In Barbara Ehrenreich’s book Nickel and Dimed, Ehrenreich explores the dynamics of social stratification by gender in working class America. Similarly to race, Ehrenreich shows how gender and gender roles are a part of a closed system in the American workforce. One can first see this early on in the book when Ehrenreich works as a waitress. Ehrenreich describes a dynamic in this work setting in which female workers are subservient to a dominant male manager who is very critical. She mainly shows this by introducing the reader to Joan,…
Lilly Ledbetter got a random memo in her mailbox showing her yearly salary and her men colleagues' yearly salary. She saw that she only earned $44,00 a year when her men colleagues earned $9,000 to $18,000 more than her even though they did the same or less amount of work. She saw that Goodyear was discriminating her based on her gender. She knew that just because she was a girl, she wasn't getting the same amount of pay as her men colleagues.…
Matthew Crawford and Barbara Ehrenreich both obtained a higher education; Crawford with a PhD in political philosophy and Ehrenreich in biology. The two are very educated individuals who were now experiencing, "lower class jobs" yet they have very different attitudes toward the line of work that they pursue. Barbara enrolls in working at a restaurant named Jerry's, she tells the reader all about her horrid experience. She applied to work at a restaurant like Jerry's as an experiment, to see how others live, the brutal conditions they undergo. She speaks negatively about the job, expressing the terrifyingly horrible conditions employees face on the daily. While Barbara experiences a nightmare, Mathew Crawford dips into the line of mechanics,…
Although authors Barbara Ehrenreich and Matthew B. Crawford both obtain a higher degree from a university, both continue to work low-income jobs for different reasons. Ehrenreich believes minimum wage work is challenging in all aspects of the employment. She has the option to remove herself from this lifestyle but continues to stay in order to gain experience for her book "Nickel and Dimed". Crawford on the other hand finds a deeper appreciation for the working class, and even though he has an option to pursue a higher education career with his college degree he chooses to work as a mechanic for the love he has for the work. With both authors coming from similar backgrounds it's interesting to analyze how their ideas continue to differ dramatically.…
Those who find themselves in the lower level of the social stratification often find it harder to progress and advance financially and economically. Take into the account of Ehrenreich's narrative when she illustrates the life of a minimum wage employee. In her text, she cites the negative experiences she has during her tenure as a minimum wage worker. She describes “The break room summarizes the whole situation: there is none, because there are no breaks at Jerry’s. For six to eight hours in a row, you never sit except to pee” (Ehrenreich 364).” This quote demonstrates a hardship that a lower class individual may experience in their jobs. In addition, her quote illustrates a bigger picture of our society that lower class individuals aren’t given the opportunity to pursue the American dream because they can are treated unjustly in their jobs. If these individuals aren’t even given their rights while working in the lowest paying jobs, then how can it be expected for these people to have an equal opportunity to pursue the AMerican dream? Equal individual opportunity is a myth because of the disparities and class distinctions within the social…
Barbara Jill Walters was born in Boston, Massachusetts on September 25 of 1929 to her…
My earliest experience with inequality happened in the first grade through the type of reinforcements my teachers would give us. “Do your homework and study or you will end up poor with a bad job like a janitor or a trash man,” was something that I commonly heard from them almost daily. I can remember the janitors during my primary school days were constantly looked down on and how no one talked or paid much attention to them. The most interaction that I would see other staff members have with them was when directing them to a spill in the cafeteria or when something needed cleaning. I would hear other teachers complain about their jobs to one another and in order to make themselves feel better they would say “At least I am not the lazy janitor.” In hearing this, I grew up with the mindset that those types of jobs were only suited for the poor and lazy. It was not until I started my career did I notice just how hard the janitors and support staff actually have to work. In watching a 60 year old woman riding up and down elevators, cleaning the insides and outsides of doors, and squatting on her knees to get the in the cracks just for them to get dirty again within minutes; did I realize just how wrong those teachers and I were. While talking to the janitorial staff is when I noticed just how unequal things really were for them. Their hours and jobs were in constant flux or in danger of being cutout all together while the tasks that were asked of them constantly increased. Anyone that had an issue was asked to leave because…
As we know it is very statistical for people of the dominant race to have a high position in the work force and usually people who have this position tend to look down to people who they believe are less than them. Especially in the workforce this is one place where it was always competitive and constantly having the knowledge that if you're not doing what needs to be done, you can easily be replaced without any hassle. In addition the factors that are related to work most prominently has three main components which include race, gender, and education. Unlike others some would disagree and say that I’m wrong and the factors to getting a job just deals with education, and in that manner they would be considered wrong. Moreover I say this because…
Occupational gender segregation contributes to stratification in society. Job segregation is structural; it does not occur simply because individual workers have different abilities, motivations, and material needs. According to Kendall, Linden, Murray, (2001) as a result of gender and racial segregation, employers are able to pay many visible minority males and female less money, promote them less and provide fewer benefits. If they demand better working conditions or wages, workers often are reminded of the number of individuals who would like to have their…
Throughout history, women have always been discriminated against in terms of work and finance. Since women first entered the workforce in the 1800’s during the Industrial Revolution, women have always earned less than their male counterparts. Although women’s movements have made great progress over the past several decades, there is a lot left to accomplish. To overcome the social injustices of antiquated gender roles, women have strived to advance their education and careers to help pave the way for women in the future.…
For example, it is considered as a women profession being maids, secretaries, nurses or teachers meanwhile, it is considered as man profession being managers, lawyers, engineers or professors. This creates the idea that women are not able to do a “man job”, we talk specifically about women due to it is where we mostly see the occupational segregation. Even though, the rate of women taking “man” jobs has increased, there exists another problem: the pay gap between men and women. As we talk before, socialization plays a key factor in this issue. Usually women are paid less for the same job that men do because of their gender. As a patriarchal society, women are considered less important than men, even if they have the same educative level as men. After 1980, the wage rate between men and women started to equalize; however, in the 2000’s women are still earning just 76% of what man do. Why have women been paying less than men when they have the same abilities? Some of the reasons are “the idea that women should be modest while men should promote themselves, women may negotiate less strongly for pay”, “women are concentrated in lower-paying occupations”, “employers often do this out of a biased perception that whatever is done by women must be easier and not as important or the company” (The Sociology Project 2.0), even if there exist some laws that protect women against…
For many centuries, women have had to fight for their rights. In today’s society, women are still discriminated against in the workplace. Generations of women have sacrificed for woman today to have the opportunity to be able to have a voice on what they want to do in life. In the workforce, women make up 47% of the United States workforce (“Women's Bureau (WB) - Quick Facts on Women in the Labor Force in 2010"). This is almost half but yet they are paid less than men. Men are often bound to receive a promotion, transfer, and compensation before women. The broader problems of obvious discrimination against women in the workforce have been dealt with for centuries. Across the world, women are discriminated against in the workforce through family…
When people who have the same level of educational attainment and work experience are treated differently because of their gender: different pay levels for the same work or different job requirements for the same pay level. Efforts and achievements in the field of direct discrimination have been made in many countries by passing laws or establishing supportive institutions. The various forms of discrimination relating to occupational gender segregation are more subtle as well as more…
“ Freedom of choice in occupation and individual economic independence for women: How shall we approach this next feminist objective? First, by breaking down all remaining barriers, actual as well as legal, which make it difficult for women to enter or succeed in the various professions, to go into and get on in business, to learn trades and practice them, to join trades unions. Chief among these remaining barriers is inequality in pay. Here the ground is already broken. This is the easiest part of our program”. (Crystal Eastman…
Within the last century, there has been a phenomenal rise in the percentage of women that make up the American workforce. The relentless battle women faced as they fought their way into a patriarchal work force has subdued since the start of the 21st century, but – is the battle over? Are women now able to enter any field they wish just based on their abilities and skills or are they still inhibited by the previous century’s perceptions of women? Many women argue that this struggle still continues; they feel even in the most professional of working environments, they are constantly stereotyped and possibly discriminated against based on their gender. These discriminations can appear in many different forms and in multiple facets of the workplace.…