Women "becoming" men in the workplace

Recently, there has been discourse in the field of feminist sociology, wherein women who strive to succeed in the workplace often attempt to cast off the perceptions that colleagues have of them as a woman – for instance, not starting a family, etc. and instead focusing full-time on their career. By conforming to the expectations that the workplace has for a man, do you believe that this approach is problematic, or that it promotes the deconstruction of gender roles?

If anyone is interested, Gillian Ranson's No Longer "One of the Boys": Negotiations with Motherhood, as Prospect or Reality, among Women in Engineering is a good, short read and is available on the UBC online library.

I think that this approach is problematic because forcing women to act like their male colleagues in the workplace reproduces patriarchal gender roles which relates to Engel's discussion of patriarchal society wherein the subordination of women has been reinvented over time but never abolished. This approach perpetuates patriarchal gender roles because it suggests that only men truly belong in the public sphere and thus, women cannot achieve success and acquire recognition in the workplace unless they act like males and deny their unique qualities as females. Moreover, this approach is problematic because it fails to acknowledge how unpaid work within the family by mothers constitutes as labor of significant social value that is on par with paid employment and hence, serves to further accentuate the inferior social status of women and motherhood.

I also agree that it is problematic because women are forced to be acting like men with their roles in society because men are suppose to be the ones who do better and women would always come second. Mothers/women definitely take the role of the double shift with balancing labor in paid work as well as having to take care of her own family which is also part of another labour because she has to handle all that. Women's status in society need to be recognized and not compared to with men as women need to take a stance for their roles in society and should not try to become "men" while in the work place.

I agree with Beverly that the approach is problematic as it perpetuates gender roles, but I also think that it encourages the notion that women who choose to focus their efforts on climbing up the career ladder are viewed as more successful and held in a higher regard than women who choose to be homemakers. Feminism today has a strong emphasis on women being strong, independent figures, often neglecting and excluding those that choose to conform to traditionally feminine roles such as staying home and taking care of children.

I also think Engel's Patriarchal Family is excellent in highlighting the ways in which this approach is problematic. Like what many of you said, women's subordination would continue to exist but the form in which this suppression could takes place would look differently. Having said this, encouraging and rewarding women to adopt stereotypical qualities and characteristics of what it means to be a "man" as a way to become successful in the public sphere reinforces these very same qualities as model traits for desirable and worthy workers. More specifically, rewarding women for spending less time from the home would further marginalize or condemn other women who are engaged with housework as unworthy or unreliable workers. A lot of employers are hesitant to provide higher paying positions to women because they assume that the woman will not commit to her career after childbirth. This assumption, again, is rooted in the idea that women are naturally bound to the house, therefore the women will eventually return to her "natural duty". The best way to radicalize the idea where housework is essentially a woman's primary responsibility, is to provide equal amount of paid leave, specifically for child care, for both men and women.

I remember reading the linked article from another sociology class! I do believe that women entering into workplace as "conceptual men" is not only problematic but highly inefficient for both the workers and the employers. Considering that many women go through pregnancy and childbirth at one point in their lives, the status as conceptual man is extremely temporary and easily taken away. The fact that various corporations and institutions are setting the default worker as males and give female workers the ultimatum to choose between continuing on with the conceptual man status by sacrificing family life or giving up their professional career in order to become a mother reflects how unequal our society is towards women.

I agree with the opinions that women have different standing point in the society; women's domestic unpaid works are often neglected and invisible, while socially acknowledged/paid works done by most men are more valued and given larger attention. Putting women in the same position and expecting them to work in a same way as men are not equality. I believe egalitarian society is where all kinds of works are shared by both genders without stereotyping a specific gender's job as well as where no limitations or blockages like glass-ceiling targeting a certain gender to be prevented to join or move onto higher positions. Rather than demanding one gender to act like the other.

It's interesting to consider "not starting a family and focussing full-time on their career" as not feminine. I feel that that has only come to be defined as "not feminine" by virtue of it being valid and compatible form of femininity that patriarchal hegemony dismisses as being "not actually feminine" because it is a reality that goes against patriarchal thought that women "can't do these things". However, it is indeed important to allow multiple forms of people with many different forms and types of expression of femininity to be able to pursue a career (like, obviously). I feel like it honestly involves re-defining gender by traits and acceptability, eg. defining talking loud and sometimes over people in the workplace as a masculine thing (in our society, it is implicitly defined as such), and instead either define this behaviour as something that is gender neutral, or inexcusably rude.

I also agree that this approach is quite problematic as it shows inequalities that still occur and continues to only strengthen the idea of gender roles. For example, the STEM fields have long been male dominated professions and only recently has their been a bigger push for women to join this field. If the idea is perpetuated that women must conform to the standards of men or the fact that they must give up certain things, it only increases the inequality between the genders and decreases the level of women joining the certain field. As well as that, it would also create a divide between women who have decided to further their careers and those who have decided to stay at home. Thus, it only increases the idea of gender roles and the grip of patriarchy in today's society.