MODULE 7

Weeks 10 - 11

Gender and Work

https://www.npr.org/2020/05/21/860091230/pandemic-makes-evident-grotesque-gender-inequality-in-household-work

I. LEARNING OUTCOMES

Module 7 will be able you to:

1. Identify and analyze contemporary national and global issues relating to gender and work
2. Apply a critical and ethical perspective to contemporary issues around gender and work
3. Apply theoretical understandings of gender and society to explain contemporary work issues
4. Utilize knowledge to propose and evaluate policy strategies related to gender and work

II. PRETEST

IDENTIFICATION. Identify the following statements.

_______________________________ 1 It is the general labor law that regulates employment
relationships in the Philippines.
_______________________________ 2 He noted that Gender Work is a division of labor between
women and men
_______________________________ 3 Who is considered a member of the managerial staff?
_______________________________ 4 A kind of employment that the employee has worked for at
least one year.
_______________________________ 5 One of the most important sources of female employment in
the nineteenth century?
III. CONTENTS:

INTRODUCTION

“Gendered work” refers to the outcome of processes whereby “work” is defined, organized, divided, and valued
in ways that reflect the patterns of relations (including those marked by advantage/disadvantage) that exist
between men and women (and between groups of men and women differentiated on the basis of class,
racialization, nationality, age, sexual orientation, etc.) and the meanings and identifications attached to
“masculinity” and “femininity” in a particular socio-economic context at a particular period in time.

While the term “gendered work” is relatively new, its subject matter is not. As Benoit (2000) has noted, divisions
of labor between women and men, to take one key example, have been documented in historical examinations
of precapitalist era societies. However, it is only since the 1970s, with a resurgence of interest in feminism and
the growth of women’s studies, that the connections between gender and work have been subjected to more
systematic.

Gender operates at all levels of social life and is deeply embedded in how work is organized, rewarded, and
experienced. The sociological study of gender and work emerged during the 1960s and 1970s, as women’s labor
force participation rates rose and as the Women’s Movement began calling attention to gender inequality at home
and on the job. Early research focused primarily on workers and sought to determine whether and how men and
women differ in their work attitudes and behavior. Over time, researchers have paid more attention to the social
relations of work. Studies here focus on how the structure and culture of the workplace shape men’s and women’s
social interactions and behavior.

A more recent stream of literature in the gender and work area views gender as embedded within work structures
and organizations. In this view, gender is not just an attribute that people bring with them to the job but is built
into the workplace itself. The development of new conceptual frameworks has been accompanied by new issues
and topics. For example, the rise of the highly feminized service sector prompted an interest in the distinctive
characteristics of these jobs. As dual-earner families became the norm, researchers increased attention to the
ways that gender shapes work-family relations. Other topics, such as those related to gender discrimination and
inequality, have been of interest to gender and work scholars since the field’s emergence in the 1960s.

What is the gender gap in the workplace?

1. The gender gap is the

difference between women
and men as reflected in social,
political, intellectual, cultural,
or economic attainment or
attitudes.
2. The gender pay gap or gender
wage gap is the average
difference between the
remuneration of men and
women who are working.
https://cdn.givingcompass.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/25141100/gender-
bias.jpg

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN JOB OPPORTUNITIES OR VULNERABILITY WHEN IT COMES TO GENDER

WOMEN'S
* Less strength
* More dexterity
* Less emotional stability
* Involving less risk for potential offspring

MEN'S
* Exposure to risky work
* Frightening working conditions
PRINCIPLES OF EQUAL RENUMERATION

o Protected in law and promoted in practice.

o Improve wage transparency and gender natural job
evaluation.
o Strengthening minimum wages and collective bargaining.

6 STRATEGIES TO SOLVE THE GENDER GAP IN EMPLOYMENT

• Achieve equal pay

• Tackle occupational segregation
• Eliminate discrimination
• Promote work family balance
• Create quality care jobs
• Guard against downturns

Expressing Your Gender as Non-Binary At Work

▪ Each day in the workplace poses challenges to your identity. People may look at you differently.
▪ Whether you identify as gender-fluid, neutral, agender, or non-binary, people at your job may not quite
get you. That could present an alphabet of concerns you’ll have to face.

5 Top Issues Fueling Gender Inequality in the Workplace

1. Unequal pay
2. Sexual harassment
3. Racism
4. Women are promoted less often than men
5. Fear of asking to be paid what you’re worth

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GENDER AT WORK

o Annoying Assumptions
o Binary Bathrooms
o Confused Colleagues
o Expert Expectations
o Misgendering Motivations

Horizontal segregation
• Gender segregation across occupations.

Vertical Segregation
• Gender segregation within an occupation.

Effects of Sex Differences at Work

➢ Stereotyping
➢ Prejudice
➢ Discrimination

Scope of employment regulation

Laws applicable to foreign nationals

The Labor Code of the Philippines (Labor Code) is the general labor law that regulates employment relationships
in the Philippines. It also applies to foreign nationals working in the Philippines.
Labor laws and statutory labor standards are deemed to be incorporated into all employment contracts, and the
terms and conditions of all employment contracts cannot fall below the applicable labor standards provided by
the Labor Code. Employment contracts cannot be used by employers to avoid complying with the labor laws, and
any contractual terms and conditions which violate the labor laws will be considered null and void.
Philippine labor arbiters, tribunals, and courts will uphold implied amendments to employment contracts when
certain benefits granted to employees are found to have modified the terms and conditions of employment,
provided there is no diminution or elimination by the employer of the employee's existing benefits.

Laws applicable to nationals working abroad

Republic Act No 8042 (the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995, as amended) is the governing
law regulating the overseas employment of Filipino workers. The provisions of the Migrant Workers and Overseas
Filipinos Act of 1995 apply regardless of a choice of law provision in the employment contract (particularly the
provisions concerning illegal recruitment).

Employment status

Categories of worker
Under Article 294 of the Labor Code, there are four kinds of employment arrangements. These are:
• Regular employment.
• Project employment.
• Seasonal employment.
• Casual employment.
Regular employment. There are two kinds of regular employees (Labor Code, Article 294):
• Regular employees by nature of work, that is, those who are engaged to perform activities that are
usually necessary or desirable in the usual business or trade of the employer.
• Regular employees by years of service, that is, those who have rendered at least one year of service,
whether continuous or broken, with respect to the activity in which they are employed.
• The primary standard to determine regular employment is the reasonable connection between the
activity performed by the employee in relation to the usual business or trade of the employer. The test
is whether the activity of the employee is usually necessary or desirable in the usual business or trade
of the employer.

Project employment. A project employee is one whose employment has been fixed for a specific project or
undertaking, the completion or termination of which has been determined at the time the employee is engaged
(Labor Code, Article 294). It is not sufficient that an employee is hired for a specific project or phase of work.
There must also be a determination of, or a clear agreement on, the completion or termination of the project at
the time the employee is engaged.
The services of project employees are coterminous with the project. They can be terminated upon the end or
completion of that project, or a phase of the project, for which they were hired. The employer has no obligation to
pay them separation pay.
The predetermination of the duration of the period of protected employment is important in resolving if an
employee is a project employee or not. For example, in a previous case, the Court ruled that while the employee
was clearly hired for a specific project, the absence of a definite period of the project led the Court to the
conclusion that the employee was regular.
Seasonal employment. Seasonal workers perform work that is seasonal in nature and are employed only for
the duration of one season (Labor Code, Article 294).
Seasonal workers who are rehired every working season are considered to be regular employees. The nature of
their relationship with the employer is such that during the off-season they are temporarily laid off, but when their
services are needed, they are re-employed. They are not, strictly speaking, separated from the service but are
merely considered on a leave of absence without pay until they are re-employed. Their employment relationship
is never severed but only suspended. As a result, these employees are considered to be in the regular
employment of the employer.
However, it is not sufficient that the work performed is seasonal in nature. There must also be evidence that the
employee worked only for the duration of the season. For example, in a previous case, the fact that the employees
repeatedly worked as sugarcane workers for the employer for several years established regular employment.
Casual employment. There is casual employment where an employee is engaged to perform a job, work or
service which is merely incidental to the business of the employer, and that job, work or service is for a definite
period made known to the employee at the time of engagement (Implementing Rules of the Labor Code, Book
VI, Rule I, section 5(b)). A casual employee is one whose work is neither regular, project or seasonal.
However, if a casual employee has worked for at least one year (whether continuously or not) he becomes a
regular employee but only with respect to the activity in which he is employed, and his employment will continue
while that activity exists. Even though a casual employee, he is entitled to all the rights and privileges, and is
subject to the same duties and obligations, as is granted by law to regular employees during the period of his
actual employment.
Fixed-period employment. While not specifically mentioned in Article 294, fixed-period employment is
recognized under the Civil Code, pursuant to the freedom of parties to fix the duration of the contract, whatever
its object. These fixed-term employment contracts are not limited to seasonal work or specific projects with
predetermined completion dates; also contemplated are employment arrangements whereby the parties have
assigned a specific date of termination.
For this employment arrangement to be considered compliant with the employees’ right to security of tenure, it
must:
• Be voluntarily and knowingly agreed upon by the parties, without any force, duress, or improper pressure
being brought to bear upon the employee, absent any vices of consent.
• Appear that the employer and employee dealt with each other on more or less equal terms, with no
moral dominance whatever being exercised by the former over the latter.
Article 295 makes express reference to Probationary Employment, which provides a trial period, during which the
employer observes the fitness, propriety, and efficiency of a probationer to decide whether he is qualified for
permanent employment, while the probationer seeks to prove to the employer that he has the qualifications to
meet the reasonable standards for permanent employment. If the employee was allegedly hired on a probationary
basis but was not informed of the standards that would qualify him as a regular employee, he has been deemed
a regular employee from the very start. Additionally, an employee who is allowed to work beyond the probationary
period shall be deemed regular. This probationary period is usually fixed at six months or less. However, the
parties to an employment contract can agree to a longer period of probation (for example, when the same is
established by company policy or when the same is required by the nature of work to be performed by the
employee).
Employees can also be further classified in terms of position as:
• Managerial.
• Supervisory.
• Rank-and-file.

Managerial employees. This refers to:

• Those whose primary duty consists of the management of the establishment in which they are
employed or of a department or subdivision of that establishment.
• Other members of the managerial staff.

An employee is considered a member of the managerial staff where:

• His primary duty consists of work directly related to the management policies of the employer.
• He customarily and regularly exercises discretion and independent judgment.
• He does not devote more than 20% of his hours worked in a working week to activities that are not
directly and closely related to the performance of the work described in the following three bullets:
• regularly and directly assists a proprietor or a managerial employee whose primary duty consists
of the management of the establishment in which he is employed, or a subdivision of that
establishment; or
• executes under general supervision work along specialized or technical lines requiring special
training, experience or knowledge; or
• executes under general supervision special assignments and tasks.

Supervisory employees. These are employees who, in the interest of the employer, effectively recommend
managerial actions, where the exercise of that authority is not merely routine or clerical in nature but requires the
use of independent judgment. Supervisors are generally considered members of the managerial staff where the
above conditions are satisfied.
Rank-and-file employees. Employees not falling within any of the above two categories (managerial or
supervisory) are considered rank-and-file employees for the purposes of this chapter.

Entitlement to statutory employment rights

Philippine Supreme Court rulings recognize job security even in cases involving non-regular employees. A project
employee is entitled to security of tenure for either of the following:
• The duration of the project for which he was hired.
• The phases of the project for which he was hired, or to which he was assigned, or in connection
with which he rendered services.

Similarly, an employee hired for a fixed term enjoys the security of tenure during the agreed period. Security of
tenure also applies to a probationary employee. However, a probationary employee can be dismissed for failure
to qualify as a regular employee in accordance with the reasonable standards made known to him at the time of
his engagement.
Title I of Book 3 of the Labor Code provides for minimum conditions of employment in respect of:
• Hours of work.
• Meal periods.
• Night shift provisions.
• Overtime work.
• Weekly rest periods.
• Holidays.
• Service incentive leaves.
• Service charges.

However, these minimum conditions of employment do not apply to the following employees (excluded
employees):
• Government employees.
• Managerial employees.
• Officers and members of the managerial staff.
• Field personnel.
• Members of the family of the employer who is dependent on him for support.
• Domestic helpers.
• Persons in the personal service of another.
• Workers who are paid by the result as determined by the Secretary of the Department of Labor
and Employment (DOLE).

In addition, employers must pay their rank-and-file employees who have worked for at least one month during the
calendar year a 13th month pay not later than 24 December of every year. This requirement covers all employers
except, among others:
• Employers of those who are paid on a pure commission, boundary, or task basis.
• Employers of those who are paid a fixed amount for performing a specific task, irrespective of the
time spent performing that specific task (with the exception of workers paid on a piece-rate basis).

Time periods

A casual employee who has worked for at least one year (whether continuously or not) becomes a regular
employee, but only with respect to the activity in which he is employed. His employment will continue while that
activity exists.
A probationary employee who is allowed to continue working beyond the probationary period (which generally
cannot exceed six months) ceases to be a probationary employee and becomes a regular employee.

Gender and work in the nineteenth century

1. impact of industrialization on lives of working women

in theory, late eighteenth and early nineteenth century industrialization should have tended to create more
opportunities for female employment new opportunities for waged labor in factories and workshops for women
and children ‘released’ from agricultural labor by structural changes in that sector; wages paid to individuals rather
than the household head – challenge to patriarchy offered women the possibility of a degree of economic
independence or suggested that power relations within the home might be re-negotiated steam and electrical
power reduced the need for physical strength that had justified men’s monopoly of certain trades in the longer
term, new technology led to de-skilling and the disappearance of guilds encouraged increased use of women’s
labor but official statistics suggest that industrialization failed to transform existing sexual divisions of labor
women’s work concentrated in a small number of sectors characterized by their links to housework challenge to
the patriarchal nature of production that early industrialization presented was short-lived because more and more
men were forced by economic necessity into waged labor and the gendered nature of production in the family
economy was reformulated in the light of new technologies and new workplace locations
2. considerable gender antagonisms existed as men and women competed
for work, particularly in the hungry 1830s and 1840s - working men believed women workers depressed wage
rates
3. relationship between gender and technology was a very complex one
where new technologies were introduced, they had the effect of reinforcing the gendered division of labor because
the new machinery was worked by men, whose labor was deemed to be skilled, and the existing machinery was
worked by women, whose labor was deemed to be unskilled on the other hand, in areas where there was a cheap
female labor force, manufacturers were disinclined to invest in costly new technologies
4. sharp and persistent occupational segregation on gendered lines
occupational segregation, aka the sexual division of labor overwhelmingly women worked in certain trades and
employments that were deemed ‘feminine’; late 20c/early 21c understandings of equality of opportunity, or of
equal pay for equal work unknown
5. women’s participation in the formal, waged officially recorded economy did not increase
percentage of women in the working population (male and female) remained remarkably consistent, as did the
percentage of working women out of the total female population greater emphasis on single women’s employment
lower rate of participation in the formal economy by married women 1911 – 69% of all single women worked but
only 9.6% of all married women
6. consideration of gender and work in nineteenth-century Britain also must take into account
the ubiquitous discourse of separate spheres/domestic ideology ‘bourgeois’ family model of a male breadwinner,
with a dependent wife and children nineteenth-century political liberalism with its emphasis on personal and
economic freedoms, includes increased pressure from organized labor (TUs) for a ‘family wage’ state intervention
to regulate capitalist industrial production and ‘protect’ workers

Home-based work
• Home-based work for cash = an important part of the pre-industrial and industrializing family economy;
cottages trades such as straw-plaiting, glove making, fine embroidery (Irish specialty) persisted
throughout the nineteenth century
• Others such as hosiery and shoemaking became factory-based in the 1870s and 1880s
• New home-based trades developed to absorb the reservoir of cheap female labor, e.g. matchbox
making, artificial flowers, umbrella making, tennis ball making, as well as all types of clothing
• State regulation of women’s work outside the home also led to an increase in industrial work inside the
home so-called sweated trades
• Most work on piece rates – subcontracted – no security of employment wages low and continued to fall
during the nineteenth century
• Some home working was simple, repetitive work – often children involved in this too – other work
involved high levels of skill – often unacknowledged
• Work could be done at all hours under any conditions
• Impacted negatively upon women workers and their families
• Families often eating and sleeping in the same room as women were working
The informal economy
• Male wages remained low – much male employment was casual or seasonal
• Married women had to seek work in the informal economy – unrecorded in official statistics
• Expanding capitalist economy was characterized by rapid urbanization – offered many opportunities for
women to find informal work that would generate income
• Much of this informal work drew upon women’s neighborhood or family networks, involved reciprocity
and payments in kind as well as in cash
• May have made the difference between survival and starvation in some communities
• Types of work – childminding, cleaning, washing, casual nursing, taking in lodgers, petty trading in
foodstuffs

Housework
• Family economy increasingly attached to men’s visible work
• Women’s household work became devalued and less visible – its pre-industrial status was rapidly
declining ‘bourgeois’ family model created a concept of housework that radically altered women’s work
in the home – in pre-industrial households’ production and reproduction both contributed to family
economy creation of the ‘housewife’ – initially had more meaning for middle-class women than for
working-class ones Mrs. Beeton, Household Management (1861) - phenomenal success – hugely
influential on middle-class married women – careful and informed purchasing, management of servants,
food preparation Beeton’s standards often hard to achieve even for middle-class women (McBride)

Domestic service
One of the most important sources of female employment in nineteenth-century Britain was mainly urban
occupation – 1860s, 33% of London’s female workforce were domestic servants demand for servants helped hold
up female wage levels decline in female domestic service did not occur until the twentieth century according to
middle-class observers, domestic service was the most appropriate employment for young working-class girls
tremendous variety in the types of work and households in which female domestic servants were engaged to
beware the Gosford Park version

Late nineteenth-century Employment

According to social arbiters such as Sarah Ellis, a middle-class woman who undertook paid work ‘ceased to be a
lady’ (D&H, p. 315) but middle-class women increasingly expressed their frustration at the enforced idleness of
their lives.
Towards the end of the century, new opportunities in non-manual work for middle-class and upper working-class
women - white blouse work 1851-1911 there was a 7-fold increase in male clerical jobs but an 83-fold increase
in female clerical jobs offered employment opportunities for literate women’s white blouse work aided by
technology and innovation - telegraph, telephone, typewriter, training in Pitman’s shorthand, development of
department stores; department stores required refined (i.e. middle-class) young women to serve customers of
the leisured classes such women deemed to be adaptable, lacking ambition, dexterous, passive; - low rates of
pay, poor working conditions, employers’ assertions that to pay them more would have been insulted women’s
gentility and constituted a threat to their ‘genteel’ status occupational segregation women’s clerical work was a
deskilling of the high-status male confidential clerk of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
IV. LEARNING ACTIVITIES:
Using 5 to 10 substantial sentences to form a paragraph, answer the following questions: (10 points each)
1. What is gender bias in the workplace?
2. How does gender affect the workplace?
3. What is the gender pay gap and how is it measured in the Philippines?
4. Under the labor law how would you define a ‘right’? How would you define a ‘responsibility’?
5. Explain that legal responsibilities apply to both workers and employers.

Rights or Responsibilities at Work

Read the statements across the top. Check the column that best represents to the following statements. The
results will guide you in helping learn more about this topic.

Activity Employee’s Employee’s

Right Responsibility
Receive fair pay at the correct time
Do all work in a safe manner and be always mindful of other people’s
safety
Arrive on time and stay until the workday has ended
Have time for regular breaks
Work in a safe workplace
Use all equipment safely
Handle with care the equipment and materials at the workplace
Return materials and/or equipment after use
Wear protective clothing, gear, or paraphernalia
Be trained in how to use equipment
Ask for help and learn from others
Be given clear information about the job and expectations
Have the right equipment and materials to do the work properly
Have a positive attitude about work
Ask questions in a way that respects co-workers
Do a good job and finish on time
Follow instructions given by the employer

LEARNING RESOURCES

Websites
https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199756384/obo-9780199756384-0127.xml
https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-94-007-0753-5_1138
https://content.next.westlaw.com/3-595-
1385?__lrTS=20200822223718522&transitionType=Default&contextData=(sc.Default)&firstPage=true
https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/students/modules/hi253/lectures/lecture3/
https://www.deped.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/FM-Module-6-Rights-Responsibilities-1.pdf
https://www.asyousow.org/blog/gender-equality-workplace-issues