Blog #19: Media & Gender Inequalities

The media has a very big impact on everyday policies and practice in the workforce and with our countries youth. I think that a lot of the problems we encounter comes from the fact that the media gets to children at a very young age and leaves a lasting impression on them. The Democracy NOW video with Geena Davis stated that “3 out of 4 characters in G movies are male” and these statistics have not changed over the years. The images that are portrayed of women show women as being only concerned with shopping, fashion, and being thin; which adds to another problem with young girls: body image. Young kids see these images and they think that it is okay and that it is right. They grow up with these perceptions and throughout their life they reinforce the gender inequalities, it is a tragic cycle that needs to be broken.
When we take these inequalities that boys and girls grew up learning and we look at how it affects their jobs now, as men and women, the inequalities still exist. A person can pretty much take the statistics that the “See Jane” Foundation researched and apply it to the state and federal prison systems. The Democracy NOW video stated that 17% of characters in group settings children movies are female. That sounds pretty close to the amount of women that are working in men’s prisons. Geena Davis pointed out that the media teaches society to think of females as being worth less, and that their worth is different than males. This is also shown in prison work. The men who work in corrections do not think that women are capable of handling the violence that is associated with prisons. The men in the study associate womens lack of ability to control inmates with their physical size and strength. Sadly, a lot of the women also believe these sentiments (Bitton, 2003, pg. 170). The men also state that women should not be exposed to inmates masturbating or to their crude manner of speaking, but the women state that they are grown women and that “it isn’t anything they haven’t seen before”. These ideologies put women in a double bind. If they allow the men to protect them than they are reinforcing the stereotypes that women are not strong enough or physical enough to do the work. There are few women who go against this and say that they get paid the same as the men so they want to do the same work that the men do. Most of the women list their families as their priorities and this cause them to be over-looked for promotions or to not seek promotions at all.

Blog #18: Training

Prisons become a masculine institution when they try to establish gender-neutral policies. Many of the officers in Bitton’s study feel that their training has left them vulnerable to dealing with women inmates. While going through training, both for state and federal institutions, officers are being trained to work with male inmates. Not is not a direct statement that is made, but training is directed at controlling potentially very dangerous, violent inmates. Most women are not in prison for violent crimes, most women are not a flight risk once they are in prison, and have shorter sentences and “shorter criminal histories” (Bitton, 2003, pg 102). When officers are stationed in a female prison they are not prepared to handle the women. This leads to more leniencies in the facility and the chance for something more detrimental to happen increases. Most all of the officers in the study said that their training focused on the physical aspects of the job, which is one reason why society has previously sought to keep women out of prison work, especially male prisons. The problem with this is the sentiment that many of the officers have voiced that their job is more mental than physical. The prisoners use mind games to try and “one up” the officer (Bitton, 2003). Men prisons focus on keeping and enforcing the institutions policies. Women who work in men prisons also have to face sexual harassment from the inmates, something that they are not taught in training because it would not be gender neutral if they were to. Women officers also have to deal with their male co-workers who do not think that they should be there. When the women do not know options that are available to them it causes some when to leave their jobs. One of the things I find is that in male prisons women are actually able to keep the calm just by being present and how in female prisons the opposite is true. The inmates respond more negatively to the female officers than they do the male officers. All the officers in Bitton’s study claim that their training was insufficient compared to on-the-job training and that they learned almost everything they needed to know about prison work in their first couple of weeks on the job, some of that knowledge coming from the inmates themselves. I think that the state and federal institutions need to re-evaluate their training to incorporate the mental aspect of the job and how different it is to work with female inmates than it is to work with male inmates.

Blog #17: Lockup

I found the NBC documentary, “Lockup: Inside North Carolina Women’s Prison” to be very interesting. I have always had a fascination with prisons and gangs. The “unknown” really draws me in and the two are definitely things I do not know about. I noticed that the video only had one male correction officer that told of his experience. His concerns, however, were very much like the men in Bitton’s study. He voiced that when he comes on the block he always has to announce, “Male on deck” to let the women inmates know that he is there. He also has to be accompanied by a female officer at all times to reduce the chances of having inmates accuse him of sexual misconduct and the like. “Heavy D,” an inmate in North Caroline Corrections facility, stated that “they [the officers] do inmates and bring in drugs”. In Bitton’s study, the men also added that the women “whine” and use “head games” to get at the officers (Bitton, 2003, pg 122-123). They also state that “this is just how women are. If a women officer gives an order the women inmates are more inclined to question them and complain, but when the male officers give the same directive the inmates are more inclined to follow the order. Bitton says that this could because the women like seeing the men at the facility or it could be because they look at men in the stereotypical way of using brute violence.

Another similarity I noticed between the video and the study done by Bitton was the more lenient environment. Both cases told of an environment where the women were able to walk around and show public displays of affection with their partners, whether it was a “prison only” relationship or a way of life for the women. Both video and study spoke of officers having to tell inmates “to get some space” between lovers while in the yard or on the block. Both said that for some women the only way they can survive is by having these relationships because they need to feel like they are loved and cared about. There are penalties for having sexual intercourse between inmates, but the inmates have a system of looking out for each other. Relationships between inmates and officers can also arise and they can create dangers for the officers. In the video, the officers mainly stated that they have to remember that these inmates are in prison for a reason and they cannot get to close. In Bitton’s study, the officers say that if they start to get on a friendly basis with the inmates that the inmates try to take advantage of that relationship and get the officers to bring in drugs or other contraband to the prison. Plus, it is a prison and there is a possibility for violence at any moment. Both video and study also had officers say that the inmates are human and they deserve to be treated as human beings, but they are still inmates and are there for a reason. Annie Harvey, the Warden at the North Caroline Corrections for Women, said that “to get respect, you must give respect” and she tries to follow that philosophy.

African American and Latino officers had extra obstacles to overcome. Not only were they a minority among the majority of white male (and women) officers, but they also have to face a lot of negative racial stereotypes. A lot of the African American and Latino officers have to face ideologies that they should be serving time in the prison instead of working in them, even if they have never been convicted of any kind of crime. One particular black officer says that she does not look at race among the inmates. For her “the job is about everyone” (Bitton, 2003, pg 130). From the inmates perspective it can cause more issues. White inmates do not want to take orders from another man, let alone a man of color. The colored inmates view the African American officers and the Latino officers as trying to “be white”. This can cause more violence than is already present. At the same time, however, the officers in Bitton’s study also say that the inmates want to have the same stability as the officers.

The “Lockup” video showed many avenues the women inmates have available to them. There are vocational jobs and schooling to teach women a trade for when they are released and to earn their GED’s. There are the more common jobs that we associate with prisons, such as, license plate making and food sever. There are also women who work for tourist phone services who talk to civilians who are planning to take a trip to North Carolina. They make dentures and they have a cosmetology school for women. When women were not being obedient the officers would take away their privileges. For most women this was the only time they did not feel like inmates so they did not want to lose their right. In Bitton’s study the officers also said that they would threaten the women with a loss of privilege to get them to behave. In both cases the officers compare overseeing prisoners to babysitting children.

Blog #16: Gendered Pathways

Bitton begins chapter 4, “Paths to Prison”, by stating that “occupational socialization is a thoroughly gendered process (Bitton, 2003, pg 78). The paths to prison are no different. The occupation of being a corrections officer is not very lucrative and it does not set high requirements for it employees. Employees only need to be 21 years of age (some states have lowered this age to 19), have a high school diploma or GED, and have no felony convictions. Due to the high turnover rate the prison systems are facing officer shortages nationwide (Bitton, 2003). According to Bitton, most people do not choose to be a corrections officer, they just end up there. Men tend to come from male dominated jobs, such as the military, whereas women come female dominated jobs. The majority of the women came from clerical jobs, sales positions, and child care services. No, the paths to prison are not the same for men and women. Social networks have helped women come into the field of correction officer. When these women meet other women who work in the field they get a sense of the job and the benefits that come with working in a state or federal facility. When you look at the prison facility itself it reinforces the gendered society. Over 50% of women work in women facilities, where only 6% of women work in male facilities (Bitton, 2003). The pay is not that great for a corrections officer. Especially, if you look at the hours they work and the type of work they are doing on a daily basis. Correction officers choose to work in the prison for many reasons. At the top of the list is that there are not any other opportunities available. As a correction officer they are entitled to benefits they otherwise would not be able to get. They also have the stability of regular paychecks. Most of the women are divorced mothers who had to support their children and do not have more than a high school diploma. The men said that they wanted the benefits: retirement, insurance, etc. Once they were in the job they just stayed.

Blog #15: Women in Prison

Women’s prisons have seen worse conditions than male prisons during the early development of the prison systems. Women prisoners were seen as being a lot worse than male prisoners. In the 19th and early 20th century, it made perfect sense for the “horrible women prisoners” to be in the care of men. Unfortunately, turnkey officers were not qualified or educated to be efficient officers. The way they solved problem or issues was through the use of violence. In response to the violence sexual assaults against women inmates, the states brought in Matrons to supervise the female inmates separate from the male officers and inmates. These women were supposed to be “teachers, mentors, and examples” (Britton, 2003, pg. 76). Most women who worked in the prison systems had earned college degrees and were more educated than the men prison guards. The working conditions were horrible for women. They were required to live in the prisons as if they were prisoners themselves. They were on call 6 and a ½ days a week and were subjected to the same living conditions as the prisoners. Women are now able to work in not only female institutions, but also in male institutions. It was not always this way though. Previous ways of thinking included that women were not capable of being in control of male inmates. Arizona has opened the door for females working in the correctional officer field and many of them have succeeded and made their way through the ranks to be Lieutenants, Sergeants, and Wardens (Women in Corrections, http://www.azcorrections.gov/adc/history/Prisca_History_Women.aspx). In recent years, while the number of men going to prison has declined the number of women going to prison has increased dramatically over the past few decades. Arizona is no exception. It is ranked 7th in the nation for the incarceration rate of women in 2004, sending 87 per 100,000 women to prison (The Growth in the Imprisonment of Women, 1977-2004).

Blog #14: Theory of Gendered Organizations

Bitton says that the basis of the Theory of Gendered Organizations stems from the wage gap. The wage gap has been apparent since women have started going to work in the work place. Even when women are doing the same job as men they still make less than the men. For example, female correctional officers make 17 % less than their male co-workers (Bitton, 2003). Bitton uses this theory to frame her research questions by showing how the gendered society of America infiltrates the workplace and continues the cycle of women being in positions below men. It is something that is so common that most women are not even aware of the fact that they make less than their co-workers do for the same type of work. When women do go against the norm and work in male-dominated careers they are trapped in a job that does not allow them to advance or they choose to forego promotion so they can fulfill their family obligations. Public and private spheres become engendered concepts because the public sphere starts to mirror the private sphere in the workplace. For generations women have been responsible for the domesticated roles of family and home, but now women are entering the workforce and they are being forced into the same domesticated roles on the job. Women find themselves stuck in a position where they have to fulfill their required job task, just like their male counterparts, but they also have to take care of the clerical and secretarial jobs as well. The only reason this happens is because those types of jobs are seen as women jobs and are beneath men. Women are not able to work the rotating hours or the extra hours that employers value because they have obligations in their private lives that does not allow them to focus on their careers. If they do deviate from the norm they are ostracized for not fulfilling their motherly roles and taking care of the family. Laws have been implemented to keep women from being held back and penalized for their families, but they are not as effective as they should be. Maternity leave is not a guarantee. Women cannot be fired for becoming pregnant, but it does not mean that they do not experience being “pushed out” of their job. Women will never been seen as equals to mean if changes are not made and enforced. Women going to work in male dominated occupations are a start, but we also need to see the wage gap narrow until it is non-existent.

Blog #13: Prison Guards

When I think of a prison guard or correctional officer I think of a big, burly man with tattoos and scars and big bulging muscles. A lot of movies today portray the same images. The prison guards or officers are the most masculine of men who get rough and tough with the inmates they are guarding. A lot of the movies also portray these officers and guards abusing their power, whether it is for personal gain or just because they can. In these same movies, if you see a woman at all in the prison or detention center she is mostly likely to be sitting behind a desk doing clerical or administrative work. I have seen different depictions of women working in these types of jobs in the last few years. I used to see women who were correctional officers or guards as being depicted as “butch, short-haired, gun toting, man wanna-be’s and are usually ugly.” The women could not have any feminine characteristics and they almost always had a chip on their shoulders. Recently, I have seen a change in how women are shown in these positions. Now on tv there are shows that are all about women police officers and their lives. I believe one of them is “The Women of Broward County” or something of that nature and it is all about women police officers. It shows them as regular women who can be both masculine and feminine, they can be authoritative and enforcers, and they are very pretty women. These women are responsible for women inmates and detainees, but they are also capable of taking down big men. I have not noticed any differences in the way males are portrayed in male prisons or the way they are portrayed in female prisons. Actually, instead of abusing the inmates for personal gain in a male facility male officers or guards would sexually harass and force the women inmates for sexual favors in a female facility.

Blog #12: Job Segregation

I think that most of the occupational segregation that occurs is because of gender roles. “At Work in the Iron Cage”, states that there are three ways that the work place is gendered: through culture, agency, and through organizational structuring. Yes, there are laws that prohibit sex discrimination, but it is already in most people’s heads that men are meant to do a certain job and women are meant to do other jobs. Women are taught from the beginning that they are supposed to take care of the home and the family. They are trained to be in a “supportive role” instead of a leading role. Men, on the other hand, are taught to be the provider and the “natural protector” of the family. If they do not provide for and protect their families they are looked down on by society. These standards carry over from their home lives and find themselves embedded in their careers as well. When it comes to going against the grain, I think both men and women feel extra pressure. Will they be scrutinized? Can they juggle family and work? How will they be treated?

Men have always been in leadership roles and women in subservient roles. The work place is no different. Men are given jobs where they have more power, more responsibility, and more opportunities to advance. Again, women are supposed to “help” the man in their position when their own personal needs or desires get placed on the back burner, so to speak. I think that there are also a lot of people who are not ready to see women working hard long hours, both men and women, and this leads to more sexual harassment and more hazing in the work place. I think it can be seen as a way of “pushing” women out of male dominated jobs. Women breaking into male dominated jobs have the advantages of being more financially secure and advancing in the “man’s” world. In some cases, they also have the advantage of doing something they love. As far as men go, I do not think that they are really affected by women who enter male dominated occupations. I think back to my days in the Navy when I worked almost entirely with men and I do not think that having me on their crew affected them at all. Maybe I got lucky and was able to work with a great set of guys, so I did not experience any of the typical “female in male” occupational scrutiny.

Blog #11: Poor Working Women in the Media

I am not one for watching the news or staying up to date on current events. I do, however, love to watch movies. I think that a good movie that addresses the conditions of working poor women is Erin Brockovich. This movie portrays a single mother of three trying to find a job to support her family. What I like the most about this movie is that it is based on a true story. In the beginning of the movie it shows Erin coming to pick up her kids from the informal child care provider. The conditions were unsatisfactory to say the least. Erin went to pick up her children and no one was home, her kids were nowhere in sight, and she was left in a state of hysteria. When she got home she found her kids in the care of her biker neighbor and the only thing he could tell Erin was that “something came up” and the care provider just dropped the kids off and left. It actually turned out to work in Erin favor because she found a new care giver in the form of her biker neighbor who was great with her kids and was reliable. Many of the women in Chaudry’s study had to make choices of whether or not to leave their kids in conditions they did not think were the best. Another aspect of the movie that touched on poor working women was when Erin took her children out to eat because she had no food in the house. While at the restaurant the kids ordered their deluxe cheeseburgers, but when it came around for Erin to order she just order water. When the kids asked their mom why she was not eating she lied to them and said that her “lawyer took her out to a fancy lunch to celebrate…” (Erin Brockovich movie). Erin Brockovich’s story ends with a happy ending. No it does not portray her on the welfare system, but it does not mean that she did not struggle to make ends meet and to provide for her children.

Blog #10: Strategies

Chaudry describes different strategies that the women in the study used to survive after the welfare reform. I do not see the strategies describe as being actual strategies that the women implemented to make child care and work issues work. The way I see it the women did what they had to do to get by. Sometimes this meant working their work schedules around day care schedules and other times it meant working day care schedules around work schedules. In some cases it meant leaving a job, either temporarily or indefinitely, because the child care did not meet the expectation of the mother. Going by Chaudry’s use of the term “strategies”, however, the women had many decisions to make. Sara for example, made the decision to leave her mother’s home and become homeless. She did not want to subject her daughter to the emotional and psychological abuse that she was feeling while living there (Chaudry, 159). For Sara, her strategy was to give Cristina as much stability she could with the Girls and Boys child care service. Sara may not have known where they were going to lay their heads at night or where the system would lead them, but she knew that from 8:30 to 5:45 everyday her daughter would have the stability she needed. Not all mothers took this road.

Some mothers relied only on kin based care. This entailed sharing food and clothing, financial obligations, and living spaces (Chaudry, 164). This method usually proved to be unreliable and did not offer the developmental elements that mothers sought for their kids. Some of the mothers were utterly alone and did not have family to ask for help from. I think that these mothers showed the most perseverance. They would go from center to center, waiting list to waiting list, and would not stop until they got the care they needed. Many of the women were informed from the beginning and sought subsidized care from day one. The lag time in between actually receiving the subsidy, however, left them frantically searching to get the care they needed right away. The last strategy women turned to was Agency-Based Care. These agencies would not only help the mothers find child care, but they would also help the women find work and internship programs to better their lives. This all makes it sound a lot simpler than it actually was. Everyday living and obstacles that came their way added to the tribulations that had to be overcome. Day care times and work hours did not always work out. Late payments and mistakes on the agencies part caused women to have to seek other child care options at the last minute. Jobs were lost, trust was broken, sick children had to be taken care. These women fought day in and day out to get everything accomplished. Without work there was no child care, and without child care there was no work. These mothers had to find a way to balance both because without one, they could not get the other.

There are many similarities between Chaudry’s findings and recommendations for welfare reform. I think that the most important one is to make the process simpler. These women lost too many work hours and sometimes jobs from having to make repeated trips to the agency offices. This suggestion coincides with Chaudry’s suggestion to allow mothers to work continuously (Chaudry, 192). Proving aid during transitional phases will alleviate a major part of the headache women feel when trying to get off welfare. Many of the women in the study had trouble finding care for their infant children. If policies could be changed to mirror Chaudry’s way of thinking than we could expand Child Care options to provide more infant care. Another issue many of the women faced was developmental issues with their young children, such as, speech problem. I think that society as a whole is forgetting that these young children will be running the country in a few decades. There development is essential to our cultures well being. The popular phrase “the children are our future” says it all. Lastly, I think it is important to follow Chaudry’s advice to make all child care affordable. To increase the federal poverty level so more people are eligible for Head Start Programs and so more people are eligible for subsidy aid will be beneficial for everyone. Chaudry states that we should set limits so no family is spending more than 10% of their income on child care. Seeing how on average family spend 18% of their income on childcare. That extra 8% would aid greatly in fulfilling other financial obligations.

Blog #9: child/women poverty

I for one think that child poverty and the poverty of poor working women go hand in hand. According to Robert on “Has Welfare Reform Worked” a NPR podcast, since 1996 when the welfare to work reform was initiated, poverty rates for single working mothers and child poverty have both decreased. Children, especially young children, are dependent on adults for care. It would stand to reason then that if a mother was living in poverty then her child will be living in poverty as well. After looking at the graphs and statistics that were presented in the “Who are America’s Poor Children” article by Sarah Fass and Nancy K. Cauthen and comparing it to the statistic presented in our course material there is a direct correlation between minority women living in poverty and minority children living in poverty. I agree with one of the points that were brought up about TANF being an incentive for working women (Welfare Reform Changes Women’s Lives). This in turn does set a good example for the children, not necessarily even the woman’s child, but children in general. If children see the importance of working hard and getting an education and staying out of trouble I think they will be more inclined to make their life better. Children living in poverty face a lot of the same challenges that poor working women face. Both groups of people worry about whether they will get to eat in a particular day. Both groups worry about whether or not they will have a roof of their heads when they close their eyes to go to sleep. Finally, both groups have concerns about what will happen if they get sick or are hurt in an accident. How will they get the help they need when they do not have any health care. Child poverty is due to women in poverty. If a woman cannot support herself, she cannot support her child. If a child sees their mother struggling to make ends meet then I think they are more likely to get caught in the same cycle. To help the children of America we need to help their mothers.