Blog 14

Britton’s theory of Gendered Organization centers on the large and persistent wage gap between men and women workers. Women make up 47 of the workforce who work full-time and year round and yet they make only 73% of the salaries of their male peers. Now we have more and more single mothers who are raising children on their own playing the role of mom and dad and head of the household and yet because this head of household happens to be a woman she will make less money than that of her male co-workers even though they may be equal in the workforce.
Women have continued to grow in the workforce and integrate into formerly male dominated jobs and yet even with men and women working side by side in the same occupation women still continue to make less. “This difference is largely due to internal stratification; women tend to occupy the lowest rungs of the occupational ladder.” (pg 5) Britton gives examples using Attorneys and top administrative posts, and Prison Wardens. When we look at Attorneys we see that both male and female attorneys had to get an education, attend law school and pass the Bar in order to practice law and yet the male Attorney will make more than the female because she will be given the less important roles in the office such as family law, government law and public defense which pay less than that of corporate law which is a male dominated specialty.
When it comes to Wardens in adult facilities, including women’s prisons fewer than 10 percent are women. (pg 5) This I struggle with because early on page 2 its states that “It only makes sense that men are the natural guardians over men” and yet this does not seem to hold true for women.
One of the reasons that we see this trend of women making less that their male co-workers has to deal with the issue that women also have their other fulltime job which takes place in their personal life and sometimes we see these two jobs that woman hold working against each other now and then which is a factor that employers take into consideration when considering a woman for a job.