According to a survey conducted by The Women in Law Committee of the State Bar of California there is a subtle but ever present gender bias toward women in the legal profession. They found that 85% of women felt this bias and 2 out of 3 women felt that they were not accepted as equals by their peers. In law firms where there were more females present, there was also a greater feeling of gender fairness. Minority female lawyers felt that they were subjected to bias for both their race and gender and they called it the “double bias.” Only 55% said they would prefer to work with female lawyers and 62% did not believe they had the opportunity for advancement. Women reported experiencing a negative bias very frequently; 76% from opposing counsel, 64% from clients, 48% from superiors and 43% from peers.
Those who could not deal with these biases left the firms; reportedly 35% left for this reason and 38% stayed because they felt it would not be better anywhere else. Making this move, however, maintains the status quo and the road to equality becomes prolonged. Instead, some advice for women about the gender expectations and stereotypes could be to just leave firms that are overtly discriminatory and join one that practices diversified hiring and promoting strategies. Companies that don’t value diversity will learn that their practices are wrong and will realize it when all of the women lawyers have left to join other firms. Also firms that practice the hiring and promoting of women and minorities are often more successful than those that don’t.
http://www.lectlaw.com/files/att06.htm
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Blog 39 Organization Initiatives for a Better Future
There are many organization initiatives that need to occur before work/life can be balanced among men and women. For example moving the fight against gender issues from the individual standpoint to an organizational one can be a great solution and strategy. Sometimes taking initiative on the organizational level is what it takes to create positive change. It can be argued big companies have no interest is promoting equality because there is nothing in it for them but this is incorrect. For example, if a company strives to hire equal amounts of men and women and remove “glass ceiling” practices, this company will be viewed in a positive light for doing the right thing and these are the kinds of companies that have solidarity within the business and gain a reputation for being the best (English, 2003).
Changes at the organizational level also include responsibilities that the workplace has for providing what is best for their employees in order to get the best results. The best example of this is maternity leave. For years it was argues that issues with the home are not issues of the workplace, but now it seems impractical and ridiculous to ignore recurring aspects of the home life that will interfere with work such as pregnancy. It would be the collective effort of the employee and employer to demand and provide healthcare as a way to be a solid team who looks out for each other’s interests, not against each other (English, 2003).
It is also in everyone’s best interest to be honest with each other about their underlying attitudes. This means that if someone has an issue with someone else concerning gender issues, it is best to air it out and openly discuss the problems so they do not happen again or to reach an agreement. Issues with male versus female, dominant versus submissive personalities should not be ignored. If someone works best in their gender stereotype, let it be and visa versa. This includes beliefs about parenting. For example, if a mother wants to put in several hours a week, or very few, that is her choice and the same goes for fathers who choose to stay home and raise their children (English, 2003).
Changes at the organizational level also include responsibilities that the workplace has for providing what is best for their employees in order to get the best results. The best example of this is maternity leave. For years it was argues that issues with the home are not issues of the workplace, but now it seems impractical and ridiculous to ignore recurring aspects of the home life that will interfere with work such as pregnancy. It would be the collective effort of the employee and employer to demand and provide healthcare as a way to be a solid team who looks out for each other’s interests, not against each other (English, 2003).
It is also in everyone’s best interest to be honest with each other about their underlying attitudes. This means that if someone has an issue with someone else concerning gender issues, it is best to air it out and openly discuss the problems so they do not happen again or to reach an agreement. Issues with male versus female, dominant versus submissive personalities should not be ignored. If someone works best in their gender stereotype, let it be and visa versa. This includes beliefs about parenting. For example, if a mother wants to put in several hours a week, or very few, that is her choice and the same goes for fathers who choose to stay home and raise their children (English, 2003).
Blog 38 Constance Baker Motely
Constance Baker Motley wanted to become a lawyer at a young age and although she faced much opposition, she chose to follow her dreams. She went to law school following the Great Depression, with very, very few women in her classes and even less who were minorities. Her graduating class was filled with remarkable women; first woman district attorney, women elected to congress, and a New York Supreme court Judge.
Her significance to the profession of law is that she is a role model for minority women to look up to and follow in her footsteps. One of NPR clips described that more women will climb the ranks of law firms if they have someone to look up to and aspire to. Constance Baker Motely became that woman for the countless females who followed her lead and pursued a career that was not typical, and not very acceptable for a women at the time.
http://library.law.columbia.edu/rise_of_women/judiciary/baker_motley.html
Her significance to the profession of law is that she is a role model for minority women to look up to and follow in her footsteps. One of NPR clips described that more women will climb the ranks of law firms if they have someone to look up to and aspire to. Constance Baker Motely became that woman for the countless females who followed her lead and pursued a career that was not typical, and not very acceptable for a women at the time.
http://library.law.columbia.edu/rise_of_women/judiciary/baker_motley.html
Blog 37
The report, Charting Our Progress, by the American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession, had similar findings and recommendations as English showed in her study Gender on Trial. First of all both studies found that men and women lawyers experience stereotypes about woman lawyers being overly aggressive or overly emotional. As we know this is called the double bind, which English describes the dilemma that women lawyers face in taking on leadership styles than are either too feminine or too masculine and this causes their perceptions to be aggressive or emotional.
Both studies discussed the issues women lawyers face with the competency bias. In the book several clients and opposing attorneys showed overt and subtle discrimination against women who they viewed as too soft or “ill-equipped” to practice law, as The ABA commission states. This chart described to competency biases occurring for not only females but also minority females, who may join the workforce at a disadvantage because they lack “the social and professional contacts needed to develop a client base.”
These works both discussed the difficulties in balancing work and life. The chart discusses the repercussions that lawyers have of being part time worker in order to try to balance their work and family life. In the text these repercussions can be that their coworkers will view them as not committed and that they will feel guilty for not being there 100%. The recommendations that English makes for this issue in particular is to change the expectations of required what is required in order to make a good lawyer. This can be achieved by perhaps allowing for more flexible schedules or reduced hours, across the board. She also recommends that people should be more open to new ideas to step outside of gender roles and stereotypes.
Britton, D. M. (2003). At Waork in the Iron Cage: The Prison as Gendered
Organization . New York and London: The New York University Press.
http://www.abanet.org/women/ChartingOurProgress.pdf
Both studies discussed the issues women lawyers face with the competency bias. In the book several clients and opposing attorneys showed overt and subtle discrimination against women who they viewed as too soft or “ill-equipped” to practice law, as The ABA commission states. This chart described to competency biases occurring for not only females but also minority females, who may join the workforce at a disadvantage because they lack “the social and professional contacts needed to develop a client base.”
These works both discussed the difficulties in balancing work and life. The chart discusses the repercussions that lawyers have of being part time worker in order to try to balance their work and family life. In the text these repercussions can be that their coworkers will view them as not committed and that they will feel guilty for not being there 100%. The recommendations that English makes for this issue in particular is to change the expectations of required what is required in order to make a good lawyer. This can be achieved by perhaps allowing for more flexible schedules or reduced hours, across the board. She also recommends that people should be more open to new ideas to step outside of gender roles and stereotypes.
Britton, D. M. (2003). At Waork in the Iron Cage: The Prison as Gendered
Organization . New York and London: The New York University Press.
http://www.abanet.org/women/ChartingOurProgress.pdf
Blog 35 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
The Equal Opportunity Commission issued a document pertaining to what the best practices should be in regards to the family and work balances. It serves two purposes; the first is to promote anti-discrimination laws in the workplace and the second is to find ways to adapt policies that will help employers exceed the legal minimum requirements. So by promoting anti-discrimination law they are also advocating for new ways to implement these laws in ways that surpass the minimum expectations of what is appropriate and inappropriate.
The EEOC It draws attention to the status of employers as more than workers, but also caregivers. These caregivers can be both female and male and it is important to bring this matter to the forefront because many only think of women as the caregivers. This perception is what creates negative stereotypes and lack of social progress towards equality. The sooner we come to realize that men too are caregivers, the sooner we will be able to find a solution to future problems that will arise in terms of the economic recession.
For example, men who work in industries that are getting hit hard by the recession are the ones losing their jobs. This means that their roles might reverse from breadwinner to caregivers. At the same time this means that the number of women in the workforce will increase. The bottom line is that the overlap between women’s rights and caregivers rights needs to be addressed for the sake of both males and females and the economic stability of this nation.
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/grossman/20090512.html
The EEOC It draws attention to the status of employers as more than workers, but also caregivers. These caregivers can be both female and male and it is important to bring this matter to the forefront because many only think of women as the caregivers. This perception is what creates negative stereotypes and lack of social progress towards equality. The sooner we come to realize that men too are caregivers, the sooner we will be able to find a solution to future problems that will arise in terms of the economic recession.
For example, men who work in industries that are getting hit hard by the recession are the ones losing their jobs. This means that their roles might reverse from breadwinner to caregivers. At the same time this means that the number of women in the workforce will increase. The bottom line is that the overlap between women’s rights and caregivers rights needs to be addressed for the sake of both males and females and the economic stability of this nation.
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/grossman/20090512.html
Blog 34 Unbending Gender and Gender on Trial
Joan Williams’ book title “unbending gender” relates two different trends, the first is that as a nation we have experienced a lot less progress toward gender equality than we had hoped for, and second is that the changes that have been made have not been based on androgyny but on preserving the differences between males and females. Based on this material, there are several parallels to the work/life balances described in Gender on Trial including refusal to work for a firm that is not family orientated and the conflicts that arise with notions of an “ideal worker” and a “part-timer” and the experiences of men.
Williams talks about how women leave the workplace as a form of resistance to a work culture that makes it difficult to raise children. Women lawyers are faced with this issue every day, especially women who are perceived as “suspect mothers” (2003: 230) who have to constantly worried about whether their choice to stay in a firm was the right one. They have to asses if it is worth the hassle of staying with a company that makes it difficult to raise children; shouldn’t they work for an employer who has their best interests at heart? They can choose to opt out like the women who went and started their own firm and rejected the work culture that made it difficult for them to achieve their goals.
Many women don’t see their goal as becoming as “ideal” worker. The term “ideal worker” is used in Williams’ book and is defined as someone who is able to work for 40 years straight and takes no time off for child bearing. This obviously suits men and not women because men can’t have children and don’t need time off unless they fall ill or chose to be stay at home dads which is rare. This is described in the “Real Workers don’t work Part-time” chapter of the Holly English study. Women who are given part time work are considered less competent and less committed that the full timers. Part timers feel underappreciated and guilty for feeling like they don’t contribute enough. The desire to be the ideal worker, as Williams describes it, but the responsibilities of the home are just too great to balance full time in both realms.
Finally, both authors describe how men also feel the strains in trying to balance a work/life balance. In both works, men describe how they feel the pressure of trying to be the breadwinner but also the pressures of trying to be a good father. Many men, according to Williams, think that he sheer time value and other work requirements that an “ideal worker” needs to posses are just too demanding and they would trade off this working time for more time with their family any day.
Britton, D. M. (2003). At Waork in the Iron Cage: The Prison as Gendered
Organization . New York and London: The New York University Press.
Williams, Joan. (2000)Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and What To Do About It. Oxford University Press.
Williams talks about how women leave the workplace as a form of resistance to a work culture that makes it difficult to raise children. Women lawyers are faced with this issue every day, especially women who are perceived as “suspect mothers” (2003: 230) who have to constantly worried about whether their choice to stay in a firm was the right one. They have to asses if it is worth the hassle of staying with a company that makes it difficult to raise children; shouldn’t they work for an employer who has their best interests at heart? They can choose to opt out like the women who went and started their own firm and rejected the work culture that made it difficult for them to achieve their goals.
Many women don’t see their goal as becoming as “ideal” worker. The term “ideal worker” is used in Williams’ book and is defined as someone who is able to work for 40 years straight and takes no time off for child bearing. This obviously suits men and not women because men can’t have children and don’t need time off unless they fall ill or chose to be stay at home dads which is rare. This is described in the “Real Workers don’t work Part-time” chapter of the Holly English study. Women who are given part time work are considered less competent and less committed that the full timers. Part timers feel underappreciated and guilty for feeling like they don’t contribute enough. The desire to be the ideal worker, as Williams describes it, but the responsibilities of the home are just too great to balance full time in both realms.
Finally, both authors describe how men also feel the strains in trying to balance a work/life balance. In both works, men describe how they feel the pressure of trying to be the breadwinner but also the pressures of trying to be a good father. Many men, according to Williams, think that he sheer time value and other work requirements that an “ideal worker” needs to posses are just too demanding and they would trade off this working time for more time with their family any day.
Britton, D. M. (2003). At Waork in the Iron Cage: The Prison as Gendered
Organization . New York and London: The New York University Press.
Williams, Joan. (2000)Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and What To Do About It. Oxford University Press.
Blog 36 Can corporate America lure the women back into the workforce?
There should be more women in top positions…but unfortunately there is not. This matter is discussed in Talk of the Nation concerning whether or not corporations could lure women back into the workforce. Personally, I don’t think that corporate America can lure women back into the top positions in the workforce because women will always put their family before their work, no matter what. Studies show that women experience the values vs. control dilemma, which means that they have to have a balance between their values and the control they have over exercising those values.
So for example if a women has no control over the amount of hours she has to work, she is sacrificing her family which she values more, which is am impediment to her desire to reach a higher position. This is a problem for many women because the top positions usually require being on call and to prioritize the company over their own lives. Corporations do a type of “hazing” to new top executives by over working them in order to asses how committed they are to their company. In fact, America is the most overworked industrialized country in the world; working over 500 hours more per year than in Germany.
No woman who values her family and the control she has over spending time with that family will choose to be in a top position that is so demanding. The only ways that women will be lured into corporate America is that if these women have a strong support system or if the rules of corporate America change. A strong support system, for example can be like having a stay at home dad to take care of the children so the woman can be free to pursue their careers because she can rest assured that her their family is being taken care of. Also, if rules for corporate America change by being less demanding and requiring less working hours per year then women could stay in top positions longer.
http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=5&prgDate=1-27-2004
So for example if a women has no control over the amount of hours she has to work, she is sacrificing her family which she values more, which is am impediment to her desire to reach a higher position. This is a problem for many women because the top positions usually require being on call and to prioritize the company over their own lives. Corporations do a type of “hazing” to new top executives by over working them in order to asses how committed they are to their company. In fact, America is the most overworked industrialized country in the world; working over 500 hours more per year than in Germany.
No woman who values her family and the control she has over spending time with that family will choose to be in a top position that is so demanding. The only ways that women will be lured into corporate America is that if these women have a strong support system or if the rules of corporate America change. A strong support system, for example can be like having a stay at home dad to take care of the children so the woman can be free to pursue their careers because she can rest assured that her their family is being taken care of. Also, if rules for corporate America change by being less demanding and requiring less working hours per year then women could stay in top positions longer.
http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=5&prgDate=1-27-2004
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Blog 33 Advances and Challenges for Women in the Legal Profession
Some of the challenges that women in the legal profession face are falling victim to the wage gap. All women face this challenge because they are making $.78 to every man’s dollar. There are many theories to explain this imbalance; one says that women negotiate less then men when they are offered a salary. In addition to not negotiating, they are also offered a lower starting salary than men. A final reason they make less than men is that they take more time off and are penalized for it. (2)
Advances are that women in the legal profession have made are apparent in the realm of education and starting careers. For example, in the last two decades women have graduated from law schools and started careers at the same rate as men. (1) In fact, currently women are receiving more PhDs than men and there are equal women in the workforce, but not equal numbers in higher levels of management. (2)
This impediment of the glass ceiling has not stopped all women from achieving their goals however. For example, one notable advance that women in the legal profession have made is the creation of the first law firm in New York City owned and run exclusively by women. This is a huge advance because thirty years ago this would have never been possible. Even in our modern times, it was a challenge for them to move up in the company they were at before. This inspired to quit the large firm to create their own because they were fed up with the glass ceiling and wanted to work somewhere with limitless possibilities for advancement. Although they had to sacrifice a higher salary, they say that the being their own boss and having independence is priceless. (3)
1. NOVEMBER 17, 2008 NAWL 2008 National Survey on Retention and Promotion of Women in Law Firms
2. http://www.ny1.com/content/special_reports/womens_history/95645/-em-women-s-history-month--em---closing-in-on-office-gender-gap/Default.aspx
3. http://www.ny1.com/content/special_reports/womens_history/95898/-em-women-s-history-month--em---cracking-the-glass-ceiling-one-client-at-a-time/Default.aspx
Advances are that women in the legal profession have made are apparent in the realm of education and starting careers. For example, in the last two decades women have graduated from law schools and started careers at the same rate as men. (1) In fact, currently women are receiving more PhDs than men and there are equal women in the workforce, but not equal numbers in higher levels of management. (2)
This impediment of the glass ceiling has not stopped all women from achieving their goals however. For example, one notable advance that women in the legal profession have made is the creation of the first law firm in New York City owned and run exclusively by women. This is a huge advance because thirty years ago this would have never been possible. Even in our modern times, it was a challenge for them to move up in the company they were at before. This inspired to quit the large firm to create their own because they were fed up with the glass ceiling and wanted to work somewhere with limitless possibilities for advancement. Although they had to sacrifice a higher salary, they say that the being their own boss and having independence is priceless. (3)
1. NOVEMBER 17, 2008 NAWL 2008 National Survey on Retention and Promotion of Women in Law Firms
2. http://www.ny1.com/content/special_reports/womens_history/95645/-em-women-s-history-month--em---closing-in-on-office-gender-gap/Default.aspx
3. http://www.ny1.com/content/special_reports/womens_history/95898/-em-women-s-history-month--em---cracking-the-glass-ceiling-one-client-at-a-time/Default.aspx
Blog 32 Perceptions of Parenthood for Female vs. Male Lawyers
The perceptions of parenthood for female and male lawyers are changing with newer ways of thinking but still clash with traditional stereotypes. The first generations of women lawyers did not understand how difficult it would be to have their careers and raise their children until they realized that they would not receive help from anyone but themselves. The newer generations were condident that they could could balance both roles because they believed they lived in a world free of sexism, but they experienced a rude awakening. Men have seem the impacts of parethood as well, for they are learning that simply being the breadwinner does not cut it if they want to be good fathers (2003:221). Also they realize that they may lose face if they say they have to go and pick up their kids so they resort to hiding the impacts of their parenthood and just say they have to leave without giving a reason (2003: 250).
For example, some of the ways that traditional values of parenthood affects men vs. female lawyers deponds on their role. One woman is accused of being unprofessional when she announces her pregnancy; as if it was offensive that she could take on the male role of being aggressive and and competetive and also the female role of being a nurturing mother. One father describes his role as stay at home dad and how that is gratifying for him, but at the same time he has to deal with judgment from people at his wifes firm. A woman describes how she took on the role of stay at home working mom, and she could not handle because she felt like she was not getting anything done at home. This role contradicts the traditional values that a mother should posess the maternal instinc of wanting to be home raising her children.
This is experienced by many high powered female lawyers with children who are viewed as bad mothers. The understanding is that the time it takes to be a powerful lawyer is inconsistent with the level of attention that a child needs (2003: 222) so many people judge these womens parenting abilitities. They criticize her skills as a parent but making remarks like their kids must be screwed up instead of prasing her skills at being a great lawyer. To avoid this criticism some moms just downplay their career outside of work in order to maximize her “good mother” role (2003: 231). Or they will do the oppisite and downplay their mother role inside the workplace to avoid judgment that she is not a committed worker (2003: 232).
English, H. (2003). Gender on Trial: Sexual Stereotypes and Work/Life Balance in
the Legal Workplace. New York: ALM Publishing.
For example, some of the ways that traditional values of parenthood affects men vs. female lawyers deponds on their role. One woman is accused of being unprofessional when she announces her pregnancy; as if it was offensive that she could take on the male role of being aggressive and and competetive and also the female role of being a nurturing mother. One father describes his role as stay at home dad and how that is gratifying for him, but at the same time he has to deal with judgment from people at his wifes firm. A woman describes how she took on the role of stay at home working mom, and she could not handle because she felt like she was not getting anything done at home. This role contradicts the traditional values that a mother should posess the maternal instinc of wanting to be home raising her children.
This is experienced by many high powered female lawyers with children who are viewed as bad mothers. The understanding is that the time it takes to be a powerful lawyer is inconsistent with the level of attention that a child needs (2003: 222) so many people judge these womens parenting abilitities. They criticize her skills as a parent but making remarks like their kids must be screwed up instead of prasing her skills at being a great lawyer. To avoid this criticism some moms just downplay their career outside of work in order to maximize her “good mother” role (2003: 231). Or they will do the oppisite and downplay their mother role inside the workplace to avoid judgment that she is not a committed worker (2003: 232).
English, H. (2003). Gender on Trial: Sexual Stereotypes and Work/Life Balance in
the Legal Workplace. New York: ALM Publishing.
Blog 31 Problems and Solutions of Work/Family Balance in the Legal Profession
The difficulty of achieving a family/work balance in the legal profession was much discussed in the text. For women lawyers, it is difficult to continue to work at the competitive level once they become mothers because the roles of successful lawyer and successful parent each require a tremendous amount of time and energy. To solve this problem, parent could chose more flexible work schedules, reduced hours or telecommuting but these resulted in all new problems. Lawyers who decided to become part-timers were not considered “real” lawyers and they often they would get assigned less responsibility because they were seen as less committed (2003: 195).
Strong commitment is necessary when lawyers are expected to bill over 1,000 and sometimes over 2,000 hours a year. Because of such a high work demand, both women and men are requesting reduced hours and more flexible schedules to have time to do something other than their work like spend time with their families. These requests are usually denied because of financial objections that reduce hours will lead to reduced productivity and thus the loss of revenue. This however is untrue because it is more cost effective to give a female lawyer a part-time schedule for a few months during her pregnancy and appoint her back to full time later, than to hire a new person all together during this time because of the cost of training and forking out a whole new salary (2003: 199).
In this workaholic profession it will be difficult to find a solution to the work/family balance from within a system that has long established. Instead some solutions to these problems could simply come from the lawyers themselves in changing their perceptions of coworkers who choose to go part-time. They can just learn to find empathy or common ground for each other regardless of sex because when it comes down to it these issues affects all of them. This will create a sense of respect towards those who decide to go part-time who feel they are not appreciated. Also this will reduced the feeling of guilt that part-timers feel for not being as committed as their peers (2003: 216).
English, H. (2003). Gender on Trial: Sexual Stereotypes and Work/Life Balance in
the Legal Workplace. New York: ALM Publishing.
Strong commitment is necessary when lawyers are expected to bill over 1,000 and sometimes over 2,000 hours a year. Because of such a high work demand, both women and men are requesting reduced hours and more flexible schedules to have time to do something other than their work like spend time with their families. These requests are usually denied because of financial objections that reduce hours will lead to reduced productivity and thus the loss of revenue. This however is untrue because it is more cost effective to give a female lawyer a part-time schedule for a few months during her pregnancy and appoint her back to full time later, than to hire a new person all together during this time because of the cost of training and forking out a whole new salary (2003: 199).
In this workaholic profession it will be difficult to find a solution to the work/family balance from within a system that has long established. Instead some solutions to these problems could simply come from the lawyers themselves in changing their perceptions of coworkers who choose to go part-time. They can just learn to find empathy or common ground for each other regardless of sex because when it comes down to it these issues affects all of them. This will create a sense of respect towards those who decide to go part-time who feel they are not appreciated. Also this will reduced the feeling of guilt that part-timers feel for not being as committed as their peers (2003: 216).
English, H. (2003). Gender on Trial: Sexual Stereotypes and Work/Life Balance in
the Legal Workplace. New York: ALM Publishing.
Blog 30 Leadership Styles
Conventional views about leadership styles disadvantage women and advantage men because they are based on gender stereotypes. In the text, feminine qualities like being nurturing, kind and supportive create a double-bind for women in leadership positions. If she takes on the feminine leadership style she will be viewed as too soft of overly emotional which is a disadvantage. Male qualities are an advantage to them because they are consistent with the traits that an authoritative figure must poses (2003: 116) which include aggressiveness and competitiveness. This is where the double-bind comes into play because if women chose to take on the male conventional leadership style instead of the female style, she will be viewed as aggressive, rigid and unfriendly.
The conventional views about leadership styles inevitably frame expectations for leadership behavior. For example, in the text if a man in a leadership position has a laid back style and a friendly manner, he is perceived as “not the sharpest tool in the shed” (2003:115). Whereas if a woman only socializes with certain people, and not with everyone equally as it is expected of them, she is seen as conniving and manipulative. According to Madeleine Albright on the NPR clip Policy, Sexism and Politics, this is exactly what happened after she was sworn in as the first woman to be U.S. secretary of state. Her leadership style was always scrutinized especially when it corresponded with the expectations of the male leadership style. For example, her behavior would be judged differently than her male counterparts when they would act the exact same way; she be seen as aggressive where a man would be bold, she would be emotional and a man where a man would be sensitive.
How these expectations are framed relate to stereotypes in several ways. According to Deborah Rohde from the Does Gender Matter: Are Women Leaders Different video if a man leaves a meeting early to pick up the kids he is hailed as a new kind of parent and an amazing dad. On the other hand if a woman says she is leaving to pick up her child she is seen as unprofessional and disloyal to the company. This happens because people remember things that confirm their gender stereotypes but not the things that contradict their perceptions. So they will remember when a woman leaves early but will forget how she often stays late.
A negative outcome of possessing female and male leadership qualities can be that people won’t take you seriously as a leader, especially for women. Sometimes women are judged on their leadership qualities before they get to exercise them like with Sonia Sotomayer and other female politicians. For example, a panelist from the Women as Leaders video clip described her experience when trying to running for office at her local city counsel. She went door to door and experienced the negative perceptions that people have about women in leadership. She mentions knocking on the door of one woman who said, “I’ve been praying for you but I’m not voting for you” because of her personal choice in keeping her last name. This woman thought she would make a bad leader she was going to hell because she kept her last name instead of cherishing her husbands. She experienced much apprehension and even overt discriminating though hate mail for being a Mexican American woman.
I prefer shared leadership styles as described in Shared Leadership: The Value Women Leaders Bring, because it creates positive outcomes. First of all shared leadership makes a positive difference in production and performance. For example, the companies that have more women in management and more women on the board return 34% more in profits than the companies that don’t have many women in the company. Their presence leads to increase performances because they provide personal experiences that contribute to the management people, the development teams and the creation relationships and partnerships. All of these attributes combine with male leadership styles to create a more cohesive and successful work environment.
English, H. (2003). Gender on Trial: Sexual Stereotypes and Work/Life Balance in
the Legal Workplace. New York: ALM Publishing.
The conventional views about leadership styles inevitably frame expectations for leadership behavior. For example, in the text if a man in a leadership position has a laid back style and a friendly manner, he is perceived as “not the sharpest tool in the shed” (2003:115). Whereas if a woman only socializes with certain people, and not with everyone equally as it is expected of them, she is seen as conniving and manipulative. According to Madeleine Albright on the NPR clip Policy, Sexism and Politics, this is exactly what happened after she was sworn in as the first woman to be U.S. secretary of state. Her leadership style was always scrutinized especially when it corresponded with the expectations of the male leadership style. For example, her behavior would be judged differently than her male counterparts when they would act the exact same way; she be seen as aggressive where a man would be bold, she would be emotional and a man where a man would be sensitive.
How these expectations are framed relate to stereotypes in several ways. According to Deborah Rohde from the Does Gender Matter: Are Women Leaders Different video if a man leaves a meeting early to pick up the kids he is hailed as a new kind of parent and an amazing dad. On the other hand if a woman says she is leaving to pick up her child she is seen as unprofessional and disloyal to the company. This happens because people remember things that confirm their gender stereotypes but not the things that contradict their perceptions. So they will remember when a woman leaves early but will forget how she often stays late.
A negative outcome of possessing female and male leadership qualities can be that people won’t take you seriously as a leader, especially for women. Sometimes women are judged on their leadership qualities before they get to exercise them like with Sonia Sotomayer and other female politicians. For example, a panelist from the Women as Leaders video clip described her experience when trying to running for office at her local city counsel. She went door to door and experienced the negative perceptions that people have about women in leadership. She mentions knocking on the door of one woman who said, “I’ve been praying for you but I’m not voting for you” because of her personal choice in keeping her last name. This woman thought she would make a bad leader she was going to hell because she kept her last name instead of cherishing her husbands. She experienced much apprehension and even overt discriminating though hate mail for being a Mexican American woman.
I prefer shared leadership styles as described in Shared Leadership: The Value Women Leaders Bring, because it creates positive outcomes. First of all shared leadership makes a positive difference in production and performance. For example, the companies that have more women in management and more women on the board return 34% more in profits than the companies that don’t have many women in the company. Their presence leads to increase performances because they provide personal experiences that contribute to the management people, the development teams and the creation relationships and partnerships. All of these attributes combine with male leadership styles to create a more cohesive and successful work environment.
English, H. (2003). Gender on Trial: Sexual Stereotypes and Work/Life Balance in
the Legal Workplace. New York: ALM Publishing.
Blog 29 Minority Women in Law: Dealing with Harassment
Minority women who work in law firms must deal with the double identity jeopardy’s of race and gender which make it hard for many to stay with law firms. In fact, it was mentioned in the NPR video All Things Considered, August 3, 2006, that only 4% of law firm partners are minorities, and even less are women. One senior female partner explained that these young women react this way because in college and law school they were treated as equals, “They came up in an environment where they never had to put up with that crap. Now they are in that situation with a client of senior lawyer, and they’ve lost their bearings” (2003: 56). Many women just believe that it is not worth it to stick it while putting up with underlying and overt harassment in the workplace.
This creates a lack of influential leaders available for other minority women to follow in their footsteps. According to Shared Leadership: The Value Women Leaders Bring, when women first started flooding the workforce they believed if they acquired enough positions at the bottom they would eventually make it to the top but this has not happened. According to Deborah Rohde from the Does Gender Matter: Are Women Leaders Different video, this is due to the fact that those at the top will hire people who are like them, which results in white males hiring more white males. With this disadvantage in advancing in a company, along with harassment revealed by colleagues and also by clients and opposing attorneys, make it even more difficult for minority women tolerate for very long.
A woman described in English’s study (2003: 87) said that she had to give a deposition to one of her male counterparts because the opposing attorney’s underlying harassment was downright nasty and she would not put up with it. A black woman in the NPR clip mentioned having to deal with more overt harassment when she was asked to sit in at a meeting with a company that was ending its relationship with the firm because the firm did not employ enough minorities. They were parading her gender and race around to prove they were “diverse”, but under no other circumstances was she ever invited to sit in at other meetings. In order to create work environments that are in fact diverse and non-threatening to minorities and females, it is going to take resistance from within the firms and also from outside firms to demand equal rights and equal treatment.
English, H. (2003). Gender on Trial: Sexual Stereotypes and Work/Life Balance in
the Legal Workplace. New York: ALM Publishing.
This creates a lack of influential leaders available for other minority women to follow in their footsteps. According to Shared Leadership: The Value Women Leaders Bring, when women first started flooding the workforce they believed if they acquired enough positions at the bottom they would eventually make it to the top but this has not happened. According to Deborah Rohde from the Does Gender Matter: Are Women Leaders Different video, this is due to the fact that those at the top will hire people who are like them, which results in white males hiring more white males. With this disadvantage in advancing in a company, along with harassment revealed by colleagues and also by clients and opposing attorneys, make it even more difficult for minority women tolerate for very long.
A woman described in English’s study (2003: 87) said that she had to give a deposition to one of her male counterparts because the opposing attorney’s underlying harassment was downright nasty and she would not put up with it. A black woman in the NPR clip mentioned having to deal with more overt harassment when she was asked to sit in at a meeting with a company that was ending its relationship with the firm because the firm did not employ enough minorities. They were parading her gender and race around to prove they were “diverse”, but under no other circumstances was she ever invited to sit in at other meetings. In order to create work environments that are in fact diverse and non-threatening to minorities and females, it is going to take resistance from within the firms and also from outside firms to demand equal rights and equal treatment.
English, H. (2003). Gender on Trial: Sexual Stereotypes and Work/Life Balance in
the Legal Workplace. New York: ALM Publishing.
Blog 28 Sonia Sotomayer: The Facts and the Fiction
Why is it that a mans behavior is never scrutinized while women’s behavior is always under the microscope? This paradox has been true for men and women since the first equal rights amendments were passes. Currently, women in the political arena deal with this almost to a greater degree because they work in a higher gendered environment. A perfect example is Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayer, whose nomination was highly questioned based on her behaviors and how they were inconsistent with male behavior, according to a Media Matters article
After her nomination her intelligence was questioned and debated on newspapers nationwide and became common practice. If a man would have been nominated, these types of insidious remarks about intelligence would have been unacceptable. For example, one journalist went out of his way to portray her in a negative light, which is not uncommon for a journalist, but refused to correct the facts after they were proved to be completely erroneous. The source, whose quote about Sotomayer’s intelligence was published in a slanderous manner, came forth and said that that he thought of her as actually quite smart. The newspaper never bothered to make the correction and the source never made a public statement about it. This caused other newspapers to follow suit and continue bashing on her intelligence based on the defamations on one article.
Her “temperament” was also debated because it was reported that she was a spit-fire who demanded lawyers to be on top of their fame and asked irrelevant questions to make sure they were listening. If these characteristics described a male’s behavior, his temperament would never be discussed. In fact he would be hailed at being a fair and dutiful judged with only the best interest it heart. Her behavior in regards to laziness was also discussed which could be a more racist stereotype about her Latina heritage but also an insult to her years of hard work, both graduating at the top of her class at Princeton and her hard work at climbing the ranks of the judicial latter.
http://mediamatters.org/columns/200905080032
After her nomination her intelligence was questioned and debated on newspapers nationwide and became common practice. If a man would have been nominated, these types of insidious remarks about intelligence would have been unacceptable. For example, one journalist went out of his way to portray her in a negative light, which is not uncommon for a journalist, but refused to correct the facts after they were proved to be completely erroneous. The source, whose quote about Sotomayer’s intelligence was published in a slanderous manner, came forth and said that that he thought of her as actually quite smart. The newspaper never bothered to make the correction and the source never made a public statement about it. This caused other newspapers to follow suit and continue bashing on her intelligence based on the defamations on one article.
Her “temperament” was also debated because it was reported that she was a spit-fire who demanded lawyers to be on top of their fame and asked irrelevant questions to make sure they were listening. If these characteristics described a male’s behavior, his temperament would never be discussed. In fact he would be hailed at being a fair and dutiful judged with only the best interest it heart. Her behavior in regards to laziness was also discussed which could be a more racist stereotype about her Latina heritage but also an insult to her years of hard work, both graduating at the top of her class at Princeton and her hard work at climbing the ranks of the judicial latter.
http://mediamatters.org/columns/200905080032
Blog 27 The Competancy Gap
According to Gender on Trial, The competency gap still remains between male and female lawyers; Mary B Cranston, CEO and Chair of Pillsbury Winthrop in San Francisco states, “Women have to be objectively better to be perceived as equal” (2003: 77). The gap also accounts for how women are treated, 70% of women stated that the feel they are treated condescendingly by their male colleges (2003:77). Women sense that thehttp://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=2652550032560350388&postID=4491746401813259051ir presence is less threatening and less important than males. This false stereotype will prevail until lawyers, male and female, decide to take a stand against sexism now rather than wait for the older generation to retire who are perceived to be the ones to blame.
Thee consequences that women face because of the competency gap can range from underestimation from peers to demotion. This is what happened to a high ranking female executive Maureen Shaffer who was expecting to be promoted but was demoted instead. Apparently all the men of the council decided that she should be taken out of the general council role and replaced. They said it was “based on her merits” but her record was good for over 10 years. She believes that any GE executives don’t want to see women in executive positions so she filed a class action suit on behalf of 1,500 female employees in the company who witnessed events like this all across the country in the executive ranks. GE says they work hard to promote and encourage diversity, but they are doing the opposite.
When males attempt to win a case against women lawyers they assume they have the upper hand and they believe that they will easily triumph over her. This is a consequence of the stereotype that women are less competent than men. Women see this as a weapon in the arsenal of their femaleness because it actually gives them the upper had in the court room. When male lawyers show up with their guard down, the women “deliver a punch” (pg 82) because they show up with their guard up and fully prepared to counter anything the man has in store for them.
English, H. (2003). Gender on Trial: Sexual Stereotypes and Work/Life Balance in
the Legal Workplace. New York: ALM Publishing.
Thee consequences that women face because of the competency gap can range from underestimation from peers to demotion. This is what happened to a high ranking female executive Maureen Shaffer who was expecting to be promoted but was demoted instead. Apparently all the men of the council decided that she should be taken out of the general council role and replaced. They said it was “based on her merits” but her record was good for over 10 years. She believes that any GE executives don’t want to see women in executive positions so she filed a class action suit on behalf of 1,500 female employees in the company who witnessed events like this all across the country in the executive ranks. GE says they work hard to promote and encourage diversity, but they are doing the opposite.
When males attempt to win a case against women lawyers they assume they have the upper hand and they believe that they will easily triumph over her. This is a consequence of the stereotype that women are less competent than men. Women see this as a weapon in the arsenal of their femaleness because it actually gives them the upper had in the court room. When male lawyers show up with their guard down, the women “deliver a punch” (pg 82) because they show up with their guard up and fully prepared to counter anything the man has in store for them.
English, H. (2003). Gender on Trial: Sexual Stereotypes and Work/Life Balance in
the Legal Workplace. New York: ALM Publishing.
Blog 26 Male Roles in Assisting Women in Gendered Organizations
Men play various roles in assisting women lawyers. They can play the role of emphasizing and endorsing legal advice to clients who seem to not be listening to female lawyers. Male lawyers with female partners may be responsible for reassuring them that their female counterpart is just as educated and experienced as him. Other times men may have to step in and take depositions when the opposing attorney is being overly aggressive and obnoxious towards the female.
According to Britton, the theory of gendered organizations states, “we should see organizations not as neutral organisms infected by the germs of workers’ gender (and sexuality and race and class) identities but as sites in which these attributes are present in preexisting assumptions and constructed through ongoing practice” (2003: 3). The previous examples show that the workplace is not gender neutral Men are relieved of their responsibilities of their biases if they say that they see women and equally capable, even when clients and jury’s do not. Gender biased practices will prevail as long as they are disregarded, overlooked and made acceptable if females continue to turn to the males to swoop in and save them.
Gendered organizations in the legal setting exist because traditionally females were not allowed to practice law. For example, the author’s mother was one of only two females in a class of 83 students to graduate from Boston Law School in 1963. During this time the few women who practiced law were known as pioneers. Over the decades more and more women have attended law school and graduated to practice law, but there is still a significant gender gap. According to English, at this time men make up 70% of practicing lawyers placing women in the clear minority (2003: 4).
Britton, D. M. (2003). At Waork in the Iron Cage: The Prison as Gendered
Organization . New York and London: The New York University Press.
English, H. (2003). Gender on Trial: Sexual Stereotypes and Work/Life Balance in
the Legal Workplace. New York: ALM Publishing.
According to Britton, the theory of gendered organizations states, “we should see organizations not as neutral organisms infected by the germs of workers’ gender (and sexuality and race and class) identities but as sites in which these attributes are present in preexisting assumptions and constructed through ongoing practice” (2003: 3). The previous examples show that the workplace is not gender neutral Men are relieved of their responsibilities of their biases if they say that they see women and equally capable, even when clients and jury’s do not. Gender biased practices will prevail as long as they are disregarded, overlooked and made acceptable if females continue to turn to the males to swoop in and save them.
Gendered organizations in the legal setting exist because traditionally females were not allowed to practice law. For example, the author’s mother was one of only two females in a class of 83 students to graduate from Boston Law School in 1963. During this time the few women who practiced law were known as pioneers. Over the decades more and more women have attended law school and graduated to practice law, but there is still a significant gender gap. According to English, at this time men make up 70% of practicing lawyers placing women in the clear minority (2003: 4).
Britton, D. M. (2003). At Waork in the Iron Cage: The Prison as Gendered
Organization . New York and London: The New York University Press.
English, H. (2003). Gender on Trial: Sexual Stereotypes and Work/Life Balance in
the Legal Workplace. New York: ALM Publishing.
Blog 25 Sexualized Behavior as "A Weapon in the Arsenal"
A woman having a “weapon in the arsenal” means she uses her femaleness to her benefit, especially sexualized behavior. For example, according to Gender on Trial, one attorney describes how she would wear short skirts with certain judges when she wanted a big favor. Along these same lines, another woman says that if, “Juror number 6 is looking at me…I’m going to lift up my skirt a little” (2003: 43). They dress this way not to attract these judges or jurors, but to attain a goal like closing a deal or getting a favorable ruling and at the same time portray a look of confidence and professionalism. In the media, the character of Eric Brockovich is a perfect example of how sexualized behavior can be advantageous. As a legal assistant she uses her sex appeal, among other things, to uncover the truth behind the hazardous effects of a polluting industry.
At the same time, it is important to understand that it takes more than a short skirt to get ahead. Using sexualized behavior as weapon towards career advancement is a major con for women in the workplace. According to Holly English, not only is it ineffective in the long run, but it also legitimizes stereotypes of women as sexual objects and not professional employees (2003: 41). Sexualized behavior has the same negative effect for minorities, especially Black males, who may have to work harder than their white counterparts to portray a cloak of competence.
Keeping boundaries between what is appropriate sexual behavior and what is inappropriate is the best way to avoid problems. For example, wives of lawyers may feel threatened by the sexualized presence of female lawyers to avoid any “ugly” rumors it is important to avoiding situations where members of the opposite sex are alone for too long. These boundaries can also serve as a method of preventing any claims of sexual harassment, which are now seen as serious allegation with severe consequences.
English, H. (2003). Gender on Trial: Sexual Stereotypes and Work/Life Balance in
the Legal Workplace. New York: ALM Publishing.
At the same time, it is important to understand that it takes more than a short skirt to get ahead. Using sexualized behavior as weapon towards career advancement is a major con for women in the workplace. According to Holly English, not only is it ineffective in the long run, but it also legitimizes stereotypes of women as sexual objects and not professional employees (2003: 41). Sexualized behavior has the same negative effect for minorities, especially Black males, who may have to work harder than their white counterparts to portray a cloak of competence.
Keeping boundaries between what is appropriate sexual behavior and what is inappropriate is the best way to avoid problems. For example, wives of lawyers may feel threatened by the sexualized presence of female lawyers to avoid any “ugly” rumors it is important to avoiding situations where members of the opposite sex are alone for too long. These boundaries can also serve as a method of preventing any claims of sexual harassment, which are now seen as serious allegation with severe consequences.
English, H. (2003). Gender on Trial: Sexual Stereotypes and Work/Life Balance in
the Legal Workplace. New York: ALM Publishing.
Blog 23 Politics of Fashion for Women Lawyers
According to the NPR clip called The Fashion Laws of Politics:Obama-style, Clothing and style can act as an important political weapon. Clothing creates the image of a charismatic figure or whatever the appropriate emotional and psychological messages may be. Michelle Obama sends a message of her own through her style. It is progressive and modern for Capitol Hill because she shows of her curves and which sets her apart. In fact, Jacqueline Kennedy was the last first lady to wear dresses until Michelle. Her implied message is that she is neither, “subversive or threatening”.
The appropriateness of how politicians dress is crucial to sending the right message because our culture sees some styles as a statement about who you are and it sets you apart like dreadlocks or afros for example. This is why making the right statement is so important for both politicians and lawyers. For example, Lawyers need to be concerned about the details of their appearance because there is a stereotype that women lawyers who dress in an attractive manner seem frivolous or incompetent. These are both undesirable traits to find in someone who is supposed to be intelligent and professional.
They, like politicians, can alter their style create the appropriate emotional or psychological message. One male lawyer describes how he wears his three piece suit when he wants to seem intimidating and powerful and give the impression that he will be a shark in the courtroom. At other times he may want to wear casual khakis and a buttoned up shirt to seem like his clients buddy in construction litigation. It all depends on the audience and the message that is going to be told through the politics of fashion (English, 2003).
English, H. (2003). Gender on Trial: Sexual Stereotypes and Work/Life Balance in
the Legal Workplace. New York: ALM Publishing.
The appropriateness of how politicians dress is crucial to sending the right message because our culture sees some styles as a statement about who you are and it sets you apart like dreadlocks or afros for example. This is why making the right statement is so important for both politicians and lawyers. For example, Lawyers need to be concerned about the details of their appearance because there is a stereotype that women lawyers who dress in an attractive manner seem frivolous or incompetent. These are both undesirable traits to find in someone who is supposed to be intelligent and professional.
They, like politicians, can alter their style create the appropriate emotional or psychological message. One male lawyer describes how he wears his three piece suit when he wants to seem intimidating and powerful and give the impression that he will be a shark in the courtroom. At other times he may want to wear casual khakis and a buttoned up shirt to seem like his clients buddy in construction litigation. It all depends on the audience and the message that is going to be told through the politics of fashion (English, 2003).
English, H. (2003). Gender on Trial: Sexual Stereotypes and Work/Life Balance in
the Legal Workplace. New York: ALM Publishing.
Blog 22 Gender expectations and Stereotypes
Gender expectations and stereotypes exist in every profession and even more so in traditionally male work environments. None have been more traditionally male than the Supreme Court; in over two centuries only three women have been appointed to the Justice position. (1) Sonia Sotomayor was the third female and first Latina to ever be appointed to Supreme Court justice. Her nomination raised questions about how the stereotypical expectations of gender and race would come into play. First of all a deep gender bias exists in Court System of the United States because it disputed that a woman’s gender will make a difference in judging, and of course it does. However, Fred Strebeigh argues in his book, Equal: Women Reshape American Law, that Sotomayor is willing to address this issue directly and her response will be an indicator of her truthfulness and accuracy as a judge. (2)
Her race was also used to evaluate her qualifications to be a Supreme Court judge. After republicans and democrats voted to determine her appointment, it was revealed that she got all but 9 of the republican votes. With her nomination coming from a democratic president and a democratic majority in the house, it seems almost anti-Hispanic for republicans to vote against a sure bet. The republicans quickly attested that they voted against her not because of her race, but because they believed she would judge from an overly liberal standpoint. This stemmed from the stereotype that Latinos usually vote for the Democratic Party i.e. liberal party. When Sotomayer got wind of this she was outraged because she believes that, “Stereotyping is perhaps the most insidious of all problems in our society today.” (3)
Finally, it was argued by many that because she would use her position to make law instead of interpret it, especially in regards to affirmative action. This argument started after it was reported that her full ride to Yale was based on affirmative action practices. The same was said about her nomination; that President Obama was looking for a female to fill David Souter’s position and that having a Hispanic female fill this role was like a double whammy. This is such an insult to all women and Latinos’ because it implies that a person who falls under these categories cannot succeed without affirmative action. (4)
1. http://womensissues.about.com/od/genderwarriors/a/HistoryWomenSCOTUS.htm
2. http://www.usnews.com/articles/opinion/2009/06/05/the-supreme-court-is-short-on-women-and-sotomayors-a-good-start.html?PageNr=2
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonia_Sotomayor
4. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124334029177454217.html
Her race was also used to evaluate her qualifications to be a Supreme Court judge. After republicans and democrats voted to determine her appointment, it was revealed that she got all but 9 of the republican votes. With her nomination coming from a democratic president and a democratic majority in the house, it seems almost anti-Hispanic for republicans to vote against a sure bet. The republicans quickly attested that they voted against her not because of her race, but because they believed she would judge from an overly liberal standpoint. This stemmed from the stereotype that Latinos usually vote for the Democratic Party i.e. liberal party. When Sotomayer got wind of this she was outraged because she believes that, “Stereotyping is perhaps the most insidious of all problems in our society today.” (3)
Finally, it was argued by many that because she would use her position to make law instead of interpret it, especially in regards to affirmative action. This argument started after it was reported that her full ride to Yale was based on affirmative action practices. The same was said about her nomination; that President Obama was looking for a female to fill David Souter’s position and that having a Hispanic female fill this role was like a double whammy. This is such an insult to all women and Latinos’ because it implies that a person who falls under these categories cannot succeed without affirmative action. (4)
1. http://womensissues.about.com/od/genderwarriors/a/HistoryWomenSCOTUS.htm
2. http://www.usnews.com/articles/opinion/2009/06/05/the-supreme-court-is-short-on-women-and-sotomayors-a-good-start.html?PageNr=2
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonia_Sotomayor
4. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124334029177454217.html
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Blog 21
The mission of the National Association for Female Correctional Officers is to improve working conditions in prisons, jails and correctional facilities by eliminating sexual assault and harassment. They hope to address these significant issues though their federal legislative agenda that would be called “The Rape and Assault of Female Correctional Officers Elimination Act of 2008”. While it is critical for these issues to be addressed, Britton focused more on eliminating gendered organizations over eliminating sexual assault and rape.
Sexual assault was discussed in the text in terms of open masturbation towards female officers. Some women have to deal with this harassment daily and found different strategies to prevent it. One woman states that standing up for themselves by humiliating and embarrassing them made them stop. Women who don’t have the nerve to confront perpetrators would just wrote them up but this was a poor deterrent because they continued to do so...so perhaps having a legal act could benefit all the women? I think we can rest assured.
Britton’s recommendations aim to eliminate or reduce gendered organizations and not rape and sexual harassment. However the implementation of gender-neutral society could prove as highly beneficial to reduce the amount rape and sexual assault that goes on. If gender stereotypes are dismantled from the core, and everyone could get a fair chance at getting a decent, well-paying job. There would be less people getting caught for committing crimes to get money thus less people in jail masturbating in front of women.
Sexual assault was discussed in the text in terms of open masturbation towards female officers. Some women have to deal with this harassment daily and found different strategies to prevent it. One woman states that standing up for themselves by humiliating and embarrassing them made them stop. Women who don’t have the nerve to confront perpetrators would just wrote them up but this was a poor deterrent because they continued to do so...so perhaps having a legal act could benefit all the women? I think we can rest assured.
Britton’s recommendations aim to eliminate or reduce gendered organizations and not rape and sexual harassment. However the implementation of gender-neutral society could prove as highly beneficial to reduce the amount rape and sexual assault that goes on. If gender stereotypes are dismantled from the core, and everyone could get a fair chance at getting a decent, well-paying job. There would be less people getting caught for committing crimes to get money thus less people in jail masturbating in front of women.
Blog 20
Whoever wrote the article for The Phoenix Magazine coverage of the hostage crisis in the Lewis Prison was in desperate need of a visit with the editor. My initial critique of this is piece of writing was its lack of fluidity, proper conventions and an overall logic in progression of events. I’m not suggesting by any means that I am a writer worthy of bestowing such criticism; I just expect a certain level of quality. I felt the hostage situation was not described with sufficient detail. The Inside Tower document did an excellent job of describing the facts in an engaging way. Aside from lack of attention to detail, there was too much emphasis on Dora Schiro’s character. Her character, however, does reflect the conditions of female identity described in Britton’s study.
Schiro was described as possessing traits which were either too feminine or too masculine to properly lead the Arizona prison system. The author uses words like “too soft” and “unflinching ramrod” to describe her style of management. Women in positions of power must walk a thin line to stay in between these extremes. Her struggle to remain in the center of these extremes reflects the prison system in terms of the gendered conditions of women in non-traditional jobs.
The hostage situation in Arizona reflects the discussion of “keepers” and “turnkeys” because the Arizona prison system was established on these principles until Schiro came in to make some serious changes. The notion of keepers and turnkeys comes from the “lock them up and throw away they key” ideal. The first prisons were governed from a standpoint that prisoners needed to be locked up and forgotten, sometimes without the privilege of bread and water. When Schiro stepped in to facilitate Arizona’s ruined corrections system, she saw a similar trend in regards to the lack of educational, recreational and vocational activities.
The officers in the article and the officers in the text experienced problems in terms of training and working conditions. While the hostages in the text faced an indescribably horrible situation that does not compare to the situations that officers in the text faced, they both could have benefited from adequate training. Had the officers in the Lewis Prison been properly trained on how to handle hostage situations, maybe they could have diffused the situation quicker. The officers in the text could have benefited from proper training on working in female prisons especially dealing with emotional versus violent inmates.
Prisons are total institutions because people live the course of their lives here, for a period of time. Total institutions are like small societies within themselves where every aspect of an inmate’s life is monitored and supervised by correctional officers. This mini-society setting makes it easy to identify the gendering process which is why the author conducted her research in prisons. Other examples of total institutions include nursing homes and the military.
The prison officer is an engendered occupation because of the intersection of these elements; the structures of prison organizations, cultural and ideological assumptions of workers themselves, coworkers, administrators and managers. The structure of prison organizations is founded on a gendered belief that males are natural protectors and should be in charge of detaining society’s worst scum. In conjunction with this view, women are viewed as having no place in such a violent place. The cultural and ideological assumptions that their alleged nurturing and passive feminine identities would put themselves in danger also makes a prison guard a gendered occupation. Finally, workers themselves can choose to follow these structures and ideologies to conform to ideals of gendered occupations which keeps them alive…or they could reject these beliefs and change entire social structures and personal belief systems.
Some of Britton’s recommendations for change include lessening the effects of the connections between gender and inequality, encouraging positive portrayals of prison life and engaging in telling stories real-life women. These recommendations for change are geared towards changing the minds of a white, popular imagination could possibly be useful for avoiding a hostage take-over. If all these recommendations would have been implemented 100 years ago, the life of an inmate would be much improved and there would be no need to escape with forceful violence.
Schiro was described as possessing traits which were either too feminine or too masculine to properly lead the Arizona prison system. The author uses words like “too soft” and “unflinching ramrod” to describe her style of management. Women in positions of power must walk a thin line to stay in between these extremes. Her struggle to remain in the center of these extremes reflects the prison system in terms of the gendered conditions of women in non-traditional jobs.
The hostage situation in Arizona reflects the discussion of “keepers” and “turnkeys” because the Arizona prison system was established on these principles until Schiro came in to make some serious changes. The notion of keepers and turnkeys comes from the “lock them up and throw away they key” ideal. The first prisons were governed from a standpoint that prisoners needed to be locked up and forgotten, sometimes without the privilege of bread and water. When Schiro stepped in to facilitate Arizona’s ruined corrections system, she saw a similar trend in regards to the lack of educational, recreational and vocational activities.
The officers in the article and the officers in the text experienced problems in terms of training and working conditions. While the hostages in the text faced an indescribably horrible situation that does not compare to the situations that officers in the text faced, they both could have benefited from adequate training. Had the officers in the Lewis Prison been properly trained on how to handle hostage situations, maybe they could have diffused the situation quicker. The officers in the text could have benefited from proper training on working in female prisons especially dealing with emotional versus violent inmates.
Prisons are total institutions because people live the course of their lives here, for a period of time. Total institutions are like small societies within themselves where every aspect of an inmate’s life is monitored and supervised by correctional officers. This mini-society setting makes it easy to identify the gendering process which is why the author conducted her research in prisons. Other examples of total institutions include nursing homes and the military.
The prison officer is an engendered occupation because of the intersection of these elements; the structures of prison organizations, cultural and ideological assumptions of workers themselves, coworkers, administrators and managers. The structure of prison organizations is founded on a gendered belief that males are natural protectors and should be in charge of detaining society’s worst scum. In conjunction with this view, women are viewed as having no place in such a violent place. The cultural and ideological assumptions that their alleged nurturing and passive feminine identities would put themselves in danger also makes a prison guard a gendered occupation. Finally, workers themselves can choose to follow these structures and ideologies to conform to ideals of gendered occupations which keeps them alive…or they could reject these beliefs and change entire social structures and personal belief systems.
Some of Britton’s recommendations for change include lessening the effects of the connections between gender and inequality, encouraging positive portrayals of prison life and engaging in telling stories real-life women. These recommendations for change are geared towards changing the minds of a white, popular imagination could possibly be useful for avoiding a hostage take-over. If all these recommendations would have been implemented 100 years ago, the life of an inmate would be much improved and there would be no need to escape with forceful violence.
Blog 19
Geena Davis is founder of the organization See Jane which works to dramatically increase the percentages of female characters and reduce gender stereotyping in media made for children. In the video she is speaking at the National Conference for Media Reform and she reflects on the influence that media depiction has on everyday policies and practices. A positive example of media influence on the public came about after her movie “A League of Their Own” was released. She mentioned how young girls would run up to her and proclaim that they were inspired to play sports after seeing the movie.
She notes that the percentage of female characters in children’s media was low in the past and has not changed much in the present. For example, Whinny the Poo has nine characters and only one is female; she can’t exist in the story on her own because her name is Kanga and her male counterpart is Roo. In the popular cartoon Junior Bear, the only female in the story, Granny, needed to leave the scene so the story could take place.
Apart from the low percentage of female visibility in the media, what is portrayed is a highly stereotyped sexualized portrayal of women. Some of these characters include the rail thin Judy Jetson and Miss Piggy who is fully equipped with muppet-cleavage. In the original airing of The Smurfs cartoon, there were a total of 100 smurfs and zero female smurfs until they added smurfett. She was originally created by an evil wizard to destroy the smurfs but papa smurf performed some magic and transformed her. The only thing that changed was her appearance and it wasn’t until she was better looking that the other smurfs began to accept her.
In light of all this, Davis conducted the largest analysis of G-rated movies in history to determine the percentage of female characters. From the top 100 movies released from 1990-2005, she found that 3 out of 4 characters in these movies are male and of characters shown in groups, only 17% were female. Though her research and a public education campaign, she wants to work with the film industry to increase the percentage of female characters and decrease the portrayal of highly sexualized characters.
These findings all affect the way girls and boys and men and women perceive either gender. Girls may become self-conscious of their bodies and boys may see girls as less than worthy. Not only do these media portrayals affect boys and girls, they also affect men and women in their work environments. The following addresses how the influence of media depiction effects everyday policies and practices of interactions with coworkers and supervisors that reinforce stereotypes about women’s alleged inability to deal with physical violence.
Most men believe that their unique qualification for being a corrections officer is their ability to deal with violence; implying that women are not qualified to deal with violence. (Pg.174) For example, a when a fight breaks out in the cafeteria, male officers prevent the female officer from going in and breaking up the fight. By not allowing the female inmate to walk into a dangerous situation, these men are exemplifying the male identity of protector but they also reinforce stereotypes about women’s alleged inability to deal with physical violence. If a woman is able to prove her ability to deal with physical violence it threatens male corrections officers’ dignity and ego. Their dignity and ego can be not only threatened, but squashed it if she is able to deal with violence better than he can.
Women officers claim their gendered identities at work by adopting a “modified” strategy for approaching their job. For some it means embracing chivalrous acts of men and relying on them for protection in order to work in safe job environments. Other women adopt a “modified” strategy of disregarding gender stereotypes by insisting on proving themselves as equal, even if it places them in an unsafe environment. They can claim their identities in this way by using logic that if all inmates are getting paid equally, they should all have the opportunity to go the same jobs.
She notes that the percentage of female characters in children’s media was low in the past and has not changed much in the present. For example, Whinny the Poo has nine characters and only one is female; she can’t exist in the story on her own because her name is Kanga and her male counterpart is Roo. In the popular cartoon Junior Bear, the only female in the story, Granny, needed to leave the scene so the story could take place.
Apart from the low percentage of female visibility in the media, what is portrayed is a highly stereotyped sexualized portrayal of women. Some of these characters include the rail thin Judy Jetson and Miss Piggy who is fully equipped with muppet-cleavage. In the original airing of The Smurfs cartoon, there were a total of 100 smurfs and zero female smurfs until they added smurfett. She was originally created by an evil wizard to destroy the smurfs but papa smurf performed some magic and transformed her. The only thing that changed was her appearance and it wasn’t until she was better looking that the other smurfs began to accept her.
In light of all this, Davis conducted the largest analysis of G-rated movies in history to determine the percentage of female characters. From the top 100 movies released from 1990-2005, she found that 3 out of 4 characters in these movies are male and of characters shown in groups, only 17% were female. Though her research and a public education campaign, she wants to work with the film industry to increase the percentage of female characters and decrease the portrayal of highly sexualized characters.
These findings all affect the way girls and boys and men and women perceive either gender. Girls may become self-conscious of their bodies and boys may see girls as less than worthy. Not only do these media portrayals affect boys and girls, they also affect men and women in their work environments. The following addresses how the influence of media depiction effects everyday policies and practices of interactions with coworkers and supervisors that reinforce stereotypes about women’s alleged inability to deal with physical violence.
Most men believe that their unique qualification for being a corrections officer is their ability to deal with violence; implying that women are not qualified to deal with violence. (Pg.174) For example, a when a fight breaks out in the cafeteria, male officers prevent the female officer from going in and breaking up the fight. By not allowing the female inmate to walk into a dangerous situation, these men are exemplifying the male identity of protector but they also reinforce stereotypes about women’s alleged inability to deal with physical violence. If a woman is able to prove her ability to deal with physical violence it threatens male corrections officers’ dignity and ego. Their dignity and ego can be not only threatened, but squashed it if she is able to deal with violence better than he can.
Women officers claim their gendered identities at work by adopting a “modified” strategy for approaching their job. For some it means embracing chivalrous acts of men and relying on them for protection in order to work in safe job environments. Other women adopt a “modified” strategy of disregarding gender stereotypes by insisting on proving themselves as equal, even if it places them in an unsafe environment. They can claim their identities in this way by using logic that if all inmates are getting paid equally, they should all have the opportunity to go the same jobs.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Blog 18
On-the-job training reinforces the masculine norm and constructs correctional work as a gendered occupation because training is geared toward working in male penitentiaries, not female prisons. There are different approaches to dealing with each gender and they are not addressed in training because the format for teaching officers is done so asexually. This means they train the officers as if the were not men or women; is essence “gender-neutral”. The reality is that these policies are not really gender neutral at all because they create a norm that is actually masculine.
They are based on masculine identity of aggressiveness and violence found in male-dominated penitentiaries. One inmate described how his training was geared toward working in a high-security penitentiary, and the reality of where he ended up working was quite different. A female officer mentions how she when she started to work in a woman’s prison, she was unsure of how to tend to the inmates because her training focused on dealing with aggressive men. She argued that the “asexual” gender-neutral policy of her training prevented her from being allowed even 30 minutes of discussion on how to work in a female prison.
The differences between men and women’s prisons are than men’s prisons are more violent, while women’s prisons are more emotional. In men’s prisons, officers can feel racial tension during lunch because all the black men sit together, all the Hispanic men sit together and all the white men sit together. This racial tension creates violence among the inmates and it even the men that sit alone can become targets of physical violence. According to officers, this racial tension is not felt in women’s prisons because they all sit wherever they want. The lack of racial tension creates a decrease in violence.
Women are, however, more emotional than male inmates. They can become upset over tiny problems and create a feeling of suspicion with officers because they never know when they are having a serious issue or they are just being dramatic. In male prisons if a man claims to have a problem, it is usually a legitimate one. Also, since officers are not trained to work in female prisons because of so called gender-neutral policies, they only know how to deal with violent outburst so it makes them unsure as to how to handle a non-violent but extreme emotional outburst.
They are based on masculine identity of aggressiveness and violence found in male-dominated penitentiaries. One inmate described how his training was geared toward working in a high-security penitentiary, and the reality of where he ended up working was quite different. A female officer mentions how she when she started to work in a woman’s prison, she was unsure of how to tend to the inmates because her training focused on dealing with aggressive men. She argued that the “asexual” gender-neutral policy of her training prevented her from being allowed even 30 minutes of discussion on how to work in a female prison.
The differences between men and women’s prisons are than men’s prisons are more violent, while women’s prisons are more emotional. In men’s prisons, officers can feel racial tension during lunch because all the black men sit together, all the Hispanic men sit together and all the white men sit together. This racial tension creates violence among the inmates and it even the men that sit alone can become targets of physical violence. According to officers, this racial tension is not felt in women’s prisons because they all sit wherever they want. The lack of racial tension creates a decrease in violence.
Women are, however, more emotional than male inmates. They can become upset over tiny problems and create a feeling of suspicion with officers because they never know when they are having a serious issue or they are just being dramatic. In male prisons if a man claims to have a problem, it is usually a legitimate one. Also, since officers are not trained to work in female prisons because of so called gender-neutral policies, they only know how to deal with violent outburst so it makes them unsure as to how to handle a non-violent but extreme emotional outburst.
Blog 17 Lockup- Inside North Carolina Women's Prison
My initial reaction to the video Lockup-Inside North Carolina Women’s Prison, was honestly loathing for the American prison system. It was shocking to hear about inmates kept in segregation and confined in eight by eight foot cells for twenty-three hours a day. It seemed so unjust to only be allowed two 15 minute showers per week along with one roll of toilet paper. Rationing toilet paper seemed almost as bad as having to work for only 40 cents a day.
Then the reality of the situation set in for me when I heard an interesting comment from the woman who used to be an officer but was imprisoned for killing her husband. She explained that the sympathy I felt for those inmates was based on a common misinterpretation of womanhood. People view woman inmates as being provoked into breaking the law; either in self defense because they were abused or for stealing because they couldn’t feed their kids. She aptly states that women commit crimes without reason just like men do. She goes on to say that she intentionally killed her husband and tried to make it look like a suicide. I can’t believe I fell for the paradox of white femininity with all my background in justice and psychology.
The differences between the North Carolina prison documentary and the Britton readings concern the aspects of working with inmates that can potentially form bonds. A woman in the documentary described lesbianism behind bars as a way to survive in a rough. One couple described how they came together to help each other financially though lending loans to other inmates. Others discussed how fellow “bull-diggers” help each other by playing 10-4 and keep a look out when other women want to have a private moment with their lady.
The correction officers discuss how these bonds can potentially become a security issue and detrimental not only to individual but to the community at large. She says the inmates end up in prison because they made bad choices out in the real world. Women start making bad choices within prisons when they make their partner more important than their own fate. This kind of interaction with inmates was not discussed at all in the text.
The similarities between the officers in the documentary and the officers in the text were that they both had the same perception of inmates as being human regardless of their past actions. The officer who gets her hair done as cosmo feels that she is not taking a risk by letting an inmate do her hair. She feels that she could run the risk of being attacked with shears, for example, by any other stylist outside the prison. Her stylist just happens to be serving time, but she is still human.
Building relationships with the inmates present dangers for prison officers. First, if they become too close a sexual relationship may take place and this puts their careers on the line. Second, officers can be coerced or blackmailed into bringing in contraband. Third, they put themselves emotionally at risk because if they get too attached, the officer will suffer when the inmate suffers. To balance social distance and just treatment, an officer must always keep in mind the differences between officers and inmates. This will also help them make sense of and properly address bad behavior and also it will keep them from sympathizing and having empathy for them when they show goodwill.
Prison officers who build relationships with inmates place themselves of danger of getting black-mailed and fired. One inmate said that before she began to be a “loan shark” to other inmates, she would hustle the weak staff for money by seducing them and then threatening to tell about their relations. To avoid these dangers the male officer makes it clear that “he’s there to set standards” not to be their friends to avoid any problems.
The essentialized assumptions that officers in the documentary felt came down to the notion of “guilty until proven innocent” in my opinion. Officers generally follow the rules by the book and enforce them accordingly as to avoid bringing problems on themselves. One officer says, “I give them a change to explain first” which implies that they have already done something wrong. For example the girl with the “ketchup contraband” gets called out and it seems like she’s exaggerating she has to do her job based on her gut and her assumptions. The male officer also adopts the essentialized assumption that all inmates are possible threats to him because he also follows and enforces the rules, especially when going into the dormitories, to avoid getting accused alleged misconduct.
African American and Latino officers face different issues than their white coworkers. The prison system is disproportionately filled with people of color and this puts officers in a difficult position of having to side with the system that is oppressing their people. They deal with this issue by learning to speak “language of the overseer”. This requires officers’ of color to demonstrate their loyalty to their white co-workers and supervisors by disengaging and un-identifying with other inmates of color. Officers do this to assure the “overseer”, the supervisors and managers, that they do not sympathize with them or feel that they are locked up unjustly.
The male and female officers in the text had similar perceptions of inmates. The first is the understanding that although they have done wrong, they are still human. The second perception is that inmates are too privileged within the prison systems. One officer jokes than when she retires she wants to rob a bank and go to jail so the federal government can pay for her housing, food, utilities and cable. Other perceptions that they had were based on the media’s sensationalized portrayals of prisons and the genuine realities of working behind bars. Officers and the general population perceive prison life as a violent and gender-stereotyped environment. They imagined brawls and riots would be the norm and aggressive, power-hungry male guards would have to step in to control predatory lesbians along with other scum. They found that the realities of working with inmates are quite the opposite; some women even describe their work like baby-sitting adults.
The humanistic attitude toward inmates tends to objectify or infantilize them for several reasons. If an officer shows a humanistic attitude of being a positive role model and encourages open communication, this creates a parent-child relationship that ends up infantilizing them. Another humanistic attitude that officers show is the need to maintain order to protect inmates and themselves. The act of restraining inmates makes officers view them as animals that need to be controlled, which objectifies them.
The first form of social control was punishment though solitary confinement. The were kept in eight by eight cells for twenty three hours a day and were only allowed out for 45 minutes to “exercise” while shackled at the wrists and ankles in the outdoor “K-9 cages”, as one inmate describes them. Other less severe forms of social control were various degrees of punishments and “mini-trials” for misbehaving which acted as a deterrent for future violence. Inmates not in solitary confinement were allowed to socialize in the yard, under close supervision of course because here was where loans were repaid and friends and lovers convened. Another for of social control was the implementation of maternity, education and vocational services available in order inmates to stay healthy: physically, mentally and financially.
Then the reality of the situation set in for me when I heard an interesting comment from the woman who used to be an officer but was imprisoned for killing her husband. She explained that the sympathy I felt for those inmates was based on a common misinterpretation of womanhood. People view woman inmates as being provoked into breaking the law; either in self defense because they were abused or for stealing because they couldn’t feed their kids. She aptly states that women commit crimes without reason just like men do. She goes on to say that she intentionally killed her husband and tried to make it look like a suicide. I can’t believe I fell for the paradox of white femininity with all my background in justice and psychology.
The differences between the North Carolina prison documentary and the Britton readings concern the aspects of working with inmates that can potentially form bonds. A woman in the documentary described lesbianism behind bars as a way to survive in a rough. One couple described how they came together to help each other financially though lending loans to other inmates. Others discussed how fellow “bull-diggers” help each other by playing 10-4 and keep a look out when other women want to have a private moment with their lady.
The correction officers discuss how these bonds can potentially become a security issue and detrimental not only to individual but to the community at large. She says the inmates end up in prison because they made bad choices out in the real world. Women start making bad choices within prisons when they make their partner more important than their own fate. This kind of interaction with inmates was not discussed at all in the text.
The similarities between the officers in the documentary and the officers in the text were that they both had the same perception of inmates as being human regardless of their past actions. The officer who gets her hair done as cosmo feels that she is not taking a risk by letting an inmate do her hair. She feels that she could run the risk of being attacked with shears, for example, by any other stylist outside the prison. Her stylist just happens to be serving time, but she is still human.
Building relationships with the inmates present dangers for prison officers. First, if they become too close a sexual relationship may take place and this puts their careers on the line. Second, officers can be coerced or blackmailed into bringing in contraband. Third, they put themselves emotionally at risk because if they get too attached, the officer will suffer when the inmate suffers. To balance social distance and just treatment, an officer must always keep in mind the differences between officers and inmates. This will also help them make sense of and properly address bad behavior and also it will keep them from sympathizing and having empathy for them when they show goodwill.
Prison officers who build relationships with inmates place themselves of danger of getting black-mailed and fired. One inmate said that before she began to be a “loan shark” to other inmates, she would hustle the weak staff for money by seducing them and then threatening to tell about their relations. To avoid these dangers the male officer makes it clear that “he’s there to set standards” not to be their friends to avoid any problems.
The essentialized assumptions that officers in the documentary felt came down to the notion of “guilty until proven innocent” in my opinion. Officers generally follow the rules by the book and enforce them accordingly as to avoid bringing problems on themselves. One officer says, “I give them a change to explain first” which implies that they have already done something wrong. For example the girl with the “ketchup contraband” gets called out and it seems like she’s exaggerating she has to do her job based on her gut and her assumptions. The male officer also adopts the essentialized assumption that all inmates are possible threats to him because he also follows and enforces the rules, especially when going into the dormitories, to avoid getting accused alleged misconduct.
African American and Latino officers face different issues than their white coworkers. The prison system is disproportionately filled with people of color and this puts officers in a difficult position of having to side with the system that is oppressing their people. They deal with this issue by learning to speak “language of the overseer”. This requires officers’ of color to demonstrate their loyalty to their white co-workers and supervisors by disengaging and un-identifying with other inmates of color. Officers do this to assure the “overseer”, the supervisors and managers, that they do not sympathize with them or feel that they are locked up unjustly.
The male and female officers in the text had similar perceptions of inmates. The first is the understanding that although they have done wrong, they are still human. The second perception is that inmates are too privileged within the prison systems. One officer jokes than when she retires she wants to rob a bank and go to jail so the federal government can pay for her housing, food, utilities and cable. Other perceptions that they had were based on the media’s sensationalized portrayals of prisons and the genuine realities of working behind bars. Officers and the general population perceive prison life as a violent and gender-stereotyped environment. They imagined brawls and riots would be the norm and aggressive, power-hungry male guards would have to step in to control predatory lesbians along with other scum. They found that the realities of working with inmates are quite the opposite; some women even describe their work like baby-sitting adults.
The humanistic attitude toward inmates tends to objectify or infantilize them for several reasons. If an officer shows a humanistic attitude of being a positive role model and encourages open communication, this creates a parent-child relationship that ends up infantilizing them. Another humanistic attitude that officers show is the need to maintain order to protect inmates and themselves. The act of restraining inmates makes officers view them as animals that need to be controlled, which objectifies them.
The first form of social control was punishment though solitary confinement. The were kept in eight by eight cells for twenty three hours a day and were only allowed out for 45 minutes to “exercise” while shackled at the wrists and ankles in the outdoor “K-9 cages”, as one inmate describes them. Other less severe forms of social control were various degrees of punishments and “mini-trials” for misbehaving which acted as a deterrent for future violence. Inmates not in solitary confinement were allowed to socialize in the yard, under close supervision of course because here was where loans were repaid and friends and lovers convened. Another for of social control was the implementation of maternity, education and vocational services available in order inmates to stay healthy: physically, mentally and financially.
Blog 16 The Pathways to Becoming a Correctional Officer
Men and women can agree that as children, they never saw themselves on the path towards becoming a correctional officer. In fact, both parties are usually CO’s by pure chance and are motivated to join in this line of work for similar reasons. The routes they take to get there, however, are quite different due to the deeply sex-segregated labor market. Most men come from professions that are highly masculine gendered and continue to follow this path of gendered occupations. For women, however, the opposite is true.
For one of the men in Britton’s study, his interest in working in corrections began with a strong interest in law enforcement and the military. He joined the Army Reserves and later the Army Police and found that he enjoyed working in the law enforcement side of the military so he joined the corrections unit and found his niche. This connection from military to corrections is common for men because 44% of correctional officers come from a military background. For them it is a natural progression since the work structure of the military is similar to the work structure in a correctional facility. Also both professions are highly masculine gendered; the military is known to be the place where boys “become men”.
This is why the relationship between previous work experience and becoming a corrections officer is so different for women than men. The majority of women from the Britton’s research, 37%, had occupational backgrounds in clerical or secretarial work that are highly sex segregated. Women make up 77% of all administration support workers and 99% of all secretaries. Not a single man in her study reported previous work in a clerical position. A secretarial job is highly female gendered and attributed to the belief that women have strong intrapersonal skills, manual dexterity and a high level of patience for tedious tasks. The gendered path from a female-dominated occupation to a male-dominated occupation is quite unnatural and a stark contrast to the males experience.
Most males and females find themselves working as correctional officers by word of mouth or chance. This indicates that social networks play a role in job opportunities and these too are gendered. For example, the African American woman corrections officer heard about employment opportunities at the local prison from a female friend of hers. She suggested she apply for the job as a secretary and she got the job. Later on she was informed that she could work overtime by guarding cells. Although she was apprehensive at first, she found she would be trained on the spot and ended up really enjoying her new position. The men, on the other hand, are influence by their gendered, military social networks who inform them of chance open positions while waiting to find other positions as Military Police.
The motivations for men and women to become correctional officers are all usually similar. The first motivation is of course the high level of monetary compensation and broad qualifications. Positions as correctional officers for the state only require a high school diploma or equivalent and 3 years experience in related felids, which could be one of twelve. The second motivation would be the excellent benefits of government jobs; good health insurance, paid vacations, and retirement. The third motivation, applied especially to women, is that becoming a correctional officer requires the same experience as other female-dominated jobs but offers twice the salary and better benefits. This is especially pertinent for single moms or recently divorced moms because single parent households encompass a fourth of the households in poverty.
For one of the men in Britton’s study, his interest in working in corrections began with a strong interest in law enforcement and the military. He joined the Army Reserves and later the Army Police and found that he enjoyed working in the law enforcement side of the military so he joined the corrections unit and found his niche. This connection from military to corrections is common for men because 44% of correctional officers come from a military background. For them it is a natural progression since the work structure of the military is similar to the work structure in a correctional facility. Also both professions are highly masculine gendered; the military is known to be the place where boys “become men”.
This is why the relationship between previous work experience and becoming a corrections officer is so different for women than men. The majority of women from the Britton’s research, 37%, had occupational backgrounds in clerical or secretarial work that are highly sex segregated. Women make up 77% of all administration support workers and 99% of all secretaries. Not a single man in her study reported previous work in a clerical position. A secretarial job is highly female gendered and attributed to the belief that women have strong intrapersonal skills, manual dexterity and a high level of patience for tedious tasks. The gendered path from a female-dominated occupation to a male-dominated occupation is quite unnatural and a stark contrast to the males experience.
Most males and females find themselves working as correctional officers by word of mouth or chance. This indicates that social networks play a role in job opportunities and these too are gendered. For example, the African American woman corrections officer heard about employment opportunities at the local prison from a female friend of hers. She suggested she apply for the job as a secretary and she got the job. Later on she was informed that she could work overtime by guarding cells. Although she was apprehensive at first, she found she would be trained on the spot and ended up really enjoying her new position. The men, on the other hand, are influence by their gendered, military social networks who inform them of chance open positions while waiting to find other positions as Military Police.
The motivations for men and women to become correctional officers are all usually similar. The first motivation is of course the high level of monetary compensation and broad qualifications. Positions as correctional officers for the state only require a high school diploma or equivalent and 3 years experience in related felids, which could be one of twelve. The second motivation would be the excellent benefits of government jobs; good health insurance, paid vacations, and retirement. The third motivation, applied especially to women, is that becoming a correctional officer requires the same experience as other female-dominated jobs but offers twice the salary and better benefits. This is especially pertinent for single moms or recently divorced moms because single parent households encompass a fourth of the households in poverty.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Blog 15 The Changing Demographics of Incarceration
Throughout history the demographics of the prison population have changed due to the implications of gender and its effects on the ideologies of reformers and daily practices. From the time that prisons were first built to the present era, those who encompass the lowest rungs of race and class ladder have primarily populated prisons. In regards to gender, men make up the majority of inmates with 93.4% and women rank at 6.6%. When discussing race, Black men and women are seven times more likely to be incarcerated than white men and women. The inequalities of justice are also apparent in terms of class with 43% of men and 54% of women reporting an annual income of less than $12,000.
Over the last 5 years there has been a 15% increase in the number of state and federal prisons in the US and throughout the 1990’s the overall prison population has increased at a rate of about 6% per year. No other country in the whole world incarnates as many people as the US; in 2004 there were almost two and a half million inmates! The rate of incarceration rates for women is also skyrocketing. According to Judith Greene and Kevin Pranis, co-authors of “The Growth and Imprisonment of Women, 1977-2004” women comprise 7% of the total population of inmates and their rate of imprisonment has increased a whopping 757% between 1977 and 2004.
The history of women’s prisons differs from the history of men’s prisons. To begin, the Pennsylvania system of prison discipline was characteristically defined by keeping inmates in complete solidarity and spent their days engaging in craft labor. This system was implemented because it was believed that if prisoners interacted with one another they would reinforce their illicit behaviors by teaching each other to become better criminals. The Auburn plan required that men and women labor together during the day, and were confined to their individual cells at night. This plan, however more integrated, enforced absolute silence throughout the day and enforced the rules through physical punishments like slashing. Both plans focused of separation, obedience and labor.
Women were not separated from male inmates until after several scandals of gross human rights violations reached the public. This was when the state decided it was time to step in but it was obvious it not for their protection, but to further chastise them for deifying the socially accepted roles of the female and for being a “nuisance” to the prison world. For example, the architectural structures of these prisons were not designed to accommodate the separation of the groups so when women were separated they were confined in attics that were unventilated and overcrowded.
After years of violence, rape, murder and overall abuse of women prisoners and the unsuccessful implementation of the separation, obedience and labor models, the adult reformatory movement began from about 1873 to 1935. Instead of viewing all inmates as deserving of punishment, the adult reformatory movement advocated treatment in the form of activities varying from educational, religious, recreational, and military (pg. 33). Reformatory methods were soon established all over the country. Some methods were embraced more than others, especially those that were more “masculine”; most notably the Elvira method.
The end of the civil war marked the beginning of convict leasing and the farm system. Since slaves had been emancipated and newly freed slaves were committing more crimes (in the opinion of the power’s that be) there was an extreme shortage of labor and an increase in crime. To kill two birds with one stone Southern governments established the “Black Codes” which targeted crimes committed by free Blacks and began private individuals and groups to subcontract inmates for unpaid labor.
This was later abolished for being inhume, loss of profits for prison systems and the enforced segregation of the Jim Crow laws. To respond to the new labor deficit and the dramatic increase of black inmates, prison farms were created. This system placed black inmates, both male and female, back in plantations working on the fields but this time the profits went to the state and not rich plantation owners. This system is still used in Texas along with the most frequent use of the death penalty.
Arizona’s first prison, built in Florence, Arizona in the early 1900’s, is also equipped with a death row section and a gas chamber. The Florence Prison was much improved from the dungeon-like facility in Yuma which employed the Pennsylvania method of confinement. In the first decade of the century Arizona inmates were also used for cheap labor, most notably building roads. The Arizona Correctional Department also has a high incarceration rate; 34,000 inmates in our state alone. Women in Arizona have the 7th highest imprisonment rate in the country with almost 3,000 female inmates; one female prisoner to every 13 males. (http://www.wpaonline.org/institute/hardhit/states/az/az.htm)
Over the last 5 years there has been a 15% increase in the number of state and federal prisons in the US and throughout the 1990’s the overall prison population has increased at a rate of about 6% per year. No other country in the whole world incarnates as many people as the US; in 2004 there were almost two and a half million inmates! The rate of incarceration rates for women is also skyrocketing. According to Judith Greene and Kevin Pranis, co-authors of “The Growth and Imprisonment of Women, 1977-2004” women comprise 7% of the total population of inmates and their rate of imprisonment has increased a whopping 757% between 1977 and 2004.
The history of women’s prisons differs from the history of men’s prisons. To begin, the Pennsylvania system of prison discipline was characteristically defined by keeping inmates in complete solidarity and spent their days engaging in craft labor. This system was implemented because it was believed that if prisoners interacted with one another they would reinforce their illicit behaviors by teaching each other to become better criminals. The Auburn plan required that men and women labor together during the day, and were confined to their individual cells at night. This plan, however more integrated, enforced absolute silence throughout the day and enforced the rules through physical punishments like slashing. Both plans focused of separation, obedience and labor.
Women were not separated from male inmates until after several scandals of gross human rights violations reached the public. This was when the state decided it was time to step in but it was obvious it not for their protection, but to further chastise them for deifying the socially accepted roles of the female and for being a “nuisance” to the prison world. For example, the architectural structures of these prisons were not designed to accommodate the separation of the groups so when women were separated they were confined in attics that were unventilated and overcrowded.
After years of violence, rape, murder and overall abuse of women prisoners and the unsuccessful implementation of the separation, obedience and labor models, the adult reformatory movement began from about 1873 to 1935. Instead of viewing all inmates as deserving of punishment, the adult reformatory movement advocated treatment in the form of activities varying from educational, religious, recreational, and military (pg. 33). Reformatory methods were soon established all over the country. Some methods were embraced more than others, especially those that were more “masculine”; most notably the Elvira method.
The end of the civil war marked the beginning of convict leasing and the farm system. Since slaves had been emancipated and newly freed slaves were committing more crimes (in the opinion of the power’s that be) there was an extreme shortage of labor and an increase in crime. To kill two birds with one stone Southern governments established the “Black Codes” which targeted crimes committed by free Blacks and began private individuals and groups to subcontract inmates for unpaid labor.
This was later abolished for being inhume, loss of profits for prison systems and the enforced segregation of the Jim Crow laws. To respond to the new labor deficit and the dramatic increase of black inmates, prison farms were created. This system placed black inmates, both male and female, back in plantations working on the fields but this time the profits went to the state and not rich plantation owners. This system is still used in Texas along with the most frequent use of the death penalty.
Arizona’s first prison, built in Florence, Arizona in the early 1900’s, is also equipped with a death row section and a gas chamber. The Florence Prison was much improved from the dungeon-like facility in Yuma which employed the Pennsylvania method of confinement. In the first decade of the century Arizona inmates were also used for cheap labor, most notably building roads. The Arizona Correctional Department also has a high incarceration rate; 34,000 inmates in our state alone. Women in Arizona have the 7th highest imprisonment rate in the country with almost 3,000 female inmates; one female prisoner to every 13 males. (http://www.wpaonline.org/institute/hardhit/states/az/az.htm)
BLOG 14 The theory of Gendered Organization
In light of the persistent wage gap between men and women, Britton uses the theory of gendered organization to frame her research questions. She draws on these theories by asking questions that can help explain why the wage gap persists, for example, why is there a wage gap if sex segregation outlawed? Why are “people” skills (generally attributed to women) devalued? Why can’t women break through the glass ceiling? She answers all of these by examining the interaction between the structures of work organizations, the cultural and ideological assumptions that shape work structures and the agency of workers themselves.
The process of gender organization is ongoing and begins with the organizational structures whose policies and practices are based on the traditional assumptions of male and female roles. The process continues though the actions of workers within the organizations who embrace these gender assumptions because of cultural beliefs. The intersections between these are exemplified in many traditional and non-traditional work environments.
For instance, our text described a woman correction officer who needed to step in and calm a rowdy inmate when her male counterpart was unsuccessful. The male officer felt his “macho-ness” was too strong and he would have to be physically aggressive to calm the inmate and he needed her “matronly” skills to help out. The woman fulfils the cultural belief that all women have mothering characteristics that allow them to handle issues among people more easily. She further accentuates male and female differences by telling the inmate, “I’m just a little old girl, come on, don’t hit me. I like my face the way it is” (pg. 18).
Britton means that “organizations are gendered at the level of structure” because organizations are built on a foundation that rigidly separates the public and private spheres in terms of the production of goods and services versus the reproduction of families (p. 7). This creates a notion of gendered public and private spheres in several ways that are reflected in labor history, labor practices and labor law. For example the private, domestic sphere has historically been the woman’s realm; they tended to the children, the home and all the responsibilities in between. Men were the breadwinners and they were the sole actors in the limelight of the public spheres.
Since employers are less than tolerant of issues of the private spheres come into workplace, men have had the upper hand in dominating the workplace. In fact, for centuries policies and practices of gendered organizations have altogether barred and excluded women from the workplace because of this intolerance. These policies have been overturned with laws like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972 which granted women legal access to work. Even though these laws have been enacted, women presently continue to struggle to attain the level of achievement that men have reached because of the responsibilities of the private sphere.
The process of gender organization is ongoing and begins with the organizational structures whose policies and practices are based on the traditional assumptions of male and female roles. The process continues though the actions of workers within the organizations who embrace these gender assumptions because of cultural beliefs. The intersections between these are exemplified in many traditional and non-traditional work environments.
For instance, our text described a woman correction officer who needed to step in and calm a rowdy inmate when her male counterpart was unsuccessful. The male officer felt his “macho-ness” was too strong and he would have to be physically aggressive to calm the inmate and he needed her “matronly” skills to help out. The woman fulfils the cultural belief that all women have mothering characteristics that allow them to handle issues among people more easily. She further accentuates male and female differences by telling the inmate, “I’m just a little old girl, come on, don’t hit me. I like my face the way it is” (pg. 18).
Britton means that “organizations are gendered at the level of structure” because organizations are built on a foundation that rigidly separates the public and private spheres in terms of the production of goods and services versus the reproduction of families (p. 7). This creates a notion of gendered public and private spheres in several ways that are reflected in labor history, labor practices and labor law. For example the private, domestic sphere has historically been the woman’s realm; they tended to the children, the home and all the responsibilities in between. Men were the breadwinners and they were the sole actors in the limelight of the public spheres.
Since employers are less than tolerant of issues of the private spheres come into workplace, men have had the upper hand in dominating the workplace. In fact, for centuries policies and practices of gendered organizations have altogether barred and excluded women from the workplace because of this intolerance. These policies have been overturned with laws like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972 which granted women legal access to work. Even though these laws have been enacted, women presently continue to struggle to attain the level of achievement that men have reached because of the responsibilities of the private sphere.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Woman in Non-traditional Jobs (Blog 13)
In the popularized media prison guards and correctional officers are depicted in a light that is highly inaccurate and deeply gendered. Most would imagine a prison guard as being some big, buff man with who is cruel and aggressive because he has to fight off violent criminals all day. In reality even the criminals that have committed the most heinous of crimes are non-violent for the most part and actually contribute to the maintainable of the prison order. Non-the-less these inaccurate images have been portrayed in movies and the news for decades.
The images of women in these positions are typically negative because they are based on the norms of white femininity that imply that women should be submissive, dainty, weak, ect. For example, the woman cop in the online video described how she felt like she was in a fishbowl because people would constantly stare at her while in uniform because the general population views policing as a man’s job. Even her husband doubted her abilities because he felt that she wouldn’t be able to withstand the physical aspect because she is a woman.
In comparison to these images, the promotional video also put a negative light on traditional women’s work that in my opinion was kind of irritating. They described the characteristics of non-traditional jobs as being “exciting” versus working at the grocery store or making minimum wage, making the assumption that this is how all women typically work. They also mention having to "learn" about non-traditional jobs implying that traditional women's work requires no “learning” or intellect. A quote that really started to grind my gears what when they said that to work in a non-traditional job, "you really have to show them you know what your doing" as if you don't have to know what you're doing in a traditional woman's job.
Images between male and female corrections officers are poles apart. First of all, female correction officers often have to make a choice whether they want to adapt to male-defined requisites to be successful and forgo their “femininity or go against the male-defined roles and risk their success within the norms of the organization. Male officers don’t have to deal with what image they want to portray in the least bit. In fact they men fit right into their image because they are typically viewed as the “protectors” both by women and other men. For example, men are openly accepted in women’s correctional facilities because they could lend a hand in dealing with a violent inmate. In the opposite situation a woman’s ability would be doubted because of her image as a submissive, nurturing, tolerant and weak person (pg. 14).
The images of women in these positions are typically negative because they are based on the norms of white femininity that imply that women should be submissive, dainty, weak, ect. For example, the woman cop in the online video described how she felt like she was in a fishbowl because people would constantly stare at her while in uniform because the general population views policing as a man’s job. Even her husband doubted her abilities because he felt that she wouldn’t be able to withstand the physical aspect because she is a woman.
In comparison to these images, the promotional video also put a negative light on traditional women’s work that in my opinion was kind of irritating. They described the characteristics of non-traditional jobs as being “exciting” versus working at the grocery store or making minimum wage, making the assumption that this is how all women typically work. They also mention having to "learn" about non-traditional jobs implying that traditional women's work requires no “learning” or intellect. A quote that really started to grind my gears what when they said that to work in a non-traditional job, "you really have to show them you know what your doing" as if you don't have to know what you're doing in a traditional woman's job.
Images between male and female corrections officers are poles apart. First of all, female correction officers often have to make a choice whether they want to adapt to male-defined requisites to be successful and forgo their “femininity or go against the male-defined roles and risk their success within the norms of the organization. Male officers don’t have to deal with what image they want to portray in the least bit. In fact they men fit right into their image because they are typically viewed as the “protectors” both by women and other men. For example, men are openly accepted in women’s correctional facilities because they could lend a hand in dealing with a violent inmate. In the opposite situation a woman’s ability would be doubted because of her image as a submissive, nurturing, tolerant and weak person (pg. 14).
Woman in Non-traditional Jobs (Blog 12)
Occupational segregation still exists despite of the laws against sex discrimination because of the structures of work organizations and cultural and ideological assumptions. The structure of work organizations are based on the internal stratification of institutions which usually place women in the lowest rung of the occupational ladder (pg. 5). For example, formal job evaluation systems are used to set wages according to skill, responsibility, complexity and training. This contributes to the existence of occupational segregation because the jobs that pay lower wages are typically the least difficult and require less responsibility and are unfortunately filled by women.
Cultural and ideological assumptions create organizations that are structured to rigidly separate the public and private spheres from the workplace. Activities like child birth, child care, sexuality, eating and sleeping, for example, are generally kept completely separate from the workplace. As a result women suffer from this structure because they are typically in charge of the private sphere and employers are not tolerant when issues of the private spheres spill into the workplace (pg.8).
The advantages that women gain by breaking into male dominated occupations, according to the video urging women to join the non-traditional labor-force, said that opportunities are endless since there aren't many women in the field. It is exciting work and pays well and they get a chance to experience different environments. The woman in the Beyond the Blue video says the advantages of being the only woman on the SWAT team was that she paved the way for other women to join the quad if they chose to do so in the future. Also she claims it she likes the challenge of proving herself worthy by doing an excellent job and staying physically fit. This could be seen as a disadvantage for some but she seems fulfilled by the work she does despite the obstacles.
Men may feel threatened when women enter male dominated occupations. This is because they are used to being deferred to by women and others, but when a women joins their ranks they are forced to be the submissive ones and this change of roles can feel threatening at first but they adapt. For example, the woman on the SWAT team had a husband that was also a cop and he mentioned getting teased about who wears the pants in their relationship and having to deal with other jokes but he said it’s not so bad.
Men can also gain from women being in the work force. For example, if a male inmate is acting up and a male officer is losing his nerve and is afraid of pulling some macho violent stunt, he can ask his female corrections officer to go in and smooth things over. One woman mentions telling the rowdy inmate that “I’m just a little old girl, come on, don’t hit me, I like my face the way it is.”
Cultural and ideological assumptions create organizations that are structured to rigidly separate the public and private spheres from the workplace. Activities like child birth, child care, sexuality, eating and sleeping, for example, are generally kept completely separate from the workplace. As a result women suffer from this structure because they are typically in charge of the private sphere and employers are not tolerant when issues of the private spheres spill into the workplace (pg.8).
The advantages that women gain by breaking into male dominated occupations, according to the video urging women to join the non-traditional labor-force, said that opportunities are endless since there aren't many women in the field. It is exciting work and pays well and they get a chance to experience different environments. The woman in the Beyond the Blue video says the advantages of being the only woman on the SWAT team was that she paved the way for other women to join the quad if they chose to do so in the future. Also she claims it she likes the challenge of proving herself worthy by doing an excellent job and staying physically fit. This could be seen as a disadvantage for some but she seems fulfilled by the work she does despite the obstacles.
Men may feel threatened when women enter male dominated occupations. This is because they are used to being deferred to by women and others, but when a women joins their ranks they are forced to be the submissive ones and this change of roles can feel threatening at first but they adapt. For example, the woman on the SWAT team had a husband that was also a cop and he mentioned getting teased about who wears the pants in their relationship and having to deal with other jokes but he said it’s not so bad.
Men can also gain from women being in the work force. For example, if a male inmate is acting up and a male officer is losing his nerve and is afraid of pulling some macho violent stunt, he can ask his female corrections officer to go in and smooth things over. One woman mentions telling the rowdy inmate that “I’m just a little old girl, come on, don’t hit me, I like my face the way it is.”
Friday, October 9, 2009
Blog 10
According to the National Center for Children in Poverty there are 1.3 million MORE children living in poverty today than in 2000. Low income families are classified as earning less than $40,000 a year for a family of four. In 2005 there were 28 million children living in low-income families; almost forty percent of all children! Arizona is included in the states where child poverty is over twenty percent and minorities are the group hit the hardest. Overall, twenty eight percent of Latino children live in poor family’s nation wide but Black children suffer the worse; thirty five percent or 3.7 million are poor.
The mothers that Chaudry interviewed know about these statistics all too well. One woman lived with her mother in Ecuador for a year after she had her daughter but chose to come back to the US to raise her instead. For her, it was more important to take care of her child herself even if it was in a shelter and be independent than to live under her mothers rules. While getting place from shelter to shelter, she had to wait long lines, unable to change her daughter’s diaper. Some of the places offered horrible food that made them sick and at other places she wouldn’t sleep all night because the room she was offered didn’t have a lock.
One day she went to find out if she would be placed in a better place and found out she was denied. She was only gone for a few days, but the shelter she was at before threw all of her and her baby’s clothes out. Now she lived with the fear of having her child taken away from her by the Child Protection Services because she was homeless and had nothing. She was lucky to be placed in a shelter not too long after, where she remained for 8 months after that moved into public housing. She was finally stabilized and for many mothers the instability is the toughest condition about being in poverty.
The mothers that Chaudry interviewed know about these statistics all too well. One woman lived with her mother in Ecuador for a year after she had her daughter but chose to come back to the US to raise her instead. For her, it was more important to take care of her child herself even if it was in a shelter and be independent than to live under her mothers rules. While getting place from shelter to shelter, she had to wait long lines, unable to change her daughter’s diaper. Some of the places offered horrible food that made them sick and at other places she wouldn’t sleep all night because the room she was offered didn’t have a lock.
One day she went to find out if she would be placed in a better place and found out she was denied. She was only gone for a few days, but the shelter she was at before threw all of her and her baby’s clothes out. Now she lived with the fear of having her child taken away from her by the Child Protection Services because she was homeless and had nothing. She was lucky to be placed in a shelter not too long after, where she remained for 8 months after that moved into public housing. She was finally stabilized and for many mothers the instability is the toughest condition about being in poverty.
Blog 11
In my Justice and Identity class we recently read an article by David Henry called Class Relations and Social Justice and the Politics of Indifference about a chicken processing plant in Hamlet, North Carolina that accidentally burned down on September 3, 1991. In the plant 25 people, including 18 Black women, were killed and another 56 were seriously injured. These workers earned the minimum wage at the time, $4.25 an hour and could earn up to $5.60 an hour. They had no benefits and no job security and workers claimed that bosses let them have one toilet break a day and they were often cursed at. The working conditions were so awful, in fact, that they caused the deaths of all those people. Workers were trapped inside the building because emergency exit doors were locked.
North Carolina has the lowest number of health inspectors per state, 14 health and 28 safety inspectors, when the recommended federal guidelines call for at least 114 per state. To make up for the difference, federal personnel were supposed act as inspectors but had not visited the plant in its 11 years of operation. The conclusion of the article was that these people were more concerned with making money than investing time and energy to see to the needs of the poor working class minority.
The poor, especially poor working women are simply not a top concern for the powers that be. The government seems to de indifferent to the issue of proper working conditions for the poor. What makes a government act, according to the article, are the implications of political opinion on elections, which are rarely issues that have to do with women in poverty. Also, the media also made no fuss about this event at the time because it occurred when Rodney King was all over the news. So those who were concerned with racial injustice, if they even heard about this, were too busy to care about a few deaths in small plant in North Carolina anyway. In regards to women’s justice, most advocates were concerned with Anita Hill’s accusations against associate justice of the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas.
North Carolina has the lowest number of health inspectors per state, 14 health and 28 safety inspectors, when the recommended federal guidelines call for at least 114 per state. To make up for the difference, federal personnel were supposed act as inspectors but had not visited the plant in its 11 years of operation. The conclusion of the article was that these people were more concerned with making money than investing time and energy to see to the needs of the poor working class minority.
The poor, especially poor working women are simply not a top concern for the powers that be. The government seems to de indifferent to the issue of proper working conditions for the poor. What makes a government act, according to the article, are the implications of political opinion on elections, which are rarely issues that have to do with women in poverty. Also, the media also made no fuss about this event at the time because it occurred when Rodney King was all over the news. So those who were concerned with racial injustice, if they even heard about this, were too busy to care about a few deaths in small plant in North Carolina anyway. In regards to women’s justice, most advocates were concerned with Anita Hill’s accusations against associate justice of the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas.
Blog 10
Ten years ago Clinton proposed to “end welfare as we know it” through training and education, childcare and medical service to liberate people who were stuck in the welfare system. He said that people must work because welfare is a second chance not a way of life. The result was that TANF gave women positive incentives that they never had to get out of poverty. In fact poverty rates for all children fell and especially for black children whose poverty rates fell by twenty five percent.
Although these are great successes, most families say that even though they are working, they aren’t making it out of poverty. In order to find a job, women need to attend weekly meetings that they can’t miss or else they’ll lose their TANF benefits. When they do find a job, physically getting can be a challenge and make ends meet is still an obstacle because a lot of the jobs available only offer minimum wage salaries. Even with a large number of people at work, they are still not self-sufficient because many are still depending on other forms of public assistance to care for their families. It is estimated that 60% of the families who lost cash benefits have signed up for Medicaid, food stamps and disability benefits. Unless problems like day care, transportation are fully addressed it may be impossible to move TANF to the next level. (NPR.org)
After the welfare reform women had to used various adaptive strategies to survive. They had find ways to make their work schedules coordinate with their child care schedules. Also, they had to budget the little money they had and fight to get what they didn’t have from public assistance. After the welfare reform they especially had to fight for “work” subsidies to obtain center based child care. Center care was the best option available because it provided more subsidies, was more flexible and stable and usually provided educational activities for their children. Also the agency workers were knowledgeable and helpful to mothers who needed help “working the system”.
These survival strategies show the interrelations between work and care through the welfare-to-work programs. Many mothers turned to these programs to find work and to take advantage of the subsidies offered for child care. Although they were finding work there was still the challenge of finding ways to be flexible with there schedules. For example, like Brittany from chapter 3, she had an internship way across town on top of another job that were both extremely far from her home and her child care provider. She had to use the employ a strategy mean leaving her daughter in the care of her sister for days at a time because it would be utterly impossible to make it to all four locations and back on the same day.
Chaudry’s recommendations on the welfare reform were that the government should increase funding for children’s programs and unify the system. He also thinks that the government should create a policy that acknowledges single mothers in the working world. He suggests that jobs be set up to where people can earn higher wages over time in order to break the poverty cycle. There should be less red tape! Public assistance programs should be easier to access and simpler in general. They should also be coordinated in a way that is educational and beneficial for children.
Robert Rector, who co-created the welfare reform of 1996, had very dissimilar recommendations. He believes these women should have finished school before they started their families. He wants the percentage of women who have children out of wed-lock, thirty-eight percent, to decrease dramatically. He also thinks that everyone needs to work and contribute to the labor force. It was suggested that education is the only real way to get out of poverty and secure employment but he doesn’t think that the program should support mothers going back to school. She claims that is expects them to be on the payroll and not to go back to school.
Vivyan Adair, associate professor of women's studies at Hamilton College agrees more with Chaudry’s views. She thinks that those who are willing and able to work and attend school and care for their families should be encouraged to lift themselves out of poverty. She thinks we should we support and reward women who have had children out of wedlock and want to go to school. They should not be viewed as unworthy and incapable because is so we are shunning an entire population that has massive potential.
The last videos made it clear that anti-poverty policies still need to be reformed. In Waukesha Wisconsin, the Salvation Army passes out lunches to 5 days a week to children who would otherwise go without food. These are the children who depend on the free lunch programs during the school year but struggle have food in their bellies during the summer. In Reno, Nevada, there are currently 170 people in living in tent city. In the last 23 years Nevada’s unemployment rate jumped almost 60 percent in the last year. The problem is that the rate of pay is staying the same while cost of living is rising.
Although these are great successes, most families say that even though they are working, they aren’t making it out of poverty. In order to find a job, women need to attend weekly meetings that they can’t miss or else they’ll lose their TANF benefits. When they do find a job, physically getting can be a challenge and make ends meet is still an obstacle because a lot of the jobs available only offer minimum wage salaries. Even with a large number of people at work, they are still not self-sufficient because many are still depending on other forms of public assistance to care for their families. It is estimated that 60% of the families who lost cash benefits have signed up for Medicaid, food stamps and disability benefits. Unless problems like day care, transportation are fully addressed it may be impossible to move TANF to the next level. (NPR.org)
After the welfare reform women had to used various adaptive strategies to survive. They had find ways to make their work schedules coordinate with their child care schedules. Also, they had to budget the little money they had and fight to get what they didn’t have from public assistance. After the welfare reform they especially had to fight for “work” subsidies to obtain center based child care. Center care was the best option available because it provided more subsidies, was more flexible and stable and usually provided educational activities for their children. Also the agency workers were knowledgeable and helpful to mothers who needed help “working the system”.
These survival strategies show the interrelations between work and care through the welfare-to-work programs. Many mothers turned to these programs to find work and to take advantage of the subsidies offered for child care. Although they were finding work there was still the challenge of finding ways to be flexible with there schedules. For example, like Brittany from chapter 3, she had an internship way across town on top of another job that were both extremely far from her home and her child care provider. She had to use the employ a strategy mean leaving her daughter in the care of her sister for days at a time because it would be utterly impossible to make it to all four locations and back on the same day.
Chaudry’s recommendations on the welfare reform were that the government should increase funding for children’s programs and unify the system. He also thinks that the government should create a policy that acknowledges single mothers in the working world. He suggests that jobs be set up to where people can earn higher wages over time in order to break the poverty cycle. There should be less red tape! Public assistance programs should be easier to access and simpler in general. They should also be coordinated in a way that is educational and beneficial for children.
Robert Rector, who co-created the welfare reform of 1996, had very dissimilar recommendations. He believes these women should have finished school before they started their families. He wants the percentage of women who have children out of wed-lock, thirty-eight percent, to decrease dramatically. He also thinks that everyone needs to work and contribute to the labor force. It was suggested that education is the only real way to get out of poverty and secure employment but he doesn’t think that the program should support mothers going back to school. She claims that is expects them to be on the payroll and not to go back to school.
Vivyan Adair, associate professor of women's studies at Hamilton College agrees more with Chaudry’s views. She thinks that those who are willing and able to work and attend school and care for their families should be encouraged to lift themselves out of poverty. She thinks we should we support and reward women who have had children out of wedlock and want to go to school. They should not be viewed as unworthy and incapable because is so we are shunning an entire population that has massive potential.
The last videos made it clear that anti-poverty policies still need to be reformed. In Waukesha Wisconsin, the Salvation Army passes out lunches to 5 days a week to children who would otherwise go without food. These are the children who depend on the free lunch programs during the school year but struggle have food in their bellies during the summer. In Reno, Nevada, there are currently 170 people in living in tent city. In the last 23 years Nevada’s unemployment rate jumped almost 60 percent in the last year. The problem is that the rate of pay is staying the same while cost of living is rising.
Working Poor Women’s Paid Labor (POST 8)
Urban poverty is basically joblessness that causes people (especially single mothers) to go into welfare and concentrated poverty. Neighborhoods, like Jessica’s from the profiles of women workers, are increasingly crime ridden and she fears for her children’s safety because of drugs and violence. Mothers also worry about the schools their children attend in places where urban poverty is rampant. These schools have poor standards and have diminished aspects for the student’s learning. Even if the mother creates strong personal ties with her children, raising them is none-the-less negatively affected by distrust, fear, uncertainty and economic dependence.
Women in mixed income neighborhoods don’t have to worry as much about the fathers of their children getting sent to jail and the impact that can have on their children. These women don’t have to worry about their children seeing how lucrative and attractive dealing drugs can be as they would in an urbanely poor neighborhood. Also mothers in mixed neighborhoods worry less about their daughters becoming pregnant at a young age or their sons getting involved in violence and gang membership.
It is important to note that urban poverty not only affects mothers and children, it also affects the elderly and men. The elderly in poverty may have to choose between having heat in their homes, food on the table and buying medication that they need, according to the American Low Wage Worker’s Tour video. Men in poverty, especially men of color, have the least flexible jobs of all. This may limit how involved they are in their children’s lives.
Job flexibility can really affect the lives of those living in urban poverty, especially if they get sick. Since many have no sick leave, they go to work sick. If their kid gets sick at school they have to choose between picking them up or getting fired. Many people living in urban poverty work two jobs like the woman who is bus driver and also works for janitorial service, and has no sick says or vacation days and can’t afford the health insurance. She had gull stones removed and had to use all the money she saved over 9 months for a new car. Another time she got an upper respiratory viral infection and she had to pay about $400 out of pocket and lost 2 days of work.
Women in mixed income neighborhoods don’t have to worry as much about the fathers of their children getting sent to jail and the impact that can have on their children. These women don’t have to worry about their children seeing how lucrative and attractive dealing drugs can be as they would in an urbanely poor neighborhood. Also mothers in mixed neighborhoods worry less about their daughters becoming pregnant at a young age or their sons getting involved in violence and gang membership.
It is important to note that urban poverty not only affects mothers and children, it also affects the elderly and men. The elderly in poverty may have to choose between having heat in their homes, food on the table and buying medication that they need, according to the American Low Wage Worker’s Tour video. Men in poverty, especially men of color, have the least flexible jobs of all. This may limit how involved they are in their children’s lives.
Job flexibility can really affect the lives of those living in urban poverty, especially if they get sick. Since many have no sick leave, they go to work sick. If their kid gets sick at school they have to choose between picking them up or getting fired. Many people living in urban poverty work two jobs like the woman who is bus driver and also works for janitorial service, and has no sick says or vacation days and can’t afford the health insurance. She had gull stones removed and had to use all the money she saved over 9 months for a new car. Another time she got an upper respiratory viral infection and she had to pay about $400 out of pocket and lost 2 days of work.
Working Poor Women’s Paid Labor (BLOG 7)
Some of the factors that contribute to the instability that Julia faces began right after the birth of her daughter Jacqueline. She was finally able to leave the homeless shelter and was placed in section 8 housing. Her boyfriend lived with her and her two other daughters so he provided the childcare at first but moved out after a few months and ended up in jail. Since she was placed in public housing she lost her food stamp benefits and feared her and her daughters would starve to death. When they were really struggling, her sister Izzy move in with them to help her watch the girls. They alternated shifts working at the Burger Joint but unfortunately the new job meant her sister couldn’t always babysit and Julia had to stop taking computer and GED classes.
Shortly after, she began WEP, the Work Experience Program because she couldn’t work at the Burger Joint for too long or she would lose her public assistance. This was supposed to help her pay for child care but they were always late sending checks. When she found a woman from the CWP program to look after her daughters, the arrangement ended because Julia couldn’t pay her on time because her checks were late. When that arrangement fell through she asked her cousin if she would watch the girls because she figured since she was family she would endure the late payments.
Her cousin did tolerate not getting paid sometimes, but she could not tolerate not getting paid at all. When the welfare agency moved offices they lost Julia’s paper work and stopped paying her altogether. This caused the arrangement with Julia’s cousin to also fall through because she wouldn’t work for free. All this happened around the time that Julia finally qualified for ACD and was able to send her kids to a fabulous caregiver named Sonia. She got her full time job after completing five welfare to work programs and in the end lost all of her public assistance altogether for having a decent job.
Stories like Julia’s are not uncommon for people trying to live on minimum wage. Having a minimum wage job means that mothers like Jessica need to make sacrifices for their children to provide stable and safe childcare and make a better living. They live pay-check to pay-check. For example, she mentions having to sacrifice eating dinner sometimes in order to put enough food on the table for her four kids. Having a minimum wage job means the only housing she can afford has holes in the walls and is in the roughest part of town. She can’t let her kids pay outside for fear of them getting shot and killed and they sell drugs next door.
She feels that living on a minimum wage salary is a battle. When she considered looking for another job, employers only offered a starting pay of what she made before. She feels it is just not fair to have to start from the bottom all over again and still make the same pay. She wants to be able to buys shoes for her kids from a regular store and not the thrift store. She wants to be able to fix her cars transmission without worrying about whether or not she’ll be able to afford rent. She says the battle won’t end until society changes end and there is an effective leader who takes action and actually cares about people having food on their table and providing affordable health care to be able to die respectfully.
Shortly after, she began WEP, the Work Experience Program because she couldn’t work at the Burger Joint for too long or she would lose her public assistance. This was supposed to help her pay for child care but they were always late sending checks. When she found a woman from the CWP program to look after her daughters, the arrangement ended because Julia couldn’t pay her on time because her checks were late. When that arrangement fell through she asked her cousin if she would watch the girls because she figured since she was family she would endure the late payments.
Her cousin did tolerate not getting paid sometimes, but she could not tolerate not getting paid at all. When the welfare agency moved offices they lost Julia’s paper work and stopped paying her altogether. This caused the arrangement with Julia’s cousin to also fall through because she wouldn’t work for free. All this happened around the time that Julia finally qualified for ACD and was able to send her kids to a fabulous caregiver named Sonia. She got her full time job after completing five welfare to work programs and in the end lost all of her public assistance altogether for having a decent job.
Stories like Julia’s are not uncommon for people trying to live on minimum wage. Having a minimum wage job means that mothers like Jessica need to make sacrifices for their children to provide stable and safe childcare and make a better living. They live pay-check to pay-check. For example, she mentions having to sacrifice eating dinner sometimes in order to put enough food on the table for her four kids. Having a minimum wage job means the only housing she can afford has holes in the walls and is in the roughest part of town. She can’t let her kids pay outside for fear of them getting shot and killed and they sell drugs next door.
She feels that living on a minimum wage salary is a battle. When she considered looking for another job, employers only offered a starting pay of what she made before. She feels it is just not fair to have to start from the bottom all over again and still make the same pay. She wants to be able to buys shoes for her kids from a regular store and not the thrift store. She wants to be able to fix her cars transmission without worrying about whether or not she’ll be able to afford rent. She says the battle won’t end until society changes end and there is an effective leader who takes action and actually cares about people having food on their table and providing affordable health care to be able to die respectfully.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Costs of Childcare
The second chapter in Putting Children First descried the challenges and constraints involved in child care choices. The first mother, Brittany, found it challenging to find adequate childcare while she finished a welfare-to-work program. Since she couldn’t afford an actual childcare provider she left her 7 month old daughter with the baby’s uncle. She soon found that he was unreliable and started leaving her baby with her sister but this too was a challenge because she would have to leave her there for days at a time and missed her terribly. (Chaudry, pg. 28-32)
Mothers like Brittany have to make child care choices that are usually constrained by several factors beyond their control. The child can limit her childcare choices depending on his or her age, health, and special needs. The mother’s job requirements, resources and attitudes about a particular establishment can also be factors that constrain her choices. Of course cost, availability, location and regulations can constrain her choices as well. For example after Brittany had kin care, she switched to an informal care arrangement that failed because it was too expensive and she didn’t trust the provider. Also, after waiting three years to receive assistance from the ADC, her choice to leave her child there was constrained because there was no availability.
The ranges of child care used by other low-income mothers are varied and include kin care, informal care, family day care and center care. Kin care is when a family member cares for the child usually a grandmother or a sibling. The pros of kin care are that the mother trusts the caregiver and they can usually provide care for free or very cheap but the concerns are that this care is usually short term and may provide less developmental activities. Informal care is where a neighbor, friend or acquaintance cares for the child usually cheaply but there is a concern about trust and care elements like cost, food and diapers are not negotiable. Family day care is given by a licensed provider in their home with other children. Center care is a public establishment run by the government or private business which is the most structured form of child care but also the most expensive.
Most of the concerns that mothers have is about their children’s development and whether or not there is enough structure and activities for them at their childcare. If there are only few children being watched together the child will miss out on developing interactional skills with other peers. On the other hand there could be too many children and the child may not receive enough individualized attention. One mother, Uma, said that her child was not getting the specialized care necessary for proper development. She says that at the Head Start program her son attended there were too many special needs kids for one classroom but she couldn’t complain since it was free.
All mothers are concerned not only about the child’s development but also about the child’s safety in general based on the competence of the caregiver be cared for in a healthy and safe environment, but unfortunately oftentimes this is not the case. According to a study conducted by the Applied Research Center, in the states of Alabama, California and Maryland revealed that the national childcare standards in many childcare centers are non-existent, not enforced or inadequate. In Alabama for example unlicensed childcare centers have the State’s permission to ignore the standards which account for basic health and safety standards. In California, the standards are enforced in all establishments but there is not enough funding to adequately check each place. (www.arc.org)
Mothers like Brittany have to make child care choices that are usually constrained by several factors beyond their control. The child can limit her childcare choices depending on his or her age, health, and special needs. The mother’s job requirements, resources and attitudes about a particular establishment can also be factors that constrain her choices. Of course cost, availability, location and regulations can constrain her choices as well. For example after Brittany had kin care, she switched to an informal care arrangement that failed because it was too expensive and she didn’t trust the provider. Also, after waiting three years to receive assistance from the ADC, her choice to leave her child there was constrained because there was no availability.
The ranges of child care used by other low-income mothers are varied and include kin care, informal care, family day care and center care. Kin care is when a family member cares for the child usually a grandmother or a sibling. The pros of kin care are that the mother trusts the caregiver and they can usually provide care for free or very cheap but the concerns are that this care is usually short term and may provide less developmental activities. Informal care is where a neighbor, friend or acquaintance cares for the child usually cheaply but there is a concern about trust and care elements like cost, food and diapers are not negotiable. Family day care is given by a licensed provider in their home with other children. Center care is a public establishment run by the government or private business which is the most structured form of child care but also the most expensive.
Most of the concerns that mothers have is about their children’s development and whether or not there is enough structure and activities for them at their childcare. If there are only few children being watched together the child will miss out on developing interactional skills with other peers. On the other hand there could be too many children and the child may not receive enough individualized attention. One mother, Uma, said that her child was not getting the specialized care necessary for proper development. She says that at the Head Start program her son attended there were too many special needs kids for one classroom but she couldn’t complain since it was free.
All mothers are concerned not only about the child’s development but also about the child’s safety in general based on the competence of the caregiver be cared for in a healthy and safe environment, but unfortunately oftentimes this is not the case. According to a study conducted by the Applied Research Center, in the states of Alabama, California and Maryland revealed that the national childcare standards in many childcare centers are non-existent, not enforced or inadequate. In Alabama for example unlicensed childcare centers have the State’s permission to ignore the standards which account for basic health and safety standards. In California, the standards are enforced in all establishments but there is not enough funding to adequately check each place. (www.arc.org)
Identifying the Working Poor
In the 1960’s one in four women who had children less than six years old worked outside the home. By the year 2000, a remarkable two-thirds of all women worked outside the home. Aside from the feminist movement, this increase is due in part to the strong work requirements of the welfare reform of 1996. It put women in a position of making a difficult decision; either stay home with their children and lose welfare or go to work and pay for child care. Many chose the former and found that life was more difficult to afford than before.
Those who went to work and were already poor found that they only had access to jobs that paid minimum wage. Since they earned wages below the poverty line, they were classified as the working poor. Currently, an estimated 2.8 million working families are poor. Chaudry argues that the government wants those who are impoverished to simply work harder, but often times those who are part of the working class poor are working the hardest. In fact, many of them work over 60 hours a week and possibly work two jobs yet they still can’t pay their bills because their wages are so low.
A group of people called the near-poor experience similar struggles as the working poor. There are an estimated 53 million people considered as near poor whose wages come in at 100 percent to 200 percent of the poverty line. The federal poverty guideline standards can be really harsh on these families because even if they make a dollar over the threshold they will be denied support they actually need. Government policies are not the only factors contributing to our nation’s poverty.
There are thousands of people in Milwaukie who currently find themselves in the working-poor and near poor categories after they lost their jobs due to globalization. Several top companies found that they would save a lot of money by exporting jobs to other countries and paying foreign workers a fraction of what they would pay American workers. This left 60 thousand people competing for 8 thousand jobs. Many families had to go to local churches to accept food donations when before they were the ones donating food.
Overall, one in eight people in American live below the poverty and 12 million are children. There are 33 million people without health insurance most of those are the working poor. Poverty affects every type of person in different ways and for different reasons. The middle class who cannot afford to pay their bills and what to maintain the middle class lifestyle, live on credit to avoid the poverty stigma and have a negative net worth. This is called asset poverty. Elder poverty is the poverty of senior citizens who cannot afford health care and can no longer work. Child poverty is the poverty of children who suffer in the classroom because their brains are malnourished. Generational poverty is poverty that goes on for two generations or more. These people grow up with the mindset that they will never get out of poverty so they never do.
Those who went to work and were already poor found that they only had access to jobs that paid minimum wage. Since they earned wages below the poverty line, they were classified as the working poor. Currently, an estimated 2.8 million working families are poor. Chaudry argues that the government wants those who are impoverished to simply work harder, but often times those who are part of the working class poor are working the hardest. In fact, many of them work over 60 hours a week and possibly work two jobs yet they still can’t pay their bills because their wages are so low.
A group of people called the near-poor experience similar struggles as the working poor. There are an estimated 53 million people considered as near poor whose wages come in at 100 percent to 200 percent of the poverty line. The federal poverty guideline standards can be really harsh on these families because even if they make a dollar over the threshold they will be denied support they actually need. Government policies are not the only factors contributing to our nation’s poverty.
There are thousands of people in Milwaukie who currently find themselves in the working-poor and near poor categories after they lost their jobs due to globalization. Several top companies found that they would save a lot of money by exporting jobs to other countries and paying foreign workers a fraction of what they would pay American workers. This left 60 thousand people competing for 8 thousand jobs. Many families had to go to local churches to accept food donations when before they were the ones donating food.
Overall, one in eight people in American live below the poverty and 12 million are children. There are 33 million people without health insurance most of those are the working poor. Poverty affects every type of person in different ways and for different reasons. The middle class who cannot afford to pay their bills and what to maintain the middle class lifestyle, live on credit to avoid the poverty stigma and have a negative net worth. This is called asset poverty. Elder poverty is the poverty of senior citizens who cannot afford health care and can no longer work. Child poverty is the poverty of children who suffer in the classroom because their brains are malnourished. Generational poverty is poverty that goes on for two generations or more. These people grow up with the mindset that they will never get out of poverty so they never do.
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