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History has been a powerful tool in measuring and explaining the socialization of defined gender roles. With the advent and results of the United States women's equal rights movement, there was a dramatic transformation to the once well-defined roles of genders. The purpose of this study is to explore whether socialization has had a direct affect upon the psychological traits that cause gender conflict within American workplace environments. Examples of power struggles (control and dominance versus equality and acceptance), alpha tendencies (assertiveness and power versus nurturing caretakers), and gender preferences (masculinity versus femininity) are used to illustrate how socialization can create organizational conflict between genders.
Keywords: Gender socialization, Gender conflict, Power struggle, Alpha tendencies, Gender preferences.
Introduction
Gender conflict within American based organizations can have many variables. For instance, gender conflict can be associated with management styles, job seniorities, and personality differences. Gender conflict may also be contributed to gender dominated industries. According to Toegel (2011), women outnumber men in several different industries, which include finance, event management, and education. In addition, female participation in engineering and consultancy fields continue to rise and have altered the face of male dominated business infrastructures. However, despite these plausible causations of conflict, socialization has often been ignored as the inherent root of why genders differentiate. For instance, men and women within organizations have been known to differ in the way they lead, manage their power, deal with emotions, as well as handle conflict resolution. As a result, perceptions have been made toward gender capabilities in leadership roles. This has caused issues of interpersonal tension and annoyance among members of the opposite sex. It is without bias to suggest that some sort of environmental learning has had an affect upon these gender variances. Thus, the purpose of this study is to connect whether socialization has had a direct affect upon the psychological traits that cause gender conflict within American workplace environments.
Gender Socialization
Socialization is defined as "a continuing process whereby an individual acquires a personal identity and learns the norms, values, behavior, and social skills appropriate to his or her social position" ("So·cial·i·za·tion," n.d., para. 1). Throughout world history, female roles were often defined as subordinate to those of men. In many ancient cultures, woman's primary role...