Discriminação do gênero feminino no ambiente de trabalho: uma análise à luz da teoria institucional de Thorstein Veblen

Abstract

Women and men often do not enjoy the same opportunities in the labor market. Gender inequality is present in Brazilian society and is strongly rooted in the behaviors of individuals that reinforce it in everyday life. In the reflection on such behaviors, a theoretical argument was built based on the Institutional Theory, which allowed a different look at women discrimination in the labor market, considering the issue as an institution. In order to do so, it was intended to analyze the habits and behaviors that demonstrate and promote discrimination in the labor environment of women working in a retail network, from a Veblenian perspective. Veblen (1898) understands that institutions are the way of thinking of men and that individuals have customs, habits and behaviors that legitimize new institutions or corroborate existing ones. It is assumed, then, that the habits and behaviors adopted by individuals in the labor market and in social relations carry with them imperceptible attitudes that promote gender discrimination and the sexual division of labor. Thus, the development cycle of institutions was defined, from the innate instincts of human beings to their legitimacy and the institution of norms of behavior, regarding women discrimination in the labor market. It was analyzed this issue with a descriptive-exploratory and qualitative case-study in a supermarket chain. Content analysis and discourse analysis allowed us to identify with data from interviews, observations and documents that the theoretical construction was corroborated by the behavior of company employees. The differentiation of being a woman and being a man is strongly rooted in the culture of the company studied, since there is clearly the female and male labor space, thus configuring the sexual division of labor. Moreover, women occupy the characteristic female positions that demand organization, delicacy and care, and men find themselves in higher positions with greater power or in positions that require physical force. Although the company supports the discourse of gender equality, women discrimination in the workplace is rooted in the behavior of employees, i. e., in their organizational context, evidencing the institutionalization of gender discrimination. Therefore, the theoretical construction brought by the study was empirically proven, the Veblenian theory was able to describe the process of institutionalizing women discrimination in the labor market.