Gender in organizations

Recently, we have been discussing the gender aspect of organizational life. Discuss some ways in which gender is acted out within organizations. You can use our readings for examples of how gender appears in everyday organizational performances, such as costuming, forms of talk, as well as other practices. Close by discussing to what extent you think organizations are gendered – is there any part of an organization that isn’t shaped by assumptions about gender? Use chapter seven and our readings by Deborah Tannen and Rosabeth Moss Kanter to answer this question.

In between sports in my junior year of high school, I decided to work at a small diner that was right by my house. This diner is a typical 1950's diner with the tacky carpet, old drapes, original counter tops, and handmade milkshakes that sat very well with a side of crinkle cut french fries. The management was very oldfashioned as well. Women were the waitresses and women worked at the drive through. The men worked the grill, bussed tables and washed dishes in the back. The Chef-o-Nette women were known for being cute and friendly, and worked well under stressful conditions. While our status did not reach the level of Rosabeth Moss Kanters observations, we were still known, highly visible and noticed.

The diner was however not always the most busy restaurant, so during our downtime we would socialize in the back. The men would talk to us about what was going on in their lives, we would speak back and on occasion we would be asked our opinion "as a woman" by the men. Whether or not they actually took t into consideration on a professional level, didn't matter. I remember when Harlan Howard would be decorating a window for the holiday, he asked me what I thought as a woman, as in whether I thought it looked attractive or not. I simply said taht it looked great because I know taht whatever I said he would have kept it anyway.

There are times when waiting on people that they will be the ones to not specify what they want exactly, and yet, as a waitress, I always apologized. If a customer did not want mayonaise on their BLT, but failed to specify, I would aplogize, smile, and take the food back. As a woman I agree with Tannen when she speaks about a woman in a similar situation who had actually not done anything wrong, " She had done nothing wrong; I was the one who lost the number. But in fact she was not apologizing; she was just uttering an automatic conversation smoother to assure me taht she had no intention of rushing me off.." (Tannen, 45). I found myself apologizing to the customer for things taht had not been my fault.