KHAIRULANUAR ABD RAHMAN DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY KIRKHS, IIUM khairulanuar_iiu@yahoo.

com

The reality of gender stratification can be seen, in the world of working women and men.
Women experience gender inequality as a result of economic, political, and educational discrimination. Women's position in the work force reflects their overall subordination in society. In any field, the greater the income and prestige associated with a job, the more likely it is to be held by a man.

Gender stratification in everyday life is easy to see:

Female nurses assist male physicians,
female secretaries serve male executives, and female flight attendants are under the command of male airplane pilots.

By defining some kinds of work as "men's work " companies define women as less competent than men.

In industrialized countries, most jobs are segregated by gender and by race/ethnicity. In most workplaces, employees are either gender segregated or all of the same gender. Gender-segregated work refers to the concentration of women and men in different occupations, jobs, and places of work. Women and men are largely segregated in different occupations that are considered " women's work " and " men's work, and the consequences are serious.

Primary sector jobs are more secure, have better pay and benefits, and offer a better chance for advancement.
Because many employers assume that men are the breadwinners, men are expected to make more money than women in order to support their families.

Women have been viewed as supplemental wage earners in a male-headed household, regardless of the women's marital status.
Consequently, women have not been seen as legitimate workers but mainly as wives and mothers

Gender-segregated work affects both men and women.

Men are often kept out of certain types of jobs.

Those who enter female-dominated occupations often have to justify themselves and prove that they are "real men."

They have to fight stereotypes ("is he gay? Lazy?") about why they are interested in such work.

Even if these assumptions do not push men out of female-dominated occupations, they affect how the men manage their gender identity at work.
For example, men in occupations such as nursing emphasize their masculinity, attempt to distance themselves from female colleagues, and try to move quickly into management and supervisory positions.

Occupational gender segregation contributes to stratification in society.

Women's jobs are usually lower paying and less prestigious.

As a result of gender and racial segregation, employers are able to pay many men of color and all women less money, promote them less often, and provide fewer benefits. If the workers demand better working conditions or wages, they are often reminded of the number of individuals who would like to have their jobs.

One of the most serious is economic impact.

Female-dominated jobs tend to be less prestigious than jobs dominated by men; they also typically pay less. "Women's work" is consistently devalued when job evaluators set wage rates for specific occupations.

Occupational segregation contributes to a pay gap -the disparity between women's and men's earnings.

Women at all levels of educational attainment receive less pay than men with the same levels of education.

Pay equity or comparable worth is the belief that wages ought to reflect the worth of a job, not the gender or race of the worker.

One way is to compare the actual work of women's and men's jobs and see if there is a disparity in the salaries paid for each.

Analysts break a job into components-such as the education, training, and skills required, the extent of responsibility for others' work, and the working conditionsand then allocate points for each.

For pay equity to exist, men and women in occupations that receive the same number of points should be paid the same.

Most married women now share responsibility for the breadwinner role, yet many men do not accept their share of domestic responsibilities.

Consequently, many women have a "double day" or "second shift" because of their dual responsibilities for paid and unpaid work.

Working women have less time to spend on housework; if husbands do not participate in routine domestic chores, some chores simply do not get done or get done less often.

Especially in families with young children, domestic responsibilities consume a great deal of time and energy.

Many working women care not only for themselves, their husbands, and their children but also for elderly parents or in-laws.
Some analysts refer to these women as "the sandwich generation"-caught between the needs of their young children and of their elderly relatives.

When children are ill or school events cannot be scheduled around work, parents (especially mothers) may experience stressful role conflicts ("Shall I be a good employee or a good mother?").

Although both men and women profess that working couples should share household responsibilities, researchers find that family demands remain mostly women's responsibility, even among women who hold full-time paid employment.

Gender-based income disparity has to do with the family.

Both men and women have children, but our culture gives more responsibility for parenting to women.

Pregnancy and raising small children keep many young women out of the labor force at a time when their male peers are making significant career advancements.

When women workers return to the labor force, they have less job seniority than their male counterparts.

In addition, women who choose to have children may be unable or unwilling to take on demanding jobs that tie up their evenings and weekends.

They may take jobs that offer shorter commuting distances, more flexible hours, and employer provided child care services.

As women have entered the labor force, the amount of housework women do has gone down, but the share done by women has stayed the same.

Women in all categories do significantly more housework than men.

Women pursuing both a career and a family are often torn between their dual responsibilities in ways that men are not. Men do support the idea of women entering the paid labor force, and most husbands count on the money their wives earn.

But many men resist taking on a more equal share of household duties.

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