Exploring Gender in Society and the Workplace

Exploring Gender in Society and the Workplace

what’s gender got to do with it?

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What’s gender got to do with it? Everything—or so it might seem. Gender, in the words of Kate Gilles, a policy ana- lyst at the Population Reference Bureau, “is a social construct— that is, a society’s assumptions about the way a man or woman should look and behave.” Gender roles in our society have changed considerably in recent decades: there are more women in the workforce, many doing jobs once held exclusively or primarily by men, and a growing number of men who choose to stay home with the kids while their partner works outside the home.

Still, many…