Feminization of the Workplace

(noun)

A label given to the trend towards greater employment of women and of men willing and able to operate with these more 'feminine' modes of interaction.

Related Terms

Examples of Feminization of the Workplace in the following topics:

  • Women in the Labor Force

    • Women in the workforce earning wages or a salary are part of a modern phenomenon, one that developed at the same time as the growth of paid employment for men; yet women have been challenged by inequality in the workforce.
    • Historically, women's lack of access to higher education had effectively excluded them from the practice of well-paid and high status occupations.
    • The gender pay gap is the difference between male and female earnings expressed as a percentage of male earnings, according to the OECD.
    • There is a debate to what extent this is the result of gender differences, implicit discrimination due to lifestyle choices (e.g., number of hours worked, need for maternity leave), or because of explicit discrimination.
    • In response to the pressure from feminism and cultural trends highlighting characteristics in workers that have culturally been associated with women, feminization of the workplace is a label given to the trend towards greater employment of women, and of men willing and able to operate with these more 'feminine' modes of interaction.

  • Second-Wave Feminism

    • Second-wave Feminism is a period of feminist activity that manifested in the United States during the early 1960s, lasting through the 60s, 70s, and 80s.
    • Whereas first-wave feminism focused mainly on overturning legal obstacles to gender equality (i.e. voting rights, property rights), second-wave feminism broadened the debate to a wide range of issues: sexuality, family, the workplace, reproductive rights, de facto inequalities, and official legal inequalities.
    • Second-wave Feminism radically changed the face of western culture, leading to marital rape laws, establishment of rape crisis and battered women's shelters, significant changes in custody and divorce law, and widespread integration of women into sports activities and the workplace.
    • Many feminists view the second-wave feminist era as ending with the intra-feminism disputes of the Feminist Sex Wars , which ushered in the era of third-wave feminism.
    • Second-wave feminism was largely successful, with the failure of the ratification of the ERA the only major legislative defeat .

  • The Feminist Perspective

    • At the turn of the century, the first wave of feminism focused on official, political inequalities and fought for women's suffrage.
    • In the 1960s, second wave feminism, also known as the women's liberation movement, turned its attention to a broader range of inequalities, including those in the workplace, the family, and reproductive rights.
    • Currently, a third wave of feminism is criticizing the fact that the first two waves of feminism were dominated by white women from advanced capitalist societies.
    • The relationship between feminism and race was largely overlooked until the second wave of feminists produced literature on the topic of black feminism.
    • Identify the main tenets of the feminist perspective and its research focus, distinguishing the three waves of feminist theory

  • The New Wave of Feminism

    • Second-wave feminism distinguished itself from earlier women's movements in that it expanded to include issues of sexuality, family, and reproductive rights.
    • Women's movements of the late 19th and early 20th century (later known as first-wave feminism) focused primarily on overturning legal obstacles to gender equality, such as voting rights and property rights.
    • In contrast, the second wave of feminism in the 1960s, inspired and galvanized by the civil rights movement of the same era, broadened the debate of women's rights to encompass a wider range of issues, including sexuality, family, the workplace, reproductive rights, de facto inequalities, and official legal inequalities.
    • Second-wave feminism radically changed the face of western culture, leading to marital rape laws, the establishment of rape crisis and battered women's shelters, significant changes in custody and divorce law, and widespread integration of women into sports activities and the workplace.
    • Specific recommendations for women in the workplace included fair hiring practices, paid maternity leave, and affordable childcare.

  • The Women's Rights Movement

    • Second-wave feminism is a period of feminist activity.
    • In the United States, second-wave feminism, initially called the Women's Liberation Movement , began during the early 1960s and lasted through the late 1990s.
    • Whereas first-wave feminism focused mainly on suffrage and overturning legal obstacles to gender equality (i.e. voting rights, property rights), second-wave feminism broadened the debate to a wide range of issues: sexuality, family, the workplace, reproductive rights, de facto inequalities, and official legal inequalities.
    • The second wave of feminism in North America came as a delayed reaction against the renewed domesticity of women after World War II: the late 1940s post-war boom, which was an era characterized by an unprecedented economic growth, a baby boom, a move to family-oriented suburbs, and the ideal of companionate marriages.
    • Compare and contrast the first and second waves of feminism in the United States

  • The Feminization of Poverty

    • The feminization of poverty refers to the fact that women represent a disproportionate share of the world's poor.
    • The feminization of poverty describes a phenomenon in which women represent a disproportionate percentage of the world's poor.
    • Increasing health services to women could, therefore, mitigate the feminization of poverty.
    • A large proportion of women are employed in informal workplaces, reducing the regulation of their employment.
    • This makes it more difficult for women to address workplace grievances and ensure safe and legal working conditions.

  • The Feminist Movement

    • The third wave, starting in the 1990s, rose in response to the perceived failures of the second wave feminism.
    • Such discrimination on the basis of sex is barred in the workplace by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and in colleges and universities that receive federal funds by Title IX.
    • In a series of decisions, the Supreme Court has ruled that employers are responsible for maintaining a harassment-free workplace.
    • Legislation such as this has helped to protect the rights of women in the workplace and at schools.
    • Compare and contrast the three waves of feminism in the United States and their historical achievements

  • The Feminist Perspective

    • In the United States, 82.5 million women are mothers, while the national average age of first child births is 25.1 years.
    • Feminism is a broad term that is the result of several historical social movements attempting to gain equal economic, political, and social rights for women.
    • First-wave feminism focused mainly on legal equality, such as voting, education, employment, marriage laws, and the plight of intelligent, white, middle-class women.
    • Although there was great improvements with perceptions and representations of women that extended globally, the movement was not unified and several different forms of feminism began to emerge: black feminism, lesbian feminism, liberal feminism, and social feminism.
    • In the United States, 82.5 million women are mothers of all ages, while the national average age of first child births is 25.1 years.

  • Women's Activism

    • The term "first wave feminism" describes the women's movements during the Gilded Age, which primarily focused on women's suffrage.
    • First-wave feminism refers to a period of feminist activity during the 19th and early 20th century in the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, and the United States.
    • Matilda Joslyn Gage of the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), resembled the radicalism of much of second-wave feminism.
    • The first wave of feminists, in contrast to the second wave, focused very little on the subjects of abortion, birth control, and overall reproductive rights of women.
    • This was the major victory of the movement, which also included reforms in higher education, in the workplace and professions, and in health care.

  • Gender and Social Movements

    • First-wave feminism refers to a period of feminist activity during the 19th and early twentieth century in the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands and the United States.
    • Second-wave feminism refers to a period of feminist activity beginning in the early 1960s and through the late 1980s.
    • Finally, the third-wave of feminism began in the early 1990s.
    • Third-wave feminism seeks to challenge or avoid what it deems the second wave's "essentialist " definitions of femininity , which (according to them) over-emphasized the experiences of upper middle class white women.
    • There is and must be a diversity of feminisms, responsive to the different needs and concerns of women, and defined by them for themselves.