Gender and Organizations: Key Concepts

Unit 1: Gender and Organizations - Important General Concepts

• A feedback loop exists where women's subordination in the workplace is perpetuated.
• Power, distribution, and opportunity form a triangle of influence affecting organizational dynamics.
• Structures of opportunity and power are related to the proportional distribution of group members within an organization.
• Gender often functions as a subtext within organizations, influencing perceptions and actions.
• Masculinity is typically seen as the norm, rendering it invisible and influencing organizational culture.
• Sex composition refers to the representation of women and men in a particular occupation, while gender typing is the process of associating occupations with masculine or feminine characteristics.
• Organizational practices contribute to gender segregation and the wage/status gap.
• Organizations are key sites for the production of cultural imagery related to gender.
• Individual gender identity can be influenced by organizational pressures.
• Addressing gender issues in organizations contributes to broader feminist goals of greater democracy and humanity.
• Gendered processes involve the patterning of advantage, disadvantage, exploitation, control, action, emotion, meaning, and identity through the distinction between male and female, masculine and feminine.
• Production of gender divisions, construction of symbols and images, interactions, internal mental work, and the ongoing logic of organizations are all interacting gendered processes.

Unit 1: Specific Theories

• Weber's Principles of Bureaucracy include authority hierarchy, formal rules and regulations, division of labor (specializations), impersonality, career orientation, and a formal selection process.
• Kanter's theory of Tokenism describes the practice of making only a symbolic effort to be inclusive, often by recruiting small numbers of underrepresented groups for appearance.
• Ferguson's theory portrays bureaucracy as inherently masculine, suggesting it associates those within it, especially women, with powerlessness.
• Cockburn's theory of "The Gender Rub" proposes that gender is inherently linked to the jobs people do and vice versa.

Unit 1: Readings - Acker

• Acker argues organizations are inherently gendered, maintaining male dominance and marginalizing women.
• The concept of the "ideal worker" is implicitly male, aligning with historical norms where men were not primarily responsible for childcare or domestic work.
• Gendered divisions of labor lead to men occupying positions of power while women are often in lower-status roles.
• Symbolism and imagery within organizations often value masculine traits, reinforcing male dominance.
• Organizational structures often ignore or penalize women's reproductive roles, such as pregnancy and childcare.
• Workplace power structures often regulate or exploit women's sexuality.
• Bureaucratic processes, like job evaluation systems, can reproduce gender inequality by embedding existing biases.
• Organizations create and maintain inequalities related to class, gender, and race through structures, practices, and interactions, forming "inequality regimes".
• Gender, class, and race are interwoven and should be studied together, an approach known as intersectionality.
• Workplaces often exhibit systemic disparities in power, wages, and opportunities, reinforcing societal inequalities.
• Many inequalities are hidden or considered natural, making them difficult to address.
• Organizational change projects often fail due to power imbalances, resistance from dominant groups, and economic pressures.

Unit 1: Readings - Alfrey and Twine

• Underrepresented women in powerful positions sometimes become tokens, a challenge especially relevant in STEM fields/spaces.
• Gender, sexuality, and race must be considered in conjunction with this finding.
• White women, Asian women, and those who embody traits of "one of the guys" benefit from the "token" status in tech workplace culture.
• Traditionally feminine women may experience microaggressions from male colleagues in tech.
• Geek culture has become masculinized, racialized, and class-oriented.
• Gender fluidity can be beneficial for some women but not typically for Black women or dark-skinned Latinas in tech.

Unit 1: Readings - Kanter

• Kanter focuses on the concept of tokenism and the perceptual tendencies associated with proportional rarity.
• Tokens experience high visibility, leading to increased attention.
• Differences between tokens and the majority group are exaggerated through contrast.
• Characteristics of tokens are often distorted to fit existing generalizations through assimilation.
• High visibility results in performance pressures for tokens.
• Contrast heightens dominant cultural boundaries and can lead to isolation.
• Tokens may experience fear of retaliation for not fitting in.
• Tokens often face the burden of representing their entire category.
• Low opportunity, powerlessness, and tokenism create self-perpetuating systems.
• Breaking these systems requires external intervention, as they are not static.

Unit 2: Entry and Advancements - Important General Concepts

• Sex segregation is the concentration of workers of the same sex in specific job categories, indicated by over 75% representation.
• Three aspects of sex segregation include the degree to which men and women are distributed unevenly across occupations, the crowding of women into a limited number of fields, and the degree of intergroup contact.
• Three levels of sex segregation exist: occupational, establishment, and job segregation.
• Occupational segregation is measured by the index of dissimilarity, which indicates the percentage of workers of one sex that would need to change occupations to achieve equal distribution in each occupation.
• Sex segregation perpetuates stereotypes, leads to labor market inefficiency, and contributes to the wage gap.
• Gender role specialization, where women's preferences, training, and job applications align with traditionally female-typed jobs, influences their labor force position.
• Human capital theory posits that the labor market is non-discriminatory and rewards workers based on their human capital.
• Dual labor markets consist of primary and secondary sectors, divided into tiers.
• In dual labor markets, women are often crowded into the lower tier of the primary sector.
• Sex Role Theory/Status Composition Perspective suggests employers work with structural arrangements influenced by gender expectations.
• Social closure involves men preserving their advantaged position in the workplace.

Unit 2: Entry and Advancements - Specific Theories and Concepts

• The glass escalator describes hidden advantages that men experience in female-dominated professions, allowing them to benefit from tokenism.
• One limitation of the glass escalator theory is a failure to address intersectionality; also, it is based on assumptions of traditional organizations undergoing major changes.
• The glass escalator may not apply to Black men, who may be mistaken for janitors in healthcare settings, despite being nurses.
• Considering sexuality is important due to the pressure men in female-dominated roles face to conform to traditional gender practices or pass as straight.
• The glass ceiling refers to an invisible, systemic barrier preventing certain people, especially women and minorities, from advancing further in their careers.
• The sticky floor refers to individuals who move between jobs but remain at the same status level, particularly affecting women of color.
• The glass cliff occurs when women are more likely to be appointed to leadership positions in organizations facing a crisis.
• Following a woman's appointment in a "glass cliff" scenario, studies have shown that the company experiences an upswing and the decline does not always occur.
• Reasons women end up on the glass cliff include sexism in the workplace, lack of support networks for women, and the alignment between stereotypes associated with crisis management and the perceived qualities of women, creating scapegoats.

Unit 2: Readings - Motherhood Penalty

• The motherhood penalty describes the wage and labor disadvantages experienced by mothers compared to non-mothers and men.
• The motherhood penalty exists across multiple countries in Europe and North America.
• The motherhood penalty affects long-term career progression.
• Status-based discrimination involves employers stereotyping mothers as less competent and committed.
• Experimental studies show that mothers receive fewer callbacks, lower hiring rates, and lower salaries.
• A descriptive stereotype refers to beliefs about what women/mothers can do.
• The Normative Discrimination Hypothesis suggests that bias persists even when mothers demonstrate competence.
• Successful mothers may be seen as less warm, likable, and more interpersonally hostile.
• Prescriptive stereotypes involve beliefs about what women/mothers should do.
• Work success is sometimes seen as violating motherhood norms.
• Fathers, in contrast, may receive positive evaluations for work success.
• Under ambiguous performance, mothers were rated as less competent and committed than other possible candidates.
• Under clear performance, which should have negated any bias, mothers were still rated as less warm, less likable, and more hostile.
• Female evaluators penalized successful mothers more than male evaluators.
• These findings support the "double bind" theory, suggesting that women can be seen as either competent or likable but not both.
• This helps explain the glass ceiling and wage gaps.
• Discrimination shifts from competency-based to normatively-based as performance evidence increases.