GENDER QUESTIONS 2

Gender Questions

1. Watch Videos, ‘Work-life balance: balancing time or balancing identity?’ and ‘How
   to make work-life balance work’ under the Week 6 Content. Summarize the major
   ideas of how to balance work and family. Did you find any gender differences of
   presenters? Discuss your reaction of the videos.
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79tRTivyMSM&feature=youtu.be
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdpIKXLLYYM&feature=youtu.be
   In ‘Work-life balance: balancing time or balancing identity?’, the presenter, Michelle
   Ryan, argues that work-life balance is not just a matter of time but also how one feels about their
   work. Poor work-life balance has often been cited as one of the factors for underrepresentation of
   women in occupations such as law enforcement and military, surgery, scientific fields, and top
   management positions in organizations. According to Ryan, however, women’s
   underrepresentation in these fields is not because they often require working at odd hours but
   because they are male-dominated and, therefore, women believe that their sacrifices are unlikely
   to be rewarded in these fields.
   In ‘How work-life balance work’ the presenter, Nigel Marsh, argues that people need to
   be realistic about what constitutes work-life balance and how it can be brought about. He argues
   that there are some careers that are incompatible with the concept of work-life balance.
   Additionally, that governments and corporations are unlikely to bring about effective work-life
   balance policies because they are designed to get the most out of workers rather than to take care
   of their interests. Lastly, he holds that work-life balance should not just be viewed as workers

GENDER QUESTIONS 3
having more time to spend with their families and friends, but also having time to enhance their
spiritual, emotional, and physical well-being.
In watching the two presentations, there were slight gender differences between the two
presenters. Michelle Ryan mainly focused her presentation on the meaning of work-life balance
to women’s careers. She also sounded more optimistic and seemed to call for more radical
reforms to get more women in senior management positions in corporations and in male-
dominated occupations. Nigel Marsh, on the other hand, was more cautious, pouring cold water
on the idea that policies of corporations could lead to better work-life balance.
After watching the two presentations I felt that perhaps the issue of what constitutes
work-life balance and its role in reducing gender pay gaps perhaps needs more research. While I
have for long believed that work-life balance could significantly increase women participation in
all types and levels of labor, the presentation of Michelle Ryan in particular made me to believe
that perhaps more needs to be done than just increasing workplace flexibility and the amount of
time women can spend at home.

2. How do you define work? Is housework typically thought of as work? How has that
   definition had to change to recognize the work women do? What was the feminists’
   contribution to define the concept of work?
   I define work as services supplied by a worker in exchange for payment. Based on this
   definition, housework is typically not considered as work. Over time, however, housework has
   come to be included as work. As a result of this inclusion, the definition of work has also
   changed to include not just paid labor but also unpaid labor. This change was largely brought
   about by the campaigns of feminists who sought to raise the value and importance of household

GENDER QUESTIONS 4
work, predominantly performed by women, to a level of respect accorded to paid labor, which
has for long been a dominated by men.

3. What factors make it difficult for women to achieve equality in paid employment?
   What solutions to persistent inequity have been proposed?
   There are many factors that make it difficult for women to achieve equality in paid
   employment. One of them is childbirth and raising children which forces a lot of women to
   spend more time at home than at work. Another one is poor work-life balance especially in high
   paying occupations and job levels. Possible solutions to this problem include increasing
   transparency in payment so that everyone can see what their colleagues are paid. When it
   becomes clear that women are being paid far less than their male counterparts, organizations will
   be compelled to level the payments. Organizations can also reduce gender pay gap by improving
   work-life balance through making workplaces family friendly by providing childcare support and
   having paid maternity leave so that women do not have to penalized for having young families.
4. What does the feminization of poverty mean? Discuss the major causes of the
   feminization of poverty globally.
   Feminization of poverty is a phenomenon whereby women experience significantly
   higher poverty rates than men. Single motherhood has been cited as a major cause of this
   phenomenon. Most single mothers often have limited financial resources to take care of their
   children thus pushing themselves deeper into poverty. Women also have access to fewer
   employment opportunities than men. Most women labor is unpaid labor that leaves them with no
   money to improve their economic situation. Lastly, in many developing countries discrimination

GENDER QUESTIONS 5
prevents women from accessing education which significantly limits their economic
opportunities.

5. What factors keep men and women segregated into “masculine” and “feminine”
   jobs? Why do you think these divisions persist? What does it take to turn a job into
   a gender-neutral one? Can you think of any examples of where this has happened?
   Some of the factors that keep women and men segregated into feminine and masculine
   jobs include social norms and biological differences. Regarding the former, many men and
   women make choices of their occupations to prevent social stigma of being associated with
   either a ‘feminine’ or ‘masculine’ occupation. For instance, many men avoid working as nurses
   because it is considered a feminine occupation. Biological differences have also contributed to
   gendered work roles. For instance, men tend to be more concentrated in occupations requiring
   hard manual labor because they are generally physically stronger than women. These divisions
   persistent because of slow cultural changes and lack of deliberate policies to reduce them. To
   reduce them, there is need cultural changes so that there will be no stigma when a woman or man
   chooses an occupation that is traditionally not associated with their gender.