Compare and contrast early research on men and women’s experiences as tokens.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Kanter’s work on high-ranking women executives found that those in the extreme numerical minority are tokens who are socially isolated, highly visible, and adversely stereotyped. Tokens have difficulty forming relationships with colleagues and often are excluded from social networks that provide mobility. Because of their low numbers, they are also highly visible as people who are different from the majority, even though they often feel invisible when they are ignored or overlooked in social settings. Tokens are also stereotyped by those in the majority group and frequently face pressure to behave in ways that challenge and undermine these stereotypes. Ultimately, Kanter argues that it is harder for them to blend into the organization and to work effectively and productively, and that they face serious barriers to upward mobility. The concept of the glass escalator is used to explain men’s experiences as tokens in these areas. Research suggest that men tokens do not experience the isolation, visibility, blocked access to social networks, and stereotypes in the same ways that women tokens do. In contrast, even though they are in the minority, processes are in place that actually facilitate their opportunity and advancement. Even in culturally feminized occupations, then, men’s advantage is built into the very structure and everyday interactions of these jobs so that men find themselves actually struggling to remain in place. For these men, “despite their intentions, they face invisible pressures to move up in their professions. Like being on a moving escalator, they have to work to stay in place.”