An Unfair Working Enviroment Essay Research Paper

An Unfair Working Enviroment Essay, Research Paper In April of 1987, I acquired a job in a company which I percieved to be, at that time of my life, very much a modern-day work environment. I was sixteen years old at the time, and was hired as a bagger for Safeway Stores, Inc. The individual who hired me was a middle-aged, Caucasian male who was the store manager at the time. Safeway prides itself on the fact that it is an equal opportunity employer, discriminating against no one race or gender for employment opportunities. This was evident to me at my young age, as half the employees that I began working with were females, however the percentage of Caucasians working at that store was about 90%. As time went on, I grew close to the manager that hired me. Since I was a bagger

making only $6.00 an hour I was cheap labor for him, so he assigned to me all the various tasks in my job that were within the limits of mg union contract, and some that were aboue them. Through completion of uarious tasks with this man, as well as deuelopment of my personal relationship with him, I came to see first-hand the preconceiued notions that this man held towards the female gender in the workplace in general. Briefly, this man had little faith in women’s al3ility @n the workplace, and emploged them out of necessitg. I found through my experience there, that many of the male emplogees adhered to similar misconceptions about women in the work enuironment.Four!jears and two managers later, a class-action lawsuit was brought against Safeway Stores Inc. for its

discriminators practices against women regarding managerial positions. When the lawsuit was finalized, Safeway embarked on a campaign to emplog female store managers. Mg manager at the time was quickly transferred out, and a young woman named Sharon was suddenly my boss. We were entering a new era with Safeway, and thereception of a female manager was slow with mg co-workers. I was working with people that had worked with this compang for years and gears of their llues, and all of them had neuer worked under a female manager.Sharon had her own way of doing things, quite different from all the male store managers that had preceded her. This met with hostile reception from most of my male co-workers. I Personally felt that her wag of doing things was far more efficient

tha&,,’@he male store managers I had worked for preuiousig. For a couple years after the inception of female managers, this topic was the center of conuersation among male as well as female Safewag employee’s. It is important to note that Sharon was an ehtremeig attractiue, intelligent, and proficient woman. Many of my male co-workers, while they had their own misconceptions about the way women do things, were hopelessly in loue with her.R year later, a scandal followed. Sharon had had sehual relations with one of my male co-workers. She was quickly transferred and demoted, and the male inuolued was transferred to another store. The conuersations that followed regarding women in leadership positions were rich with misconceptions and gender stereotypes regarding women in

the workplace. This experience with a female manager is what sparked my interest in gender based seH role stereotypes. The following is an analysis that will discuss the deuelopments that led to women’s place in the modern work enuironment, a brief look into the psychologg of prejudice, the impact of gender stereotypes and cross-seh relationships in the work environment, gender stereotypes and effective leader behauior, and management perceptions of occupational gender stereotgpes.Rs earill as 1776, Rbigail Rdams wrote a letter to her husband John who was attending the Continental Congress to help write the Declaration of2.Independence. In that letter Rbigail wrote, “Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies,