The articles analyzed represent various aspects of gender discrimination in a society, contemporary state of things, and means of fighting. The articles represented the opposite views on gender disparities in the society. Some of them introduced opinions that were not represented in the previous research.
Acker (1990) argues that the structure of contemporary organization is gendered despite of assumption of many feminists that organizations are gender neutral. The main concern of the article is that a supposedly disembodied worker is actually a man having man’s body and sexuality. The author analyzed the organizational process of gender segregation in details concluding that organizational relations are a part of strategy of control in capitalist societies. The author emphasized the necessity of significant reconsideration of working relations and organizational culture towards more loyal attitude to women (Acker, 1990).
The article of Martin (1999) concerns the issues of separation of masculine and feminine emotional work in police departments. Still, physical strength and bravery is associated with masculine comportment while human relations skills are a distinctive feature of feminine behavior. The author stated that there must be a balance between police force associated with masculine behavior and police service referred to feminine comportment. The structure of police service is changing, but informal police culture remains unchanged. Martin (1999) emphasized the necessity of elimination of division between male and female emotional work in police.
Williams (1992) represented an interesting point of view on male employed in “female” professions, such as teachers, social workers, and librarians. The topic is not often highlighted in the contemporary gender-related literature thus introducing new points of consideration in gender science. On the one hand, the article offers the opposite view to those reflected in the articles of Acker (1990) and Martin (1999) in the part of discrimination of men. On the other hand, opinions of Acker (1990) and Martin (1999) are supported in the part of discrimination so called “female” professions. Thus, not only women are discriminated, even female professions can be discriminated disregard of the gender of those who occupy female positions.
The study of Gorman (2005) revealed that share of women hired on high-ranking positions had significantly increased representing contrary opinion to the opinion introduced by Acker (1990) and Martin (1999). However, the findings of the study showed that a small proportion of women are hired to work on the jobs that include stereotypically masculine traits. The same situation occurs with men hires on the jobs that have stereotypically feminine traits. Positive dynamics was being detected among entry-level hires when the author analyzed decision making process of hiring same gender persons (Gorman, 2005).
Cohen and Huffman (2007) offered a large scale analysis related effect of status of female managers on subordinates. The study revealed a greater percentage of female managers supporting the opinion of Gorman (2005) regarding higher percentage of entry-level hires of females. Interestingly, greater number of high-status females employed in managerial positions makes an impact on gender wage inequality. However, narrowing gender wage gap occurs when females reach high-status positions.
Webber and Williams (2008) highlighted the issue related combining employment and motherhood. The research shows that females with children employed in part-time jobs are discriminated. The research is based on 60 in-depth interviews. The study supports the opinion introduced by Acker (1990) in terms of topicality of gender disparity issues in the working place. An interesting finding was that working mothers absolved organizations of blaming for discrimination. Webber and Williams (2008) suggested that organizations would consider alternative possibilities of work.
The articles had greatly contributed to the research of the issue of gender inequality. The analysis of the articles showed significant changes in views on gender inequality. Yet, further research is needed to make more evidence related the problem.
References
Acker, J. (1990). Hierarchies, jobs, bodies: a theory of gendered organizations. Gender and Society, 4(2), 139-158.
Cohen, P.N. and Huffman, M.L. (2007). Working for the woman? Female managers and the gender wage gap. American Sociological Review, 72(5), 681-704.
Gorman, E.H. (2005). Gender stereotypes, same-gender preferences, and organizational variation in the hiring of women: evidence from law firms. American Sociological Review, 70(4), 702-728.
Martin, S.E. (1999). Police force or police service? gender and emotional labor. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 561, 111-126.
Webber, G. and Williams, C. (2008). Mothers in "good" and "bad" part-time jobs: different problems, same results. Gender and Society, 22(6), 752-777.
Williams, C.L. (1992). The glass escalator: hidden advantages for men in the "female" professions. Social Problems, 39(3), 253-267.
