Blog 14

Britton says the theory of gendered organizations states that "we should see organizations not as neutral organisms infected by the germs of the workers' gender identities but as sites in which these attributes are present in preexisting assumptions and constructed through ongoing practice." (p. 3). In chapter two she notes that prison work was tailored to the male body, which demonstrated no reproductive "risk". Women were kept separate and only given the unprofitable work, such as sewing for the officers or inmates. The entire notion of prison is male-focused, which supports that prison cannot be interpreted as neutral. Organizations are gendered throughout. Male and female workers contribute to gendered organization through agency by duplicating themselves in terms of gender and attributes. Structure happens with policies that may uphold beliefs about gender differences, even if they're minor. On the level of culture, we view different organizations as gendered. For example, most people think of a police officer as male, or a judge as male. CEOs are generally assumed men. This can even spill over into hiring practices, as employers may look for certain qualities that uphold these gender ideologies. When Britton says that organizations are gendered at the level of structure she means that the very concept of work and home life doesn't exist. It's work life and then whatever else, but that's not for the employer to think about. Originally when most women were unemployed at home taking care of children this probably worked very well. However, the idea hasn't changed much to adapt to working women. Even though more women are working they are also still the main caretakers. Therefore when the employer doesn't associate at all with her private sphere, the public sphere may suffer in the end. An example of this mentality changing is a workplace that has a daycare on campus. USAA is one such company.