6.3. Inequality at work

Task 1. Study the SQR3 technique for working with texts and do the activities integrated in the explanation.

SQR3: Survey (S), Question (Q), Read, Recite, and Review (R3) Many books about studying at college recommend the SQR3 approach to reading. The SQR3 approach helps you become an active reader. Active readers do not simply pick up a text and read it. They do tasks before reading, while reading, and after reading. These tasks help them understand and remember what they have read.

Now, we will look at the first three steps only – survey, question, and read.

1. Survey When you survey a text before reading it closely, you look at titles, headings, subheadings, highlighted words, pictures, graphs, and charts. You also look quickly through the text - perhaps reading some parts, such as the introduction and conclusion, more closely.

   • Survey the text "Inequality at Work." Report to the group about what you looked at and what you found out.

2. Question Before you read a text, you should think about what the text will tell you. One way to do this is to make up questions you think will be answered by the text. As you read, you should keep checking to see if your questions are being answered.

   • On the basis of your survey, write down some questions that you think the text will answer. Look especially at any headings or highlighted words. One question, for example, might be "What is sexism?" Compare your questions with others in the class.

3. Read You should read a text as if you are looking for the answers to your questions. Of course, you may not find the answers to all your questions because the answers may not be there. Also, you may find out much more than these answers as you read. But looking for answers is a good strategy to make you read actively.

Task 2. Read the text "Inequality at Work" with your questions in mind and then translate it in the written form.

Inequality at work

I

Women won the right to vote in the United States in 1919,

but they are still struggling for equality in the workplace.

n the past, women have been denied the right to vote, to go to school, to borrow money, and to enter certain occupations. Women have, how­ever, fought for their rights over the years and now gender equality¹⁴ is protected by a number of laws and rulings in many countries of the world. Nevertheless, inequalities still remain. Underlying these inequal­ities is prejudice against women that is based on sexism¹⁵.

One of the areas where women fight for equality is the workplace. Since laws were passed to prohibit sex discrimination in employment more than thirty years ago, women have made some gains in the work­place. More women are employed than ever before and their pay is higher. Still, women are far from being equal to men economically. Women typically hold lower-status, lower-paying jobs. In many traditional female occupations - such as nursing, public school teaching, and secretarial work - women work in positions that are subordi­nate to those usually held by men. Thus, nurses are subordinate to doctors, teachers to principals, and secretaries to executives.

Positions	Percent held by women
Secretaries	99
Dental hygienists	99
Receptionists	97
Childcare workers	97
Cleaners and servants	94
Registered nurses	94
Bank tellers	88
Librarians	88
Billing clerks	86
Elementary school teachers	86
Waiters	80
Source: Statistical Abstract of the United States
Table 1 Percent of lower-status, lower-paying positions held by women.

One of the reasons that women work in a narrower range of occupations than men is their commitment to the family. Schwartz (1989) has identified two types of women in the workforce - "career-primary" and "career and family" women:

The majority of women . . . are what I call career-and-family women, women who want to pursue serious careers while participating actively in the rearing of children . . . most of them are willing to trade some career growth and compensation for freedom from the constant pres­sure to work long hours and weekends.

Many of these women, as a result, take jobs that are primarily clerical (for example, secretaries), operative (for example, machine operator), and service (for example, sales clerk). The pay is low and the opportunity for advancement is limited. The benefit, however, is that they can quit at any time, take care of their families as long as neces­sary, and then get another job when family demands decrease.

I n recent years the participation of women in jobs traditionally held by males has increased. However, the number of women making their way up to higher management positions is still relatively small. A 1994 study, for example, found that women make up about 24 per­cent of officials and managers in industry. At the higher, vice-presi­dential level, women make up an even smaller proportion - less than 5 percent.

Even when women hold the same jobs as men, or have equal skills, training, and education, they tend to earn less. The state of Washing­ton has tried to solve this problem by introducing a policy of compa­rable worth. This means that women are paid the same as men for doing different but equally demanding work. For example office cleaning may be paid the same as truck driving. Some other states have followed Washington's lead with similar programs. Even so, among industrial nations, the United States has nearly the worst record in women's earnings.

Task 3. The SQR3 approach to reading also includes two strategies to use after reading: Recite and Review.

1. Recite When you recite, you say aloud from memory what you have read about. You can do this while reading, stopping after each paragraph and asking yourself: Now what did I just read? Do I understand the main ideas? Did the text answer my questions?

   • Choose a paragraph from the text. Re-read it and then tell a partner what your paragraph was about. Listen to your partner tell you about a different paragraph.

2. Review Reviewing means going back over the text and thinking about how much you understand. You can put a check next to the parts you understand and a question mark next to the parts that are still unclear.

   • Review the text now and put checks and question marks where appropriate. Discuss with a small group the parts you did not understand.

Task 4. Scan the text and find the nouns that occur with these verbs. Make up a sentence with each word combination.

to deny		to pass		to take
to enter		to hold		to solve
to fight for		to pursue		to follow

Task 5. Among vocabulary units from the text, find the ones with opposite meanings to the expressions below:

1. to hold high-status, well-paid jobs;

2. gender equality;

3. women who don’t hold their job as being important;

4. to lend money;

5. Women earn as much as men do;

6. disregard for the family;

7. to take no part in bringing up children;

8. One can be easily promoted;

9. to allow sex discrimination at work;

10. to be employed in a diverse range of jobs;

11. Women are employed less and less in jobs typically held by men.

Task 6. Paraphrase the underlined vocabulary units in the text in the written form. Make up 5 fresh-context sentences with the word combinations you like most.

Task 7. Write a one-paragraph summary of the text. Include only the main ideas and omit very specific details or supporting evidence. Include these words in your summary:

sexism	inequality	workplace
lower status	lower pay	“career and family”

 LISTENING