Leah Mascarenhas
Boys Club, No Girls Allowed: How Women in Male-Dominated Workplaces Experience Sexual and Gender Harassment
Biography
My name is Leah Mascarenhas and my research project, Boys Club, No Girls Allowed: How Women in Male-Dominated Workplaces Experience Sexual and Gender Harassment, focuses on the disruption of women in the workplace in male-dominated fields.
I am the daughter of two hardworking immigrant parents, which means I built on three pillars: to be loud, strong, and unapologetic. I carry these three pillars into the professional world as a young woman entering the workforce.
When I started my journey into the world of working, whether it was odd jobs or the joys of customer and retail service, I grew to love self-sufficient women who climbed their way to senior-level positions. As I continued to flourish in my career in past and current corporate settings, my experiences working with women have led me to discover the dark, cloudy tensions they have endured while working in male-dominated fields.
I came to realize the silver lining of being a woman in charge came with more than having “it”. It meant having to be loud enough so your male counterparts would listen, to be strong, and “thick-skinned” amidst the male-oriented work culture, and to remain unapologetic in your opinions and decisions.
I was inspired and motivated by the women who have experienced and witnessed sexual and gender harassment in the workplace. More specifically, women in male-dominated spaces, who dare to enter a “boy’s club” and break a “glass ceiling” that is built to keep them at a standstill.
Details of Project
My research project calls attention to sexual and gender harassment women face in Canadian male-dominated workplaces.
This project uses academic literature, as well as qualitative and quantitative analysis, analyzing various themes to evaluate the project. Within the literature review, there is a focus on the subtypes of aggravation on workplace women: gender harassment, gender inequality, and power dynamics within male-dominated fields.
This research utilizes a mixed-methods approach, combining discourse analysis of qualitative data of the experiences of women in male-dominated workplaces with quantitative analysis of gender-based harassment trends in Canadian male-dominant work environments.
Overall, this research project aims to identify patterns in gender bias and workplace gender harassment prevalence in specific male-dominated fields, understand cultural norms and their impact on workplace gender dynamics, and emphasize the significance of gender-based harassment in male-dominated industries.