After listening to our discussions in class this week,
I recalled an instance at my place of work that I think falls in line with the
topic of home and the presumed unwritten female and male roles. I have worked
at the same retirement home since high school, and with that I have heard
discussions about various topics from an elder’s perspective. I was kind of
surprised at the response I heard from a group of ladies between the ages of 85
and 95 about the new hire for the director of housekeeping position. The current
housekeeping staff and former director are all female. However, with the
departure of the director this past summer, the company had to hire someone
else for the position. The new housekeeping director happens to be a male. I
had overheard a group of ladies conversing about their shock that management
would even consider hiring a male for the position. This group of ladies had the
opinion that housekeeping is deemed “women’s’ work” and basically assumed that
the new director would not know anything about housekeeping. The company has
various retirement and assisted living facilities throughout the state and promotes
inclusivity and is very progressive with the changing times. While the company
doesn’t stereotype or discriminate towards anyone for any position, the
residents within the communities still see distinct roles for females and males
within a household setting. I’m curious if the residents will become accustomed
to and accept shifting female and male roles in the household and work setting.
I found an article that includes a discussion about gender roles and the
article mentions how a traditional perspective on gender roles is declining,
however, older people continue to hold traditional beliefs on gender roles.
Wow, that is a super interesting experience that you had. My initial reading of your post left me feeling mildly shocked. Since I have been at college, a progressive, young place, I sometimes forget that everyone in the world does not hold the same perspectives as me. However, upon reflection, the residents' reaction is understandable. If those women are 90 years old, they were born in the 1930s. That was just ten years after women gained the right to vote, meaning that the residents you were working with grew up during a time when American women's right to participate in places outside of the home was relatively new. Furthermore, the jobs that their mothers held were likely "pink collar," reflecting more domestic work. The idea that women’s role in society was to be a “homemaker” both in the house and out still remains with people today, and not just older folks. It will certainly be interesting to see if the residents adapt, and, if future or younger residents will hold different attitudes.
ReplyDeleteHello Leanne! I think it is super interesting how you brought this occurrence into our class discussion! I feel that these comments come from the time period in which they were born. If they are in their 80s and 90s, they were raised in a time where male and female jobs were very segregated from one another. The “pink collar” jobs were heavily dominated by women, including jobs like housekeeping. While the men would work outside of the house in blue and white collared professions. I feel as though these stereotypes are instilled in them and they should be able to feel comoftbale with this new housekeeper as time goes on. I think its interesting that they say these things because my mom used to go into retirement homes to cut their hair. She would tell me about how the women would gossip about one another and talk about the men, haha! I am not surprised that these women said these things about the new housekeeper, I feel as though my grandma, who is the same age, would say some of the same things. Thank you for sharing, this was really interesting!
ReplyDeleteThoughtful discussion, Leanne, and great input from Madison and Isabel. They are clearly not accustomed to the shift in gendered role assigned to specific tasks. Like Isabel said, the idea that men take up perceived women's jobs is relatively new to them. Effects of this gendered notion of job are still felt today and can be seen in the temporary migration scheme in Philippine where all care workers and domestic workers migrating to Japan and Saudi Arabia are women. From this, the gender ratio for domestic work and care related work is 100% female to 0% male. On the other hand, if you look at labor migrants in "3D" sectors (1) dirty, (2) demanding and (3) difficult, all describes the labor-intensive, industrial and agricultural sectors, the gender ratio, in the case of Cambodian labor migrants in South Korea, is 90% male to 10% female. Hence, segregation of male and female jobs has played out in the overarching structure of the labor migration scheme where certain nature of the job fits a certain gender, and this notion will continue more or less. Surprisingly enough, in a journal I read in the Routledge International Handbook of Migration Studies about the Filipina care workers in the US and Canada, the Philippine government emphasized that the Filipina care workers posses a warm and caring personality better than care workers from other migrant sending countries, which is part of the marketing perpetuating the gendered segregation of jobs. In that statement, women are characterized to fit the highly feminine jobs associated with domestic related jobs etc. In the same vein, in response to the high ratio of female workers in the garment factories around the world, Nike outright praised women as they posses "nimble fingers, highly suitable for routined, factory jobs". That said, the picture of gendered jobs still plays out in the recruitment decision among prominent corporations like Nike, and it will continue to influence for more generations to come.
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