Term Paper on "Women Face Sex Discrimination in Their Career Advancement"

Home > Topics > Women's Studies My Account

Term Paper 10 pages (2792 words) Sources: 6 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Women Sex Discrimination in Career Advancement

The delineation of the sexes is clearly established in society and impressed in people's minds. The man is to be the breadwinner and the woman is the nurturer of children and keeper of the home. Yet for the last two decades, professional women have entered the workforce and now account for almost half of the American labor force, half of them occupying managerial and professional specialty positions, about half coming from medical and law schools and an increasing number of them as corporate officers. But few of them hold line jobs, receive comparative wages with male employees, are top-earners and appointed to board seats. The majority of high-powered women employees leave their positions mainly because of dissatisfaction with job growth and advancement, a lack of flexibility, bias and discrimination and discomfort in their work environment. They are also generally less comfortable with promoting themselves and using their knowledge to become more effective. Likewise, their career is generally equated with the characteristics of their relationships with men. When women try to ascend the corporate management ladder, they are hindered by gender segregation, which is deeply impressed by society. Statistics clearly reveal this condition.

Review of Literature

In her work, entitled Contextual and Cognitive Procedural Justice: Perceptions in Promotion Barriers for Women, Mary Lemons (2003) attempts to find out why talented women in the workplace continue to quit their posts in large numbers in recent years and what companies can do to keep them.

Ellen R. Auster (2001) offers a framework of

Continue scrolling to

download full paper ⤓

factors, which affect mid-career satisfaction of professional women, and delineates the main demographic, career, organizational, job and stress factors in her work, entitled Professional Women's Mid-career Satisfaction.

What creates these barriers to the career of professional women despite their excellent performance and the encouragements offered and guaranteed by the law are the purposes of the work of Charlene Marmer Solomon (2000), entitled Cracks in the Glass Ceiling.

How companies can effectively deal with the massive and swift turnover of talented professional women despite culture change, flexible schedule and leadership training is discussed and answered by the article, Are Women Responsible for the Glass Ceiling?, by USA Today (2000).

Miguel Moya (2000) endeavors to establish the connection between these women's career salience and gender discrimination and the characteristics of their relationships with men in his work, Close Relationships, Gender and Career Salience.

On the other hand, Mia Hultin (2000) explores how gender stereotypes influence or define positions, staffing and compensations in organizations in her work, Wages and Unequal Access to Organizational Power: an Empirical Test of Gender Discrimination.

Title VII on Equal Employment Opportunity of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 states that gender cannot be the basis for not hiring women or for limiting, segregating or classifying employees, refusing to refer, expelling them from memberships in an organization, discriminating against them, determining their compensation or extending preferential treatment at work.

Findings and Analysis

The 1998 Bureau of Labor Statistics said that women represented 46% of the U.S. labor force and that half of them occupied managerial and professional specialty positions (Solomon 2000). It also said that women comprised approximately 46% of law school classes and 42% of medical school graduates, that almost 12% of corporate officers were women but that only 3.3% held top-earner jobs, only 6.8% had line jobs and board seats and that Fortune companies with women in the board had increased by 21% (Solomon).

Women, especially professional women, now have a commanding corporate presence and many of them seek advancement in the careers they have chosen and excelled in. But they are met with seemingly overwhelming odds, mostly in connection with their gender and gender stereotypes. One has to do with career salience. Men's career salience is more independent of the characteristics of their relationships than that of women, which suggests that men can take their careers for granted and have no problems, no matter what characteristics they have with their women (Moya 2000). In comparison, women's careers are newer and more related or viewed in connection with their personal and relationship characteristics with men. Women confront problems because of the differences in socialization and in the attitudes, role expectations, behaviors and sanctions comprising these attitudes. Women's behavior in the workplace, as well as their career advancement, is also seen as more influenced by their own attitudes as having less financial responsibility for the family income as men. Parenthood was, for example, seen to relate more to a lower career salience among women than men as does the strength of their relationship. This implies that women's career salience depends on or judged according to their men's characteristics, i.e., high educational attainment, employment and expressivity. In comparison, men's career salience is not judged according to, or independently of, their women's characteristics (Moya).

Another is the level of wages for professional women seeking career advancement. Women who work in organizations with relatively many managers who are men receive lower wages than do women in organizations with a stronger female representation in its power structure (Hultin 1999). Gender stereotypes tended to get embedded in organizational arrangements and procedures, which influenced how positions are defined, staffed and priced. Findings showed that these practices got incorporated into the organizational structure and became institutionalized. In this setting, wage differences could look like legitimate law and thus influence compensation levels and reward distribution even when the circumstances for the differences had disappeared or changed. Baron and Pfeffer (as qtd in Hultin 1999) said that dominant social and demographic groups tended to distinguish themselves by creating systems of detailed positions and standings, which would command higher rewards. In addition, female managers already and generally showed less motivation than men to initiate and sustain institutionalized discriminatory practices against them. Studies revealed that, in work organizations of few or no women holding positions of power, gender would be a prominent aspect or category. This would disadvantage women in lower organizational levels as women would lack the means to change organizational or corporate criteria for success and men would not only possess the resources but would also be generally un-motivated and disinclined to modify gender-biased treatment. The scarcity of women in senior positions reflected the disadvantage they confronted in the organization. Moreover, female organizational leaders were found to be more inclined to participate or cooperate with efforts to establish employment equality. Other findings showed men's disinclination towards positive action for gender equality and specifically for high-caliber women who seek high-status corporate jobs, although these men did not necessarily undervalue women's work than did women themselves (Hultin).

Male managers were found to be disinclined or unmotivated to set aside gender discriminatory practice in work organizations and female managers themselves did not necessarily consider women's interest in general as their own individual interest (Lemons 2003). In general, organizational justice perceptions were products of individual cognitive processes, which, in turn, developed as the response to cultural expectations. This would explain why some individuals within an organization would perceive a particular situation as unfair and others would not. Research showed that while women seemed to get more promotions than men, women continued to hold significantly lower positions than men. Gender segregation practices became a problem when women try to enter upper management posts, which were male-dominated. As women became visible in these higher posts, other members of the dominant group expressed the gender stereotypes they believed about themselves. Gender segregation would develop when the decision makers use gender-based hiring or promotion standards in hiring or promoting. Diversity training would help in changing existing stereotypes concerning male and female employees and the jobs assigned to them and thereby improve perceptions of justice in rendering promotion decisions (Lemons).

The 88th U.S. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VII on Equal Employment Opportunity outlawed gender as a basis for refusing to hire or fire an employee, referring his or her for a particular position or employment, providing or fixing wages, applying a merit system or preferential treatment and for a labor organization for excluding or expelling an employee, limiting, segregating, classifying or discriminating against an employee. The Act created an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to enforce its provisions.

The world over, the majority of mid-career women were leaving their corporate positions not for home but for other companies or their own businesses out of dissatisfaction for their mid-career conditions at work (Auster 2001). These conditions were poor job growth and advancement, lack of flexibility, sex bias and discrimination. Mid-career was that point where organizational practices and life responsibilities collided and where these women made the critical decision of whether they would stay with their organization, move to another or put up their own businesses. An organization could incorporate micro-level factors into its organization and career context in addressing this issue. Individual, family, job design characteristics, stress and satisfaction factors, networking, mentoring, flex jobs and human resource policies would contribute to better understanding and respond to the mid-career satisfaction needs of professional women (Auster).

That invisible barrier,… READ MORE

Download Full Paper

Write a New Paper for Me

Quoted Instructions for "Women Face Sex Discrimination in Their Career Advancement" Assignment:

“

Kaplan 150

Fall 2006

ANALYTICAL RESEARCH PAPER

The research paper is designed to give you the opportunity to apply background information (course themes), analytical skills, and theories learned in class to particular topics. Your research (library and fieldwork) will provide the information that you will use to compare and contrast knowledge, concepts and theories discussed in class.

TOPIC: Choose any topic related to course themes.

The paper will be 10 pages, typed, double-spaced, with at least 6 primary references (2 from class reading,) USE ONL Y 2 WEB SOURCES .. You should include secondary references as well (as many as you want). Do not use binders, two staples in the upper left-hand comer will suffice. Your name (s), title of the paper and the beginning of the body of the paper should appear on the first page (i.e., no title pages, save paper, save trees). The bibliography should appear on a separate page at the end of the paper. Any photos, graphs, illustrations, field notes, interview notes, and endnotes (if relevant) should appear on separate Appendixes after the bibliography.

GUIDELINES FOR THE RESEARCH PAPER:

1. A good research paper has a strong, interesting introduction which lays out the main points to be discussed in the body of the paper. The introduction must have a clear and concise thesis statement which you will support and develop in the body of the paper.

2. The body of the text will develop in details the points that support your thesis and develop your topic. Draw parallel and make comparisons with contemporary theories and events. Make sure you give enough concrete evidence (examples) to support your statements. Be specific in the examples you give. Make sure you cite all of the sources.

For sources mentioned the text, use this style, Oster (2002). Use page number if using direct quote or paraphrases, Winant, (2002, pg. 3).

3. The conclusion will clearly summarize the points that you made in the body of the paper. Carefully consider your conclusion. What impressions do you want to leave with the reader? How does it relate to issues discussed in class? Are there any important implications to what your thesis suggests?

4. Papers should not have a lot of white spaces to meet the required number of papers. Each paper should have approximately 250 words. Be sure there are numbers on each page.

5. Be sure to proofread your paper carefully for spelling and grammatical mistakes.

6. Discuss your paper or ideas for your paper with anyone who will listen. This helps you to develop the ideas and paper. If you are working on a group paper, write a draft and go over it together.

7. Give yourself plenty of time to research and write your paper. Make a plan for when you want to have the research completed and then write an outline for the paper. Don't wait until the week it's due.

RESEARCH PAPER GUIDELINE

Pages are approximates--but do not stray too far off of this page guide.

This guide is to be used in conjunction with the analytical research paper guidelines. The sections that are highlighted here are meant to give you more information on what is required for the paper. It is necessary that you answer all questions that are listed in this guideline. Outlining your paper according to this guide will help you cover all the necessary components for this paper.

*INTRODUCTION (~). The introduction defines the problem or issue that is worthy of study. What is your research question? Why is it worthy of study? What is the social or societal significance of your study?

*THESIS OR HYPOTHESIS (~page) PART OF THE INTRO .. This directly follows the literature review and tells the reader what you expect to find prior to your data analysis and why. You are speculating about what you may find in terms of an answer to the research question. You are carving out your original contribution to this field of research question and need to point out why you think your study is important; i.e.; perhaps you are addressing a question that has been neglected in prior research.

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE (1 to 1.5 pages). Encapsulates what others have said on your subject of investigation. This section "reviews" (summarizes and critiques) the range of debates on your subject matter. This is library research involving the use of academic journals, periodical articles and books. Look for themes and emphasize major findings rather than trying to report every study ever done on the subject. Specifically, look at the academic journals for your major sources of information (i.e.,: the American Sociological Associations Journal, California Sociology, etc.) These journals are your primary sources. Mainstream magazines (Times, Newsweek, etc) can only be used as secondary sources but should not make up the balk of your research.

METHOD: (1/2 to 1 pg.) In this section, explain how you did your research. How did you gather your data? Interview or survey? (IT IS NOT NECESSARY, I PREFER NOT HAVING IT) If so, how? Describe why you chose to ask the questions that you did and what they are being used to measure? How did you choose your sampler population and why? Include time it took to do interview, age, gender, race/ethnicity, occupation of interviewees. Make sure to answer all these methodologies questions because they are crucial to your sociological analysis. Be sure to include range of questions you asked in the paper. You will need to also include your entire questionnaire in an appendix. If this is a library research paper, state where did you do your research (which library). If you used web sources, be sure you do not rely on this source (2 web sources should do). Be sure to include any problems, in other words, what went wrong (for example, finding people to take part in the study, do interviews and/or surveys or anything else). All researchers encounter problems with their studies .. You will not be graded down because of the problems ..

Findings and Analysis (4-5 pages) This section summarizes and discusses the major research findings from your study, and addresses your original thesis or hypothesis. Here is where conclusions or inferences are drawn and strategies formed. In essence, this is an essay about your findings and should be reviewed as your original contribution to this area of research. (For examples, look at some of the articles you will use in the paper. Note how these authors integrate their empirical findings from interviews with previous research). In this analysis, note what contradictions may exist compared to past academic work or what concurs with previous work.

Conclusion (1.5 -2 pages). This section ends the paper with a brief summary-reviewing the highlights of the report. This also is where you can point out shortcomings of the research and make suggestions for further research.

GUIDELINES FOR REFERENCES AND CITATIONS

It is essential when writing research papers that proper credit be given to the original researchers, authors, and *****s. Failure to properly cite a direct quote, or a synopsis of their research is considered plagiarism. It goes without saying that this is a serious violation of Academic Rules and Regulations. So to prevent this the general rule of thumb is "when in doubt, cite. Better to be safe than sorry."

General Rules:

A. When referring to a study or quoting a particular author you should cite it as follows:

in the 1996 study by Jones and Smith, they stated, "X causes Y which in turn causes Z .... (Author, year, page #)

When synopsizing or paraphrasing someone's work the same citation procedures should be used. (Author, Year, page #)

Remember when you are quoting text that takes more than three typed lines on a page you should double indent and single space.

REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY:

This should list all primary and secondary sources that you use to write the paper. Please use standard MLA rules for bibliography. Example:

(Journal)

Jones, K, and L. Smith. 1996. "Stress and Marriage in the 1990's." Gender & Society (March): 755-779.

(Book)

Wong, John. 1997. Family Structure: Work Structures. New York: Greenwich Press.

(Web site) http://www.kurdmedia.com/kwahkl.

IMPORTANT Reminder:

A. Spell check

B. Proof Read and Grammar Check

C. Number Pages

D. Use a Running Header with your name in it (i.e., John Smith, Soc. 360 Paper)

E. Double Space, use standard 1 inch margins (no larger or smaller), 12 point font (no larger or smaller)

F. Watch size of paragraphs. Six to eight sentences for most.

In addition to that:

What I really want to claim is that I believe most girls and/or womens still believe there is a sex discrimination in the workforce, although practically there aren't, because of the establishment of the Civil Right Act which prevents it, but it happens invisibly because we are growing under the cuture which strongly shape our attitute towards the perception of different genders, and people are unconsciously stereotyping women which suppress them from holding higher management position.

I will be sending email to you for the 2 sources I will like to use for this research paper. My email is philip_ckc@yahoo.com.hk. Lastly,If you could, I would appreciate if you can send me the other resources they you are going to use since I have to turn in the paper outline to my TA this Tuesday. *****

How to Reference "Women Face Sex Discrimination in Their Career Advancement" Term Paper in a Bibliography

“Women Face Sex Discrimination in Their Career Advancement.” A1-TermPaper.com, 2006, https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/women-sex-discrimination-career/4107490. Accessed 6 Jul 2024.

Women Face Sex Discrimination in Their Career Advancement (2006). Retrieved from https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/women-sex-discrimination-career/4107490

A1-TermPaper.com. (2006). Women Face Sex Discrimination in Their Career Advancement. [online] Available at: https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/women-sex-discrimination-career/4107490 [Accessed 6 Jul, 2024].

”Women Face Sex Discrimination in Their Career Advancement” 2006. A1-TermPaper.com. https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/women-sex-discrimination-career/4107490.

”Women Face Sex Discrimination in Their Career Advancement” A1-TermPaper.com, Last modified 2024. https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/women-sex-discrimination-career/4107490.

[1] ”Women Face Sex Discrimination in Their Career Advancement”, A1-TermPaper.com, 2006. [Online]. Available: https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/women-sex-discrimination-career/4107490. [Accessed: 6-Jul-2024].

1. Women Face Sex Discrimination in Their Career Advancement [Internet]. A1-TermPaper.com. 2006 [cited 6 July 2024]. Available from: https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/women-sex-discrimination-career/4107490

1. Women Face Sex Discrimination in Their Career Advancement. A1-TermPaper.com. https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/women-sex-discrimination-career/4107490. Published 2006. Accessed July 6, 2024.

Related Term Papers: