Unit C Blog #14

Britton's theory of gendered organizations focuses on the persisting wage gap between men and women due the structures of organizations, cultural assumptions, and the agency themselves. In part she is asking how all these affect why women are getting paid less and that there is no one single reason, but an array of factors that need to be considered. Structure, agency, and culture all affect prison guards for example. Within the structure, there is hierarchy and men have always been placed at the top. In cultural terms we have been taught that men are the punishers within our society. At the agency level, female guards are more likely to be give secretarial work over then men within the same facility. All of this affects the way that women are paid and viewed within their fields. When Britton says that structures are gendered she is talking about how men and women act "men and women" in their organization and reproduce how other men and women in their positions have before. They act with appropriate gendered characteristics such as a women lawyer will take on family cases before a male coworker does. In private and public spheres there are many gendered concepts. Private spheres are able to discriminate more based on sex and public spheres are not. I think that in some cases public spheres will have more women because they are required to and are trying to show a change. In private spheres they will hire women and pay them less because they can. Labor laws have been mainly directed at public spheres until recently when laws were passed for equal pay rights.