Segregation along gender lines Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Segregation along gender lines - Essay Example Horizontally, women are disproportionately clustered into a narrow range of jobs that are regularly regarded to be ‘ghetto occupations’. Ghetto occupations have been classified as those which are female dominated and of low status, poor pay, with narrow job content, and that have few prospects of promotion. Introduction Occupational segregation is an obstacle used in the workplace to prevent women from realising their full potential in the market. It can also prevent employers from finding the most qualified personnel to fill job vacancies. Occupational segregation negatively affects the national as well as global economy. In Britain, many female workers are affected by vertical as well as horizontal segregation. This basically means that female workers tend to hold different jobs from the male workers which are of lower status and have lower pay packets. Female workers also tend to be directed towards industries that have a huge demand for workers who only work part tim e. Occupations which are usually peopled by female workers, and which tend to have low pay are often referred to as ‘pink-collar’ jobs or even ‘ghetto’ occupations. Causes of Segregation in the Workplace Limited Access to Career Options Gender stereotyping experienced by women during their formative years can affect their choice of occupation (Van Langen, Bosker and Dekkers, 2006). Gender stereotyping includes implicitly and explicitly expressed social attitudes within a person’s community. ... Even in developed nations like Britain, these attitudes are still present. When women are socialised to take on the ‘helping professions’ such as teaching, nursing, and secretarial work, it affects their decisions about the type of university courses they choose (Tracey and Nicholl, 2007). There are other institutional as well as structural barriers like biased marketing which discourage women from taking advantage of measures such as vocational training programmes for traditionally male jobs. Corporate culture and practice Other realities that compel women to choose to work in occupations that may not afford them large salaries or even a chance for promotion is because of the lack of the implementation of female-friendly practices in many corporate organisations. There are many organisations today that have instituted the acceptance of progressive employment agendas as one of their main objectives (Wynarczyk, 2007). However, this is not often implemented in the corporat e culture. Many women working in corporate organisations have to handle the reality of long hours which leave the worker with no time for his or her family, for example. The abilities of women are also not often viewed as strengths but as good personal skills. For example, the role of teaching young children has traditionally been occupied by women. Pre-school teachers play a very important role in society and are virtually responsible for teaching children all the social skills that are necessary to function in society. However, their importance is downplayed and their salaries are not at par with their services. This means that female workers face constraints in being