Gender Based Power In A Company

Thinking about our society and gender, gender polarization is evident in nearly every aspect of our lives! Power is also polarized by gender. From a very young age, we are socially constructed based on our sex and gender, which is also known as gender socialization.

Keeping this in mind, I decided to take a different twist to this matter and visit CENTCOM Projects to analyze the power within the employees based on their gender. CENTCOM Projects is a construction company based on steel, aluminum, joinery and interior fit outs. Therefore, majority of the staff in the labor section were men and barely had females in the office. This may be because women consider sex-appropriate positions such as the secretary and choose occupations that will not require them to relocate and work in unpleasant environments such as the factory.





From a sociological perspective, I examined the concepts of power-over, power-to and power-with while visiting the company’s office and factory in the industrial area. The notion of power-over was greatly evident as the foreman’s, manager and the director had the ability to get the workers do jobs when they didn’t want to. According to Weber, he defined power, as the ability of one actor to carry out his will against another. Clearly, this is was evident. While I was there, the foreman was achieving his goals by making one of the labor workers do his work. In this case of master/subject relation: the foreman is powered (master) and the worker is not (subject). At most times, this could possibly be a problem, as power is seen as an abusive force, unequal and the ability to force your physical strength and ideas over other employees in a workforce.



Luckily enough, I got to observe a power-to situation. One of the experienced workers came in and asked if he could either higher his position in the company or leave. From a sociological perspective, he recognized the control he has over his life, saw results of his actions and utilized his power. In other words, this could be described as self-control and self-efficacy.



In addition, the notion of power-with was not evident. However, it may be applied to labor workers if they come together as a group to challenge the system and ask for a change. In this case, if the workers struggle against the oppressive system, they would collectively work together to change it. This could happen if the workers need a rise in salary, new housing or even higher positions.



All in all, we could possibly say that the social construction of gender socialization goes back to social stratification and ethnic backgrounds.