Women and Flexibility in the Workplace

In the workplace, the roles of women have encountered various changes over the years. It began as wives briefly filling in for their spouses in backing of the war effort have developed to tackling the obligation of fulltime wage workers for the family. During World War II, many men enlisted in the war. For this cause women were recruited to take place of the men in the workplace. “While in 1950 about 33% of women were in the labor force, by 1999, 61% of women worked outside the home. While tend to hold pink-collar jobs, such as administrative support, nursing, K-6 education, cashiers, and nursing assistants, they also outnumber men in management professional fields, making up about 51% of all workers (U.S. Department of Labor, 2009b)” (Giraffe, 2011, p2.3).

Today more women have been the front runners in their families. With the focus shifting from being predominantly career minded to more family oriented, the issue of women and flexibility in the workplace comes to light. As young ladies become older women, their focus is changing from their careers or starting and raising a family of their own. The ability for women to have the flexibility needed to do either is more frequently frowned upon than embraced. In today’s society, more women appear to be trapped in junior and middle management levels (Barsh & Yee, 2011) and this does not allow for very much flexibility.

In Her studies, Dr. Christensen notes that the “workplace was designed for full time, full year, year in and year out employees who do not take time off for care giving responsibilities (Dr. Kathleen Christensen, 2005). She is certainly accurate, more now than in 2005 when she participated in the interview. In today’s workforce women need occupations that offer more adaptability, and consider more control over their time. It has been documented over and over that women typically make less than men in the workplace. But the need for more flexibility has also contributed to women making less. Dr. Christensen states that through her research women who have multiple tend to have less of a wage increase because of them working from their homes and not being “seen” in the office to show they are working as much as the others. The productivity is as good, if not greater than their counterparts who sit in the office all day. Their work quality may be the same, but they are continuously overlooked for career advancement opportunities because of their need for flexibility.

One of the most recognized discrimination towards women is equal pay. As the inequality and discrimination against women became rampant, the government has to intervene. One of the measures the government implement the Equal Pay Act in 1963. As noted in the text “The Equal Pay Act of 1963 requires equal pay for men and women doing substantially equal work, as opposed to comparable worth, that is equal pay for men and women doing equal work for an employer”(Kennedy, Nagata, Mushenski, Johnson, 2008, p 15). This Act help to reduce the wage differences between men and women; however, it did not completely change society’s opinions on women’s pay.

A piece of this disparity is the misinterpretations individuals have in connection to women in the workforce. There are sure generalizations that add to thought that women don't merit the same wages as their male counterparts. “Many have argued that part of the explanation for a wage gap is that women are more likely than men to cut their work hours, rearrange