Working together: men and women in organizations.

Gender stereotyping can be combated by strategies that promote successful working practice of men and women in organizations

Research shows that some male managers find it difficult to relate to women as colleagues and equals, and especially difficult to accept a woman boss (Davidson and Cooper, 1992). As more dual career marriages evolve as real partnerships of equals, this may cease to be a problem. Meanwhile we live in transitional times in which most dual career couples strive for parity in their relationship, but struggle with traditional gender expectations. Many dual career couples continue to view the husband's career as the most important. This entitles men to be excused from much of the domestic work and childcare, and to receive greater consideration in career-related decisions such as those relating to relocation. A more egalitarian pattern of domestic sharing is easier to negotiate when the woman earns as much as or more than her partner, but many men feel threatened by this situation. These quandries facing dual career couples struggling with evolving gender expectations in their private lives are also reflected in, and reinforced by, relationships between women and men in the workplace (Cooper and Lewis, 1993).

Gender stereotypes cause problems at work

Gender stereotypes permeate male-female relationships in the workplace, influencing the ways in which members of each sex are expected to behave and the ways in which their behaviour is interpreted (Williams and Best, 1982). Stereotypes obscure real individual differences, but often become self-fulfilling, as when a woman is not expected to be capable of a particular job, and therefore given inadequate training and support. As men's and women's roles change, stereotypes may eventually be modified. Meanwhile others develop. An example of a new stereotype is that of women who use the title "Ms". There is evidence that women using this title are judged to be high on "masculine" characteristics, such as competence and achievement orientation and also low on traditionally "feminine" characteristics, such as …