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Subtle Sexism: The Extra Work Expected of Women

<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-10764 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;collegecareerlife&period;net&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;10&sol;Subtle-Sexism-Extra-work-expected-of-women-683x1024&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"683" height&equals;"1024" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A recent <strong><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;money&period;cnn&period;com&sol;2017&sol;10&sol;18&sol;pf&sol;women-emotional-labor&sol;index&period;html">CNN Money article<&sol;a><&sol;strong> pointed out the extra work expected of women in the workplace&period; Women are assumed to be better at certain tasks simply because they are women&period; And although they may be busy with their regular work requirements&comma; they&&num;8217&semi;re often saddled with extra work&period; They are not paid for this work and generally the work is not even acknowledged by their bosses and coworkers&period; Their efforts are unappreciated and invisible&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This extra work may seem harmless&comma; but it is subtle sexism that many women themselves may not think about because it&&num;8217&semi;s just how things are done&period; More disturbingly&comma; these extra responsibilities can be draining and can cause the women performing the tasks to be viewed as less capable at their regular jobs or even less powerful&period; Over time&comma; it can prevent promotions and pay increases because employers assume the women are content to do free&comma; menial tasks rather than move forward in their careers&period; Some extra work that is often expected of women&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Emotional Support<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>As the CNN article mentioned&comma; women are often looked upon to provide emotional support at work&period; Although it is good to offer support to coworkers&comma; it can be draining when it becomes a regular responsibility&period; Simply because they are female&comma; it is thought that women will be able to help an emotionally distraught or unhappy coworker&period; However&comma; that is not always the case&period; Many women would rather be working on an important project than dealing with emotions&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Employee Orientation<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>Helping employees get adjusted is a common task that falls upon women&period; They may even be expected to informally train the employee&comma; taking precious time away from their own careers&period; This task is generally unrecognized and taken for granted&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Remembering Birthdays and Special Events<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>Women are often the social planners at home and this role usually extends to work&period; They are expected to remember birthdays&comma; anniversaries&comma; retirements&comma; etc&period; In addition&comma; they usually find themselves in charge of cards&comma; flowers&comma; and other accompanying purchases&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Planning Parties<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>Adding on to the previous point&comma; women often get saddled with event planning at work&period; Cooking food&comma; setting up the party room or finding a venue&comma; and other planning tasks fall to women much more than men&period; This takes time away from women&&num;8217&semi;s day-to-day tasks and time they may otherwise fill pursuing more prestigious roles within the company&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Running Errands<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>Picking up supplies&comma; food&comma; and other items is a task often left to women&period; Of course&comma; errand running is part of certain job descriptions&comma; but if there is no designated errand runner the task will likely be given to a woman&period; This is a subtle acknowledgment that her time and role in the company is not as important as her male coworkers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Answering Phones<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>Even for women who aren&&num;8217&semi;t receptionists&comma; they often end up being the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;back up” phone answerers or customer support&period; No matter their skills or other responsibilities&comma; they may be expected to jump and answer phones if a receptionist is unavailable&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Cleaning<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>Women often find themselves cleaning up after others&period; Why&quest; They&&num;8217&semi;re expected to for one thing&period; Women were likely raised to do more cleaning than their male peers and continue to do so as adults&period; Bosses and coworkers may exert either overt or subtle pressure on female employees to pick up the cleaning slack at work&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>How can women stop being taken for granted at work&quest; First&comma; they should know their job duties&period; If their responsibilities don&&num;8217&semi;t include the tasks above&comma; then women are not obligated to do them&period; And just because a task is not getting done &lpar;cleaning&comma; running errands&rpar;&comma; women should not feel obligated to step up and do them at work even if they do such chores at home&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<div id&equals;"polls-20" class&equals;"wp-polls">&NewLine;&Tab;<form id&equals;"polls&lowbar;form&lowbar;20" class&equals;"wp-polls-form" action&equals;"&sol;index&period;php" method&equals;"post">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<p style&equals;"display&colon; none&semi;"><input type&equals;"hidden" id&equals;"poll&lowbar;20&lowbar;nonce" name&equals;"wp-polls-nonce" value&equals;"379ec4ec26" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<p style&equals;"display&colon; none&semi;"><input type&equals;"hidden" name&equals;"poll&lowbar;id" value&equals;"20" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<p style&equals;"display&colon; none&semi;"><input type&equals;"hidden" id&equals;"poll&lowbar;multiple&lowbar;ans&lowbar;20" name&equals;"poll&lowbar;multiple&lowbar;ans&lowbar;20" value&equals;"7" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>Women&colon; What extra tasks are you expected to take on at work&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;p><div id&equals;"polls-20-ans" class&equals;"wp-polls-ans"><ul class&equals;"wp-polls-ul">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<li><input type&equals;"checkbox" id&equals;"poll-answer-95" name&equals;"poll&lowbar;20" value&equals;"95" &sol;> <label for&equals;"poll-answer-95">Party planning<&sol;label><&sol;li>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<li><input type&equals;"checkbox" id&equals;"poll-answer-96" name&equals;"poll&lowbar;20" value&equals;"96" &sol;> <label for&equals;"poll-answer-96">Running errands<&sol;label><&sol;li>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<li><input type&equals;"checkbox" id&equals;"poll-answer-97" name&equals;"poll&lowbar;20" value&equals;"97" &sol;> <label for&equals;"poll-answer-97">Emotional support<&sol;label><&sol;li>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<li><input type&equals;"checkbox" id&equals;"poll-answer-98" name&equals;"poll&lowbar;20" value&equals;"98" &sol;> <label for&equals;"poll-answer-98">Cleaning<&sol;label><&sol;li>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<li><input type&equals;"checkbox" id&equals;"poll-answer-99" name&equals;"poll&lowbar;20" value&equals;"99" &sol;> <label for&equals;"poll-answer-99">Answering phones<&sol;label><&sol;li>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<li><input type&equals;"checkbox" id&equals;"poll-answer-100" name&equals;"poll&lowbar;20" value&equals;"100" &sol;> <label for&equals;"poll-answer-100">Remembering birthdays and special events<&sol;label><&sol;li>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<li><input type&equals;"checkbox" id&equals;"poll-answer-101" name&equals;"poll&lowbar;20" value&equals;"101" &sol;> <label for&equals;"poll-answer-101">Training and orientation<&sol;label><&sol;li>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;ul><p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><input type&equals;"button" name&equals;"vote" value&equals;" Vote " class&equals;"Buttons" onclick&equals;"poll&lowbar;vote&lpar;20&rpar;&semi;" &sol;><&sol;p><p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><a href&equals;"&num;ViewPollResults" onclick&equals;"poll&lowbar;result&lpar;20&rpar;&semi; return false&semi;" title&equals;"View Results Of This Poll">View Results<&sol;a><&sol;p><&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;<&sol;form>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<div id&equals;"polls-20-loading" class&equals;"wp-polls-loading"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;collegecareerlife&period;net&sol;wp-content&sol;plugins&sol;wp-polls&sol;images&sol;loading&period;gif" width&equals;"16" height&equals;"16" alt&equals;"Loading &period;&period;&period;" title&equals;"Loading &period;&period;&period;" class&equals;"wp-polls-image" &sol;>&nbsp&semi;Loading &period;&period;&period;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;

Andrea: