Assignment 10 – Hall, Budig & England
Part A
In “Doing Gender By Giving Good Service” Hall identifies two different approaches on the relationships between gender and organizations which are gender-in-organizations and gendered organization.
In Hall’s essay on gender-in-organization she explains that systems that are in place at certain organizations create disadvantages for women from the early stages of recruitment. Also, there are both collective and individual ways that genders, particularly women take on roles in organizations. In collective gender we see that generally the organization has generally made a certain position a woman’s job. For example a retail clerk is collectively designated to a woman. Individually, gender-in-organization a woman would take on stereotypically female roles such as a caregiver or a mother like role. (Bell 453) Hall also describes that gender-in-organization is brought into gender-neutral workplaces by individuals themselves. She gives us the example of the a police woman who is supposed to be considered to be in a gender neutral occupation but the gender differences can easily be distinguished when sexual harassment is involved. This differentiates the gender roles and what is appropriate and not appropriate behavior. (454)
In gendered organization, organizations are assuming that the gender will play a role in all organizations and will be a part of the person’s job. They will use whichever gender in their particular position in order to successfully complete their task. Gendered organization has already assumed that your gender will be used in a particular way that will benefit the organization and specific clientele. One great example of this method is in the hospitality industry. A waiter or waitress, are given two different names not just one gender-neutral name for a server. Both genders are typically expected to better serve a client of the opposite sex. Waitresses are expected to appear talkative, happy and always smiling. It is also acceptable for a waitress at certain organizations to flirt with male clients. Waiters (men) are expected to do the same with female clients but are allowed to be assertive in this industry. The level of flirting and assertiveness can vary depending on the individual and what the restaurant prefers.
Bell found that gendered organization explanatory power is greater because it defines what male and female roles are in each organization. Organizations, which in her essay are restaurants, the waiters or waitress are able to be in these generalized gender roles but are able to play around with the degree of stereotypical behaviors depending on the restaurant. Gendered organization provides a wider spectrum of issued that can be researched.
Part B
Budig and England give five distinctive cause of how mothers are being penalized in the workplace. Interrupted job experience do to caretaking of children, taking lower paying jobs that are convenient for mothering needs, lack of productivity due to exhaustion from mothering, employer discrimination and the association of motherhood that leads to a lower paying job.
Women lose job experience when they have children and have to care for them. They either temporarily leave work, go from full time to maternity leave or from full time to part time in due to child rearing or order to care for their child. This time lost creates a loss in work experience and loss of on the job training creates a long-term effect for their future wage earnings. The lapses in jobs also contribute to lower wages verses someone who has continuously worked and “proves” that they have more experience.
Some women chose mother-friendly jobs, which are most commonly lower paying jobs in order to balance their lives as mothers. These jobs pay less but the compensation acceptable to mothers because they are able to attain a flexible schedule. The mother-friendly job is less demanding or less hours are required of them. This would be beneficial in exchange for being able to spend more time with their children. If a mother would take on a demanding job with many hours, they would me more likely to be unfocused or distracted due to being tired and household demands, which will eventually make them less productive at work.
The penalty of discrimination by employers is broken down into two different ways. Discrimination based on taste, which would be that an employer just thinks they just would not like to employ mothers, or if they believe their clientele would not like them. The other way an employer can discriminate a mother would be the statistical discriminations. In this method of discrimination, an employer would use generalized data to measure the productivity level that someone with children would likely have. This would help the employer determine/penalize the mother or whichever type of person they are discriminating against and offer them a much lower wage than someone who does not have children.
Motherhood in general can cause someone to be on the lower end of the pay scale. Having a lower education level therefore bearing more children at an earlier age can put a mother out of the job force for a long amount of time, which will eventually lead to a lower wage in the future.
