Women workers: caring, sharing, enjoying their work – or just another gender stereotype?

Bryson, Jane; Wilson, Joseph N.; Plimmer, Geoff; Blumenfeld, Stephen; Donnelly, Noelle; Ku, Bryan; Ryan, Bill

doi:10.1080/10301763.2014.978965

Cited by 11 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Gendered preconceptions, such as the expectation of women performing caring, and service roles, have been noted by women academics. These preconceptions imply that women are natural teachers and administrators (Bryson et al, 2014), yet this may not necessarily be the role that women desire to take on or are best at. Leadership responsibilities, on the other hand, are perceived as masculine; this aligns with the fact that men hold the majority of senior leadership posts in academia (Westring et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring and Critiquing Women’s Academic Identity in Higher Education: A Narrative Review

2022

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Academia has been characterized as traditional, hierarchical, and selective, founded on patriarchal, imperial, and colonial values that construct and maintain gendered roles and regulations. This has been proposed to disadvantage how women experience, and identify within, academia. A narrative review was conducted to review the literature on women’s academic identities and experiences, and critique the dominant ways of knowing, being, and doing in academia. Thematic synthesis was conducted on 56 qualitative studies (published 2010–2019), illustrating the impact of these values on women’s academic identities and experiences, and normative gendered stereotypes and practices that impact women academics. Furthermore, existing literature is critiqued, exploring the influence of dominant ways of being and knowing (on how questions are asked, the constructs explored, the design decisions made). By providing this commentary, future research can focus on problematizing the system and dismantling the problematic conditions (e.g., underrepresentation, discrimination, and gendered stereotyping) for women in academia.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring and Critiquing Women’s Academic Identity in Higher Education: A Narrative Review

2022

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“…Women and Caring Professions. Although the experiences of women within the same profession are not equivalent, a 2014 study on gender in the workplace (Bryson, Wilson, Plimmer, Blumenfeld, Donnelly, Ku & Ryan, 2014) found that it can be assumed that the general experiences of women within a specific profession differ from the general experiences of men in that profession in similar and specific ways. For this reason, it can be useful to make limited generalizations on that basis.…”

Section: Gender In Social Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These factors may have contributed to research findings that men tend not to choose social work as an occupation, and instead may 'drift' into it as an option when more traditional or profitable avenues have not proved viable (Crabtree & Parker, 2014). However, the fact that the stereotypes about men (such as independent, decisive and capable) are associated with leadership and managerial styles (Bryson et al, 2014) means that men who enter the field as a second choice are more likely to advance and hold top positions than women who enter the field as a first choice.…”

Section: Gender In Social Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Individuality in approaches to emotionally demanding work and coping among experienced British Columbia social workers

Fraser¹

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Many social workers experience high levels of emotional exhaustion (Kim, Ji, & Kao, 2011), directly contributing to poor professional retention, with numbers of social workers leaving the field between 20 and 40% annually in some sectors (Font, 2012). Additionally, social work is a highly gendered field (Sloan, 2012), and expectations of social workers' emotional labour as well as their prospects for influence and advancement reflect this (Lane & Flowers, 2015). Rather than examining the struggles social workers face (the subject of numerous studies already), this qualitative study examines the experiences of six female social workers, who selfidentified as being emotionally healthy, thriving in their job, and who intended to continue as social workers. Each participant had a minimum of five years' experience following completion of their BSW or MSW. The participants' perceptions of social work, experience of emotional demands in the field, and knowledge of emotional supports for social workers were examined. Additionally, participants' self-assessments of their personality and qualities of personal hardiness or resilience were examined, based on the literature review findings that suggested relationships between these factors and emotional coping. The research was informed by critical theory on structural social work, and a thematic analysis was performed on the qualitative interviews to draw out shared thematic elements. Successful social work is a complex accomplishment: professionalism intersects with informal client-focused work, and emotionally demanding labour intersects gendered stereotypes on appropriate emotional expression. This research found that successful social workers considered their personality and approach to be instrumental in their success. Though individual interpretations differed, participants shared beliefs that they were personally suited for social work. In other words, the people who thrive as social workers are as complex, nuanced and interesting as the work itself.

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“…Those who remain with their organisation may do so because it is expedient to maintain the relationship, rather than because they are good performers. Bryson et al (2014) suggest that those with low expectations of their job may experience higher job satisfaction, because it is simply easier to meet their expectations. Further complicating matters, job satisfaction has been known to correlate with life satisfaction (Warr, Cook & Wall, 1979), which suggests that some people may be more inclined to job satisfaction than others due to influences other than the characteristics of their job or organisation.…”

Section: Constructs and Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Warr et al (1979) suggest that the former may refer to an individual's current role, whereas the second is more general in nature. Alternatively, individuals may have different expectations of having a satisfying job (Bryson et al, 2014), or may be more inclined to job satisfaction due to influences external to work (Warr et al, 1979).…”

Section: Measuring Job Satisfactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High Involvement Work in the New Zealand Public Service

Kirkham¹

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<p>The aim of this research is to investigate the relationship between high involvement work practices (HIWP) and employee outcomes, such as job satisfaction and organisational commitment, in the core New Zealand public service. It also investigates whether certain demographic factors may influence this relationship and proposes a structural model to test this. Information about HIWP and employee outcomes was originally gathered as part of the 2013 Workplace Dynamics Survey conducted by the New Zealand Public Service Association (PSA) and Victoria University of Wellington (Plimmer et al., 2013). Participants, all of whom were PSA members, were asked a variety of questions about their work, workplace and themselves. For the purposes of this current study, the sample was then limited to only those members of the core public sector who reported that they had no managerial responsibilities, which comprised 1,665 unique responses. The data were then analysed in order to generate descriptive statistics and trends regarding opinions, and to conduct inferential analysis. This included exploratory factor analysis to confirm the principal factors, confirmatory factor analysis to test the measurement of the constructs, and structural equation modelling to explicate the relationship between HIWP and employee outcomes. Moderating factors such as age, gender, and level of educational attainment were then introduced to the proposed structural model. The model suggests that HIWP, as measured by items associated with power, information, rewards, and knowledge (PIRK), have a positive effect on employees’ reported job satisfaction and organisational commitment. The model tests the influence of a second-order latent variable that describes the PIRK attributes working collectively, as well as a second-order latent variable, labelled Passion, for employee outcomes, based on the work of Vandenberg, Richardson and Eastman (1999), and Langford (2009), respectively. The findings of this study largely support the relationships proposed in the literature on HIWP, which was used to develop the theoretical model. It finds that employees reporting higher PIRK also experience higher job satisfaction and organisational commitment. It also suggests that age and level of educational attainment individually have some effect on the PIRK-Passion relationship. While gender did not affect this particular causal relationship, the model was different in some respects for men and women, particularly with respect to the effect of length of time spent working for a particular employer. This study contributes to theoretical and practical knowledge by providing evidence of the influence of high involvement practices for people management in the New Zealand public service on employee outcomes, an under-researched area. It also highlights the need for public sector managers and HR professionals to be aware of the different experiences of different demographic groups. This research makes recommendations for further research, including in the data-gathering stage, as well as suggestions for practitioners.</p>

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Women workers: caring, sharing, enjoying their work – or just another gender stereotype?

Cited by 11 publications

References 21 publications

Exploring and Critiquing Women’s Academic Identity in Higher Education: A Narrative Review

Exploring and Critiquing Women’s Academic Identity in Higher Education: A Narrative Review

Individuality in approaches to emotionally demanding work and coping among experienced British Columbia social workers

High Involvement Work in the New Zealand Public Service

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