These inequalities exist for a variety of reasons. Historical stereotypes and negative views of women have perpetuated sex segregation in the workplace. Men have always been seen as the strong, dominant, intelligent half and are obviously best qualified

2B. The sex segregation found in society is well represented in Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed. Ehrenreich applies and gets a number of jobs that are typically female. As a waitress, a maid, and a retail worker, she is presented with the common scenario that the lower paid, lower status workers are all female, and as the rank goes up, so do the number of men. All of the maids in her company were female while the supervisor was male. All of the waitresses were female while most of the cooks were male. And lastly her retail co-workers were predominately female while the management was male.

Since men have traditionally been sees as the breadwinners, and are assumed to be taking care of their family’s financial needs, women are not seen as having to work. If a women chooses to work, it must be for extra money to be spent on non-essentials – beyond the basic needs of the family. Seen in this light, it is not necessary to pay a woman enough to support a family, because they are not assumed to have the responsibility to do so. Men are also seen as a more long-term, stable investment to an employer since mothers, not fathers, tend to leave work or need time off for family care; both planned, such as having a child, and unplanned, such as the illness of a child or other family member. This means men are seen as more “valuable”

Some topics in this essay:
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