Blog Assignment 12: Gender Social Structure

Duped by Society

As our professor warned us, we might think that gender does not matter in today’s society because of the changes and progress we are currently witnessing. However, reading page after page of all of the examples and little nooks and cranny’s where disparities are still lurking, gender inequality is still a really big issue, especially if you happen to be a women. This chapter actually made me angry to think of how complacent I have become and almost immune, if not oblivious, to these things that are happening in my own life that I have come to accept as normal.  Upon further evaluation of my personal life and the impact that gender as a social structure has made in shaping who I am today, I will limit the hundreds of examples of gender inequalities I have endured to just a handful in both the personal and institutional platforms.

Sexism at the Personal Level

From the moment we are born the categorizing begins firmly placing us in the stratification system where men are located above women. It all seems harmless; blue things for boys, pink things for girls, rough-and-tumble with boys, and tea parties with girls. All is fun until somebody gets hurt (women). Looking back, I can see the number of ways I was groomed to not only to fall victim to the inequalities in society, but to accept them as a reality of life. One of the reasons why some may think that gender no longer matters is because many of these gender inequalities appear so often, and very subtly during our early impressionable lives, we tend to not even notice them. Once our foundation is set with these fallacies of gender roles, we later begin to notice changes being made in our society like dads helping out more around the house, more women going to college, women's professional basketball teams, or even girls being allowed to play on boys football teams, and the women’s rights movement, etc. give the illusion that all is well.

Growing up in the late 60s through the early 80s, I was raised by my parents who took on majority of the traditional gender specific roles of their parent's generation. This was a time of change, due to the women's movement. I witness the generation before me breakaway from many of the set roles. In turn, I was not exonerated from doing the gender specific "girl roles," I was just given the opportunity to add more "boy things" to my list of acceptable behaviors for a girl  to di in society at that time. For me, this is probably why I, and so many other women of this generation, make the transition again later in life, by ending up do most of the housework and "secondary care" even when they are working full-time outside of the home Newman (2012). In a sense, we were groomed at an early age to not give up our traditional roles, instead, we keep adding to our responsibilities.

Another example of gender as a social structure and how it impacted my life is my education path. As I mentioned before I am a nontraditional (lifetime) student, who up until now, never experienced full-time, during the day, student status at a University. Like Newman (2012) indicates, gender, culture, status and rules do not play independent roles in shaping lives. For example, culture during the time when I grew up, coming from a blue-collar family, and being a girl, the pursuit of going to college immediately following high school was not the norm. Instead, the expectation was to finish high school, get a job, get married, have children, and be a stay-at-home mom. I followed the path that the framework of our society at that time, paved for me. My saving grace was that I always attended college at night on a part-time basis until attending Hamline University. In a positive light, I view my life as being able to do it all. Maybe not the most conventional way of today's world, but I'm grateful for the opportunity today.

I wish I could end this section about sexism at the personal level on a better note, however, violence and sexual harassment towards women is such a prevalent problem, it would be an injustice to avoid mentioning it. As a girl and now a grown woman I have personally experienced lewd comments, ogling, and two very close call, on two separate occasions, attempted rape situations, by person's I knew, both from the workplace. I was one of the lucky ones to escape this heinous crime of male dominance that exist in our society. I was also one of the 45% who did not report these attempts not once but twice (Newman, 2012). The impact it has had on my life is it did in the past, make me fearful of certain situations, walking alone, and being able to trust men that I even knew. As a grown woman, in a public place, my husband always escorts me and waits for me at the restroom because of this. The other way this has impacted my life is how I raise my daughter. I took extra precaution to make sure that she is aware of the many situations that can occur regarding violence against women. That conversation in of itself makes for fearful but if a little fear can help prevent it is worth it. We also made sure that our son is aware of right and wrong treatment of women and raised a fine young gentleman. I find it to be very demeaning and offensive to women that in today's age we are still the ones having to take responsibility for preventing rape more so than men (Newman, 2012). Just when you think things can't get any worse on a personal level, women also are subjected to many gender inequalities in institutions.

Institutions and Gender Inequality

Living and working in a patriarchy society has left me feeling inferior and insecure about my true abilities when trying to break the glass ceiling. I have been stifled, discouraged, discriminated against, and have always been underpaid in the working world. Education and corporate institutions proved to enforce its “patterned organization on me all for the purpose of adding order and predictability to our lives (Newman, 2012) (tongue-in-cheek).”

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I am a lifetime student by choice, on a quest for knowledge. One reason for this is because I love to learn. Another reason stems from a sense of feeling inferior in our world. Meaning that when I look at men in the working world, I always wonder why they get that job over somebody like me who knows I can do it, yet it seems impossible. Therefore, I must be lacking education, knowledge, or something. In the end, I come to realize that this is an example of gender inequality and opportunities made available to men and not women. This impacts my life because I feel as though the working world will never satisfy me, but the academia world does because it is all about my challenges I set for myself and get to measure my accomplishments directly based on my efforts.

As education fulfills my needs as well as prepares me for another go around in corporate America, I can reflect on my past jobs and the role gender plays. I can go back to my first job at age 15 at a fast-food chain. As a girl who could always keep an accurate money drawer, they said that that is why I and every other girl got stuck working cashier, instead of making whoppers that was a lot more fun. Looking back, it is obvious that we were just in a “gender specific” job and provided a bright smile and perhaps a little “eye-candy” for the customers. This was just the first of many job choices that were not available to me despite having the same education and training as my counterpart. More recently in my career, another example involves title, prestige, respect, and a large wage gap. I have worked in the finance and accounting field for over fifteen years. What was always frustrating to me and the root of my suffering confidence was being able to infiltrate the “good ole boys club,” and receive my dues. For example, in this field, all too often, men were called controllers or accountants, while women, like me, were always called assistants, clerks, or bookkeepers. I had all of the same education, experience, and training but was disrespected in my title and further offended by the wage gap that was always evident in my paychecks for every job that I have had.   

The last straw of this gender inequality was actually the main reason why I left the corporate world, decided to change my career completely, and attend Hamline University to obtain my BA in psychology. My last job I had was a great opportunity to take over the position of CFO of a small company. The man who’s job I took over was the CFO for a very long time and had not brought this company into the 20^th century, let alone the 21^st. He was still doing everything manually and kept very questionable and shoddy books. In summary, the previous CFO, along with the owner, brought this company to the brink of collapse. After 3 years I accomplished re-organizing everything from accounting practices, implemented computer software programs for accounting and business operations, put processes and procedures in place, improved moral, streamlined sales and production department which increased revenues, improved benefits, cut expense and revived the company. Despite all of these accomplishments, I saw the writing on the wall that I was limited in my opportunities and pay at this company. I redirected this failing company from the edge of bankruptcy to being a 2 million dollar company that the owner never succeeded in the thirty years of being in business. After my challenge was gone, I was no longer willing to except the injustice of being paid over $20,000 less than the previous employee who got to wear the title “Chief Executive Officer” but I was the Office Administrator on my job description (that I wrote, but the owner labeled) and was referred to as the secretary by the owner. In the end, I am glad in the long run that this latest gender inequality impacted me enough to make one of the biggest directional changes in my life. This influence is steering me to a new career, in a chosen field, with hopefully a brighter future and more pay. I just hope that I do not have to get my PhD just to get paid the same as my future male counterpart does who only has a bachelor’s degree (Newman, 2012).

Despite my individual efforts of still persevering as a woman, about to reenter the job market, these disparities will not conquer my spirit. Overall, I am very happy and hopeful for the world in which I live. Upon completion of reading this chapter it is evident that we still have a big mountain to climb before reaching the summit of success and equality for all. The proof is in black and white text in the last paragraph of this chapter. I was in a state of utter dismay and disgust when I learned that my own country is against ending discrimination against women. It is sickening and very eye-opening to know to the degree in which gender as a social structure goes all the way to the top of the United Nations. The United States, along with countries like Sudan, Somalia, Iran, etc., were one of the “eight out of the 192 member countries of the United Nations” to refuse to legally bind them to taking the steps to end discrimination (Newman, 2012). This may be the force that I have felt and tried to define but was unable to “put a finger on it” and wonder “what do these men have that I don’t have?” All along this has been the workings of gender in the “framework of society being delivered in the social institutions, organizations, groups, statuses, cultural beliefs, and institutional norms” mentioned above in my life events (Newman, 2012).   

 

References

Newman, D. (2012. Sociology: Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life: 9th Edition SAGE Publications.

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