15篇文章贯通六级词汇MP3（字幕版）Unit13-Part1
UNIT13
Sex Role Stereotypes
During my career
as a Canadian female teacher,
I observed many instances
of sex role stereotyping
throughout the western culture.
I was always amazed
how quickly young children
adopted the cultural values.
The topic is one of major concerns
in the western world,
yet there are those people
who would ask you to believe
that it is not a major issue.
People who wish to ignore the situation
do not welcome discussions
on the topic of gender bias.
This type of person evokes
an analogy of an ostrich
that buries its head in the sand
to ignore a problem by avoiding it.
Although many of my comments may seem cynical,
I give you assurance
that they are based on my observation
of western society for a number of years.
It might be interesting and informative
to compare the western world
in this respect with eastern cultures.
Many studies have been done
and the breakdown of reasons examined
to determine why gender roles play an important part
in the selection of successful candidates
for positions in many vocations.
These studies have made little impact
on diminishing the prevalence of candidates
being selected more for their gender
than their qualifications.
Since the people responsible
for hiring people to work with them,
often hire people similar to themselves,
it seems like they are looking for
a clone or a duplicate of themselves.
Females often become quite indignant
when positions that they are well suited
for are awarded to males
and ambiguous reasons given to explain why.
Is it any wonder that attempts
to sue corporations for using unfair hiring
and promotion practices are applauded?
On the other hand,
companies who exhibit fair hiring practices
need to be commended for doing so.
It has been common in the western world
for people to presume that
certain professions belong almost exclusively
to one gender or the other.
The work of an electrician,
or work with electronics,
or repairing of air-conditioning equipment,
might be considered to be
masculine fields of employment.
Nursing and childcare vocations
are considered feminine occupations.
Aviation is another field
where people would usually assume
that the pilot would be male
and the flight attendant would be female,
a premise that many times will be invalid.
It will be a major breakthrough
when both genders are equally represented
in the workforce especially in higher level positions.
Some individuals would lead you
to believe that it would
result in the breakdown of society,
as we know it today.
At times an attempt to prevent subjective views
being used to preclude only males
being hired by males has been attempted.
Laws or policy that attempt to rectify the situation
have not been successful in diminishing the problem.
An attempt to numerically control
the number of positions in a corporation
by using a quota system
to require equal numbers of males
and females to be hired usually
meets with little success
if the attitudes of the people
doing the hiring are subjective
and preclude the possibility of fair practises being used.
The empirical evidence shown by the numbers
makes it easy to show
which companies exemplify fairness
and would hinder those
who only make a feeble attempt to do so.
If a company does endeavour to incorporate fairness
in their hiring practises,
they should be eligible for commendation.
A diligent attempt to choose the best person
for the position regardless of their gender
is only inherent in those companies
that can envisage a future
with the best possible work force.
