¶ … Man's World
Women have been able to infiltrate career paths which, until recently had been impossible for them. Females have been able to get more college degrees than ever before which have increased their training and their job opportunities. Despite the significant progress that women have made, it is still very much a man's world as illustrated by Christine Williams in a series of interviews where she studied males have started taking jobs in positions traditionally held by women, including nursing, librarians, social work, and teaching in the elementary school setting.
In all occupations, there is a definitive advantage to being male. This is seen in both traditionally male occupations as well as the jobs which used to be female territory but have now become open to both genders. Males almost always make more money and have a great deal more power than females who work in the same occupation. This attitude is not only found in laymen, but in the scientific communities as well. According to Williams, "The underlying assumption in most research on gender and work is that, given a free choice, both men and women would work in predominantly male occupations, as they are generally better paying and more prestigious than predominantly female occupations" (304). The very fact that these occupations are male-dominated makes them appear to have more value. Socially, men have a higher value as well. Other...
It is a sociological truth that people will often seek out like beings in order to build relationships. Gender is one factor that the two people have in common and it will allow them to build a relationship that is likely stronger than the one a male will have with a female colleague.
There are some disadvantages to being a man in a woman's domain because he will likely be subjected to stereotyping. Men are macho and brave. They are physically strong and emotionally stoic. Males who do "women's work" are expected to live up to the
stereotypes because there is relatively little real-life male by which the human being can be compared to. Then there the opposing stereotypes, those of the "sissy" male who is effeminate. While it might be understandable to the majority population for the latter type of man to take on "women's work," the former manly man would definitely be looked at differently if he took on a traditionally female occupation. When a man proves to be human as opposed to a stereotype, this can pose a sociological difficulty unless it is posed as
satire, like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Kindergarten Cop (Williams 304). You can have a macho male be a kindergarten teacher if it is a cover and he is actually a
police officer looking for a vicious killer. It is when there is a cognitive dissonance between the type of
personality needed for a job and the personality of an individual that it creates conflict.
In the workplace, the stereotypes that are applied to…
