The topics this week of diversity and gender are near and dear to me. My brain immediately started making connections with multiple courses I’ve taken, and articles I’ve read. In particular, I wanted to share the connections I made between this weeks lesson and the course “Politics of Identity” I took while attending Temple University.
“Politics of Identity” was a course focused on your different identities, and the power that they hold. We studied race, gender, religion, geographical location, economic status, and sexuality as different things that could be used to identify a person, and how those power differentials played out.
In regards to the “glass ceiling” we learned about this week and has been mentioned in multiple psychology courses I’ve taken. One component of the glass ceiling is that preference for gender similarity during promotion decisions. This idea that executives prefer to promote individuals similar to them, such as a man, seemingly overlapped with a racial example we studied in my course at Temple.
We watched a video regarding Latino’s in the movie industry called “Latinos transforming Hollywood” which aired on CNN. It discusses how Latinos are often cast in low, stereotypical parts such as a gangster, thug, gardener, or a maid. To help break this cycle, they talk about how to put Latino’s in positions of power within the industry, they can have a more equal chance to be cast in non-ethnic roles. If more of the producers, and directors and people who are involved with the casting of roles are Latino themselves, they can help break the stereotypes portrayed by Hollywood by “working from the inside”
I believe this is similar to the glass ceiling. If there are more women executive or entrepreneurs involved in making the hiring decisions, they will be able to help even the field by helping other break the glass ceiling.
References:
Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
CNN “Latinos Transforming Hollywood”. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1rRWJdBb1g. November 23rd, 2014.
Image Credit: Google
Emily Catherine Paul says
What a great suggestion offered by “Latinos transforming Hollywood”. If we keep reinforcing gender roles and cultural memes through the media, we’re supporting the diversity issues and erasing the progress we’ve made as a country.
The media influences us no matter what. If we’re exposed to minorities in powerful leadership positions through TV shows, commercials, movies, etc. we’ll be more accepting of it in real life. It won’t be so foreign or different and we won’t immediately reject the concept.
Thanks for sharing!
Jay says
The “Politics of Identity” class that you took sounds like very interesting and compelling material. I remember learning about a similar issue with Asian actors in my theater class. We had a class discussion about how Asian actors, especially males, were typically always type-cast as either karate masters or goofy funny characters. Asian actors were interviewed saying that they had a hard time ever making serious drama roles because of being type-cast into stereotyped roles based on their race. I had never considered comparing this to the glass ceiling, but you are absolutely right to make this comparison. According to the text, the glass ceiling is of perceived as an issue affecting only women, but in fact has effects on racial, ethnic, and sexual minorities, and the biases shown towards them. Society has very ingrained stereotypes that it applies to women, especially when it related to the workplace. We still expect women to be primarily in support roles as opposed to leadership roles, and deal primarily with work-home conflicts such as child rearing. We look down on women who self-promote in order to advance, which in turn prevents them from ever moving forward in the organization. As people in the workforce, we can do our best to ensure that these stereotypes do not persist in our own organizations. We could benefit from the more transformationally-oriented leadership approach of women in executive roles, and the focus on “agentic tendencies” to drive employees to high performance (Northouse, 2013). I really like this comparison, thank you for posting.
Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Ashley Ann Wilson says
Another great way to think about the glass ceiling and how it doesn’t just relate to women breaking through that ceiling and entering the world of executive officers or top level management, but how it applies to other minorities as well. I remember in other psychology and ever sociology classes talking about disadvantages of being female or other minorities too. You could have several things stacked against you in this society such as being female and black, this puts you at an even greater disadvantage than being female and white. The same idea goes for other minorities such as your example above with Latinos in movies. The glass ceiling is a little different for every person or minority and in different situations whether we’re talking about casting for roles for entertainment positions or exploring opportunities for executive officer positions. The struggles are much the same and the lesson this week mainly focused on women, which is fine, but compared to other minorities, a woman’s struggle to break through the glass ceiling might not be as difficult as for Latino women in the same situation.
Great Post!
Ashley Wilson