Gender at work Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Gender at work - Essay Example Multiple roles with unique responsibilities of both home and work, are seen to be beneficial to women, if domestic responsibilities are shared with the spouse. The numbers of women in the work force are increasing steadily, and may soon be equal in proportion to men. (p.271). Gender relations are more prone to conflict in today’s stressed lives. One reason is the following of traditional concepts of inequality of the sexes. The concept of imposing one’s will appears both in gender relations and war. Why is that? In gender relationships, the stronger or more dominant partner is perceived as the one who is superior physically, financially, or by education. The term status is linked with power, and refers to an individual’s position in the structure of social relationships with respect to other individuals. Status is dependent on the set of values attached by the culture concerned, to attributes like abilities, education, wealth, etc. Watts (1991) is of the opinion that power is exercised on the basis of higher status. The term ‘dominance’ is often connected to interruptive behavior. In terms of the hierarchy of status relationships, dominance is an explicit expression of power over others. Latent or overt conflict is interruptive behavior between two persons. Watts quotes Weber and Durkheim: â€Å"Power is the opportunity of imposing one’s will on another.† Power also forms part of the content of the network links of each individual. (pp. 55-56). Dominance and power give rise to control, which results in conflict. Conflicts in gender relationships, where the ‘weaker’ partner refuses to submit to the will of the dominant partner arise from perceptions about gender, and an individual’s sense of personal worth. The same definitions of power and conflict can be applied in the larger picture of war between two nations. According to Clausewitz and Rapoport, (1982) â€Å"war is nothing but a duel on an