FEMALE GENDER ROLES IN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT AS A COMPONENT OF SOCIAL LIFE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FEMALE GENDER ROLES IN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT AS A COMPONENT OF SOCIAL LIFE

 

EZGİ DİDEM DAĞCI

 

SABANCI UNIVERSITY

 

 

 

 

 

              Throughout the history one of the most important struggle that society has been fighting with is the gender inequality. Women are faced with discrimination which makes them exposed of making decisions and using advantages of social life with respect to the gender based socialization gap. Thus gender roles  can be classified as learned behavior that are affected by the change over time depending on the attitudes, tasks and responsibilities which are perceived as male or female. These gendered social roles are mostly visible in business environment as a component of social life.

According to Tanilli (2006), “The repulsion of women does not depend on women’s physiological environment; it is the reason of history. There is not such a thing as ‘Women Environment’ or ‘eternal women’; history of women (without splitting from general and also men’s history) is a history which evolved slowly by depending on both genders’ equality.” He stated that, “It is impossible to oppose to the women revolution since 19^th and 20^th century.” (p.45)

After the French Revolution, with the 19^th and 20^th century there starts a new evolution age for women rights. The gender equality becomes foregone conclusion however it does not occur in every area homogeneously. Although there seems to be equality between genders, women are still paid less than men in business life and women slavery (which means the housework) does not end.

In the social role theory (Eagly&Diekmann, 2005), the distribution of genders into social roles is given as the basic step.  It is generalized that women mostly deal with tasks related to caring for others, for example homemaker and nurse. Their communal characteristics such as being kind and sensitive are essential properties for these specific roles. Likewise it is also generalized that men mostly deal with tasks related to leadership or power. In this generalization the agentic characteristics of men (such as being independent and competitive) are required.

The entry of women into male dominated roles starts to be important in the mid 20^th century. According to Fullerton (1999), “Women have greatly increased their presence in the paid labor force since 1950, and they are projected to continue this increase.” As a more specific example Tanilli’s (2006) study mentions that, women’s entry into the job of lawyer in France at 1900 was a really big approach for women world . In addition to that Center for American Women and Politics’ research (2005) states, “Women have increased their occupancy of leadership roles within organizations and academia.” The other two researches (Astin, Oseguera, Sax& Korn,2002; Eagly& Karau,2002) illustrates, in contrast to rise of women majors in business, medicine and law since 1965, men’s occupancy of the highest levels of leadership roles have remained stable. Even though, in the very large work areas although most of the things seem equal there is a 12% difference between men’s and women’s income.(Tanilli,2006, p.64).

The large shifts in female gender roles related to agency cannot help women to get rid of their communal characteristics. Bianchi and Robinson’s (2004) study found the following: Women have actually slightly increased their time with children as a primary activity, as revealed by comparison of time use diaries from the mid-1960s through the late 1990s. Men’s time with children has increased over these years, resulting in smaller differences in men’s and women’s hours per day with children, although women’s total time with children remains about twice that of men.

It is still visible that, “Even women’s increased occupancy of paid work roles can contribute to the perception of stability in women’s communion, because women remain concentrated in jobs related to communal characteristics.”(Cejka & Eagly,1999). Related to that it is also known that the workplace where women is most active is certainly the houses ; although majority of the society does not accept housework as a part of business environment. Thus the result of researches (Tanilli, 2006) shows that when men share their lives with women the time that they spend on house works increased from 32% to 35% between the years 1986 and 1999.(p.65)

In conclusion, by depending on the idea “With regard to cross-temporal changes in roles, the clear pattern is change in roles related to agency but stability in roles related to communion, as well as greater role change among women than among men.” (England, Budig, & Folbre, 2002) it can be easily said that womanhood is accepted in justice, labor force and even in the position of employers however there still exists some barriers in front of the femininity that cannot be pass beyond.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

REFERENCES

 

Diekman, A., & Goodfriend, W. (2006). Rolling With The Changes: A Role Congruity.

Fainstein, S., & Servon, L. (2007). On Gender and Planning: Some Things Old,Some Things New. Journal of the American Planning Association .

Tanilli, S. (2006). Ne Olursa Olsun Savaşıyorlar. İstanbul: Alkım Yayınevi.