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2. Gender Discrimination at a job-interview
Date: 1997
What did you do?
Attended a job interview with a male hotel manager and wore smart black trousers and jacket. After making me wait 45 minutes before seeing me and numerous glances from afar, he stated I was not suitable, due to the fact I was wearing trousers.
Why?
School sent me for the interview for work experience. I wore trousers because they were smart and it was cold, unaware that wearing them would discriminate against me.
What have you learnt?
The interviewer epitomised the patriarchal society women have to contend with daily. Patriarchy is a structural system reflecting the culture around us (de Beauvoir, 1983) and HRM attempts to eradicate these enduring assumptions. However, no HRM surveillance system was in place here as it was a small hotel. Both prejudice and discrimination occurred; his patriarchal preconceptions of women, that they should wear an above knee length skirt, (in all probability, learnt through media socialisation), affected his recruitment choice. This led to direct overt sexual discriminatory behaviour He abused his position of power, breaking the Sex Discrimination Act (1975) by treating me less favourably through sexist preferences. Women are socially constructed as perceptually inferior in the power relationship as the ‘the other’, similar to Said’s (1977) east as ‘other’ opposing the west. Although legalities are in place to prevent violations, in practice it is often difficult to prove a violation has occurred
Feminists (e.g. de Beauvoir, 1983) apply patriarchy to gender inequality and these are not ‘a thing of the past’ (Bradley, 1999). Even since my experience, equality has not been fully achieved. Postmodernists and others can discursively project and try persuade us gender inequality and patriarchy are dead and buried, but in reality it is out there. We are a diverse group (Cockburn, 1991) and should not be categorised on ideal woman status, such as wearing or not wearing a skirt.
However, some are critical of patriarchy’s existence, or that the term is meaningless (e.g. Rowbotham, Segal & Wainwright, 1979; Mahoney, 2004). Perhaps they feel it is merely an academic term to stick a label on gender discrimination, as Lyndon (1992) controversially argues, patriarchy is an excuse for intolerable behaviour, poisoning men and women relations. However, feminist thinking is needed to keep the powers that be (mostly men) fully aware of issues. Concepts such as patriarchy are required in driving legislation or society may fall into ignorance of unequal relations.
How will this knowledge be useful to me in the future?
Realising now, daring to be different put me in a disadvantaged position. Although this occurred seven years ago, I would like to think this discrimination was a context-restricted (time and place) phenomena. However, considering the need for legislation revisions and the number of tribunal cases is noted, this still evidently occurs. For example, the Equal Pay Act 1970 still after 34 years fails to eliminate women’s lower pay and the Equal Opportunities new practice code in December 2003 shows the difficulties in breaking structural patriarchal assumptions down, as revised but similar guidelines have to be enforced. Gender discrimination and male dominance is perhaps more subtle now, for example, recruiting a woman wearing a skirt as opposed to another wearing trousers, but disguising it as another explanation for not getting the job. The stereotypical image is still a continuity (Bolton, 2004); what is ideal may change, but the same underlying assumptions are present. This is problematic, if I dare to be different again this may disadvantage me still, however if individuals like myself do not go against the status quo, how will women and other minorities ever change the system? Although generations of supposedly ‘new thinking men’ arise, patriarchy will still thrive as long as capitalism supports these norms; a cultural shift is required.
Furthermore, the discussion of whether patriarchy actually exists and terminology, informs me that I should be critical of academic concepts which originally I took at face value.
Sources
Equal Opportunities Commission Accessed 21/11/04
Dictionary Website Accessed 22/11/04
The Guardian Accessed 21/11/04
Bradley, H. (1999). Gender and Power in the Workplace. Basingstoke: Macmillan Press.
de Beauvoir, S. (1983). The Second Sex. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Cockburn, C. (1991). In the Way of Women. London: Macmillan.
Currie, E. (1999). Life Lines. Basingstoke: Macmillan Press.
Lyndon, N. (1992). No More Sex Wars. London: Sinclair.
Mahoney, J. (2004). Lecture Notes.
Rowbotham, S., Segal, L., & Wainwright, H. (1979). Beyond the Fragments: Feminism and
the Making of Socialism. London: Merlin Press.
Said, E. (1977). Orientalism. New York: Pantheon.
3. Bullying in the Workplace
Date: January 2001– August 2001
What did you do?
I was working in the pharmacy department at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary. For the last seven months I was there, I was bullied by my supervisor and consequently I left.
Why?
I left because the opportunity to study full-time education was there as an attractive alternative.
What have you learnt?
Bullying in the workplace is a popular political and media theme, as emphasised by the dignity at work bill. Firms are accused of not doing enough to prevent bullying . Difficulties arise in how to define the term (Bolton, 2004), identifying behaviours and problems of proof, subjective cognitive appraisals and interpretations between actors involved, as what is offensive to one may not be to another, will inevitably cause tribunal decision problems. Furthermore, how does HRM deal with it when divorced from the actual situation?
In my experience, constant surveillance and verbal bullying by my supervisor occurred. Although not apparently lethal, this hostility emotionally exhausts the individual (Neuman and Baron, 1998). This was not sensitive individual perception as some may suggest as I was conscientious and general consensus amongst colleagues was that she favoured male employees. Although she bullied across all female colleagues on the same hierarchical level as me, I was disliked as I answered back. After 308, I realise that actually I may have reversed the stereotypical top-down bullying relationship as my actions may have been interpreted by her as me bullying. Indeed, I recall making persecutory comments about her to my colleagues in front of her.
However, on balance my supervisor was not the only one at fault, I would argue it was a fault in the system of the NHS and perhaps many organisations. Many managers do not have diverse personality (e.g. sensitivity) management skills. My supervisor guilty of this, overtly discriminated in favour of male employees. When taken higher, it was dismissed as my personal problem un-accepting management authority. Instead of investigating the relationships and training the supervisors in people management skills (Solomon, 1990), blame was attributed to the individual in a blame culture context. No matter who is at fault, an organisation should not want to have unhappy employees whether bullying or not; this is a dysfunctional organisation creating a hostile environment (Caulkin, 2004). At the group level, Zimbardo’s study illustrates bullying is socially generated as a function of social roles we take on (Harper, 1999). Overall, most workplace bullying is psychological and so is a state of mind, however this is not to ignore that it is inherent in society as a real structural embedded entity influencing the actor, that may always be present as long as power differentials are.
How will this knowledge be useful to me in the future?
HRM are now only beginning to come close to dealing with the problem due to legislative gaze of the dignity at work bill threatening to become enforced, it will be interesting to see how this unfolds in future. Furthermore, as more women enter the workforce and if they enter higher positions, will bullying increase or disappear? From my experience, women may be just as offensive and guilty. Although a negative experience, I can reflect back on this and realise her behaviour led me on to advanced experiences at university.
In further roles I play in society, I will be sensitive to the complex relationships social actors have and these can not be merely attributed to the individuals per se, but an awareness ofcontext surrounding their behaviour is required. For example, social worker, cannot merely blame the child truanting, a wider analysis of their relationships they have with their peers, family, resources and so forth is needed. In agreement with Ackroyd and Thompson (1999), the social position individuals are in, affects how they are perceived. This is especially important for working with disadvantaged, perceptually lower socially positioned individuals.
Sources
27/10/04 Accessed: 30/11/04
Accessed 22/11/04
Ackroyd, S. and Thompson, P. (1999) Organizational Misbehaviour. London: Sage.
Bolton, S. (2004). Lecture Notes.
Caulkin (2004). Evolving From a City of Fear. The Observer: 1/02/04
Neuman, J. H., & Baron, R. A. (1998). Workplace violence and workplace aggression:
Evidence concerning specific forms, potential causes, and preferred targets. Journal of Management, 24: 391-419.
Solomon, M. (1990). Working With Difficult People. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
4. Job Advertisements in Malaysian Newspapers
Date: September 2004
What did you do?
Whilst in Malaysia on holiday I observed several local job advertisements. Most of them precisely stipulated the candidate they were looking for (global company seeking Malaysian male, 22 years and under). This would be considered discriminatory in the UK.
Why?
My boyfriend and I were interested in discovering if there were any job opportunities, with a view to moving there.
What did you learn from this in the context of OWT 308?
This is an example of widespread overt discrimination in terms of gender, age and nationality all promoted publicly and accepted as the Malaysian norm. Similar to the triple oppression in the UK of a black, working class woman (Bolton, 2004); in Malaysia it is a Chinese/non-Malaysian, female 25 years old plus. Malaysia is aiming for first world status, however they clearly have to deal with their structural discrimination in the labour market, particularly if they are to be major global players; preserving the existing status quo may violate their aspirations. Companies are clearly constraining opportunities for non-Malaysians and preventing a multi-cultural workforce which must be problematic as they are a culturally diverse country with 58% Malays and 42% of other nationalities. Perhaps if some companies in Malaysia advertise against the norm and incorporate diversity, this would inevitably provide them with media publicity and possibly enhance their company profile as being innovative.
Aside from this, in rising to their capitalist aspirations they are reinforcing the patriarchcal assumptions that as Socialist Feminists claim, go hand in hand (Sayer, 2002). If associational thinkers are correct, then what follows is developing economies have to resort to adopting patriarchcal structures or if they already exist, strengthen them to succeed as capitalists. Alternatively, perhaps countries such as Malaysia have not reached the stage to question the structural inequalities prevalent and women’s emancipation may only be filtering through now by incoming foreigners.
How will this knowledge be useful to me in the future?
From this example it is clear that workplace discrimination is not culturally specific to western countries such as the UKIn combining this example and the gender discrimination example earlier, these are suggestive that all kinds of discrimination exist across the world both geographically and across time. Equal opportunities are not open to all and this may be problematic if I wish to work abroad, certainly I would in Malaysia. Fluid global discrimination suggests that the world is still archaic and widespread inequality should be addressed.
Sources
Accessed 9/12/04
Bolton, (2004). Lecture Notes.
Sayer, A. (2000). ‘System, lifeworld and gender: associational versus counterfactual
Thinking.’ Sociology, 4: 707-725.
5. Disconnections Between Government Policy and Organisational Practices
Date: September 2004
What did you do?
In September I attended a meeting with the HR director at BAE Systems PLC, to discuss work-life balance. She raised the problems of the working time directive and its constraints.
Why?
To discuss my Psychology dissertation research.
What did you learn from this in the context of 308 ideas?
In todays economy, legislation has a direct impact on organisations and individuals, causing both problems and opportunities. Work-life balance as a currently debated topic illustrates difficulties in delivering this for all workers. Employers and employees have inherently differing interests and so each find it difficult to keep their side of the bargain (Thompson, 2003), however this can be extended to wider analysis to the government’s differing interests. Although aiming to drive economic growth and sympathise with employers, they also have to represent the employees interests as citizens. However New Labour’s business-friendly agenda imposes heavily (Roper, Cunningham and James, 2002).
The EU Working Time Directive (1993) is an example illustrating these disconnections of capitalism (Thompson, 2003). One problem ‘BAE’ have, is the difficulty in managing the amount of hours it’s employees work. Work life balance discourse was viewed by the HR manager as largely rhetorical and in its present form cannot work between the macro and micro worlds as many workers still breach the maximum hours per week.
Although blurring of work-life boundaries are evident, the control mechanisms regulating work and non-work life are disconnected. Individuals are active in the relationship (Bolton, 2004) between themselves, organisations and wider political and economic structures acting as a circular feedback loop, thus begging the question of who is in control?, (Thompson, 2004) as it is a multilayered process. Therefore, context is important (Bolton, 2004); where control over individuals arises, and what works in a medium sized company may not in a large multi-national corporation. Additionally, although the EU rhetorically possess control, in reality the British government has modified the directive so that some occupations can opt out if they wish. Although it may seem the EU and British political structure is imposing work life balance legislation on employers and employees, individuals and groups have been active in demanding fairer work practices.
What arises is whether HRM can manage disconnected work across spaces. ‘UK managers have less control over events’(Benyon, Grimshaw, ubery and Ward, 2002:299) and so have difficulties meeting new workplace bargains such as paternity rights.
How will this knowledge be useful to me in the future?
In a work situation, I will be aware of procedures and legislation that stipulate what should happen in reality but that this may actually differ in practice. For example here, workers may not want equal balance illustrating the disconnections in practice and theory.
If in future I am involved in workplace decisions, I will appreciate that mutual gain ‘win, win’ situations are difficult in reality, particularly where instrumental benefits are concerned.
Also, that the political, economic, socio-cultural, organisational and individual levels as a multi-layered analysis should be considered if possible, as they all impact on reality to some degree, rather than focusing on one aspect.
Sources
Accessed 2/12/04
Benyon, H., Grimshaw, D., ubery, J., and Ward, K. (2002). Managing Employment
Change. Oxford University Press.
Bolton, S. (2004). Lecture Notes.
Clegg, S. (1990). Modern Organizations: Organization Studies in the Postmodern World.
London: Sage.
Roper, I., Cunningham, I., and James, P. (2002). ‘Promoting family-friendly policies: Is the
basis of the Government’s ethical standpoint viable?’ Personnel Review, 32: 211-230.
Thompson, P. and O’Connell Davidson, J. (1995). ‘The continuity of discontinuity:
Managerial rhetoric in turbulent times.’ Personnel Review, 24: 17-33.
Thompson, P. (2003). ‘Disconnected capitalism: or why employers can’t keep
their side of the bargain.’ Work, Employment and Society, 17: 359-378.
Thompson, P. (2004) Lancaster University Seminar: 24/11/04
prejudice as prior opinion which prevents objective judgement ().
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