In “Minorities and Majorities”, author Rosabeth Knater discusses the roles of the dominant group in society and the reactions of the public to those actions. Knater begins with the argument of the single-sexed nature of the industrial supply industry and the effect that it has on arguments of inequality in the work place.
Further, Georg Simmel contests that the roles of the sexes in social interactions is largely dependent upon the number of members of each gender present. This assertion accompanied by a study of social interaction suggests that since there was not an equal number of each gender present, that it was inevitable for each sex to take traditional roles as opposed to positions of equal power. The author uses Indsco, which is an industrial supply industry, as an example. In Indsco upper level women were more visible much more than the higher level male. Some of these women complained about being overlooked in comparison to their male counterparts, but since there were so few women in the upper level position, they were actually equally, if not more noticeable. With this mindset, a few of them decided to do things in an unorthodox manner just to get remembered. Most women were looked at as a group, and as a result one woman’s actions reflected on other women in the office. On many occasions, the mistakes made by a woman were blamed on her gender and not due to circumstances of the situation.
Minorities have to work harder to have their achievement noticed and even harder to prove their competence. Retaliation against the majority is a concept that plagues the minds of minorities, even though it is something that seems unattainable at the same time. From their perspectives, there is a difference between doing well and doing too well and this fear that their accomplishments would go unrewarded or too highly praised is something that subconsciously controls their actions. From a similar situation, being a minority, especially Black, in the United States it is hard to get into doors that are supposed to be open to all people. Earlier in the semester we discussed open and closed relationships and I have witnessed the distinction and the lack of open relationships that exist. Some of the majority suggests that they are pro open relationships but cower out when the vast majority forms relationships between each other and don’t want to let the minorities in.
This causes a problem with the upcoming of minorities everywhere. Obama presidency opposes the stereotype that Black people have no place in this white man’s world and he has shows that Black people have the potential to be successful. In reality he was a token, he became a success against the odds. This, however, does not suggest that there will be complete equality in the world or an equal ratio of black to white in a Fortune 500 company. In relation to the situation with the women’s mistakes being blamed on their gender, if Obama should make any errors while he is in office, it will be attributed to his race. This will then create a mindset to avoid any further Black representation in office to evade any more mistakes. In contrast, if a white man messes up in office people will not think to eliminate any successors of the same race, they will elect a different one instead. I believe that this situation alone illustrates a few of the inequalities that are present on the basis of both, race and gender.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
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One thing that I thought was really interesting was the way in which the author described the actions of one woman and its connection to group stereotypes. The summary points out that women in upper lever not only get equally noticed but are sometimes more noticeable than males in the workplace. This creates a tremendous amount of pressure for the minority group to avoid mistake for they will be of greater impact than if majority group member were to do the same. The fact that there are less women in upper management make them stand out amongst the crowd in turn drawing more attention towards themselves whether it is wanted or not. The same falls true for members of other minority groups and the effects are sometimes worse. Members of the minority groups in the workforce have a group identity that is in a way established by their actions. Competing in the job market is a task in itself for minorities and their place in the workforce is under constant judgment and scrutiny. Members of minorities have a tremendous amount of added stress in many social situations including the workplace which has proven to be one of the worst.
ReplyDeleteThe observations made in the summary relating to minorities accurately address certain aspects of the social behavior Kantner describes about "Tokenism". The classifying of behavior and actions whether they result in failure or success as a trait of their group (in the case of the women working at Indsco their sex was the classifying factor)as opposed to any personal failure or success describes the majority outlook accurately. When talking about the Obama Presidency and its success or failure I beileive we're trying to hit on the subject Kantner addressed as "Symbolic Consequences". Though it might be a bit of a stretch to say that any success or failure President Obama meets will be credited to his race, the concept is consistent with the observations Kantner made in her study of a much smaller and less dynamic situation.
ReplyDeleteI like to first mention that this article was published in 1977, I believe a lot has changed since this time era. I would like to have seen a follow up to this article to see what the percentage of women holding exempt (salaried) Jobs now is. I would like to note how Johnson related this to the Obama presidency, I concur he defiantly was a token and he went against great odds, but then again what president has not gone against great odds to become president? From a basic understanding, most presidents have attended Harvard or equivalent, been active in the house or senate, then go onto a campaigning assault. I am white, I am male, but I never see myself with the resources or opportunities to ever be the president of the United States. So would that make me a token? Since the Majority of presidents have been elected officials of various states and federal government positions and I have held none of these positions.
ReplyDeleteI agree to some extent on the fact that if Obama messes up in presidency it may be attributed to his race, but it could also happen that will it be attributed by his political affiliation or other reasons. I think it will depend on whose eyes this attribution is taking place. This attribution can go both ways as well, I am sure there were some minority’s that attributed to George Busch’s race as his down fall. But never the less, it was good point put by Johnson to compare and contrast to Kantner's article.