Increased female representation in the managerial ranks of engineering organizations may add another layer of sex segregation on top of the one it's intended to mitigate, says a new paper from U. of I. labor professor M. Teresa Cardador.
Credit: Photo by L. Brian Stauffer
She's a comely lass and will serve well to defuse any idea of misogynistic, female-bashing bullshit from the Rockhouse since you see who ran the study.
Research from a University of Illinois expert who studies identity and meaning in occupations and organizations says a purposeful increase of female representation in the managerial ranks of the male-dominated profession of engineering may foster some unintended consequences, and may even add another layer of sex segregation on top of the one it's meant to mitigate.
Engineering remains one of the most sex-segregated occupations in the U.S., with women representing about 15 percent of the overall engineering workforce and as little as 8 percent in specialized fields such as mechanical engineering. To account for such disparity, engineering organizations have actively sought to promote women—so much so that female engineers are now in managerial roles in numbers disproportionate to their overall representation as employees.
But according to a new paper from M. Teresa Cardador, a professor of labor and employment relations at Illinois, engineering firms may have well-meaning intentions regarding the promotion of female engineers, but moving them into managerial roles may foster a form of "intraoccupational segregation" that appears to have unintended negative consequences.
Published in the journal Organization Science, the paper sheds light on how and why sex segregation persists despite women's increased representation in managerial and leadership ranks of engineering firms.
Phys.org: Increased number of female engineers in managerial roles brings unintended consequences
The interested student is invited to continue with the original paper but the summary will remain true to that as you can easily verify at the source if you wish.
Women are underrepresented in managerial roles in engineering but that representation has increased in recent years. However, it appears that increase was at the expense of representation of women in technical engineering roles and the Rockhouse seriously doubts that was their intention.
Typically, the Techs revile the Managers and accept them as necessary nuisances, at best. Managers often regard the Techs as expendable and only of value as long as they provide some particular service.
Note: I have played both sides although I was not at the managerial level of Help Me Understand since practically everyone on the planet loathes them. Whenever the question, "Help me understand," the only reaction in Techs is, "Get your monkey ass back to the Ape House and suck a banana. We have work to do."
Spin this off to discussions of quotas and the perils of that mess but this situation does seem to exemplify the matter even when it's not specifically the point. Going into Management is death for a Tech since your knowledge after that is typically regarded only as opinion by the Techs. There is almost always more reward in Management but it is almost never as fulfilling as Tech. The Rockhouse views this as a profound loss for women but we do not have a solid recommendation beyond education, education, education and let evolution proceed as it will. Women succeed admirably in science and that goes all the way back to Madame Curie since women will do such things when the motivation exists to do them and likely the only way that motivation comes is with education, education, education.
Ed: for everyone the same?
Naturally since the Socialist Left will accept no less for true equality.
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