Gender Issues

Understanding relationships in the workplace is critical to professional preparation. Knowing the differences between professional and personal relationships is also of great importance. Is it appropriate to date people with whom you work? What's the difference between sexual harassment and an off-color joke? Are you currently in a long-term relationship?

Or, do you simply want a long-term relationship? In achieving mastery over this area you will have discovered these answers before such situations arise. This discovery will come from exposure to several different issues that you may not have thought about before. Not only will this help you in the professional world as you leave college, it will help you in your personal life as you encounter new circumstances where you may be inexperienced. The issues you will be exposed to through this Area of Mastery are:

• Gender Differences in Interaction
• Professional vs. Personal Relationships
• Leadership and Communication Styles
• Communication Gaps Between Men and Women

To achieve mastery over this area, complete the following four activities. Below each activity you are provided with sample options that you may utilize to fulfill the activity. Remember, these are only sample options, you may choose to come up with your own options that may better suit you or your chapter's needs. Follow up your accomplishments in your Learning Journal. Finally, once you have completed all activities within this Area of Mastery, finish the area by answering the concluding Critical Reflection questions within your Learning Journal.

Identify appropriate and mature behavior when interacting with women.

• Attend a campus, community, or work-place program on sexual harassment. Make sure to document what you have learned and your thoughts on the experience.
• Speak to an alumnus who has recently been married to talk about the challenges, joys, and concessions to being in a new marriage. Record this interview.
• Seek out and review resources that demonstrate proper behavior. Then share your findings at the next chapter meeting. These may include How to Be a Gentleman by John Bridges or Raise Your Social I.Q. by Michael Levine. Make sure to include a list of these resources in your Learning Journal.

Recognize the differences between professional and intimate relationships.

• Attend a gender issues program offered by the campus counseling center, residence life, or student life and services staff. This program should focus on dating versus work relationships. You may also want to participate in a program that deals with the challenges women face in today's job market. Record what you feel are the advantages and disadvantages to being a woman in the workplace.
• Interview a man (community member, university personnel, or Delta Chi alumnus) who has a female as his supervisor. Discuss the challenges and benefits of working with and for a woman. Interview a man who has a male as his supervisor. Again, discuss the challenges and benefits of working with and for a man. Record, then compare and contrast these interviews.
• Invite the senior class of a sorority or other women's group to participate in a discussion on male-female communication, using the Impact of Socialization Patterns Within the Workplace Outline for facilitation purposes. This information was developed through research on girls' and boys' socialization scripts and may spark differences of opinion. An outside facilitator to handle appropriate conversation would be useful. Take notes on the ensuing discussion.

Differentiate between factual information and the beliefs/assumptions about gender issues.

• Complete the Gender Issues Worksheet and discuss it with several others. Compile a list of differences and similarities between how men and women respond. Why do you think this is?
• Take a class in which gender issues are a component of the course work. Summarize what you learned in this class and how it affected your outlook on gender issues. You may wish to attend or organize a workshop on intimate relationships. Sources for workshops on this topic could be faculty members from the social sciences or the communications departments or staff members from residential life, the student activities office, the women's center, or the counseling center.
• Organize or participate in a discussion on gender communication. Invite an outside communication professor, women's studies instructor, or other professional to facilitate the discussion. You may wish to administer the Gender Communication Quotient (GCQ) Quiz to complement the discussion.

Understand the differences between the communication and conflict styles of men and women.

• Read a book that discusses the differences between the way men and women interact such as John Gray's Men Are from Mars Women Are from Venus. Then discover some resources on feminine leadership such as Sally Helgesen's The Web of Inclusion or Deborah Tannen's Gender and Discourse. Describe what you have learned at the next chapter meeting for discussion.
• Sit in on several open Panhellenic Council meetings to watch an all-women's organization in action. Look for the difference in women's communication patterns, decision-making styles, conflict management, and delegating/leadership styles. Also attend a few Inter-Fraternity Council meetings. Describe the differences and similarities between the interactions of the two.
• Take the Conflict Management Style Assessment with a small group of female friends or senior class of a sorority. Then distribute the Conflict Strategies: What Are you Like? handout. Then discuss the differences in conflict management styles. Some questions are: 1) Are any management differences between the men and the women? 2) What stereotypes of the opposite sex may impede your ability to manage conflict appropriately? (For example, women would cry, men would yell.)
• In your next mixed-gender meeting, watch the communication patterns between the men and the women. Did you find the men talk more and steer discussions? Did you find that Robin Lakoff’s "women's language" characteristics to be true of the women in this group? (i.e. making statements that end in questioning intonation or putting tag questions at the end of declarative sentences like. "This is a good movie, isn't it?", using qualifiers such as "kind of or "I guess," or use of "empty adjectives" like wonderful or lovely and use of "so" with adjectives, as in "so thoughtful.")