Gender, Career and Communication

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer looks at career choices and achievements as they relate to gender. The writer discusses that women's career development presents issues absent from the same kinds of strictly career choices made by most men. The writer maintains that a woman's choices are often determined by powerful social and cultural forces that shape her decisions in accordance with frequently false assumptions in regard to women's needs, abilities and aspirations. The writer concludes that a woman's career path is more often interrupted - and ultimately destroyed - as she sacrifices for the benefit of her husband or partner's career. The writer also notes that the prejudices that operate against almost all women are far worse for members of many minority groups.

From the Paper:

"Yet it is not only the women at the top end of the career spectrum who are faced with these pressures to conform to traditional stereotypes. Those pursuing career paths that require less education and training are just as much the victims of societal attitudes that may cause them to accept less-than-fulfilling positions, at lesser rates of pay, and with fewer chances for advancement. Married women, or women with living with men, regularly find their own career choices limited by those of the men with whom they live. These limitations are not directly the result of any discriminatory practices, or indicative of a pattern of giving preferential treatment to the husband, rather they are the result of the fact that the man still tends to be the higher earner in the household. It is for this reason that a couple, or a couple with children, will more easily decide to relocate for the sake of the man's career, rather than for the sake of the woman's. Necessarily this choice makes the woman's career secondary. Her achievement is placed on hold not merely by this one interruption, but potentially, by a pattern of interruptions that ultimately results in a vastly reduced opportunity for advancement and success. In these instances, a woman is continually starting over while making sacrifices so her husband or partner can advance."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Anderson, K. V., Bonewits, S. L., Mcdorman, K. C., Pierce, J. B., Procopio, C., Sheeler, K. K., et al. (2004). Conversation and Commentary. Women's Studies in Communication, 27(1), 88+.
• Bizzari, J. C. (1998). An Intergenerational Study of Three Gifted Women: Obstacles and Challenges Confronting Women of High Potential. Roeper Review, 21(2), 110.
• Brown, D. (2002). The Role of Work and Cultural Values in Occupational Choice, Satisfaction, and Success: A Theoretical Statement. Journal of Counseling and Development, 80(1), 48+.
• Joan Mendelson, S. F. (1990). Corporate Women and Social Change Corporate Women and Social Change. Amherst : University of Massachusetts Press.
• Johnson, M. K., & Mortimer, J. T. (2002). 3 Career Choice and Development from a Sociological Perspective. In Career Choice and Development (pp. 37-69). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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