英语15篇文章背完大学英语六级词汇Unit13Part1

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.