Gender Stereotypes In The Workforce

Women have come a long way from the early 1900’s when they gained their equal right to vote, to now where it seems women have equal rights to do just about anything. Women have been increasingly joining the economic work force since the last 100 years or so. Although, women in the work force have been increasing in numbers are they given an equal and fair chance compared to that of men? A quick glance on the subject would suggest that women are given equal and fair chances in the work force; however, upon closer inspection it seems women in fact are not given the same fair and equal opportunities as men. Women are subjected to occupation gender segregation and unfair pay gaps in comparison to men. Nevertheless, women are working diligently and successfully to break down these unjust barriers that are keeping them from having equal opportunities.
According to Margaret L. Andersen and Dana Hysock Witham, in Thinking about Women: Sociological Perspectives on Sex and Gender, gender segregation is “the pattern whereby
This can be made an example of in obvious occupations such as: kindergarten and preschool teachers, nurses, librarians, and house cleaners, versus college professors, doctors, lawyers, and construction works. The former, when typically imagined, the first image that comes to mind is a woman, whereas the latter is associated with a man. These occupations are associated with certain genders because generally speaking those jobs are and have traditionally been a certain gender dominated. Philip N. Cohen, and Matt L. Huffman, in Occupational Segregation and the Devaluation of Women's Work Across U.S. Labor Markets, hypothesis that gender segregation in the workforce exists because of the “discrimination both in the allocation of workers across the job categories and in how female-dominated jobs are rewarded relative to male-dominated jobs” (882). Women are “blocked access” to typical male dominated jobs because of social ideas and cultural norms that