Work climate is warmer for women

By R.H. Melton and Kirstin Downey Grimsley 

Washington Post Staff Writers

Monday, March 23, 1998; Page A1 

Part 1

1. Read and translate the 1st part of the article

 

Louise Kifer was verbally accosted about being a woman from the start of her 40 years as a glass factory worker in Clarion, Pa. "The president of the local said, 'Those guys don't want you,' " recalled Kifer, 60, who was raising two children at the time."It's because women try100percent, and it makes men look bad. "These damn men," she added, "need an attitude adjustment." 

John Knight, a mortgage loan officer in Williamsburg, Mich., has an adjusted attitude about the workplace of the late 1990s. "There's been a general wising up," said Knight, 47. "Today, if a group of guys are talking in a circle and a woman walks up, the circle opens." 

Men and women are profoundly different, and the workplace – the arena where problems are solved, careers made, salaries earned and home life juggled – can have a curious double effect, flattening but also accentuating gender differences like few things in society.  

Whether it's in Kifer's gritty factory or Knight's sleek office building, interaction between the sexes has vastly improved in the blink of a generation, according to a nationwide survey by The Washington Post, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University. Much of the locker room chatter has evaporated in a climate that is warmer and fairer to female colleagues, and men and women have more finely tuned antennas to sexual harassment. 

Some experts believe the good news about the workplace is that more people are willing to confront harassment. But those same observers see a potential downside, the potential to chill the working environment, robbing it of a creative energy that comes from men and women working as peers and colleagues. 

"I have hope that men who are now 10, 18 and 22 will be in offices and factories that are better places than the workplace of 25 years ago." said Leslie R. Wolfe, president of the District-based Center for Women Policy Studies. "But it would be tragic if we end up with men who are sensitized but also terrorized." 

The survey found strikingly similar numbers of men and woman who said that many everyday facets of working life – from asking a colleague for career advice to speaking candidly in groups – are now more difficult. Nearly half the men and more than one-third of the women said they generally avoided complimenting co-workers of the opposite sex on how they looked. 

"You have to pre-plan what you say, it seems like," said James Lindow, 35, a warehouse operations manager in Green Bay, Wis. Women's increased presence in the workplace has caused different concerns for the sexes. The poll found evidence of discontent and confusion about the ongoing issues of pay equity and career advancement beneath more recent worries about how to divine the best ways to conduct workday dealings. 

 

2. Memorize the following words

accost – приставати

adjust – встановлювати

attitude adjustment –відношення пристосування

profoundly –сильно

salaries - зарплатня

flattening - вирівнювати

interaction - взаємодія

improved - покращений

chatter - розмови

evaporate - зникати

tuned - налаштований

confront - протистояти

chill - прохолонути

working environment –робоче середовище

rob - грабувати

peers – рівні колеги, партнери

sensitized - чуйні

facet – аспект

candidly – відкрито, публічно

avoid – уникати

poll – опитування 

discontent - невдоволення

equity – справедливість

advancement – просування

divine – передбачати

 

3.Answer the questions:

1) Have you heard or seen on TV about relations between men and women at work? 

2) Was this information positive?

3) Would you prefer opposite sex partner at work? Why yes or why not?

 

Part 2

1. Read and translate the 2nd part of the article and be ready to explain the title of it

 

Transforming Cultures «Understand the level of stress that women simply cannot leave at the door of the office," Wolfe said. "We must transform our corporate cultures to truly value employees who value both their work lives and their home lives."

But to Bill Elder, 53, a furniture sales representative in Dallas and survey respondent, the change comes down to a list of cautious behaviors he has adopted. "If you're in a conversation with a woman, you don't want to have the door closed," Elder said. "You want to be in threes, not in twos, in larger clusters, so there are more people involved, whether you are out for a drink after work or at dinner. All of a sudden, you're thinking of something that never enteredyour mind before." 

Many workplace experts think confusion and resentment about the interaction of men and women at work adds a new layer of anxiety to already overtaxed employees. 

"Men and women are left without the supports they need to get through the incredibly complicated world in which we're living," Jesse Bernstein, a Michigan-based expert on corporate employee assistance programs, said in an interview. "The man-and-woman thing has just heightened the level of complexity."  

Human resources consultant Tamara Cagney, whose clients have included major firms such as AT&T, Lucent Technologies and Nationwide Savings & Loan, said that workers today are being asked to work 50- and 60-hour weeks and that women are feeling a special burden because of their many family responsibilities. "Most of them feel like they're running just to stay in place," she said. 

 

 

2. Memorize the following words

cautious - застереження

resentment – обурення

anxiety – тривога

support - підтримка

heightened - збільшити

complexity – складність

 

3. Give a brief summary of the article, recalling its basic facts.

 

4. Brainstorm

 

Steps to improve relations at work

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