One of the reasons for the slow progress of women in achieving equality in earnings and status within organizations is the fact that women work in male dominated organizations. Women are expected to behave like men and adapt to the male cultural that surrounds so many of the top organizations, both public and private. What I want to study is the extent to which this is true in the school that I attend. I would like to see if there are differences in the status and earning among male and female faculty members in at least two academic departments where I have taken courses.
That a problem exists can be seen in a couple of article that I have recently examined. First, Joan Acker (1990) has suggested that we need to develop a systematic theory of gender and organizations. At present, the organizations in which we work are male dominated and that the rules, practices and procedures have been generated and developed by males to suit their particular orientation of how an organization should be run. When women come into that organization, they are expected to conform to those rules if they want to succeed and progress through the organization. Women often have little choice but to conform or find themselves stagnating in the position they currently occupy.
Use your promo and get a custom paper on
"Women in Male Dominated Organizations".
Acker suggests that income and status inequality are partly created by organizational practices that have been ingrained in the organization. In addition, cultural images of gender roles in these organizations are often invented and reproduced in the organization and then disseminated into the larger culture. Consequently, women coming into those organizations are expected to fit the images held by the organizational culture. This puts women at a disadvantage when discussing their status or earnings.
Developing a theory of gender and organizations may not be all that easy in the short-run. To date, very little research has been done on a theory of gender and its application to organizations. In fact, most scholars have ignored the issue. There has also been very little debate about organizational theory and the absence of gender within the theoretical structure of organizational practices and procedures. This definitely needs scholarly attention.
In a second article, Emma Cahusac and Shireem Kanji (2014) discuss the difficulties mothers have when seeking employment, especially when the organization gives little credibility to being a mother. While a mother’s departure from paid employment has traditionally been explained in terms of childcare issues and women’s preferences or choices, these authors suggest that the organizational culture may play and much larger role, perhaps a key role, than these traditional explanations. Many of these mothers were required to work long hours and then attend many social events in the evenings as part of their jobs. In fact, some of them felt that they must hide their motherhood so as not to be slighted in matters of status and compensation. They also found little opportunity to protest their situations or to implement creative ways of using their working time.
I hope to see if the issues found in traditional organizational structures are also found in the organizational structure of the school that I attend. My assumption is that those same problems confronting women in private organizations will also be found in this public organization. I also hope to find out if there are things that can be addressed to make the situation for women faculty more rewarding.
- Acker, Joan. (1990). Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered Organizations.
Gender and Society, 4, 139. - Cahusac, Emma & Kanji, Shireem. (January 2014). Giving Up: How Gendered
Organizational Cultures Push Mothers Out. Gender, Work and Organization, 21 (1). - Detman, Linda A. Women behind Bars: The Feminization of Bartending. In Reskin, Barbara F.
& Roos, Patricia A. (eds.). Job Queues, Gender Queues: Explaining Women’s Inroads
Into Male Occupations. - Werhane, Patricia & Painter-Morland, Mollie (eds.). (2011). Leadership, Gender, and
Organization. Springer eBooks. New York: NY.
