Flexibility programs have become widespread in the United States, but their use has not. According to a recent study, 79% of companies say they allow some of their employees, and 37% officially allow ...all or most of their employees, to periodically change starting or quitting times (Galinsky, Bond & Sakai, 2008). Although researchers often regard the official availability of flexibility and other work-life policies as an indicator of an organization's responsiveness to employees' work-life concerns (Davis & Kalleberg, 2006), having policies on the books does not always mean that workers feel comfortable using these policies (Blair-Loy, Wharton & Goodstein, 2011). Studies that have assessed usage rates generally find that usage rates are low. Adapted from the source document.
We conduct a comparative case analysis of men in three male‐dominated occupations—firefighting, consulting, and business executives—to examine enactments of “masculinity contests,” which include ...aggressive, competitive struggles for dominance and expectations to prioritize work ahead of other life commitments. We find that these contests are neither inevitable nor experienced uniformly in male‐dominated occupations. Rather, our analysis shows that such contests are shaped and curtailed by three occupational features: the structure and organization of teams within the occupation, the temporal structure of work in the occupation, and the tasks that are core to the occupation's work. Our analysis advances current perspectives on masculinity and work by offering insight into how occupational features interact with social class to shape expectations of appropriate masculine behavior. We find some instances in which teams, time, and tasks operate distinctively by social class and other instances in which these features act similarly, across social class lines, to reduce or exacerbate the salience of masculinity contests.
Work Without End? Blair‐Loy, Mary
Work and occupations,
11/2009, Letnik:
36, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The common finding in the work–family literature that workplace scheduling flexibility reduces work‐to‐family conflict may not be generalizable to service occupations with intense client demands. ...This qualitative analysis of stockbrokers finds that brokers in firms granting scheduling flexibility experience more work‐to‐family conflict than those in the firm with scheduling rigidity. Although brokers in the latter firm lose autonomy from their employer (and earning potential), bureaucratic rigidity buffers them from client pressures that intrude on family life. This finding should be tested in other occupations requiring extensive client interactions in a 24‐hour economy.
Previous research has shown that gendered societal expectations are adopted by students as seemingly personal and individualistic self‐assessments and preferences, which then lead to gender‐normative ...choices about college majors and careers. This study examines one seemingly objective mechanism, which millions use each year for guidance on college majors and careers. We examine two Career Assessment Tools (CATs) with deep institutional presence: O*NET and Traitify. Analyzing an exemplar case of engineering majors, we find that CATs are less likely to recommend engineering occupations to women, even after controlling for GPA, satisfaction with the major, and planned persistence. Even in our sample of engineering majors, CATs apparently use small differences in students' gender‐normative self‐expressive preferences to drive sharply different occupational recommendations, thereby solidifying pathways toward gender‐segregated occupations and reinforcing men's dominance of engineering. If women similar to our study participants take CATs, they are likely to be steered away from engineering occupations or majors. More broadly, CATs illustrate how taken‐for‐granted, seemingly neutral technologies can reinforce gender segregation.
How do cultural meanings influence how people experience work-life demands? Much research, especially quantitative research, on the effects of structural work and family conditions does not account ...for employees' cultural beliefs about the meaning of work in their lives. This article uses unique survey data to investigate the effects of employee embrace of elements of the "work devotion schema"—a cultural model that valorizes intense career commitment and organizational dedication—on their sense of "overload," an experience that includes feeling exhausted and overloaded by all one's roles, net of actual hours on the paid job and family responsibilities. We argue that by cognitively, morally, and emotionally framing work as a valued end, the work devotion schema reduces feelings of overload. Using a case of senior women researchers and professional service providers in science and technology industries, we find that those who embrace work devotion feel less overloaded than those who reject it, net of work and family conditions. However, this effect is curtailed for mothers of young and school-aged children. We end by discussing implications for flexibility stigma and gender inequality.
On authorship and gender equity Blair-Loy, Mary
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
04/2023, Letnik:
380, Številka:
6643
Journal Article
Recenzirano
An analysis of research papers finds differences in article production and recognition for women scientists
The gender imbalance in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields has remained constant for decades and increases the farther up the STEM career pipeline one looks. Why does the ...underrepresentation of women endure? This study investigated the role of parenthood as a mechanism of gender-differentiated attrition from STEM employment. Using a nationally representative 8-year longitudinal sample of US STEM professionals, we examined the career trajectories of new parents after the birth or adoption of their first child. We found substantial attrition of new mothers: 43% of women leave full-time STEM employment after their first child. New mothers are more likely than new fathers to leave STEM, to switch to part-time work, and to exit the labor force. These gender differences hold irrespective of variation by discipline, race, and other demographic factors. However, parenthood is not just a “mother’s problem”; 23% of new fathers also leave STEM after their first child. Suggesting the difficulty of combining STEM work with caregiving responsibilities generally, new parents are more likely to leave full-time STEM jobs than otherwise similar childless peers and even new parents who remain employed full time are more likely than their childless peers to exit STEM for work elsewhere. These results have implications for policymakers and STEM workforce scholars; whereas parenthood is an important mechanism of women’s attrition, both women and men leave at surprisingly high rates after having children. Given that most people become parents during their working lives, STEM fields must do more to retain professionals with children.
Despite increasing gender-equality in many areas, corporate power is still strongly male-dominated. Prevailing research often relies on the cognitive, demand-side mechanism of in-group favoritism ...based on single-country studies to produce generalized explanations of men’s dominance in top management and to recommend remedies, such as gender quotas on boards. However, existing research findings are mixed. We contribute to the research field by analyzing original data from 457 large companies in Norway and the US, examining associations of the gender-composition on boards and in the actual Executive Committees. The predictions of in-group favoritism are partly supported in the US, but largely not supported for Norwegian companies with gender-balanced boards due to quotas. We argue that in-group favoritism is an incomplete explanation. We call for research examining the organizational and societal processes curtailing the supply of qualified women for top-executive positions, across national and regulatory contexts and organizational levels.
This article examines the objective and subjective facets of female finance-executive careers. Optimal matching and qualitative analyses are used to show how the careers are shaped by workplace ...structures and by the early 1970s enforcement of women's employment rights.
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