Pankhurst and her two daughters Christabel and Sylvia. At first the newly formed suffragettes relied on spreading propaganda to gain support. However, on the 18th October 1905 they gained considerable unplanned publicity when Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney stood up at a public meeting and asked if a Liberal government would introduce women's suffrage. Receiving no reply they stood on their seats waving a banner which said, "votes for women".

    Read More

  • Gender Inequality in the Workplace

    627 Words  | 2 Pages

    sex·ism: (n) discrimination or devaluation based on a person's sex, as in restricted job opportunities; especially, such discrimination directed against women.

    Read More

  • Participation of Women in the Workforce

    1844 Words  | 4 Pages

    Since the late 1970s, the participation of women in the workforce has dramatically changed from women traditionally following their mother’s footsteps to obtaining an independent career of their own. According to Resident Scholar, Christina Hoff Sommers of the Huffington Post, "there are far more women than men in college, and they earn more than fifty-eight percent of [the] college degrees [in the year of 2013]." However, some women in the workforce do not receive the full compensation as men do, even though both genders have the same level of education. The book Lean In-Women, Work, and The Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg, suggests that there are several reasons why women are behind in the wage gap such as challenges, progressiveness, and character. On the contrary, I will also be researching women's work in my own field of study as a College Professor.

    Read More

  • Women and the Workforce

    3921 Words  | 8 Pages

    received the right to work menial jobs for minimum pay with less job security. She has

    Read More

  • Women in the Workplace

    1106 Words  | 3 Pages

    If one takes a closer look at the issues surrounding the differences between the male and female roles in the workforce and in education, one will notice that women tend to be one step below men on the "status" or "importance" ladder.

    Read More

  • The Effects of Gender Stratification on Women

    1273 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gender stratification limits women’s achievement in their lives. In term of jobs, women continue to enter a narrow passage of occupations range. Compared to men, women often face greater handicap in seeking job because the higher income and prestigious jobs are more likely held by men. In the workplace institution, men are also prior to a faster promotion. There is a case where women were allowed to get promoted to a more advance posi...

    Read More

  • Gender Inequality at a Workplace

    1117 Words  | 3 Pages

    It is, therefore, natural for most companies to think that women cannot be as capable as men in terms of assuming strenuous or challenging positions because women, by default, become less participatory and more vulnerable when they start to have family and children. Apparently, this situation has led to various gender discriminations in the labor market. In conclusion, although the roles of men and women have radically changed over the turn of the century, it is still inevitable to have various gender-related occupational differences because the social and biological roles of women and men do not really change. Society still perceives women as the home makers and men as the earners, and this perception alone defines the differing roles of men and women in the labor market.

    Read More

  • A womans work is never done

    658 Words  | 2 Pages

    However, women have made optimistical progress towards equality and their role in the society has been changed dramatically since the last century. Many women stepped out of their home and start to work at factories and offices. The number of working women with children has more than doubled in the past 50 years. While working conditions for women may have improved, there is a lack of appreciation for the notion that work for most women doesn't end at the door of a factory or office. Despite an increase of women's participation in the labour force, women's share of housework has hardly changed in 50 years.

    Read More

  • The Gender Revolution: Uneven And Stalled

    1281 Words  | 3 Pages

    In sociology Here are two sections, the first one is the for women’s job. In a family most men are doing better in earning money than their wives (Gerson, 1985; Zussman, 1987). And when managing their families most women are willing to give more attention than their husbands. So this will limited the chances for getting a higher promotions or new opportunities for getting a better occupation (Gerson, 1985; Rosen,1987; Zavella, 1987). So in this condition and the gender stereotypes, women have small amount of chances to achieve their career goals. And because of men have a bigger responsibility in families; their families will give more support and understanding to them not to the wives (Ferree, 1984). Thompson, L. & Walker, A. (1989) says “Job opportunities continue to be segregated by sex, and most women have access only to low paying, no-advancement, often temporary service jobs.” So like I mentioned before, senior employers will not gave much chance to women, because regarding them as putting their families first and jobs at a second place Kessler-Harris's (1987). The second section is about parenthoods. In researches from LaRossa and LaRossa (1981), they found out that Mother can provide care that babies need and mother are willing to sacrifice their time to do it. So if a family has a children, women are willing to focus more attention on their child not on their

    Read More

  • Gender Roles In The Family

    1624 Words  | 4 Pages

    The roles women typically play in the family may not always be consistent with success in the occupational arena. Staying home to care for a sick child may conflict with an important meeting (Broman 1991:511). Sometimes there has to be a change of plans when it comes to the family. Most people believe that family comes first no matter what. Men 's engagement in paid work fulfills prescriptions of hegemonic masculinity by facilitating their ability to gain status in the public sphere. A man can judge his worth by the size of a paycheck (Thebaud 2010:335). Most research shows that women are more likely to be effected by the household and men are more likely to be effected by their job. Some people feel that the goal is to reach higher on the occupational

    Read More

  • 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.

    Read More

More about The Changing Status of Women in Employment

Open Document