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Reyes, Maria

Professor Hugetz

ENGL 1301 1UHP2

3 July 2019

Sexism in The Work Force

Welcome to Fighting Sexism; Breaking the Stereotype. My goal is to teach my readers

about the treatment women get in the workforce. For the website I did numerous searches to help

my readers understand the problem's women are having in their jobs. I went to the University of

Houston Clear Lake Library to find all the articles that support my research. My research was

difficult because the articles were not easy to find. As I did my research, I had an idea of what I

wanted my website to look like. I wanted the color scheme to be like the colors of the Break the

Stereotype pictures. I wanted my website to catch the reader's attention.

Sexism is still a common problem in the workforce for women. Women are not taken

seriously when they are working at a professional job because of the stereotypes that people

make up about women. In the 1800s women had plenty of great ideas, but their husbands took

their wives' ideas for their own. For example, the book Frankenstein was written by a woman

named Mary Shelley. When Shelley first published the book, she and her husband decided to put

the author of the book under the husband's name, which was very common at that time.

However, women can now put out their own ideas without any hesitation. In the photograph

series "Break the Stereotype," the attitude, text contrast, and the background help build an

argument against the sexist attitudes of the time period.

Women are often judged by how they present themselves. In this image. For example,

Mrs. Thabiso Mandela’s pose and facial expression indicates confidence. When a woman has a
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confident attitude, it tends to scare men. According to Christopher and Wojada (2008), men are

noticing that “women [are] try[ing] to gain power relative to men” and men are usually the

dominant one in the workforce (67). Women who are more powerful than men are scary in a

man's mind. Men are starting to demonstrate sexist behavior towards women who are successful.

Hostile sexism or ambivalent sexism, “is a type of sexism [or] prejudice in which people view

women in a blatantly negative and disparaging manner.” (Christopher and Wojada 67). There are

jobs who would hire a man who is less qualified than a woman who is clearly qualified for the

job to see the woman fail, this is an example of a hostile sexism (Christopher and Wojada 67).

This can also be seen in the Break the Stereotype series.

The text contrast of the "Break the Stereotype" series is indicative of the judgement that

people pass on women who are successful. In the image on the left, the reader can see that the

stereotype is big and highlighted, but the women’s careers are little. Women are sometimes put

down when they are successfully working. Christopher and Wojada (2008), “women [are] to

perform roles of mother or wife more than roles of business professional” (65). In the image

with Miss Fatima Ahmed, the text says “She Likes to Argue Because She’s A lawyer” meaning a

female lawyer could be doing her job correctly by arguing to defend her client (“She Likes to

Argue”). However, the people around the female lawyer could see the lawyer as a stereotypical

woman who likes to argue not seeing the lawyer doing her job correctly. In the image with Mrs.

Claudene Mooregas, the text states, “She Always Overthinks Everything Because She’s An

Engineer” and being an engineer and having it as a job there are many possible solutions to a

problem so engineers have to overthink to find the solution (“She Always Overthinks

Everything”). Women are generally stereotyped for overthinking simple situations, but most

people, regardless of sex, need to overthink sometimes in order to get their jobs done. In the
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image with Mrs. Thabiso Mandela, the text says, “She Always Needs Her Space Because She’s

an Architect” and Architects need land or space to build their designs for a school or for different

businesses (“She Always Needs Her Space”). In the picture with Mrs. Mabatho Manyako-

Malengwe, the text says, “She Only Cares About Your Money Because She’s An Accountant”

and Accountants make sure businesses are doing well with their money by having access to the

business financial records (“She Only Care About Your Money”). When people feel threatened

“an aspect of their ‘collective self’ actively bolstering or affirming that social identity or an

alternative social identity can also reduce threat.” (Spencer-Rodger 414). Men are feeling

threatened as they see women succeeding more often.

Women are often told that they belong in the house. In the background of the "Break the

Stereotype" series all the women in their pictures look like they are at home, which is where the

stereotype of women. On the bottom of the page, Mrs.Claudene Moorgas' picture shows her what

most people will believe at first at home, but she is really at her job, as readers can tell that by

looking on the countertops there are tools that Moorgas use to work. In the image with Miss.

Fatima Ahmed, the background of her picture looks like the front of a house but looking closely

it is the door to her office. In all of the "Break the Stereotypes" pictures, looking closely there are

clues to where the women really are, which is at their workplace. There are men who have a

benevolent sexist attitude towards women working. According to Christopehr and Wojada

(2008), Benevolent Sexism, “is a type of sexism [or] prejudice in which people view women

with subjectively positive feelings yet position women in stereotypically restricted roles.” (67).

An example of benevolent sexism is men feeling like women should not go out to work, but what

women should really do is stay home protected by their man. As a matter of fact, there are men
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who would rather see their wives at home, so they find hurtful words to say to keep their wives at

home.

Women have many stereotypes that causes judgment from other people. People have

opinions that women should stay home to clean and take care of the children, and that women are

weak and vulnerable, and they need protection from their husband. A successful and confident

woman can be intimidating other people, so men try to find ways to bring women down.

Unfortunately, when people look at women, they see only the stereotype, not women's career.
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Thesis: In the photograph series Break the Stereotype, the attitude, the text contrast, and

the background help build an argument against the sexist attitudes of the time period.

I. The Attitude

A. The pose

B. The facial expression

C. The confidence

II. The Text Contrast

A. The size

B. Highlighted

C. Explain what the text represents

III. The Background

A. What people see

B. What the background really is

C. The similarity to sexism

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Works Cited

Christopher, Andrew N., and Mark R. Wojda. “Social Dominance Orientation, Right-Wing

Authoritarianism, Sexism, and Prejudice Toward Women in the Workforce.” Psychology

of Women Quarterly, vol. 32, no. 1, 2008, pp. 65–73., doi:10.1111/j.1471-

6402.2007.00407.x.

PPS For Professionals. “She Always Needs Her Space.” Break The Stereotype Album.Facebook,

15 Oct. 2018, 2:35 a.m. www.facebook.com/PPSforProfessionals/photos/ms.c.eJxFzcc

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NwDAMA8CNAlJd~_y8WRIaj74GFyWhFODNKiYcHsj6QzgsRTjBMLriVqXX9CT8b

gq0MoDcxG677MqB4AUkdG1s~.bps.a.1716930535101655/1716930785101630/?type=

3&theater.

PPS For Professionals. “She Always Overthinks Everything.” Break The Stereotype Album.

Facebook, 15 Oct. 2018, 2:35 a.m. www.facebook.com/PPSforProfessionals/photos/

ms.c.eJxFzccNwDAMA8CNAlJd~_y8WRIaj74GFyWhFODNKiYcHsj6QzgsRTjBMLri

VqXX9CT8bgq0MoDcxG677MqB4AUkdG1s~-.bps.a.1716930535101655/

1716930551768320/?type=3&theater.

PPS For Professionals. “She Likes to Argue.” Break The Stereotype Album. Facebook, 15 Oct.

2018, 2:35 a.m. www.facebook.com/PPSforProfessionals/photos/ms.c.eJxFzccNw

DAMA8CNAlJd~_y8WRIaj74GFyWhFODNKiYcHsj6QzgsRTjBMLriVqXX9CT8bgq0

MoDcxG677MqB4AUkdG1s~.bps.a.1716930535101655/1716930661768309/?type=3&t

heater.

PPS For Professionals. “She Only Cares About Your Money.” Break The Stereotype Album.

Facebook, 15 Oct. 2018, 2:35 a.m. www.facebook.com/PPSforProfessionals/

photos/ms.ceJxFzccNwDAMA8CNAlJd~_y8WRIaj74GFyWhFODNKiYcHsj6QzgsRTj

BMLriVqXX9CT8bgq0MoDcxG677MqB4AUkdG1s~.bps.a.1716930535101655/17169

30651768310/?type=3&theater.

Spencer-Rodgers, Julie, et al. “The Power of Affirming Group Values: Group Affirmation

Buffers the Self-Esteem of Women Exposed to Blatant Sexism.” Self and Identity, vol.

15, no. 4, 2016, pp. 413–431., doi:10.1080/15298868.2016.1145593.