Work is a social institution that is not gender neutral. It is often understood as a masculine institution where work and career are central to male identity. There are expectations that men will work full-time to support their families financially. In contrast, women face greater stigma if they work full-time and must rely on childcare instead of caring for children themselves. Women also tend to work in lower paying "pink collar" jobs and face an unexplained wage gap compared to men even when controlling for factors like occupation and experience. Research has shown organizational structures are not gender neutral and help reproduce unequal treatment and cultural perceptions of gender that constrain women's opportunities and advancement.

1. The Institution of Work
& Gender
Chapter 9
Garret McAlpine
CMS 498
7/24/2012

2. Work as a Social Institution
❖ The meaning of work is not universal. Certain types of
work exist that are not really gender neutral.
❖ The notion of “work” as something that occurs outside of
the home is a Western bias.
❖ Work expectations are not consistent across sexes. It is
not a gender or sex-neutral institution.

3. Masculine VS Feminine
❖ Work is best understood as a masculine institution.
❖ In some ways, a man is not considered a man unless he is
gainfully employed.
❖ Work persists across time, composed of distinct social
practices that recur.

4. Masculine VS Feminine
❖ The work or job a man does is a major part of his identity
and defines his level of manliness.
❖ Every male U.S. citizen is expected to work, to become a “tax
paying citizen.”
❖ Predominantly, male occupations possess more social value as
indicated by things like higher pay, more authority, prestige
and greater opportunities for advancement.

5. Masculine VS Feminine
❖ While many men and women who are parents also choose to work, there is
less stigma around the father going to work every day as opposed to the
mother who must put her children in day care and therefore open to greater
criticism.
❖ Women who have had to rely on welfare to raise their children are
considered “bad mothers” because they remain at home and collect a check
from the state instead of work full-time, even though full-time work may not
be an option.

6. Masculine VS Feminine
❖ Many job titles often have unnecessary gender labels assigned to them. Even
if the job is considered gender neutral, there are societal expectations that
the majority of workers in these various positions are predominantly either
male or female, depending on the work.
❖ Things like “male nurse”, “landlady” (instead of landlord), “female judge”,
“male model” and so on. Each of these jobs as they stand alone do not define
gender expectations in their respective roles. However, some feel it’s
necessary to identify the gender specifics when discussing work labels so as
not to confuse the recipient of the wording. It is not necessarily true that
nurses or flight attendants are mostly female, therefore it creates the
necessity to identify individuals who choose to work in those fields who do
not fit gender expectations.

7. Gender & Work
“Male” Nurse
“Male” Hairdresser
“Male” Flight Attendant

8. Gender & Work
“Female” Judge
“Female” Construction Worker
“Female” Fire Fighter

9. Work VS Family
❖ There is an intersection in the U.S. between work and
family, often the cause of conflict.
❖ Work and family are two separate institutions with differing
goals, values and demands.
❖ Rapidly increasing time stress in U.S. culture causes many to
choose work over family for the rewards it often promises.

10. Dissolving Gender Roles

11. Gender & Wage

12. Gender & Wage

13. Gender & Wage
❖ The Census Bureau recently released updated state data on the gap between
women’s and men’s earnings. In 2008, median earnings for women were $35,471, or
77.9 percent of men’s earnings, which totaled $45,556.
❖ Women earned less than men in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia
— but slightly more than men in Puerto Rico, where the median woman made 101.1
percent of what the median man made. Within the 50 states and the capital, the
District of Columbia had the highest ratio of women’s-to-men’s earnings (88 cents
on the dollar), followed by California, Arizona, Maryland and New York.The biggest
wage gap was in Wyoming, where women earned 64.3 percent of men’s earnings.

14. Top 10 Facts About The Wage Gap
1. In 2010 women who worked full time, year round, still only earned 77 percent
of what men earned.
2. The gender wage gap does not only affect individuals—entire families are
impacted by women’s earnings
3. Women earn less than men within all racial and ethnic groups.
4. Even though women are outpacing men in getting college degrees that’s not
enough to close the gender pay gap.
5. Women are more likely to work in low-wage, “pink-collar” jobs such as
teaching, child care, nursing, cleaning, and waitressing.

15. Top 10 Facts About The Wage Gap
6. The wage gap accumulates over time. Over a 40-year working career, the
average woman loses $431,000 as the result of the wage gap.
7. As women age the wage gap continues to grow. For working women between
the ages of 25 to 29, the annual wage gap is $1,702.
8. Single women are even more adversely affected by the wage gap than married
women. Single women earn only 78.8 percent of what married women earn,
and only 57 cents for every dollar that married males earn.
9. More than 40 percent of the wage gap cannot be explained by occupation,
work experience, race, or union membership.
10. Mothers earn about 7 percent less per child than childless women. For
women under 35 years of age, the wage gap between mothers and women
without children is greater than the gap between women and men.

16. Work & Gender Constraints
❖ Evidence of unequal pay and treatment based on sex is
undeniable.
❖ Joan Acker pioneered a study of the way work is gendered
through structure.
❖ Her research concluded that “organizational structure is not
gender neutral.”

17. Acker’s Five Reasons for Gender &
Organization
1. The sex segregation of work, including which work is paid and
unpaid.
2. Income and status inequality between women and men and
how this is created through organizational structure.
3. How organizations invent and reproduce cultural images of sex
and gender.
4. The way in which gender, particularly masculinity, is the
product of organizational processes.
5. The need to make organizations more democratic and more
supportive of humane goals.

18. Acker’s Five Reasons for Gender &
Organization
❖ Represent five intersecting processes that make issues of
power, control and dominance gendered.
❖ Her pioneering research focused on the way in which work is
gendered through organizational structure.

19. Conclusion
❖ There is a direct correlation between gender and an unequal pay scale. The difference has
existed for a very long time, even with factors like higher education, the fact remains that
men statistically earn more than women for the same job.
❖ Perceptions and expectations of gender play a role in how a hierarchy of power is formed.
Who plays what role is determined by gender before other things, and expectations and
relationships with co-workers and boss/employee can change based on that.
❖ Despite equal ability, education, intellect and proficiency, race also plays a role in the gender
wage gap. Work can constrain as well as liberate.
❖ Everyone works, despite their gender identity. “If one does not work, that in itself is a basis
for judgment.” (pg. 215) However, race and gender and being a parent all affect income levels
across various jobs and industries.
❖ What we choose to do for a career is a large part of our identity, and gender plays a vital role
in that. The work itself “genders and is gendered”.

20. Sources
❖ http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1983158,00.htm
❖ http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-03-12/equal-pay-plaintiffs-burdenofproof
❖ http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2012/04/wagegapfacts.html
❖ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11511714
❖ http://www.legalnewsline.com/news/236324-gender-wage-gap-progress-slowed-under-obama-report
❖ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/the-white-houses-use-of-data-on-the-gender-wage-gap/
2012/06/04/gJQAYH6nEV_blog.html
❖ http://www.forbes.com/realspin/2012/04/16/its-time-that-we-end-the-equal-pay-myths/
❖ DeFrancisco, Victoria L. & Palzewski, Catherine Helen, Communicating Gender Diversity: A Critical Approach. Los
Angeles. Sage Publications, 2007. Print.