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children. Yet research demonstrates convincingly that fathers and mothers are both
important to children. Should fathers be encouraged or required to take time off
when a new child enters a family?
How do you think children would be affected if both parents took time off to care for
them and to participate in raising them?
How do you think fuller involvement of both parents in raising children would affect
society?
References
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Chapter 10: Gendered Organizational Communication
Multiple Choice
1. The Lilly Ledbetter Act of 2009
A. bars employers from retaliating against employees who ask about pay schedules.
B. states that wage discrimination occurs whenever an employee receives
discriminatory pay.
C. overturned the “separate but equal” doctrine.
D. requires federal employers to provide maternity leave for all employees.
E. expands the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
2. When LaKisha does not get a promotion she was expecting, she asks her supervisor to
explain what happened. He tells her that the partners in the firm felt that the promotion
would have created a lot of pressure on her and they wanted to protect her from that.
The partners’ evaluation of LaKisha reflects which stereotype of women?
A. victim
B. mother
C. sex object
D. child
E. none of the above
3. The assumption that careers must follow linear, full-time patterns
A. is based on work-patterns of previous eras that assumed a typical employee was a
male worker with a stay-at-home wife.
B. leads many women to choose to forego having families.
C. negatively affects both men’s and women’s career trajectories.
D. correctly assumes that workers are most productive and successful when they
remain invested in and committed to a job for a long period of time and without
interruption.
E. has been rejected by most contemporary major corporations.
4. Brendan is struggling to understand how to use the new reporting software his company
has adopted. Rather than asking the IT director for help, Brendan keeps doing Google
searches to try to answer his questions. Brendan is exhibiting what stereotype of men in
the workplace?
A. fighter
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B. sturdy oak
C. breadwinner
D. athlete
E. cowboy
5. Brown v. Board of Education led to what efforts to redress inequities in the United
States?
A. equal opportunity laws
B. affirmative action
C. quotas
D. goals
E. sexual harassment laws
6. Equal opportunity laws
A. apply to groups, not individuals, that have suffered discrimination.
B. deal only with the present—not historical—discrimination.
C. are judged by results, not intent.
D. are the same thing as affirmative action.
E. state how many minorities must be hired, promoted, or admitted at an institution.
7. Anna and Ben are up for the same promotion at work. When it comes time to make a
decision, the management committee chooses Ben for the position because they think
Anna’s commitment to being a good mother to her children would prevent her from
wanting to take on more responsibilities at the office. Anna has just encountered what?
A. glass walls
B. FMLA
C. affirmative action
D. the glass ceiling
E. none of the above
8. “Glass wall” is a metaphor to describe
A. the invisible barrier to women’s advancement in the workplace.
B. a new technology that lets supervisors monitor employees.
C. the difference in pay that women and men receive for the same job.
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D. sex segregation of jobs based on stereotypes of women.
E. leave policies that discourage men from taking family leave.
9. Affirmative action laws
A. attempt to redress past discrimination for members of historically marginalized
groups.
B. apply only to individuals, not groups that have experienced discrimination.
C. judge organizations by the intent of their hiring, admission, and promotion practices
rather than end results.
D. sometimes result in unqualified candidates being hired, admitted, or promoted.
E. Mandate a number of people that must be hired, admitted, or promoted at an
organization.
10. Which of the following is a reason why women workers tend to lack mentor
relationships?
A. Fewer women and minorities hold senior positions in many organizations.
B. Men are often reluctant to mentor women for fear of gossip and innuendo.
C. Men often assume that women are less serious about their careers.
D. Some men are less comfortable with women than men.
E. All of the above.
11. ________ are policies that judge effectiveness based on intention rather than results.
A. Affirmative action
B. Quotas
C. Equal opportunity laws
D. Informal networks
E. All of the above
12. At work, Nick feels pressure to be a pillar of strength among his colleagues. When he
runs into trouble with a project, he feels like he cannot ask for help because others expect
him to be independent and doing so may suggest he is not competent. What stereotype of
men in the workplace does this kind of pressure reflect?
A. sturdy oak
B. breadwinner
C. iron man
D. fighter
E. glass wall
13. Women’s careers can be hampered by which of the following informal practices?
A. male mentors who attempt to impose male values and styles on women
B. workplace environments that focus on families and relationships
C. informal networks that require women to join men in games of golf and other sports,
activities most women do not enjoy
D. segregation into jobs that offer little or no opportunity for advancement
E. all of the above
True/False
14. Both Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin were judged based on their adherence (or lack thereof)
to the sex object stereotype during the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign.
15. Fortune 500 companies that have a strong record of promoting women to executive levels
outperform other Fortune 500 companies.
16. In the United States, companies are required to grant leaves to care for new babies or sick
family members as mandated by the FMLA.
17. Because men have dominated in the workplace in the past, many informal networks are
largely or exclusively male.
18. Affirmative action is a quota system that states a number of minorities that must be hired,
admitted, or promoted, regardless of qualifications.
19. The glass escalator is the idea that when women take jobs in male dominated fields, they are
often quick to rise through the ranks of those fields.
20. Topic or question should be authored by a student. See pages 7-8 of this manual for details
on this activity.
Identification
21. Workplace bullying
22. Maternal wall
23. Affirmative action policies
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not intent. Recent court rulings have upheld the constitutionality of affirmative action
policies.
REF: pp. 224-227
24. Lilly Ledbetter:
25. Equal opportunity laws
26. Glass escalator
27. Glass walls
28. Glass ceilings
29. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
30. Informal networks
31. Mentoring relationships
Essays
32. How might gendered stereotypes contribute to more subtle forms of discrimination practiced
in organizations today? Explain two stereotypes each for women and for men. Provide an
example of how they might be enacted in organizational life. How does each of these limit
opportunities?
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Mother—this stereotype may be applied literally or figuratively. Figuratively, women may
be expected to prepare food, listen, help, and support others. Literally, women may be
perceived as not “serious” professionals because they are expected to be preoccupied with
children. This may limit women if employers restrict their opportunities for experience and
promotions based upon the idea that work needed for professional accomplishments and
motherhood are incompatible.
Child—reflects a view of women as less mature, competent, and capable than adults. Often
takes the form of trying to “protect” women from dangerous or challenging jobs, which
often are of higher prestige and higher pay and thereby limits women’s opportunities.
Iron Maiden—derogatory view of a woman as independent, ambitious, competitive, and
sometimes tough. Although these behaviors are celebrated in men, they may be perceived as
unfeminine. These limit women by restricting assertive behaviors that often are rewarded in
the workplace and by providing contradictory expectations for women to be not too
unfeminine, but not act “too much like women.”
Gendered stereotypes—men:
Sturdy Oak—defines men as completely self-reliant. As such, a man should never admit
doubt, weakness, or ask for help from others. This may restrict men by reducing their
abilities to collaborate or ask for assistance.
Fighter—the stereotype of a man as a “brave warrior” who goes into battle, figuratively or
literally. Men are expected to be fully committed to work life, ruthless in business dealings,
and competitive. This may limit men through expectations that their work life is more
important than personal and family matters.
Breadwinner—one of the strongest stereotypes for men in U.S. society. Men are expected
to be able to provide the sole or highest income to support family. With today’s common
corporate practice of layoffs, frequently cited need for two-income families, and women’s
ability to earn higher amounts than their husbands; this unrealistic belief may lower men’s
feelings of self-worth by tying identity to earning power.
REF: pp. 208-214
33. Your Gendered Lives textbook discusses a number of informal organizational practices that
contribute to discriminatory practices in organizations today. Define and discuss two of these
practices that you believe are most damaging and explain why you believe this. Finally, pick
one of the methods to redress gendered inequity and explain how this solution would help
address the discriminatory practices discussed in your essay. What are the benefits and
limitations of this method?
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hiring, promotion, and buying decisions, so they are vital to professional success.
However, women and minorities tend to be less involved in informal networks since they
feel different or outnumbered.
Mentoring relationships—occur when a senior colleague helps a junior employee build a
career. Minorities and women have a harder time finding other minorities and women to
mentor them, since fewer occupy senior positions. Men may also feel uncomfortable
mentoring younger women for fear of gossip or sexual tension. These elements perpetuate
patterns where white men receive more help in career advancement.
Glass ceilings and walls—Glass ceilings consist of subtle discrimination that acts as
barriers to limit career advancement of women and minorities. The subtle discrimination
may take form of the gendered stereotypes (see answer to question 1). The term “glass
walls” is a metaphor referencing sex segregation in the workplace. Women tend to be
placed in positions that require traditional feminine skills, which often do not include
career advancement.
Students should provide an explanation of why they feel the two informal practices they
have selected are the most damaging and then pick one of the following means to redressed
gendered inequity and address a strength and weakness of this method. The answer should
clearly indicate how this method will address the informal practices they have addressed in
their response; this element of the answer may vary.
Equal Opportunity Laws—These are laws that prohibit discrimination against individuals
who are members of groups who have historically faced discrimination. The focus is to
extend equal opportunity to all within an organization. These laws would be unlikely to
address the subtle, informal discriminatory practices addressed in this question.
Affirmative action—These policies aim to increase the representation of women and
minorities in education and the workplace with qualified, although not necessarily the best
qualified, candidates. These policies are based upon the ideas that in order to redress
historical discrimination to groups of people, there should be preferential treatment for
qualified members of these groups. The effectiveness of these policies is judged by results,
not intent. Benefits of this method include addressing a legacy of bias against certain
groups, while still maintaining qualification standards and gaining the benefits of diverse
organizational membership at all levels of the organization. Disadvantages may include
difficult implementation due to a limited availability of qualified people from historically
underrepresented groups.
Quotas—Using a results-oriented focus like affirmative action, quotas aim to require a
certain number or percentage of minorities and women to be admitted, hired, or promoted
within an organization. A benefit of this method is women and/or minorities would be
guaranteed to comprise a certain percentage of the organization. A disadvantage is that
they may not be qualified and minority or female organizational members overall may be
stigmatized as having only received a position because of belonging to a disadvantaged
group.
Goals—Similar to quotas, but represents only an organization’s stated intention of
achieving a certain percentage of women and/or minorities. Goals have the same
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advantages and disadvantages of quotas, with one additional disadvantage in that goals are
not mandated. Therefore, failure to achieve a goal may have no consequences.
Diversity training—aims to increase awareness of and respect for difference. These
programs have an underlying assumption that organizational members are unaware of
subtle biases and introduce them to new ways of behaving and interpreting others. An
advantage of the program is that participants may learn to avoid unconscious
discrimination. A disadvantage is that participants must be motivated to learn and make
changes for the program to be effective.
REF: pp. 219-229
34. Your textbook discusses the effect of outdated norms for career paths on women in the
workplace. Describe what those norms are and how they impact women’s careers. If you were to
advocate for a change to these paths, what would that change be? Is that change realistic? Why
or why not?
