Unpacking the Status-Leveling Burden for Women in Male-Dominated Occupations

Abstract

The challenges faced by women in male-dominated occupations are often attributed to the men in, and masculine cultures of, these occupations—and sometimes to senior women in these occupations who may fail to give a “leg up” to the women coming up behind them. As such, prior research has largely focused on challenges that women experience from those of higher or equal status within the occupation and on the negative climate that surrounds women in these positions. We introduce a novel challenge, the status-leveling burden, which is the pressure put on women in male-dominated occupations from women in occupations lower in the institutional hierarchy to be their equal. Drawing on interviews with 45 surgeons, we present a model that unpacks this status-leveling burden. Our research makes novel contributions to the literatures on challenges to women in male-dominated occupations and on shared demography in cross-occupational collaboration, and it suggests new avenues for research at the intersection of gender and occupational status in the workplace.

Benchmarking Surgeons’ Gender and Year of Medical School Graduation Associated With Monthly Operative Workdays for Multispecialty Groups

“…Our results from Florida show that such a large average difference between male and female surgeons calls for investigation of what might reflect systematic bias. The multispecialty group with three fewer days per month for female surgeons should seek to determine whether the difference reflects good flexibility of the organization (e.g., in meeting requests of women who want to work fewer days per month for personal or professional reasons) versus lack of responsiveness by the organization (e.g., fewer referrals of procedural patients to female surgeons as in Ontario [ 3 ], bias among department heads or other responsible leadership when apportioning their service’s allocated operating room time, the bias of female surgical schedulers and clinic nurses [ 12 ], and insufficient provision of administrative staff, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants).…”

Virtue Ethics in a Value-driven World: Breaking Down the Misogynistic Structures That Keep Women Surgeons “In Their Place”

“…Dr. Manne's logical argument seems both persuasive and sound, it matches my lived experience andmore important than anecdotal experience-it's supported by research [3,5,6]. Unfortunately, conceiving of misogyny as a structural rather than individual problem makes it both more pervasive and more difficult to solve.…”

“…It seems that women surgeons have learned to adapt to gendered expectations by constraining their use of authority to avoid alienating nurses. In an interview-based study [3], women surgeons detailed status-leveling behaviors, such as performing nursing tasks, being excessively available, going out of their way to build social relationships with nurses, and being performatively nice. As one interviewee stated, “The general rule is that if you’re a female trainee you have to work really hard to be friends with the nurses so that things actually get done.…”

“…As one interviewee stated, “The general rule is that if you’re a female trainee you have to work really hard to be friends with the nurses so that things actually get done. Versus the male residents never had to do that” [3].…”

How Idealized Professional Identities Can Persist through Client Interactions

“…When people commit to a profession before experiencing the work, their expected identity may be idealized—shaped by their imaginations and developed through exposure to media, popular culture, family member accounts, and myths. Related scholarship on occupational prototypes suggests that stereotypes, particularly gender stereotypes associated with ideal worker images, affect occupational gender segregation (Ashcraft, 2013; Bartel and Wiesenfeld, 2013; Seron et al, 2016) and gendered forms of collaboration (Cardador, Hill, and Salles, 2021; Koppman, Bechky, and Cohen, 2021). My study finds that occupational images or prototypes may also impact how professionals enact their roles with clients, even when their organizations and professions do not endorse such outdated depictions of the occupation or when their enactment results in negative outcomes.…”