Author: Linh
Gendering processes and culture underpinned by the biased assumptions in gendered organizations are indirectly provoking workplace limitations, inequalities and discrimination.
Rather than being neutral, organizations are recognized to be gendered, masculinized (Acker, 1990; Davies & Thomas, 2000) through the nature of the organizational structure, gender stereotypes, biased evaluations or other social norms. This article explores these mentioned underlying concepts in academic resources and draws on the analysis of the popular TV series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CSI), also known as CSI Las Vegas, to examine gendered organizations in literature as well as in practice.
CSI follows a team of crime-scene investigators, employed by the Las Vegas Police Department, focus on their day-to-day works and lives as they analyze physical evidence to solve murders. CSI, as one of the popular cultural artefacts, can provide some of the most insightful and critical perspectives than seen in academic literature on work and organizations (Rhodes & Westwood, 2008). It gives the audience an opportunity to observe how both women and men work in law enforcement, a male-dominated field.
Gender and Stereotypes
Gender identity is one of the first concepts that a person becomes aware of, expressed through their gender-consistent toys preference (Alexander & Saenz, 2012), and thus people learn about social expectations for their behaviour since they were children. While there are recognitions that gender and biological sex are not necessarily the same, according to Clarke (1983, p. 66), “a biological male has been thought to be a social male and a biological female to be a social female”. Masculinities and femininities, as gender identities, refer to the social roles, behaviours, and attributes prescribed for men and women (Kimmel, 2001). As masculinities and femininities are shaped by socio-cultural processes, their definitions may vary substantially among cultures, religions and other social factors.
There are certain stereotypes relating to gender, which consist of beliefs about socially acceptable, appropriate, or desirable psychological traits and behaviours of men and women (Williams, Bennett & Best, 1975). Thus, women are often said to have a caring nature, become emotional easily, tend to be dominated by men, while men seemingly associate with competence and rationality (Deaux & Lewis, 1984; Friedan, 1963). The gender stereotype of women having nurturing and caring behaviours has also been illustrated in CSI, episode “Blood Drops” (Episode 7, Season 1). The investigation team is called to a suburban house where the whole family has been murdered except the youngest daughter. Sara Sidle, a professional, ambitious forensic scientist specialising in materials and element analysis, has been assigned by her supervisor, Gil Grissom, to escort the little girl to police headquarters and stay with her despite her protests.
Gil Grissom: (to Sara) I need you to transport the little girl to the police department.
Sara Sidle: You’re kidding me, right? I’m a taxi service on the biggest case of the year?
Gil Grissom: Sara, I need one of us with that little girl.
Sara Sidle: Look, I don’t see why I got to take her. I’m a scientist. I’m not good with kids.
The case actually occurs on Sidle’s days off, however after she heard that it was a good case through a police scanner at home, she immediately comes to the scene. She aims to take part in the investigation, as the high-profile case would improve her standing for promotion. Sidle proves herself as an intelligent, dedicated investigator who attended Harvard University on a scholarship, working her way up by going beyond the call of duty, even as far as offering herself as a bait for ongoing murders by a signature killer (Episode 23, Season 1). However, besides her intelligence and dedication, Grissom, her supervisor seems to portrait her with another socially-expected characteristic of a typical woman, which is nurturance. The fact that he first comes to Sidle to assign her with the young girl instead of considering any other male team members, shows that he considers taking care of children as a women’s task. This episode shows that gender stereotypes in organizations restrain women from being fairly evaluated based on their knowledge or capability, which in turn may limit their opportunities for career advancement.
Gendered Organizations
As gender inequality appears to be socially constructed, the concept of gendered organizations is a logical consequence since organizations are made up of individuals within societies to begin with. A gendered organization exists when “advantage and disadvantage, exploitation and control, action and emotion, meaning and identity are patterned through and in terms of a distinction between male and female, masculine and feminine” (Acker, 1990, p. 146). Organizations operate with policies, procedures, and expectations that favour typically masculine traits despite being defined as gender-neutral (Kanter, 1977). Acker (1990) explains that as men represent the concept of an ideal worker, organizational structures and process consequently become gender-neutral in theories. An organization structured on the ‘ideal worker’ assumes that the worker exists only for work and dedicate their lives to the job, the assumption that if married, the worker can depend on a wife to fulfill all nonwork-related responsibilities (Abrams, 1989; Acker, 1990). A woman who is pregnant or presents herself as a working mother are perceived as having other obligations beside her job and therefore, women are often excluded from positions structured for the ‘ideal worker’. Moreover, since hierarchies within organisations are based on underlying assumptions that individuals who are fully committed to work naturally deserve more rewarding, responsibility and authority, whereas those with divided commitments belong in the lower ranks, women are often situated in lower positions. As a result, the ‘ideal worker’ and gendered hierarchies in organizations also leads to human resource management policies, as gender can strongly impact who gets hired for high-status jobs and who gets low-paying positions or even overlooked (Fernandez, 2008).
The CSI series seems to preserve the image of masculinely gendered organisations overall, although there have been some attempts to challenge the concept of the gendered hierarchies. Throughout thirteen seasons, the positions of supervisor are mostly occupied by men, and even though there are some female supervisors, they are all demoted shortly after their promotion with different reasons. The directorship of the crime lab has always been granted to men (Wikipedia, 2019), until the last episode where Sidle finally gets promoted to this position, though she relinquishes this position to reunite with her ex-husband, Grissom afterward (“Immortality”, Series Finale).
The two female leads in this series, Sara Sidle and Catherine Willows, appear to struggle with their personal life while working towards higher positions in the crime lab hierarchy. Sidle has no private life, her time off is often interrupted by being called to work, and there are many episodes start by her being awake in the middle of the night to wait for a high profile case announcement though the police scanner, because those case can improve her standing (Episode 7, Season 1). Meanwhile, Willows is a single mother who gets involved in many short-term relationships, whose work interferes with her private life and limits her time with her daughter, making her appear as a mother with poor parenting abilities. Willows seems to be unable to fully commit to work, unlike Sidle, as sometimes her personal life strongly affect her work performance. In the pilot episode of the series (Episode 1, Season 1), she arrives late to a meeting because she was with her daughter, and afterward, while investigating a shooting, she gets distracted at the sound of a baby crying. This episode defines her first and foremost as a mother, and makes children seems like the only thing she devotes to. This is also one of the reasons why she gets demoted shortly after her supervisor promotion. In “Lady Heather’s Box” (Episode 15, Season 3), Willows lets her emotions go beyond professionalism required for the job when she runs into the interrogation room and threatens a suspect in the case of her dead ex-husband. Sidle, who is questioning the suspect at that time, has to drag Willows out of the room forcefully and tries to calm her down.
Sara Sidle: What are you doing? Do you know where you’re at right now?
Catherine Willows: I wouldn’t have to be here if you were doing your job properly!
Sara Sidle: There is a difference between me doing my job and you wanting to do it for me. You don’t want to get the job done. What you want right now is revenge.
The portrayal of Sidle and Willows shows that in order to fit in the organization as an ‘ideal worker’ who deserves high-status positions, women should act like a typical organizational man who exists only for work, or else their personal life will interfere with their work performance which in turn negatively affects their likelihood to be promoted. Even though CSI has attempted to challenge the masculinely gendered hierarchy by promoting female scientists into supervisors, none of them maintain this position long before getting demoted. Moreover, when one of them gets to the highest position of the crime lab, she chooses to relinquish her career to pursue her personal life. Meanwhile, the series reveals relatively little personal information about its male scientists, assuming that they are effortlessly devoted fully to their work, unlike their female colleagues. As a result, CSI seems to follow the typical work environment of a gendered organization, where women are placed in a disadvantage compared to men.
Hegemonic Masculinity
Among multiple types of masculinities that vary across time, culture and the individual, Connell (2005) has labeled traditional male roles and privileges hegemonic masculinity. According to Connell, hegemonic masculinity is a certain practice that legitimizes men’s dominant position in society and organizations, justifies the subordination and oppression of women. Hegemonic masculinity is understood as not only “hegemony over women”, but also “hegemony over subordinate masculinities”, which referred to men who lack many of the qualities of hegemonic masculinity and express qualities opposite to hegemonic masculinity (Demetriou, 2001, p. 341). Hegemonic masculinity is considered as an idealized form of masculinity, “the currently most honored way of being a man” (Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005, p. 832), emphasizing toughness, dominance, self-reliance, and the restriction of emotion. In addition, Collinson and Hearn (1994) have outlined some other masculine traits that are privileged in organizations and management, such as paternalism, entrepreneurialism, careerism and informalism. It is argued that women can never be hegemonic due to the universal subordination of women by men (Connell, 1987). Alongside hegemonic masculinity, Connell (2005) also suggests other forms of masculinity such as marginalized masculinity and subordinated masculinity.
CSI reflects different forms of masculinity through its male characters and the way they are positioned in the organizational hierarchy. Gil Grissom, the night shift supervisor throughout the first eight seasons, embodies several typical characteristics of hegemonic masculinity. Grissom spends most of his time devoting to his job, in which his calm demeanor and high intellect often work to his advantage. The flow of CSI is lead by Grissom, as he takes charge of the team and makes executive decisions which help the investigation runs effectively. He has no personal or emotional life, no attachments, no family. Grissom sees relationships as secondary, even superfluous, to the scientific ideals of objectivity, truth and reason in the pursuit of justice. He is more interested in science than the morality of the crime, as he rarely feels empathy for the victims despite their miserable circumstances. In “Too Tough To Die” (Episode 16, Season 1), when the rapist will be going to jail for a scant 48 months as he is a juvenile and the victim is too tough to die, who will spend the rest of her life in a vegetative state, Sidle and Grissom have a talk about the unfair justice system. While Sidle, a female forensic scientist, is moved to tears, Grissom frankly says that she should just let go since unfair things happen every day. Sidle becomes speechless at his emotional detachment, then she says:
His interactions with the team show paternalism, as he acts as a father figure by advising, warning, supporting and encouraging his subordinates. In “Cool Change” (Episode 2, Season 1), he talks to Warrick Brown, one of his team members, using the language of paternalistic condescension such as “I’m proud of your”, or “I can only help you so much. After that, it’s up to you”. Paternalism helps him exercise power by personal trust relations and encourages his subordinates to invest voluntarily in their work task (Collinson & Hearn, 1994).
In contrast, Greg Sanders, a DNA technician, is presented as someone who lacks many of the hegemonic masculinity qualities and expresses traditionally feminine traits, embodies several typical characteristics of subordinated masculinity. He is cheerful and somewhat immature, as he often meets with the disapproval of his supervisor Gil Grissom due to listening to loud music and dancing in the crime lab. He appears as someone who needs to be taken care of. In “Chasing the Bus” (Episode 18, Season 2), Sanders responses to an “all hands on deck” call, even though he wasn’t trained for fieldwork, and as a result, he lacks experience and knowledge to perform the task. He shows up without gloves and jacket during the cold night, and he freezes as one of the victims collapses towards him. He is upset for his unprofessionalism, while other team members, such as Sara Sidle and Nick Stokes, have to encourage him and cheer him up.
He also feels empathy towards other people, sometimes not in an appropriate context, as he asks the prosecutor to be lenient with a suspect whose brother has been accidentally killed (Episode 19, Season 7). He lacks interest in career advancements, or careerism (Collinson & Hearn, 1994), as the tasks inside the lab is safer than ones in crime scenes, and he does not want his family to worry. Overall, he stays in the low level of the organizational hierarchy and as a result, he is often given the unpleasant tasks, such as processing a liquefied body (Episode 1, Season 6) or working in a dumpster. CSI reveals that a gendered organization will always favor masculine traits over feminine attributes, and therefore men who lack qualities of masculinity can only be subordinated in the organizational hierarchy.
Workplace Interactions
One of the five processes that produce gendered social and organizational structures is the interactions between women and men, women and women, men and men. These interactions enact the images of stereotypically masculine organizations, such as social patterns of dominance and submission. Research shows that all-female and all-male groups are equally likely to develop hierarchical patterns of leadership, however, in mixed-gender groups, males are found to be five times more likely than females to exercise leadership (Walker, Ilardi, McMahon & Fennell, 1996). This is due to the social beliefs that leadership and success are commonly associated with masculinities (Kolb, 1999). However, when women occupy high-status positions in the hierarchy is seen to challenge men’s dominant nature, women’s sexuality is used as a mean of reflecting their societal and culturally subordinate status (Gossett & Williams, 1998; Schultz, 1998). This has been presented by the interaction between FBI Agent Sturgis who has authority over the Las Vegas crime lab, and the newly promoted Supervisor Julie Finlay (Episode 13, Season 14). Sturgis suggests that Finlay is helping a potential suspect because of their relationship, making her uncomfortable with his inappropriate comments.
Agent Sturgis: I don’t know if you’re protecting Merchiston because you’ve fallen for him or his politics, or maybe he’s just a great lay. Honestly, I don’t care. Whatever pillow talk you two shared, you are gonna give it up. At the risk of sounding like your British boy toy… we could go all night.
Throughout his insults, Finlay only keeps her silent and tries to ignore him, which is a common way of response to sexual harassment in law enforcement departments (Chaiyavej & Morash, 2009). As the police culture is so gendered, it favors men and discourages or even prohibits reporting sexual harassment complaints filed against male officers, increasing the chances for negative reactions to women who call attention to this issue (Collins, 2004). Therefore, women who work in male-dominated fields often adopt passive response such as ignoring or laughing it off, especially when the harasser is in a much higher position such as in this case, where Agent Sturgis is controlling the investigation against the Las Vegas crime lab.
An interaction between two men also occurs in this scene. Interaction between male workers is often deeply masculine and highly aggressive as a mean of expressing power and dominance (Ackroyd & Thompson, 1999). At first, Jim Brass, Captain of Las Vegas Police Department wants to work with the FBI because of the workplace politics. However, after listening to the inappropriate comments that Agent Sturgis has made, Brass decides to strongly demonstrate his authority to protect his people.
Jim Brass: You know what, Agent? Go screw yourself!
Agent Sturgis: You’re here as an observer, Captain.
Jim Brass: This is my house, these are my people. And if you don’t start acting nice, I’m gonna kick your FBI ass right out of here.
Authoritarianism, one of the five masculine traits that remain dominant in organizations, is seen as the primary way to improve one’s standing against others based on brutal and aggressive masculine practices such as the creation of fear and bullying (Collinson & Hearn, 1994). In this scene, Brass has demonstrated that male-to-male competitions in a gendered organization are associated with the use of aggressive masculinity, as a form of power, authority and dominance. By practicing aggressive masculinity such as threatening and cursing, together with emphasizing his authority in the organization, he proves his dominant position against the other men.
Gender-biased work environments, including law enforcement departments, are found to turn women into “queen bee” who adjust to the masculine culture by distancing themselves from other women and opposing rather than supporting female subordinates (Kanter, 1977). Research suggests that since male-dominated organizations value men over women, women may try to fit in by adopting masculine characteristics and leadership styles, as well as avoiding helping other women to achieve high positions (Derks, Colette & Ellemers, 2016). They practice masculine leadership styles by actions that legitimize gender hierarchy, such as being very critical of junior women and supporting stereotypes of women as less capable than junior men. There is also an expectation that women at work should behave nicely with each other while men should compete for promotions, which in turn makes women become extremely competitive against other women to prove themselves as being masculine in a male-dominated work culture (Rudman & Glick, 2001). CSI demonstrates the “queen bee” phenomenon by the relationship between assistant supervisor Catherine Willows and a new DNA technician of the lab, Chandra Moore in “Viva Las Vegas” (Episode 1, Season 5).
Willows presents as a senior who keeps on reminding Moore of her position and devaluing Moore’s technical skills. She interrupts Moore’s self-introduction to complain to Gil Grissom, her supervisor, about her new office as she has just been promoted to assistant supervisor. Afterward, Willows emphasizes on her authority “Now, you know that my stuff gets done first, right?”. She then comments about how Greg Sanders, a male DNA technician, works in the lab in comparison to Moore. At the end of the episode, Moore is unable to cope with the workload as well as with Willows’ rivalry and as a result, she abruptly resigns on her first day. This episode shows that “queen bees” like Willows are unlikely to accept or support other female colleagues, as they try to prove themselves as a successful woman with authority and masculine leadership styles, such as being competitive and critical in this case.
All gender interactions in CSI have demonstrated that working in a gender-biased work environment puts women at a disadvantage compared to men. Women have to adopt aggressive masculine traits in order to fit in the organization and advance their careers, otherwise, they will have to face sexism treatments like Julie Finlay or get replaced easily like Chandra Moore.
Women in Male-dominated Industries
This discussion will focus on gender stereotypes in male-dominated industries, specifically science and law enforcement, and how the series CSI have illustrated them through its female leads.
Women in law enforcement
Women in the United States’ law enforcement have always been under-represented. In 2014, women made up only 11.9% of police departments in the United States (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2014). Law enforcement is considered as a masculine occupation where stereotypical feminine traits are unlikely to be considered ideal (Barratt, Bergman & Thompson, 2014). As women and men are subjected to different organizational practices based on male-dominated social hierarchies, it becomes difficult for women to enter, to be accepted or to pursue career advancement in law enforcement occupation (Acker, 1992). In “The Good, the Bad and the Dominatrix” (Episode 3, Season 7), Sara Sidle, a forensic investigator, shares with a victim that she receives judgments by men because of her career in law enforcement.
All new police officers have their adapting process to the unique police work environment, however, female officers face different expectations including attitudes of male officers, the employment practices of police departments, and questions regarding the physical capabilities of women (Gossett & Williams, 1998). Many policemen still hold negative judgments regarding women in law enforcement such as that they are physically incapable and mentally weak. CSI often shows the vulnerable, weak, emotional side of the team’s female investigators, Catherine Willows and Sara Sidle. There are many episodes where Willows has to suffer and struggle with suppressing her emotions to think rationally, and she often fails to do that. “Built to Kill, Part 2” (Episode 2, Season 7) starts when Willows woke up after being drugged, stripped and possibly assaulted in an unfamiliar room. Tasker (1998) argues that movie scenes where women get sexually assaulted are effective at proving women’s weaknesses, as they show the vulnerability of a female body. Willows frightens at first but then tries to pull herself together, brings her own sex assault kit to the lab and begins running tests as an unofficial investigation. It is reasonable that she feels ashamed and does not want anyone else to know about her being assaulted, however by using the crime lab’s tool kit, computer systems and other equipment to investigate her personal case, she has violated the department rules and policies while being emotional rather than rational.
There are also many scenes where Willows’ romantic relationships get involved in her professionalism. In “Weeping Willows” (Episode 22, Season 5), she has a brief romantic encounter with the suspect, which creates a conflict of interest in the investigation process. In “Bodies in Motion” (Episode 1, Season 6), when Warrick Brown, a colleague whom Willows has a crush on, gets married, she tries to shy away from talking to him although they are working on the same case. She also has to step down as shift supervisor in this episode, as it has been conflicting with her parenting and personal life. This scenes somehow prove the normative belief that a woman is less than ideal for occupations in law enforcement, as she has other commitments besides work, being physically weak and lets herself be emotional even when it affects her professionalism and performance.
Women in science
Women are under-represented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) majors and careers around the world. Even though women make up nearly half (47%) of all jobs in the United States economy, they held less than one-quarter (24%) of those employed in STEM occupations in 2017 (U.S. Department of Commerce, 2017). This is represented in CSI, as Catherine Willows and Sara Sidle are the only female forensic scientists in the Las Vegas investigation team throughout the series. Explanations of women under-representation in STEM have been proposed in a number of academic literature over the years. Some argue that women are found to be more field dependent than men (Haaken, 1996). Field dependent people favor interpersonal, nonanalytical fields and tend to rely on given information to study passively, whereas field independent people are impersonal, talented in cognitive analysis and structuring, which is more suitable for STEM majors and careers. Moreover, as women are often associated with being emotional and people value rationality in science, science is defined as a masculine field (Blickenstaff, 2005). Many women choose to pursue masculine personality traits to prove that they belong in this male-dominated career and to improve their standing towards career advancement opportunities (Drydakis, Sidiropoulou, Bozani, Selmanovic & Patnaik, 2018). In CSI, Sara Sidle tells the story of a woman who wants to, and succeed in, outperform other men in a man’s field. In order to do that, she has to fit in the concept of the male ‘ideal worker’ norm. She wears manly, dark-colored clothes with masculine body language. She tends to take control of the crime scene that she is in, having the authority over her male colleagues and suspects. She becomes violent and goes nose-to-nose with men (Episode 14, Season 1) when they treat woman poorly as she tends to protect the weak and defenseless. She devotes all of her time and efforts to work as she does not have any relationships or families to spend time for.
Sidle is also a competitive and achievement-oriented scientist. She often stays at the lab overnight, spending hours searching through missing persons reports to identify a Jane Doe (Episode 16, Season 1), collecting and processing every single scrap of the evidence on the highway (Episode 18, Season 2), being awake at night to be ready at the scene if there is a high profile case, so she can outperform other male colleagues (Episode 7, Season 1). As a result of her hard work, she receives an outstanding rating for her performance evaluation by her supervisor, Grissom (Episode 22, Season 1). She is promoted to the position of night shift supervisor at the beginning of season 11, then director at the beginning of the series finale. CSI reveals that women like Sidle have to hold stereotypically masculine traits such as authoritative, protective, competitive and achievement-oriented to gain recognition and career advancements in male-dominated fields.