1. GENDER & EMOTION IN
THE WORKPLACE
(CHAPTER 13)
Dr. Lora Helvie-Mason, COMS 404

2. Before you read…
 Consider why there is a chapter on gender
and emotion
 Explore what you EXPECT this chapter will
cover
 Reflect on your own experiences in various
organizations

3. Slow changes in the workplace
 Women earned 62%
of men’s wages
 47% of mothers with
children under 18
worked outside the
home
 Men earned the
majority of degrees
 Women earning 80% of
men’s wages
 Equity increases at
younger age
 71% of mothers with
children under 18
worked outside the
home
 Women earn over 55%
of all bachelor’s degrees
and 60% of master’s
1970s 2008

4. Know the history
 Equal Pay Act of 1963
 Civil Rights Act of 1964
 Pregnancy Discrimination Act
 Civil Rights Act of 1991
 Family Medical Leave Act
 Millennial women are just as likely as men to want
jobs with great responsibility. The education gap
between women and men has significantly
decreased. The family structure has changed for
both men and women.

5. Slow changes in the family
structure
 The workplace isn’t the only aspect of our
society that has changed—so, too, has the
family structure
 Is this relevant?
 Absolutely!
 Work-family and gender policies are tied together.
 As our family structures have shifted, our expectations
and needs from our workplace change

6. Changing for employees’ needs
 Organizations are creating programs to meet
the needs of the diverse employees in their
care.
 On-site daycare
 Flextime
 Various hours
 Dependent care
 Flexible spending accounts
 Employee Assistance Programs

7. Discrimination & Unequal
Treatment
 Only about 15% of senior management positions in the U.S.
are held by women.
 The numbers decrease even more when you consider
minority women with only 5.2% of them holding professional
management positions.
 Daily and Dalton (1999) wrote about the glass ceiling, a
metaphorical boundary, based on misconceptions,
stereotypes, and beliefs that keep certain groups of
individuals from advancing into management positions.
 The metaphor of the concrete ceiling was later developed to
describe the plight of minorities who try to advance through
seemingly impenetrable barriers.
 Women tend to occupy caring professions or even caring
positions in professional fields.

8. Discrimination
 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
(EEOC)
 Sexual Harassment
 Quid Pro Quo
 Hostile work environment
 Sometimes, discrimination is less visible than we
may expect
 Consider the fact that women are often not included in
mentoring and networking opportunities (this impacts
promotion/raises, etc.)
 What is the difference between ―glass‖ and
―concrete‖ ceilings?

9. Pink Collar Work

10. Sexuality and Gender Identity
 Issues around sexuality and gender identity have become
more open in society, challenging workplaces to craft policies
that prevent workplace discrimination.
 2 million transgender professionals LEAVE work due to
discriminatory practices
 Sex – biolgoical classification
 Gender – culturally defined set of behavioral, cultural, psychological,
and social traits associated with one’s sex
 Transgender – umbrella term for individuals with non-traditional
gender identities
 Policies are shaping and changing as gender identity and
sexuality are more common topics in the workplace. Diversity
awareness/training, among other suggestions, is essential to
foster an inclusive work environment.

11. Emotions and employees
 According to Rafaeli and Sutton (1989) it is
important to know the rules for emotional
management in order to understand
organizational culture.
 Appropriate emotional management will help an individual
develop relationships and it can increase an individual’s chances
of achieving career success.
 Socialization research on a variety of service industries suggests
that organizations choose employees who seem able to conform
to certain emotional display rules.

12. Emotions and employees
 Manage Emotions
 Deep acting – emotional display that stems from more of a
conditioned internal state
 Surface acting – external state of emotion, it is a public display of
emotions
 Amplification
 Initiate or enhance public displays of emotions
 Suppression
 Reducing or eliminating public displays of
emotion

13. Socialization and Expectations
 We typically have a set of thoughts about how
an organizational will be. Slowly, as we interact
with its members, we learn what is expected
 Professional/Unprofessional
 Consider how socialization occurs within the
organizations you have been personally
involved in.

14. Emotional Regulation
 Emotional dissonance
 Strain
 Emotional labor
 Frequency of appropriate emotional display
 Attentiveness to required display rules
 Variety of emotion required to be expressed
 Burnout
 Socialization

15. Work-Family Balance
 Conflict
 Health outcomes
 ―Second Shift‖
 Domestic labor
 Career advancement implications
 Depends on occupations
 Stress
 Some positives may exist (Greenhous &
Powell)
 Consequently, although the policies do
exist in many organizations, working
parents are still conflicted in how to
balance their work and family lives in
such a way that meets the needs of
both their employee and their own
families.

16. Telecommuting and Telework
 Nilles defined as:
 Telework is ―ANY form of substitution of
information technologies (such as
telecommunications and computers) for work-
related travel‖ (p. 1).

17. Gender & Emotion in the
Workplace