Social Role Theory
Social role theory may explain one reason for why occupational sexism exists. Historically women’s place was in the home, while the males were in the workforce. This division consequently formed expectances for both men and women in society and occupations. These expectances in turn gave rise to gender stereotypes that play a role in the formation of sexism in the work place, i.e., occupational sexism.
According to a reference there are three common patterns associated with social role theory that might help explain the relationship between the theory and occupational sexism. The three patterns are as follows:
- Women tend to take on more domestic task;
- Women and men often have different occupational roles; and
- In occupations, women often have lower status
These patterns can work as the fore ground for the commonality of occupational stereotypes.
- An Example
One example of this in action is the expectancy value model. This model describes how expectances may be linked to gender discrimination in occupations. For example, females are expected by society to be more successful in health related fields while men are expected to be more successful in science related fields. Therefore, men are discriminated against when attempting to enter health related fields, and females are discriminated against when attempting to enter science related fields.
The forefront for this model is based on an individual’s aspirations towards a career. These aspirations in turn led to expectances of successful careers. However, socialization trumps the effects of personal aspirations and expectations, because socialization has the tendency to shape individuals self-perceptions. Therefore, when a man enters a stereotypic female career, his socialized self-perceptions might influence him to be more aware of possible occupational sexism (and the same applies to women).
Read more about this topic: Occupational Sexism
Famous quotes containing the words social, role and/or theory:
“In bourgeois society, the French and the industrial revolution transformed the authorization of political space. The political revolution put an end to the formalized hierarchy of the ancien regimé.... Concurrently, the industrial revolution subverted the social hierarchy upon which the old political space was based. It transformed the experience of society from one of vertical hierarchy to one of horizontal class stratification.”
—Donald M. Lowe, U.S. historian, educator. History of Bourgeois Perception, ch. 4, University of Chicago Press (1982)
“The trouble is that the expression ‘material thing’ is functioning already, from the very beginning, simply as a foil for ‘sense-datum’; it is not here given, and is never given, any other role to play, and apart from this consideration it would surely never have occurred to anybody to try to represent as some single kind of things the things which the ordinary man says that he ‘perceives.’”
—J.L. (John Langshaw)
“Won’t this whole instinct matter bear revision?
Won’t almost any theory bear revision?
To err is human, not to, animal.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)