comm 317 mini research project

8/10/2019 COMM 317 Mini Research Project

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Managing Gender Roles in the Workplace

I have always been interested in learning about the dynamics of gender in the workplace

and the work/life balance of those working full time with personal obligations such as child care

and elder care. The topic of breaking through the glass ceiling and gender bias has always been

discussed within my circle of friends and colleagues, and the fact that it is still an issue in 2013 is

very disheartening. I have been fortunate to have great work experiences throughout my career

in both the for profit and non-profit sectors. I have worked for family owned businesses, large

corporations and non-profit organizations and for organizations where women and men have

held the position of President & CEO. I have always had strong supervisors and mentors who

encouraged me to move forward in my career and I have had the pleasure to work for

organizations where work/life balance was part of the organizational culture regardless of

whether my supervisors were men or women. This approach seems to make the most sense and

I have always read that this type of workplace culture allows for a more positive and productive

workforce.

According to class lecture, more women are employed now than ever before, 60% of

adult women (16 and over) work outside of the home (Dunn, 2013) and according to the Bureau

of Labor and Statistics, 64.2% of women with children under the age of 18 are employed.

According to our text, GenderSpeak, seventy-nine percent of families fall into the juggler

family category, which is defined as families juggling both parents jobs plus childrearing(Ivy,

315). According to Ivy, it is because of these current day issues, that many employers have had

to make adjustments in order to adhere to the demands of their employee base(Ivy, 315).

Hence the reason for flextime, telecommuting and on-site child care facilities(Ivy, 317). The

termsecond shiftwas coined when women were joining their husbands in the workforce, but it


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was the women who were coming home from work and began their second shift of cleaning,

cooking, and taking care of the children, rather than the husband(Ivy, 321).

For purposes of this project, I decided to interview five women who have been in the

workplace for over ten years to determine if they have experienced gender bias in the workplace,

gain insight on the glass ceiling and learn about their experience with handling work/life balance.

Two of the candidates are from my professional circle and the remaining three are personal

friends. I created a prospect list of candidates with various age groups, backgrounds and

industries. I also thought carefully about including women who had different personal situations

as I was interested in how work life balance came into play during their careers. I emailed my

list of candidates and explained the project to gage an interest in participating. All candidates

responded quickly and positively to participating in the survey. I assured them that their names

and the names of their employers would be kept confidential. I crafted my questions from the

provided project list for the Gender Communications class. Two of the three candidates

responded via email and three candidates responded via phone. All candidates were asked the

same five questions. The interview process was completed within a three week period.

The results from this short study were consistent among all five candidates. A summary

of the interviews is attached in Figure 1. I have come to realize that gender in the workplace

remains a very multi-faceted topic with issues on both sides of the workforce. On one hand, as

women, we want to have it all, but still have to prove ourselves among our peer groups that we

can have it all, but have to overcompensate to receive recognition for such accomplishments.

My general sense is that much work needs to be done in order to remove the topic of gender bias

in the workplace. According to blogger, Kara Swisher at AllThingsDigital.com, there appears to

be positive changes coming to women in the workplace at Cisco in the near future. After reading


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Sheryl Sandbergs book, Lean In; Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, Ciscos COO, John

Chambers, admitted thatwhile he has been sensitive to gender issues, he has a renewed sense of

urgency to assist women in the workplace and has launched a womens initiative forum within

Cisco. Sanders writes in her book, that she decided to write about womensissues in the

workplace by first acknowledging that women in the developed world are better than ever, but

the goal of true equality still eludes us (Sandberg 159). She also writes that men and women

have to acknowledge how stereotypes and biases cloud our beliefs and perpetuate the status

quo. Ms. Sandberg appears to be very passionate about the issues facing women in the

workplace and would like to keep the conversations ongoing about such issues. My hope is the

same as Sheryl Sandbergs, that we become diligent about continuing conversations regarding

womens issues within the work place. As women, we have to engage in conversation with those

in our personal and professional circles about womens issues in order to be able to move

forward and eliminate gender bias in the workplace.


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References

Bureau of Labor and Statistics website: Retrieved fromhttp://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost.

March 24, 2013.

Dunn, Karen. Gender in the Workplace PPT presentation. 2013.

Ivy, Diana K. and Phil Backlund. GenderSpeak: Personal Effectiveness in Gender

Communication. 5th

Ed. Boston , MA: McGraw-Hill, 2012.

Sandberg, Sheryl. Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. New York, NY: Alfred A.

Knopf, 2013.

Swisher, Kara. (2013, March 13). Telling Employees He HasntWalked the Talk, Ciscos John

Chambers Leans In on Women in the Workplace Issue. Retrieved from

http://allthingsd.com/20130313/telling-employees-hes-not-walked-the-talk-ciscos-john-

chambers-leans-in-on-women-in-theworkplace/?KEYWORDS=gender+issues.

March 24, 2013.
http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymosthttp://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymosthttp://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymosthttp://allthingsd.com/20130313/telling-employees-hes-not-walked-the-talk-ciscos-john-chambers-leans-in-on-women-in-theworkplace/?KEYWORDS=gender+issueshttp://allthingsd.com/20130313/telling-employees-hes-not-walked-the-talk-ciscos-john-chambers-leans-in-on-women-in-theworkplace/?KEYWORDS=gender+issueshttp://allthingsd.com/20130313/telling-employees-hes-not-walked-the-talk-ciscos-john-chambers-leans-in-on-women-in-theworkplace/?KEYWORDS=gender+issueshttp://allthingsd.com/20130313/telling-employees-hes-not-walked-the-talk-ciscos-john-chambers-leans-in-on-women-in-theworkplace/?KEYWORDS=gender+issueshttp://allthingsd.com/20130313/telling-employees-hes-not-walked-the-talk-ciscos-john-chambers-leans-in-on-women-in-theworkplace/?KEYWORDS=gender+issueshttp://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost


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Interview CandidatesBrief Synopsis of Comments from Interviews Regarding Women in

the Work Place

Candidates and

Notes

Question 1What problems or hurdles have you

encountered during your career?

Question 2Have you experienced

gender bias in theworkplace?

Question 3What are your thoughts o

glass ceiling?

Candidate 1Married with

three children.

HRmanagement.

HR jobs are typically lower in pay

compared to other professions and

they are very job specific. Women

in HR are not always takenseriously; therefore, I always feel

like I have to go above and beyond

in my job to prove myself.

Not specific to me, but I do

feel because I am in an HR

role that I can never show

emotion because I am agirl.

It exists, although I have

experienced it first-hand

glass ceiling has been cra

but not shattered forminorities, in general,

including women.

Candidate 2

Single, BankingProfessional.

Commercial banking seems to still

have the good old boys mentality.Women have been viewed as

employees to do the work in a

banking world, but not be part ofthe leadership team.

There is always pressure to

produce.

Not personally, but gender

bias is present, dependingon the culture of the

organization and the region.

It still exists, we have on

begun to break through.Equal pay and the option

upward mobility for wom

remains an issue.

Candidate 3

Young, single

Banking is typically a male

dominated industry and executives

Not personally, but it does

exist. As a female, you are

The glass ceiling exists.

women, we are limited b


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mom early in her

career.Remarried.

Banking

professional.

(male or female) do not like smart

women. So even as a female, itshard to find a good balance among

peers.

already viewed as the

under gender so thepressure is there to produce.

gender and to some exten

glass ceiling concept. Wseem to always be reachi

and striving without addi

any additional cracks to t

ceiling.

Candidate 4Divorced mother

of two.Professional atpower company.

There were two phases during my

careerhaving children and

returning to work. As you plan tohave a child, you think youve gotthis, you can be a wife, mother,

and have a career. During

maternity leave, I rememberthinkingI cant do this! How can

I leave my child? The second

phase was not always being able toattend the kids events and the

multi-tasking that comes with

having a career and family. Male

counterparts do not take on thesesame responsibilities along with

female counterpartshis spouse is

trying to juggle the same balls inthe air that I am!

Overall, no. However, your

field plays a role in this

ratio of men to women, yourpersonal interactions withothers and your bosss

management style. I have

noticed that I have becomeone of the more mature

female managers and the

younger females do notalways appreciate my

seasoned approach and will

gravitate towards the male

managersto impress, etc.Except when they need

assistance, they will come to

the female managers.

I think we are doing a go

at the management level

fairly good job at the senlevel, and we are still in dominated world at the C

level.

Candidate 5Married with

three children.

Communicationmanager for

large auto

manufacturer.

As I continue in my career and intomanagement positions, the number

of females has drastically dropped.

While I am considered an expert inmy field at my organization, there

is a glass ceiling. At our

organization, there are only a fewfemales in middle management andnone in upper management.

I don't believe sointentionally, but through an

organization with no

females in uppermanagement, I do believe it

exists.

I do believe it has beencracked over the years, b

not broken.

Figure I Women in the Workplace Interviews

comm 317 mini research project

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