Women in the Workforce and there networks

Essay by devillsUniversity, Bachelor's February 2004

download word file, 7 pages 4.0

Downloaded 161 times

Women in the Workforce: There Networks

In the past, men were generally meant to be the bread winners in the family while women were suppose to be the caretakers of the children and home. Financial challenges, combined with better and expected educational opportunities, started the mobilization of women into the work force. Many colleges, universities, and Ivey league schools, once closed to women, opened their doors, making coed education dominant over single sex education. This all contributed to the changing definition and involvement of a woman's role in the business world. Many women sought work outside the home and started to compete for the previously male dominated occupations, but, despite all these changes and advancements for women, they encountered occupational sex segregation in the work force. Women found themselves channeled into female dominated jobs with lesser pay and fewer benefits as compared to male dominated jobs. (Drentea 1998) There is evidence that the roots of this discrimination can be contributed to the different job search methods used by men and women.

It is these different search methods or social resources used by both sexes that have helped to create goal constraints and sex discrimination in the male dominant business world for women.

"Search methods or network ties have frequently been described as social resources that offer valuable support, acquaintances, and information (Moore 1990; Lin 1982; McPherson and Smith-Lovin 1982; Campbell, Marsden and Hurlbert 1986)." While studies show that both men and women may have networks similar in size, the compositions of the networks are very different. Men have more "extensive ties than women, especially to powerful persons in work organizations (Moore 1990; Miller 1986; Brass 1988)." These extensive ties go beyond family and immediate friends and are considered "weak ties" in that these relationships reach...