Deck 8: T: Communicating Gender at Work

Question 1

Aila Brown has a PhD in organizational communication and is a professor, yet generally insists that her students address her by first name. Aila is an excellent writer, a well-respected scholar in her (and other) fields, and a superb lecturer frequently sought after to give guest lectures. Contrary to the typical model of an "independent scholar" working alone, however, Alia frequently co-teaches and co-authors with other female scholars. She is deeply invested in mentoring younger women, and all of her work is characterized by a profound ethic of care that emphasizes sensitivity, connectedness, and nurturance. She describes herself as a feminist committed to re-making the academy with a different set of values and operating principles. Based on the different "strands" of feminism of which you've learned, which feminist project rings truest to this description of Aila's work?

A) liberal feminism
B) radical feminism
C) critical feminism
D) political feminism

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Which of the following best describes tokenism in a corporate setting?

A) associating someone's status with age
B) viewing someone as contrasting significantly with the dominant culture
C) acceptance of a collectivist attitude by one group
D) utilization of affirmative action to level the playing field

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Twice in the same day, Carlos used the wrong pronoun when asking questions. The first time, his friend Eric said that he was going to see the doctor, whom he finds quite competent. "Where is his office?" asked Carlos. Eric replied, "Her office is in the hospital annex." The second time, his niece Maya said that she liked her kindergarten teacher very much. "What's her name?" asked Carlos. Maya replied, "His name is Mr. Ngo." Both times, Carlos was embarrassed at his error. From a critical feminist point of view, which is the most likely explanation for Carlos' mistakes?

A) People lack an understanding of feminist theory.
B) Many types of work still have gender associations.
C) Education is a field that employees mostly women because of their nurturing qualities.
D) Liberal feminism has not had a significant impact on the medical field.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

June, her grandmother, and her mother all consider themselves feminists, but they get into heated conversations about the kinds of work that they, as feminists, should do. For instance, June's grandmother still lobbies her church and local organizations in order to make sure that women can be ordained and are getting hired as often and men. June's mother runs a women-only health and maternal care clinic for survivors of intimate partner violence and teaches classes at the civic center in town to men and women about "respecting the maternal." June is an organizational consultant who helps organizational members of all gender identifications to understand the ways in which their organizational experiences are gendered and connected to power. We might best describe June as a ______.

A) liberal feminist
B) academic feminist
C) radical feminist
D) critical feminist

Question 5

Which of the following best describes feminism?

A) an approach to understanding, explaining, and critiquing the relationship between gender and power
B) a unified approach to studying human behavior, which values women over men
C) an extremist political approach of female activists
D) a complicated approach to leveling the playing field for women

Question 6

When Mae was growing up, her dad taught her to play golf and how to fix houses and cars. He was an executive in a manufacturing company, and often chatted about business with her as he took her to school in the mornings. As she progressed in her career, she found that playing golf, knowing how to talk about construction and cars, and having an extensive background with phrases like "Kaizen" and "one-piece flow" opened up more opportunities for her than her prestigious master's degree and frequently demonstrated leadership abilities. This is an example of ______.

A) tokenism
B) homosocial reproduction
C) antifeminism
D) the glass ceiling

Question 7

Cristobel is a black woman born to Kenyan-born immigrants. After finishing seminary from a prestigious divinity school, she works at a predominately white church with a predominately male staff. Though her denomination frequently asks staff and local speakers to preach on Sundays, in the two years that Cristobel worked at the church, she was only asked to preach on the Sundays adjacent to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in January and a Sunday designated "World Culture Sunday." Of the following concepts, which could best connect to Cristobel's experience?

A) hegemonic masculinity
B) tokenism
C) sexism
D) antifeminism

Question 8

Critics of liberal feminism say that it often treats gender as an unproblematic organizational variable, that it ignores material realities of women in lower-level positions, and it______.

A) looks at underutilized skills of the marginalized as a source of conflict
B) focuses on society as the source of oppression in corporate America
C) focuses on patriarchal power in the workplace
D) tends to focus on "professional" work and positions rather than blue-collar work

Question 9

Jacque has always been labeled a "dynamo." Whip-smart, a gifted leader, and a cunning businessperson, her mentors long assumed that she would soar to the top roles in the consulting firm where she worked. One of just a few women in male-dominated organizations (in a male-dominated field), Jacque has now spent 10 years in mid-management in three different companies. Despite impeccable reviews and consistently high reviews from the organization's clients, she never seems to get a promotion. What term could best describe Jacque's predicament?

A) glass elevator
B) glass ceiling
C) glass house
D) glass escalator

Question 10

"The personal is political" is a second-wave rallying cry that ______.

A) reminds women and men that "personal" issues like domestic violence, women's health care, and reproductive rights have little to do with bigger societal issues
B) stresses the idea that "private" issues like domestic violence, women's health care, and reproductive rights have far-reaching implications on women's societal roles
C) justifies patriarchal impulses and structures that curtail or prevent women's participation in public and work-life, limiting women to the private spheres of the home
D) focuses on the fact that liberal politics is oppressive and that both men and women should work to eradicate the oppression

Question 11

The White House Project is an organization that is concerned with getting women involved in politics. Ultimately, the project strives to increase the numbers of women leaders in government, from mayors of small towns all the way to the White House. Because the project is primarily concerned with increasing female representation in the political process, we could best categorize the project as having which kind of feminist orientation?

A) liberal feminist
B) radical feminist
C) second-wave feminist
D) critical feminist

Question 12

Robin is furious with her brother Zan, who recently told her 12-year old son (his nephew) that in order to "be a man," he needed to be more aggressive, get stronger, rely less on others, be more independent, and "talk about girls" with his guy friends. Robin has been very careful to create space for her son to grow into the kind of man he needs to be, but Zan's ideas about masculinity can best be described as ______.

A) antifeminism
B) hegemonic masculinity
C) homosocial reproduction
D) white-collar masculinity

Question 13

Costen is an elementary school teacher. He, the principal, and the custodian are the only men who work in the building. Costen is good with his students, but he is neither the strongest teacher nor the strongest leader in the building. He often receives awards, however, and is earmarked to become the new assistant principal when he finishes up his master's degree. Which of the following provides a critical feminist read of this situation?

A) Men in female-dominated professions are often promoted quickly because they bring valuable insights otherwise missing from so-called "pink collar" work.
B) Men in female-dominated professions are more competitive than their female colleagues and therefore are promoted more quickly.
C) Men in female-dominated professions experience a pressure toward upward mobility that sees them promoted more quickly than women.
D) Men in female-dominated professions are have more time to dedicate to professional development activities and are therefore quickly promoted.

Question 14

Which of the following best describes critical feminism's approach to gender?

A) Critical feminism views gender as a socially constructed phenomenon that is subject to change.
B) Critical feminism views gender as inherently patriarchal in need of alternative ways of expression.
C) Critical feminism views gender as a communication expression of style and roles.
D) Critical feminism views gender as social role played by men

Question 15

Masculinity is worthy of our consideration as organizational scholars because ______.

A) feminist theory usually places emphasis on women's roles and rights
B) it has significant implications on how we view men, women, and their relationships
C) it is necessary if we are to consider critical and liberal feminism as movements
D) it is significant because men should be instrumental in changing the view of power and communication

Question 16

Though radical feminism's separatism can certainly help survivors of rape, domestic abuse, or intimate partner violence, many separatist organizations struggle and/or ultimately disintegrate. Based on your knowledge of organizational communication and Mumby's description of separatist organizations, how might you best explain this phenomenon?

A) From an organizational culture perspective, separatist organizations probably have root metaphor conflict issues because they are separate from the rest of society.
B) From an organizational culture perspective, separatist organizations probably do not have enough shared symbols and to develop a strong and cohesive culture.
C) From a systems perspective, separatist organizations become too "closed" and cannot adequately adapt and build interdependent with other organizations.
D) From a systems perspective, separatist organizations suffer entropy because the concept of multifinality means that there are many non-separatist ways of fulfilling the same goals.

Question 17

Which of the following is a characteristic of radical feminist collective organizations?

A) authority resides in the individuals who occupy certain offices
B) a keen focus on ensuring gender-appropriate behavior from all organizational members
C) individual incentives focus on furthering the organization's values and political goals, not securing economic rewards
D) a socially constructed view on women, power, and communication

Question 18

Sexual harassment experiences are often explained ______.

A) from a patriarchal perspective that validates the behavior
B) based on lived experiences of other individuals that have been harassed
C) using common discursive frames to make sense of the experience
D) as a direct result of the subordinate's behavior

Question 19

Ryan is a college football player and notices that most of what it means to "be a guy" on the football team is to be explicitly heterosexual and to speak disparagingly about women. Ryan doesn't speak disparagingly about women, and though he is heterosexual himself, he has a number of very close friends and even a few male house-mates who are homosexual or bisexual. He wants to stay on the football team but observes that his most meaningful relationships are often built outside of the strict gender norms of the highly-normative masculinity of the football field. Which of the following concepts could help Ryan and his teammates?

A) gender accountability
B) hegemonic masculinity
C) inclusive masculinity
D) white-collar masculinity

Question 20

In the United States, women might choose to opt out of their company's parental-leave program because they fear that their colleagues might believe ______.

A) "she probably cares more about her job than her baby"
B) "if she has a male partner, his company likely offers a better-paid paternity leave"
C) they are less serious about their careers if they choose to take the leave
D) they likely can integrate their babies into organizational life without taking a leave because the cultures of most organizations are very supportive and familial

Question 21

The idea that certain jobs are "feminine" and others are "masculine" indicates that jobs are ______.

Question 22

"Gender accountability" the term used to describe the process when male managers make sure that their female employees are adequately performing the jobs for which they were hired.

Question 23

In order for a feminist organization to truly advocate for women for the long-term, the organization must adapt to changes in the environment and interact with other organizations.

Question 24

The project of radical feminism has been realized in our postmodern society.

Question 25

Radical feminism adopts ______ views of men and women, uncritically associating men with "typical masculinity" and women with "typical femininity."

Question 26

Social, economic, and labor upheaval around the end of the 19th century caused a broad-scale middle-class redefinition of what it meant to "be a man."

Question 27

#MeToo and #TimesUp! are symbolic of the power of women to control who exercises power over them.

Question 28

The aging as a time of loss narrative is typically applied to women.

Question 29

______ feminism seeks to increase the numbers of women in traditional organizations.

Question 30

______ feminism is "woman centered."

Question 31

There are many kinds of masculinity.

Question 32

______ reproduction is a phrase used to describe the ways in which men tend to hire people who look, speak, and think like them.

Question 33

Liberal feminists take an ______ approach to organizational communication.

Question 34

When women choose to participate in a company sponsored parental-leave they tend to show employers how committed they are to their career.

Question 35

Feminism is a single, unified, collective movement.

Question 36

Feminist approaches to the study of organizations have encouraged scholars to examine the ways in which gender is a ______ feature of organizational life.

Question 37

A ______ environment is created when conduct directed at a personal because of their sex or sexuality interferes with the person's ability to perform his or her job.

Question 38

The rise of the terms "sissy" and "stuffed shirt" arose around the end of the 19th century to describe the pomp and posture with which men used to carry themselves.

Question 39

The relationship between gender and ______ shapes everyday work and professional contexts.

Question 40

Radical feminism was, in many ways, a ______ project, seeking to make the world better.