UNIT13

Sex Role Stereotypes

During my career

as a Canadian female teacher,

I observed many instances

of sex role stereotyping

throughout the western culture.

I was always amazed

how quickly young children

adopted the cultural values.

The topic is one of major concerns

in the western world,

yet there are those people

who would ask you to believe

that it is not a major issue.

People who wish to ignore the situation

do not welcome discussions

on the topic of gender bias.

This type of person evokes

an analogy of an ostrich

that buries its head in the sand

to ignore a problem by avoiding it.

Although many of my comments may seem cynical,

I give you assurance

that they are based on my observation

of western society for a number of years.

It might be interesting and informative

to compare the western world

in this respect with eastern cultures.

Many studies have been done

and the breakdown of reasons examined

to determine why gender roles play an important part

in the selection of successful candidates

for positions in many vocations.

These studies have made little impact

on diminishing the prevalence of candidates

being selected more for their gender

than their qualifications.

Since the people responsible

for hiring people to work with them,

often hire people similar to themselves,

it seems like they are looking for

a clone or a duplicate of themselves.

Females often become quite indignant

when positions that they are well suited

for are awarded to males

and ambiguous reasons given to explain why.

Is it any wonder that attempts

to sue corporations for using unfair hiring

and promotion practices are applauded? 

On the other hand,

companies who exhibit fair hiring practices

need to be commended for doing so.

It has been common in the western world

for people to presume that

certain professions belong almost exclusively

to one gender or the other.

The work of an electrician,

or work with electronics,

or repairing of air-conditioning equipment,

might be considered to be

masculine fields of employment.

Nursing and childcare vocations

are considered feminine occupations.

Aviation is another field

where people would usually assume

that the pilot would be male

and the flight attendant would be female,

a premise that many times will be invalid.

It will be a major breakthrough

when both genders are equally represented

in the workforce especially in higher level positions.

Some individuals would lead you

to believe that it would

result in the breakdown of society,

as we know it today.

At times an attempt to prevent subjective views

being used to preclude only males

being hired by males has been attempted.

Laws or policy that attempt to rectify the situation

have not been successful in diminishing the problem.

An attempt to numerically control

the number of positions in a corporation

by using a quota system

to require equal numbers of males

and females to be hired usually

meets with little success

if the attitudes of the people

doing the hiring are subjective

and preclude the possibility of fair practises being used.

The empirical evidence shown by the numbers

makes it easy to show

which companies exemplify fairness

and would hinder those

who only make a feeble attempt to do so.

If a company does endeavour to incorporate fairness

in their hiring practises,

they should be eligible for commendation.

A diligent attempt to choose the best person

for the position regardless of their gender

is only inherent in those companies

that can envisage a future

with the best possible work force.