Gender and the Workplace in fiction

If technology is that which is artfully made, then the hierarchical systems that are created in works of fiction are as important to their stories as the physical technologies that also define them. Some technologies of workplace hierarchy in fiction are defined strongly along gender roles, like in The Handmaid’s Tale. In Metropolis, the hierarchy of working in the underground classes leaves women out entirely to stay at home and take care of the children. Other works of fiction, like the TV show Bones, strive to leave out differentiations in gender altogether when depicting the hierarchy that the characters operate within. All of these examples of technologies of workplace hierarchy within fiction both reflect perceptions of gender in certain time periods, and also serve to reinforce stereotypes of the roles that women play in power structures in the fictional societies that they portray, and the societies that the creator lives in.

In Metropolis, women are left out of the technology of the workforce altogether. If one of the impressions that we are given in the beginning is that all of the underground workers, and by extension the audience, are all just cogs in a big machine as Hillary said, than what does that make the women? In this fictional depiction of the power struggle between the elite few on top, and the mass of workers holding up society from the bottom, women are left entirely out of the workforce. We are not even informed of what role women play in the home, they are literally invisible until the mass worker uprising. It seems fair to assume that wasn’t done intentionally, its just because women really didn’t play a role in public power structures, and didn’t have much of a role in the workplace in 1927. It is funny that at the end of the movie, the Mediator (or Heart) is uniting the Head, the elite, with the Hands, or working masses, of society, but women are in no way included. This is not only descriptive of the time period, but makes me question who is being left out in real life today that is also being left out of our media representations.

The Handmaid’s Tale tells the story of a world where women are restricted to very specific roles in society that also function as their jobs. In the Pre-Gileadian period in the story, women did not have all of the same rights as men, but did have some liberties unlike the time in which the Handmaid’s Tale is set. In the time of the Handmaid’s Tale, society is structured in such a way, that both women and men are fitted into a hierarchical system where the different gender have different types of duties. Men are soldiers, and perform physical labor, and women are wives, or Marthas, who serves as cooks and maids, and Handmaid’s whose job it is to bear children for the elite commanders. It is hard for me to say exactly how this relates to women’s role in society and the workplace in 1985, when the Handmaid’s Tale was written, because I wasn’t alive or working then, but there are some facts that potentially describe the situation. It wasn’t until 1986 that sexual harassment was ruled by the Supreme Court to be an illegal form of job discrimination. It also wasn’t until 1978 that the Pregnancy Discrimination Act was passed, making it illegal to discriminate against women because they are pregnant. Both of these things are laws that I just take for granted, but in the time period those things wouldn’t just be assumed. The role that women play in the workplace in the Handmaid’s Tale is totally gendered, in similar way that sexual harassment and discrimination against pregnancy attempt to define women in the workplace by their gender, and try to “keep them in their place”. The “workplace” hierarchy of the Handmaid’s Tale is just descriptive of what would happen if efforts to try and keep women in their place were more successful. And while its good that there are laws prohibiting sexual harassment and discrimination against pregnancy, the fact that those laws are necessary is indicative of the fact that maybe the Handmaid’s Tale is not so far outside the realm of possibility as some people might think. Its possible that these laws, and laws protecting the right members of other minority groups are necessary, not just to protect the rights of the minority, but to maintain the structure of our society as a whole, and kept it from evolving into a dystopian “moralistic” society.

In the TV show Bones, the role of gender in the workplace hierarchy of the show is not clear-cut. The main character is forensic anthropologist who is in charge of a forensic anthropology team at the “Jeffersonian” Institute. Bones partners with an FBI agent, Seely Booth, to solve cases where human remains are beyond the analysis of standard forensics experts. Both Bones and Booth hold unique positions of power, Booth is a FBI agent, and so has the commanding power of the federal government behind him, while Bones has the ability to solve cases with her team that no one else can. Both benefit from their partnership, and there are times when each of them is “in charge”, but there is no clear power hierarchy between them. The show consciously examines the impact of gender on Booth and Bones’ working relationship. They often fight about who gets to drive the car, if Bones has to work on certain cases just because the FBI asks her to, and if  Booth has to defer to the knowledge of Bones’ team. Bones’ power comes from her intelligence, her technology and the thoroughness of her scientific method, but Booth’s contributions come mostly from his people skills, he is good at figuring motives of people out, those are opposite of normal gender roles. On the surface, gender doesn’t seem to matter much at all, but its clear that perceptions about gender are still a source of conflict, for the characters in Bones at least. This could be a reflection of the role of gender in society at present. It is generally accepted that women can do all of the things that men do, but how does one balance not being able to discriminate against women in hiring when in actuality, women are much more likely to miss time for work to take care of family, and are much more likely to leave the labor force at some point in their careers.

All of these works of fiction have gender roles in their “workplace” hierarchy that reflect the periods in which they were made, and they can all give some insight into conflicts in society today.