For this blog entry, I wanted to discuss something that is
extremely prevalent to women in the current season. Christmas is inevitably the
busiest time of the year in malls and department stores. We all know the
hustle. What we don’t all know is the social and economic structures within the
hustle in which are barriers that women face. I want to discuss some of the
issues women face working in shopping malls. Shopping malls are places we are
able to spend our leisure time. Shopping malls have many constructs that make
it an environment that many are comfortable in. Although being able to shop in
a mall without facing gender discrimination is not a social policy, it is a place
where human welfare is affected.
At work, women are often subjected to treatment based on
their gender. An example of this is a white middle class man tossed his
shopping list at a female sales clerk in expectance of her to do his shopping
for him, (Spade 2011). Situations as such have happened on countless occasions. Another
example is when a white middle class man, on his cell phone, tossed his credit
card at the female cashier and pointed at his merchandise in motion for her to
pay for his things for him, (Spade 2011). Lastly, a white middle class man
demanded to use the store telephone, even though there were signs that stated
clearly that there would be no use of the store phone, and after the female
sales clerk apologized for the inconvenience and he reached over and used the
phone anyway, (Spade 2011).
These examples are few of many and from them we can pull that some males exert dominance over women that tends to be completely unnecessary. The next time you’re in a mall or department store actively disengage yourself from any type of gender stereotypes. Prevent incidents as mentioned above from happening to make for a suitable environment for all.
Geraldine
Spade, Joan Z., Valentine, G. Catherine. (2011) Gender at
Work. Joan Acker (Eds.),
The Kaleidoscope of Gender Prisms,
Patterns, and Possibilities. Third
Edition. SAGE
Publications, Inc.
Working in retail for the past 5 years I can completely understand your topic of discussion. Gender stereotypes are used by retailers as strategies to drive sales and attract business. Working for several different massive retailers in the past several years and being trained two separate ways to sell to men and women has made it a lot easier to relate to this blog. Retailers take advantage of the fact that women seek refuge through shopping. They are very aware of this and they have marketing strategies in place to benefit from this.
ReplyDeleteAlexandra