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Gender Stratification: Mommy track, Glass Escalator and Glass Ceiling

This assignment comprises two parts. The first part discusses the concepts of mommy track, glass escalator, and glass ceiling . In so doing, four courses on the importance of equality among gender will be highlighted . The second part focused on the ways to diminish the issue of disparity in work place among women. The words mommy track used for the career path decided by work schedule offering mothers certain benefits, such as negotiable working time but regularly providing them with fewer opportunities for advancement. Women are discriminated against when the want to have children and society ought to force private enterprises to make allowances for childbearing. In sociological terms the mommy track is the action of employers discouraging women from goals in the work force due to the responsibilities of being a mother (Curiel 2008, Chuck N. Brandon P) . Mothers returning to work after maternity always find themselves placed on the mommy track. The feeling of guilty is always haunted them when they are going back to the job after having children because, not just they will face the prospect of being put on the mommy track but also more likely to be left off with the easier and lower pay job. They also feel upset by their busy career-oriented counterparts. The second obstacles that usually faced by the careered women is glass ceiling. The situation referred to as a ceiling because theres a restrictions blocking upward advancement, and glass which is literally transparent referred to the limitation that is not immediately noticeable. This obstacle continues to exist even though there are no clear barrier keeping women from acquiring a good job position. When there is such discrimination in workplace, they usually use an indirect excuse like spontaneous movement or sounds that upset the women. Mainly, this unseen obstacle seems to happen in more of developing countries. This is the barrier that keeps a numbers of women from obtaining and securing the prestigious jobs in the workforce. These kinds of walls make many women feel as they are not valuable enough to have the high -ranking positions. They also feel as if their employers do not take them seriously or maybe not see them as potential candidates.

The term glass escalator on the other hand means the hidden advantages for men in the female professions. Most studies of sex segregation in the workforce on womens experience in male-dominated occupation. However, men are less likely to enter female-dominated occupations than women are to enter male dominated jobs. The examples of womens dominated job are elementary school teac hing, nursery and also librarian. In some rural Texas school, they refused to hire men in the younger grades. Nationwide, about 7.5 percent of all nurses are male (T. Schaefer, 2001). The glass escalator will retain the men from getting a promotion because the employers think that the women cab do the certain job way better than men. In particular, women in engineering and blue -collar occupations encounter gender-based stereotypes about their competence which undermine their work performance (Martin1980; Epstein 1988). However, there always ways to diminish the issue of disparity in work place among women and other causes such as sexism and racism. In order to lessen the impact of the mommy track, there are a few steps that can be taken. First of all, women must be fully clear in achieving their goal or in another meaning, they must have a good plans pertain to maternity leave, make a fine leave plan to the management and also planned the date to return. A pregnant working women that are planning to take l eave have to make sure that outstanding projects properly changed. Learn from others mistake and be prepared even though sometimes this cant be avoid. Its a must for new mother to always have a back up plan if theres anything unwanted to happen to their children. It is also important for working mother to keep the line of communications open in order to avoid mommy track. An e -mail or short phone call to the employer and other important people is vital to make everyone know that you are still in the game . In the same way, we can also lessen the effect of glass ceiling by comprehend the significance of identity in minority success. One should study on how to blend their identity with the realities of workplace. The two most important things are self- awareness and self-confidence especially for men who work in female-dominated workplace. Besides, ensure your prospects are realistic and achievable. Some people will just blame others when they cant achieve their expectation and this will make you look not responsible for your action. Even though the biggest contributing factor is biasness, you still need to evaluate how you could

have handle things differently and determine what you will do in the future to prevent it. In addition, by a ctively seeking out for opportunities for training and education can helps in learning and build up the right profile of an executive. Constantly practice to develop communication, self-management and decision making skills because they are important for you to climbing the corporate ladder. Similarly, theres also ways to decrease the effect of glass escalator if we al l work together to lessen the gap of inequality between male and female . We need to do work that we really enjoy and jobs in companies with cultures that compliment your strength and personality traits to make it easier for us to tolerate the possible isolation, bias, prejudice and other barriers that we might encounter. We must always stay motivated and make sure people will notice our accomplishment in the workforce. To overcome class escalator, minorities must be extremely visible. Develop the ability to promote your skills and accomplishment so that people will always look at you as and important and reliable man. Once you know what to do to be visible and important, you will become in demand and the discrimination will slowly decrease. As for the conclusion, all the social stratification must be overcome in order to have a better and more develop country. A company will perform better if theres no sexism and discrimination. Like other forms of stratification, gender stratification can also be avoided if everybody plays their part in overcoming all the differences and the inequality.

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