Gender at Work

Paper Summary:

This article concerns the gender bias that most policy makers seem to have. The writer discusses the blatant sex typing and discrimination of women at work in spite of the fact that it is possible to prove that women are at par with men in performing any job well. In this article the writer examines the 'Social Security Act' of 1935 and looks at its effects. The writer argues that gender bias has existed from time immemorial and although no one person would be able to offer an immediate solution to the problem, perhaps awareness could be one solution. The writer concludes that while women have to bear the label of being dependent on their men, in order to avail of pensions and other benefits in their old age, they also have to tolerate a lower pay scale and other sex typing.

From the Paper:

"At no other time was the Act attacked than during the seventies, and the reason for this may have been that in order for the government to decide on who exactly would be eligible for benefits, legislators would have to agree upon who was a worker, and who was not, and these arguments were unfortunately based on the ideologies of race and freedom, and also on gender. During the 1930s, most old people needed relief, and this was brought in by the American Association for Old Age Security, which would provide aged persons with two hundred dollars every month to spend as they wished, but this legislation brought in a feeling of dependence and insecurity, and to combat this, insurance was brought in. according to this plan, ageing workers would have to be removed form the workforce, but with dignity, and therefore, policy makers created a program that would be more in relation to work, and not to citizenship."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Kessler-Harris, Alice. 2004. Designing Women and Old Fools: Writing Gender into Social Security Law In Women's America: Refocusing the past, edited by Kerber Linda K and Jane Sherron De Hart, 435-447. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Milkman, Ruth. 2004. Gender at Work: The Sexual Division of Labor during World War II In Women's America: Refocusing the past, edited by Kerber Linda K and Jane Sherron De Hart, 466-477. New York: Oxford University Press.

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