![]() Referred to as “work transformation,” this general and vast process of change is affecting the structure of work in the United States and around the world. Starting in the 1970s, organizations began to experience downsizing, restructuring, computerization, and globalization ( DiMaggio 2001 Kalleberg 2000 Vallas 2011). But in the decades since the article was published, the social organization of work has changed considerably. Through organizational logic, therefore, gender discourses are embedded in organizations, and gender inequality at work results.Ī great deal of research supports Acker's theoretical claims (for a review, see Britton and Logan 2008). But Acker argues that managers often draw on gender stereotypes when undertaking these tasks, privileging qualities associated with men and masculinity that then become reified in organizational hierarchies. (Acker, 154)įor example, organizations supposedly use logical principles to develop job descriptions and determine pay rates. Use of such abstract systems continually reproduces the underlying gender assumptions and the subordinated or excluded place of women. Rational-technical, ostensibly gender neutral, control systems are built upon and conceal a gendered substructure … in which men's bodies fill abstract jobs. While others had previously identified organizational logic as key to the reproduction of class inequality, Acker's breakthrough identified it as a source of gender inequality as well, even though it appears gender neutral on the surface. Workers comply because they view these policies and principles as “natural” or normal business practices. Acker describes organizational logic as the taken-for-granted policies and principles that managers use to exercise legitimate control over the workplace. It encompasses the logical systems of work rules, job descriptions, pay scales, and job evaluations that govern bureaucratic organizations. The concept of organizational logic draws attention to how hierarches are rationalized and legitimized in organizations. ![]() The latter process-organizational logic-was at the center of Acker's original critique of gendered organizations ( Acker 1990) and is the focus of this article. ![]() Consequently, for many employers the “ideal worker” is a man (see also Williams 2001).Īcker (1990) further identified five processes that reproduce gender in organizations: the division of labor, cultural symbols, workplace interactions, individual identities, and organizational logic. This preference excludes many women, given the likelihood that they hold primary care responsibilities for family members. ![]() Employers prefer to hire people with few distractions outside of work who can loyally devote themselves to the organization. Even the very definition of a “job” contains an implicit preference for male workers ( Acker 1990). Acker argued that gender inequality is tenacious because it is built into the structure of work organizations. To explain gender inequality at work, many sociologists draw on Joan Acker's (1990) theory of gendered organizations. What accounts for these persistent gender disparities? At both the top and the bottom of the employment pyramid, women continue to lag behind men in terms of pay and authority, despite closing gender gaps in educational attainment and workplace seniority. Although women have entered occupations previously closed to them, many jobs remain as gender segregated today as they were in 1950. After making spectacular strides toward gender equality in the twentieth century, women's progress in the workplace shows definite signs of slowing ( England 2010).
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