Most jobs today, whether you're a teacher or running the Office of Homeland Security, require more hours than ever. The stresses are greater and even though we have all of these wonderful devices that free us from being chained to a desk, they make us more available. Many people believe that to fill some of these high-flying jobs you basically need to have no life. Because of this perception, women with children are regularly passed over for promotions for fear that the family time will cut into workplace productivity. This has created a specialized glass-ceiling that stops ambitious women with children from ascending beyond certain levels at work. As such, some now cite an institutional anti-mommy bias. Click on the title above to read more revelations about this concern.
I think that this "anti-mommy bias" is just another intensifying machine of the persistent glass ceiling. However, I also feel that this is not a new trend and has in fact, been present for decades, yet may only now be coming into light in lieu of Sarah Palin's vice presidential canidacy. Now, with my views on Palin aside, I must admit that her situation was highly applicable. Many critics claimed that she couldn't be VP because she had a herd of children at home that needed to be taken care of. Therefore, drawing the conclusion that she wasn't qualified to fulfill the position based on the pretense that she was a mother, not on her inexplicable ability to see russia from her house. I think the reality of the matter is, as the article stated that "caregivers work just as long and hard as everybody else", and probably twice as hard due to their duties at home and in the workplace. However, I also believe that women should stop feeding the fire so to speak. If we expect to escape this hindering double standard, than women have to understand that taking a week off of work because Johnny has a little cough or missing a deadline to go see the school play, is simply unacceptable. In order to be treated fairly in the workplace, caregiving women have to be ready to make sacrifices and additionally cannot expect special treatment because they have children to take care of. In my opinion, a deadline is a deadline, and I couldn't care less if Johnny is going to be on stage as a dancing vegetable this afternoon. However, I don't feel as though women should be judged in a negative manner simply because they have children. I think that raising a child is one of the most difficult jobs in the world, and if a woman can do that, then she should definitely be allowed a shot at one of these "high-flying jobs".
ReplyDeleteIt is no longer just a myth out there that women are under payed and often not given the chance at a job that may be filled by a man. The ideas that America has changed drastically are put to rest because things have not changed. Just like racism, it has improved but not disappeared. The experiments by using fake applicants just proves the discrimination. However I have never really seen the other side to the argument - that women do tend to be more motherly than commited to their job. That is just how many women are born however there are always exceptions. However their tendancy to be nuturing does not mean that it is solely the mother's job to take care of a sick child. Marriages are not like they were in the 50s. Usually both the husband and wife are working citizens. Things are split 50-50. So the responsibilities of taking care of the child are as well.
ReplyDeleteAlso the duties of a job and the duties of a mother are not equivalent. Of course a mother is going to take care of her kid, but when a woman takes a job she knows what she is getting into. She is adding to her responsibilities and that is her decision. If she decides that she can't handle it then she will quit but at least she had the chance and the employer will be back where (s)he was before. Hiring someone is a risk in any case and a male may be in the same situation as a female (a single dad for instance) however having a child should not be a factor in hiring someone or not because that is only one attribute of the person and does not deter their skills for a certain job.