Page 338 - Essencials of Sociology

Gender Inequality in the Workplace 311

FIGURE 10.8 The Gender Gap Over Time: What Percentage
of Men’s Income Do Women Earn?

$80

70
$62,518
60
$56,187

$50,241
Income in Thousands 40 Men $40,367 66% 69% $39,046 $45,315
50
72%

$28,979
30
66% $32,940
$24,999
$26,547
71%
$19,173
20 Women
65% $20,591
$12,934
60% $16,252
$9,184
10 $6,598 60% $11,159
$5,434 59%
58% $7,719
61% $5,440
$3,296 $3,816
0
1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015
Year
Source: By the author. Based on Statistical Abstract of the United States 1995:Table 739; 2002:Table 666;
2008:Table 681; 2013:Table 717, and earlier years. Broken lines indicate the author’s estimate.

Amber, Katherine, Leticia, and Maria apparently draw a severe penalty. Naming your
baby girl John or Robert might seem a little severe, but it could help her reach the top.
(I say this only slightly tongue in cheek. One of the few women to head a Fortune 500
company—before she was fired and given $21 million severance pay—had a man’s first
name: Carleton Fiorina of Hewlett-Packard. Carleton’s first name is actually Cara, but
knowing what she was facing in the highly competitive business world, she dropped this
feminine name to go by her masculine middle name.)

Is the Glass Ceiling Cracking?
“First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes flex time and a baby carriage.”
—Said by a supervisor at Novartis who refused to hire women (Carter 2010)
This supervisor’s statement reflects blatant discrimination. Most gender discrimination
in the workplace, however, seems to be unintentional, with much of it based on gender
stereotypes.
Apart from cases of discrimination, then, what keeps women from breaking through
the glass ceiling, the mostly invisible barrier that prevents women from reaching the
executive suite? Stereotypes are part of the reason (Isaac 2012). It is common for men,
who dominate leadership, to have the stereotype that women are good at “support” glass ceiling the mostly invisible
but less capable than men of leadership. They steer women into human resources or barrier that keeps women from
advancing to the top levels at work
public relations. This keeps many away from the “pipelines” that lead to the top of a