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Volumes 1-3

1: Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium


2: Obstacles and the Identity Juggle
3: Self, Family, and Social Affects
The Psychology of
Women at Work

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Recent Titles in
Women’s Psychology
‘‘Intimate’’ Violence against Women: When Spouses, Partners, or Lovers Attack
Paula K. Lundberg-Love and Shelly L. Marmion, editors

Daughters of Madness: Growing Up and Older with a Mentally Ill Mother


Susan Nathiel

Psychology of Women: Handbook of Issues and Theories, Second Edition


Florence L. Denmark and Michele A. Paludi, editors

WomanSoul: The Inner Life of Women’s Spirituality


Carole A. Rayburn and Lillian Comas-Dıaz

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


The Psychology of
Women at Work
Challenges and Solutions for
Our Female Workforce

Volume 1
Career Liberation, History,
and the New Millennium

Edited by
MICHELE A. PALUDI

Praeger Perspectives

Women’s Psychology

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The psychology of women at work : challenges and solutions for our female
workforce / edited by Michele A. Paludi
p. cm. — (Women’s psychology, ISSN 1931-0021)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-275-99677-2 ((set) : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-275-99679-6 ((vol. 1) :
alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-275-99681-9 ((vol. 2) : alk. paper) —
ISBN 978-0-275-99683-3 ((vol. 3) : alk. paper)
1. Women—Employment—Psychological aspects. 2. Work and family.
3. Women—Job stress. 4. Women—Psychology. I. Paludi, Michele Antoinette.
HD6053.P75 2008
158.7082—dc22 2008004119
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.
Copyright 
C 2008 by Michele A. Paludi
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced, by any process or technique, without the
express written consent of the publisher.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2008004119
ISBN: 978-0-275-99677-2 (set)
978-0-275-99679-6 (vol. 1)
978-0-275-99681-9 (vol. 2)
978-0-275-99683-3 (vol. 3)
ISSN: 1931-0021
First published in 2008
Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
www.praeger.com
Printed in the United States of America

The paper used in this book complies with the


Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National
Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


For Antoinette and Michael Paludi, who encouraged me
to define what women’s work is for myself

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Contents

Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xi
Chapter 1: Transforming Organizations and the Quality of Life
of the People Who Work in Them: In My Own Voice
Linda Gordon Howard 1
Chapter 2: Speaking in a ‘‘Man’s World’’: Gender Differences in
Communication Styles
Susan Basow 15
Chapter 3: On Work-Life Balance: In My Own Voice
Michelle Wildgrube 31
Chapter 4: When the Boss Is a Woman
Joan Chrisler and Sarah K. Clapp 39
Chapter 5: Women Who Started Up: The State of Women in
Entrepreneurship
Presha E. Neidermeyer, Emily Buenn, and Robert Edelman 67
Chapter 6: Leadership and Women
Karen Duff-McCall and William Schweinle 87
Chapter 7: Feminist Competing Values Leadership:
An Investigation of the Roles Played by Men
and Women
Nancy Miller Frank and Alan Belasen 101
Chapter 8: Sexual Harassment in the Workplace
Krystle C. Woods and Nicole T. Buchanan 119

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viii Contents

Chapter 9: Uncovering and Countering Sexual Harassment in Israel:


A New Career Path
Ayelet Giladi 133
Chapter 10: Career Preparation Programs in High Schools:
How Do Schools Ready Students for Life and Work?
Beatrice Hall 137
Chapter 11: Shifting the Load: Personality Factors and
Women in the Workplace
Jennifer L. Martin 153
Chapter 12: Women Supporting Women in the Workplace:
In My Own Voice
Carrie Turco 201
Index 205
About the Editor and Contributors 211

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Acknowledgments

I thank Debbie Carvalko at Praeger for her encouragement and support


throughout the writing of these three volumes. It is an honor to work
with her. I also thank the graduate students in my human resources
classes for their comments about the changing nature of work for
women. I am confident that they will make a difference in the lives of
the next generation of women employees and their families. I am grate-
ful to Carrie Turco and Sharon Butler for their comments on earlier
versions of the introduction.
The following family, friends, and colleagues have been invaluable
during the preparation of these three volumes. Thank you to Rosalie
Paludi, Lucille Paludi, Presha Neidermeyer, and Paula Lundberg Love.
I especially acknowledge Carmen Paludi, Jr., for his friendship and
sage advice. Together we continue to make the dreams of our grand-
parents on Weaver Street into realities.
Finally, I wish to thank William Norton Dember, my advisor and
mentor in graduate school, who, like my parents, told me to seek my
own career path and be tough-minded and kindhearted at the same
time. I started drafting these books after I last saw Bill in May 2006,
when we discussed my career since graduate school (it had been
26 years since I received my PhD). He reminded me that I came to
work with him as a graduate student at the University of Cincinnati
because I was interested in the psychology of women’s work and
achievement motivation. Moreover, he inquired why I hadn’t written
or edited a book in that field during the course of my career. These
three volumes are in response to Bill’s question. Bill died in September
2006. These books are in tribute to him as a psychologist, mentor, pro-
fessor, colleague, and friend.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Introduction

Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed.


If I fail, no one will say, ‘‘She doesn’t have what it takes.’’
They will say, ‘‘Women don’t have what it takes.’’
—Clare Boothe Luce
Clare Boothe Luce’s sentiment was once again highlighted during the
preparation of these three volumes of The Psychology of Women at Work:
Challenges and Solutions for Our Female Workforce, when Senator Hillary
Rodham Clinton announced her candidacy for the presidency of the
United States. Throughout the initial part of Senator Clinton’s candi-
dacy, comments about a woman president received media attention.
Polls from CNN.com (July 24, 2007) and YouTube (January 21, 2007;
March 5, 2007) reported the following quotations:

‘‘Hillary Clinton needs to wear a dress or skirt now and then. Her
always making public appearances in pants gives a sense she is trying to
‘fit in’ with the boys, which is never going to be the case.’’
‘‘Hillary is cute. Those are her qualifications for prez.’’
‘‘It’ll be nice to have a woman president but you know white America
won’t let her.’’
‘‘Women, above all, should reject hillary. Missus clinton is the biggest
misogynist of all.’’
‘‘hillary clinton running must be a joke! A woman for president! Ha!
Now that[’]s a joke.’’

Elizabeth Edwards, whose husband, John Edwards, also declared


his candidacy for president, joined the chorus in criticizing Hillary
Clinton. Elizabeth Edwards stated the following:

She [Hillary Clinton] and I are from the same generation. We both went
to law school and married other lawyers, but after that we made other

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


xii Introduction

choices. I think my choices have made me happier. I think I’m more joy-
ful than she is.

Elizabeth Edwards also stated, ‘‘Sometimes you feel you have to


behave as a man and not talk about women’s issues.’’
Mrs. Edwards’s comments prompted a comparison of the two
women—one perceived as ‘‘feminine’’ and the other ‘‘masculine.’’
Responses from a CNN.com poll (July 24, 2007) included the following:
‘‘It would be awesome if Hillary was more like Elizabeth. But Hillary
lacks the compassion and realness Elizabeth possesses.’’
Tucker Carlson, host of MSNBC’s Tucker, asked a guest, ‘‘I mean,
let’s take this critique [by Elizabeth Edwards] seriously—is Hillary
Clinton too manly to be president?’’
This is in direct contrast to the view that many people had of Con-
gresswoman Patricia Schroeder, who, when she dropped out of run-
ning for U.S. president in 1984, cried. This raised the question of
whether a woman was too ‘‘emotional’’ to be president. Schroeder
(1998) wrote, ‘‘Crying is almost a ritual that male politicians must do
to prove they are compassionate, but women are supposed to wear
iron britches.’’
In 1870, when Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for presi-
dent, declared her candidacy, the New York Herald commented: ‘‘She is
rather in advance of her time. The public mind is not yet educated to the
pitch of universal woman’s [sic] rights’’ (‘‘Woman’s Idea of Govern-
ment,’’ 1870, p. 6). In 2008 we are still hearing arguments that the United
States is not ready for a woman president—a view expressed not only to
Victoria Woodhull but also to other women candidates for president
before Hillary Clinton: Margaret Chase Smith (in 1964), Shirley Chisolm
(in 1972), Patricia Schroeder (in 1984), Elizabeth Dole (in 2000), and Car-
olyn Moseley Braun (in 2004). Similar comments were directed toward
Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman to be placed on a national presiden-
tial ticket (as Walter Mondale’s vice president in 1984). Ferraro was
criticized for wearing short-sleeved dresses while campaigning because
her arms wobbled when she waved (considered not ‘‘feminine’’).
‘‘The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females
begins when the doctor says, ‘It’s a girl,’’’ Shirley Chisholm once noted.
Gender-role stereotypes about ‘‘appropriate’’ and ‘‘inappropriate’’
occupations for women still abound. Gender stereotyping is a psycho-
logical process that illustrates a structured set of beliefs about the per-
sonal attributes of females and males (Ashmore & DelBoca, 1981;
Doyle & Paludi, 1997; Fiske & Stevens, 1993). When asked to describe a
woman, for example, individuals commonly cite ‘‘caring,’’ ‘‘nurturing,’’
‘‘sensitive,’’ and ‘‘passive.’’ When asked to name a woman’s occupa-
tion, individuals cite ‘‘nurse,’’ ‘‘elementary school teacher,’’ or ‘‘social
worker,’’ but not ‘‘president of the United States.’’

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Introduction xiii

I have frequently used the following riddle when students and train-
ees indicate that they believe that they themselves do not hold gender-
role stereotypes about occupations:

One afternoon, a man and his son go for a drive through the countryside.
After an hour or so they get into a terrible car crash. The father dies
instantly. The son is taken by a helicopter to the nearest hospital, where
a prominent surgeon is called to help save the boy’s life. Immediately on
entering the operating room and looking at the boy, the surgeon
exclaims, ‘‘I can’t possibly operate on this boy . . . he’s my son.’’ How can
this be?

The responses I have received to this question have ranged from


‘‘The father didn’t really die—he sustained only minor injuries and
could perform the surgery’’ to ‘‘It was the boy’s stepfather who died,
and his biological father was the surgeon’’ to ‘‘The boy’s adoptive fa-
ther is the surgeon, and his biological father was with him in the car.’’
Individuals rarely solve this riddle: The surgeon is the boy’s mother.
When the answer is revealed, these individuals are angry with them-
selves that they initially stated that they hold no occupational stereo-
types for women and men. Individuals also usually ‘‘mark’’ an
occupation if they believe that the gender of the person performing the
job is atypical. Thus, they say ‘‘male nurse,’’ ‘‘female physician,’’
‘‘female professor,’’ and ‘‘male model’’ (Paludi, Paludi, & DeFour,
2004). Markings alert listeners or readers to something atypical for the
occupation—that it is held by an individual of the sex other than the
one with which it is traditionally associated.
An awareness of the contents of occupational stereotypes related to
gender begins in the preschool years and is well developed by first
grade (Betz, in press; Gottfredson, 1981; Heyman & Legare, 2004;
Hughes & Seta, 2003; Sczesny, 2003). Among 6-year-olds, there is
research evidence of gender stereotypes in the kinds of occupations
that children consider for future employment. Girls commonly choose
the occupations of nurse, teacher, or flight attendant. Boys, on the other
hand, select police officer, truck driver, architect, or pilot. Children’s
ranges of occupations are difficult to change once they are set (Betz, in
press; Eccles, Wigfield, & Schiefele, 1999).
Levy, Sadovsky, and Troseth (2000) reported that a stereotypic view
of the world reinforces many of the common gender-role stereotypes
and is a factor in prompting young boys’ interest in more than twice
as many occupations as that of young girls. Girls thus restrict their
occupational aspirations. In addition, girls have a more limited concept
than boys do of the career possibilities available to them in math- and
computer-related occupations (Burger et al., 2007; Creamer & Laughlin,
2005; Naua, Epperson, & Kahn, 1998; White & White, 2006). Girls focus

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


xiv Introduction

on occupations that are associated with less status, less satisfaction,


and less pay than the occupations considered by boys (Heyman, 2000;
Richardson & Sandoval (2007).
Siegel and Reis (1998) reported that although teachers perceived
gifted girls as working harder and doing better work than gifted boys,
these teachers gave higher grades to the boys. Similarly, Fennema and
colleagues (1996) found that teachers perceived that boys are better
than gifted girls at math and science. Kerr, Colangelo, and Gaeth
(1988) reported that gifted girls are concerned about the negative
effects of being gifted on their peers’ attitudes toward them. The
researchers found that, by the sophomore year of college, most gifted
women changed their majors to less intellectually challenging ones.
Furthermore, Kerr, Colangelo, and Gaeth found that, by their senior
year, these gifted women reduced the level of their career goals.
Brody (1977) reported a decline in self-esteem among girls but not
boys in elementary, middle, and high school. For example, 55% of ele-
mentary school girls agreed with the following statement: ‘‘I am good
at a lot of things.’’ This percentage declined to 29% in middle school
and 23% in high school. The American Association of University
Women (AAUW) (1992) reported that girls who pursued math and sci-
ence courses and participated in sports maintained their self-esteem
from elementary school through high school.
Hall and Sandler (1982) and Allan and Madden (2006) argued that,
for girls and women, the educational system is a ‘‘chilly climate.’’ Girls
and women are discouraged from classroom participation, are sexually
harassed by teachers as well as peers, receive a lack of mentoring, and
are advised by guidance counselors to lower their expectations for a ca-
reer (AAUW, 2001; Paludi, Martin, & Paludi, 2007; Richardson & San-
doval, 2007).
As can be seen from this brief review, an important manifestation of
gender-role stereotyping is a progressive decrease in girls’ and wom-
en’s career aspirations (Betz, 2007; Farmer, 1997). ‘‘The test for whether
or not you can hold a job should not be the arrangement of your chro-
mosomes,’’ Bella Abzug once protested.
Lacampagne, Campbell, Herzig, Damarin, and Vogt (2007) reported
that gender differences are significant in math-related careers and in
career aspirations. For example, of students who took the SAT in 2005,
5% of boys and 1% of girls reported planning to major in computer sci-
ence. In addition, 10% of boys and 2% of girls were planning to major
in engineering (College Board, 2005).
Career education programs continue to be gender-segregated; 90% of
women in training programs are in traditionally female fields—for exam-
ple, office technology and health care (AAUW, 2002). More than 90% of
teachers (preschool, elementary, and special education), secretaries, child-
care workers, waitresses, hairdressers, speech therapists, occupational

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Introduction xv

therapists, dental hygienists, and teacher’s aides are women (U.S. Depart-
ment of Labor, 2003). Betz (in press) reported that women remain under-
represented in technical and scientific fields as well as in managerial
positions in education, government, business, and the military.
In a recent study conducted by Catalyst (2007), gender-role stereo-
typing was linked to women’s participation as leaders in business.
According to this report, ‘‘Gender stereotyping, one of the key barriers
to women’s advancement in corporate leadership, leaves women with
limited, conflicting and often unfavorable options no matter how they
choose to lead.’’
Catalyst found that women constitute more than 50% of manage-
ment and professional occupations but are only 15.6% of Fortune 500
corporate officers and 14.6% of Fortune 500 board directors. Ilene Lang,
president of Catalyst, comments on this as follows:

When companies fail to acknowledge and address the impact of gender


stereotypic bias, they lose out on top female talent. . . . Ultimately, it’s not
women’s leadership styles that need to change. Only when organizations
take action to address the impact of gender stereotyping will they be able
to capitalize on the ‘‘full deck’’ of talent.

Women earn less than 20% of the bachelor’s degrees in fields such
as engineering and physics and less than 10% of the graduate degrees
in engineering (Betz, 2007). Women represent only about 14% of engi-
neers, 30% of computer systems analysts, and 25% of computer pro-
grammers (U.S. Department of Labor, 2003, 2005). Women account for
8% of physicists and astronomers, 7% of air traffic controllers, 5% of
truck drivers, 4% of pilots, 5% of firefighters, and 2% of carpenters and
electricians (Betz, 2007).
Equally important, women are paid less for full-time employment
than men are; women make only 77% as much as men do when both
are employed full-time (U.S. Department of Labor, 2005). This income
disparity is greater for Black, Asian, Native American, and Hispanic
women than for White women, and for middle-age and older women
than for younger women.
‘‘We haven’t come a long way,’’ noted Elizabeth Janeway, ‘‘we’ve
come a short way. If we hadn’t come a short way, no one would be
calling us baby.’’
These realities of the psychology of women at work require an in-
depth look at not only the barriers to women’s success but also the
strategies for empowering women at the individual, organizational,
legal, and societal levels. These three volumes provide an overview of
the scholarly research on the issues related to women and work.
Volume 1, ‘‘Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium,’’
provides an overview of research on comparisons of men and women

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


xvi Introduction

in gender-relative (i.e., stereotypical masculine and feminine) commu-


nication styles, women as bosses, women as entrepreneurs, personality
factors that impact women in the workplace, feminist competing values
leadership, career preparation programs in high school, and sexual
harassment.
Volume 2, ‘‘Obstacles and the Identity Juggle,’’ offers reviews on
the double standard for women in the workplace; sexual harassment;
women and leadership; the glass ceiling; pay inequalities; incivility to-
ward women in the workplace; women in the sciences, technology,
engineering, and math; and the economics of women in the workplace.
Volume 3, ‘‘Self, Family, and Social Affects,’’ discusses women and
self-esteem, the impact of work on women’s physical health, mental
health issues for women in the workforce (especially women who have
experienced discrimination), women’s relationships with male co-workers,
and religion and women at work.
In addition to the scholarly reviews of research on the psychology of
women at work, I have included women’s personal accounts of their
career development, especially their experiences in the labor force. A
variety of careers is represented in these personal accounts—attorney,
human resource manager, college president, chiropractor, and psychol-
ogist—as well as students who are pursuing careers. For many years
researchers have defined for women what success is, what work is,
and what achievement striving should be. These definitions have typi-
cally contained masculine biases (Paludi & Fankell-Hauser, 1986). Thus,
these personal accounts of women’s experiences recognize that women
differ in the strength of their striving for achievement and in the roles
that elicit their striving, taking into account the effects of family,
friends, role models, and partners. It is the goal of these volumes that
these personal accounts stimulate additional research, legislation,
and advocacy on behalf of female students and employees so that a
woman running for the United States presidency will be accepted and
encouraged.

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Educational Foundation.
American Association of University Women (AAUW). (2002). Title IX at 30:
Report card on gender equity. Washington, DC: Author.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Introduction xvii

Ashmore, R., & DelBoca, F. (1981). Conceptual approaches to stereotypes and


stereotyping. In D. Hamilton (Ed.), Cognitive processes in stereotyping and
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Betz, N. (2007). Women’s career development. In F. L. Denmark & M. Paludi
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Brody, J. E. (1997, November 4). Girls and puberty: The crisis years. The New
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Burger, C., Abbott, G., Tobias, S., Koch, J., Vogt, C., & Sosa, T. (2007). Gender
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xviii Introduction

Levy, G., Sadovsky, A., & Troseth, G. (2000). Aspects of young children’s per-
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Schroeder, P. (1998). 24 Years of housework . . . and the place is still a mess: My life
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Woman’s idea of government. (1870). New York Herald, p. 6.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Chapter 1

Transforming Organizations and the


Quality of Life of the People Who
Work in Them: In My Own Voice
Linda Gordon Howard

I have had extraordinary good fortune, abundant opportunities, and re-


markable experiences in my career. Many experiences were literally
dreams that came true. This is my attempt to share my experiences, as
a woman, of working. I have not spent much time considering my
career as the career of a woman, although it obviously is. It is obvious,
for example, that I chose to specialize in employment discrimination
law and particularly in sexual harassment law—a specialty that focuses
on the rights of traditionally disenfranchised groups, including work-
ing women. This choice was clearly affected by my view of women’s
work.
As a child and a young woman, I heard a lot of opinions and advice
about what women could and could not do. I ignored most of it
because it was patently silly. I was extremely lucky to have had edu-
cated parents who encouraged me and my two brothers to pursue
whatever we wanted to do and who never suggested that there was
anything we could not do. My mother is a retired a math professor
and college administrator. My father, who was a biology professor and
the chairman of his department, supported my mother’s professional
ambitions. I grew up hearing stories about my feisty grandmother, a
schoolteacher who took her youngest child to school with her in a baby
carriage.
In the fall of 1970, when I arrived at the University of Virginia
(UVA) Law School, I was so happy that I was unable to contain my

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


2 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

complete joy. I had wanted to be a lawyer since I was 9 years old, and
I was finally well on the way toward making that dream a reality.
The 1970s were a heady and exciting time. The group of women
who began law school at UVA that year did not think we were making
history; at least, I did not think I was making history. We were living
our lives and starting a great adventure.
That year, 1970, is considered to be the official beginning of the
women’s movement marked by the first publication of Ms. magazine.
Women had been admitted to University of Virginia’s undergraduate
program under federal court order the previous fall. The first Black
woman, Elaine Jones, had graduated from the law school that June, just
a few months earlier. In my law school class of about 300 students, 17
were women and 12 were Black. Three of these were Black women:
myself, Stephanie Valentine, and Gloria Bouldin. Stephanie and I had
been nursery school classmates. Gloria Bouldin’s mother and my
mother had attended Virginia State College (now Virginia State Univer-
sity) together and had lived in neighboring dormitory rooms. It has
been reported that the fall of 1970 was the first year that the total num-
ber of women law students at UVA reached double digits.
I was excited, in part, because we were destined to be the governors,
senators, judges, law firm partners, and leaders who would run the
country and the economy in the next 20 years. I knew that these fleet-
ing years would forge friendships, bonds, and alliances whose impact
would be important and far-reaching.
In my second year, my fellow students elected me ‘‘president of the
law school,’’ the university’s impressive title for law school’s student
body president. Soon after the election, the press reported that I was
the first woman and the first Black student to be elected to that posi-
tion. That year was magical, fun, and productive. The election itself,
however, led to hundreds of new friendships with students at UVA
and at schools around the country, law school alumni, and government
officials.
Interviewing with law firms in my third year of law school was a
difficult and disappointing experience. I felt fortunate to have been
selected for interviews by several firms. The interviewer from one large
law firm asked me what kind of birth control I used. I was shocked. I
thought it was an entirely inappropriate question. I declined to answer
and ended the interview. Another interviewer, from an Atlanta law
firm, told me that the firm was willing to hire me, but it could not
announce my arrival with the customary written announcement. It was
ready to hire its first Black lawyer, he explained, but the clients had
asked the firm not to ‘‘broadcast’’ it. I had other similarly strange inter-
actions with law firm interviewers. I never reported the incidents to
law school officials (which, in hindsight, I know would have been the
correct action). For many years, I did not share these experiences with

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Transforming Organizations and the Quality of Life 3

anyone. I had decided that these interviews were a taste of the kind of
degrading behavior I would have to deal with if I chose to work in a
law firm. I abandoned my search for a law firm job and used other
resources to find a job with a government agency or an academic insti-
tution. I know now that the interviewers’ comments did not necessarily
indicate what my future would have been with those firms.
I had four job offers in the spring of 1973. One offer, from the Vir-
ginia attorney general’s office, was to represent educational institutions
in the state of Virginia. The second offer, from the University of Dela-
ware at Newark, was to serve as chairperson of the Black Studies
Department. The third offer was to serve as instructor of law at the
University of Detroit Law School. The fourth offer was to serve as a
staff attorney at the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).
Although I very much wanted to teach law, I dismissed the Detroit
offer. I learned that I would be the only person on the instructional
staff of the law school with the rank of instructor, and the dean could
not explain this low rank to my satisfaction. Sallyanne Payton, a Black
lawyer who was about to move from President Richard Nixon’s
Domestic Policy staff to become chief counsel of the Urban Mass Trans-
portation Administration (UMTA) at the DOT, invited me to be her
special assistant. I knew Sally from having taken a law school course
she taught as an adjunct professor. I reasoned that I could trust her to
train me as a lawyer and to take a personal interest in my career.

MY FIRST JOB
The staff at UMTA was small but diverse. We were seven lawyers:
two Black women (Sally and me), one White woman (another new law-
yer), a gay Black man, and three White men. I was very aware of, and
somewhat uncomfortable with, the distinct difference in status between
the clerical support staff, who were all women, and the lawyers.
At UMTA, I learned how to write a memorandum about the impact
of proposed government actions, how agencies work with Congress,
and how private lobbyists can wield significant power in the legisla-
ture. Our work was largely to make sure that applications for federal
funding for metropolitan bus and subway systems met the require-
ments of our enabling legislation. My major accomplishment at UMTA
was to organize, edit, and publish Developing Mass Transit Systems, a
manual on how to create and finance mass transit systems. We had a
lot of contact with the lawyers and officials who had developed the
Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART) in San Francisco and the Met-
ropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA); they contributed
heavily to the publication.
In the spring of 1974, it was time for me to leave the DOT, but I didn’t
know what was next. The opportunity came when I was attending

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


4 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

a dinner at the LBJ Ranch in Texas hosted by Lady Byrd Johnson. I


had met Mrs. Johnson through Chuck Robb, the husband of Lynda
Byrd Johnson; he was a law school classmate of mine and a good
friend. I was seated next to Arthur Krim, a longtime friend of the
Johnsons’ and a former assistant to President Johnson. Arthur had
become chairman of the New York State Democratic Party, chairman
of the board of Columbia University, and chairman of the board of
United Artists, which he later left to form and head Orion Pictures.
Arthur asked me how my job was going. I considered giving the
usual answer of ‘‘fine,’’ but it would not have been the truth. I
thought to myself, ‘‘Here is this terrific man asking about my job. I
want to have a real conversation with him, not an ordinary, fake
conversation.’’ So, I said, ‘‘The people are very nice, but I’m bored.’’
He asked what I really wanted to do, and there was no question. I
wanted to work at the U.S. Senate. That’s where the action was, and
I wanted to be where the action was. So that’s what I said.
About 2 weeks later, I received a call from Bill Wright, another of
President Johnson’s former assistants. Bill said he understood that I
wanted to work at the Senate. There is very high turnover in these offi-
ces, he explained. He instructed me to go to Senator Lloyd Bentsen’s
office every day at lunchtime and after work. I was to introduce myself
and get to know the staff. ‘‘Eventually someone will leave, and you
will be right there—known, familiar, and able.’’ He added, ‘‘You do
that, and we’ll take care of the rest.’’ I did exactly as he instructed, and
in about 6 weeks one of the staffers left his job to return to graduate
school in Texas, creating an opening. Soon thereafter, I was hired as
Senator Lloyd Bentsen’s new legislative assistant, responsible for Judi-
ciary and Commerce matters.

THE UNITED STATES SENATE


I started my new job at the U.S. Senate in the spring of 1974. Senator
Bentsen, who later served as President Bill Clinton’s treasury secretary,
was the junior senator from Texas, having defeated George H. W. Bush
for the seat. One of my first actions was to propose an amendment to
the Federal Rules of Evidence that would limit the admissibility of an
alleged rape victim’s sexual history in rape trials in federal jurisdic-
tions. Defense attorneys commonly used evidence about the alleged
victim’s sexual history, ostensibly to prove that she had consented to
have sex with the defendant. The practical effect was to damage the
alleged victim’s credibility as a witness, making a rape trial such a dif-
ficult ordeal that many women refused to testify, thereby making it
exceedingly difficult for prosecutors to get convictions in rape cases. I
suggested in a staff meeting that the senator sponsor a federal ‘‘rape
shield’’ law. My male colleagues laughed at and ridiculed the proposal.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Transforming Organizations and the Quality of Life 5

I had distributed a two-page memo that exceeded the office’s one-page


limit on memos to the senator, and it became famous as ‘‘Linda’s mag-
num opus.’’ I persisted in advocating for what I thought was an impor-
tant measure. The senator ultimately cosponsored the bill. I
accompanied him when he spoke at a conference on rape in Austin
that was attended primarily by women constituents, and he received a
great deal of positive press attention back home in Texas related to the
proposed new law.
In the summer of 1974, as the House Judiciary Committee pressed
on with the impeachment of President Nixon, the Senate was gearing
up for the trial that would have proceeded had Nixon not resigned. I
was asked to write a floor speech in which Senator Bentsen would pro-
pose that the cost of Nixon’s defense be paid by the federal govern-
ment. This was a crisis of conscience for me. I wanted Nixon out of
office, and having the government pay for his defense seemed to me to
be a bad idea. My assignment was to make a clear and convincing case
that my boss would present on the Senate floor. I spoke to colleagues,
friends, and constitutional experts at length, until I finally realized that
no expert would make the case. I had to make the case.
I reasoned that if the president were to be tried before the Senate,
the prosecution would bring the full weight and resources of the U.S.
government against him. If he were to have an adequate defense, and
if the outcome of the trial were to have any credibility, especially if he
were to be convicted, the government had to bear the cost of his
defense. There could be no room whatever for an argument that Nix-
on’s ability to defend himself had been limited by the size of his own
personal fortune. Even if Nixon’s friends and associates could raise
adequate private funds for his defense, which I had to assume they
could, the appropriate decision had to be applicable to any president,
not just to this president.
When I was finished, I was satisfied that the senator’s position was
solid and right. It was my first experience doing a work assignment
that I initially found distasteful, based on my personal political convic-
tions.. I was delighted that I had completed the assignment with my
own integrity intact. I was able to stand by every word in that speech.
I also worked on the voluminous bill that became the Copyright Act
of 1976. The bill dealt, in part, with the rights to televised baseball
games and the emerging cable industry. During this time, I attended a
meeting with Major League Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn,
whose arrival at the office was a very big deal. The men on the staff
were far more excited about the opportunity to meet the baseball com-
missioner than I was.
In early 1975, Senator Bentsen announced that he was seeking the
Democratic presidential nomination. One day in the spring, I and my
small group of friends, who lunched together almost every day and

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


6 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

thought of ourselves as the hearty band of liberals on the staff of the


moderate Texas senator, were all fired—the men in the morning and
the women in the afternoon.
Later the same week, I received a telephone call from Professor Jack
Slain from Ohio State University College of Law, asking whether I was
interested in ‘‘academic law.’’ I was about to transfer the call to the
staff member who was responsible for issues that affect academic insti-
tutions when Professor Slain said that he was calling about a job.

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LAW


By August 1975, I had moved from Washington, DC, to Columbus,
Ohio, to start my third job: assistant professor at Ohio State University
College of Law (now Moritz College of Law).
I loved teaching, and I adored my students. Dean Orin Slagle, who
later became dean of Florida State University School of Law and who
passed away late in 2006, was a supportive guide. In addition to me,
there was one woman on the faculty, Kathryn (Katie) D. Sowle, who
was married to fellow professor Claude Sowle (Claude Sowle later
served as president of Ohio University in Miami, Ohio.). Katie and I
were granted tenure in the fall of 1978; we were the first women to
receive tenure at the law school. I discovered many years later that I
was one of the first three Black women to receive tenure at a predomi-
nantly white U.S. law school.
In 1975, when I joined the Ohio State faculty, women made up
almost 25% of law school students nationally. I taught courses on evi-
dence, legislation, and gender-based discrimination. I was the sole
woman among the five new faculty members. Each of the four men
had been invited to play on one of the student-faculty softball teams. I
had not even been approached. I repeatedly reminded my students in
my gender-based discrimination class of this fact. It was gender-role
stereotyping, I explained at length, resulting from an assumption that,
as a woman, I either could not play softball or was not interested in
playing. One day, to my surprise and delight, one of my students
invited me to play on his team. Immediately this created a problem. I
had to admit to my students that even though there had been gender-
role stereotyping, in my case the stereotyping was accurate. I had
never played softball before, but I was not backing down.
On the following Saturday morning, I suited up and hit the field. A
sympathetic male student offered to meet me an hour before game
time and introduce me to batting practice. Batting practice is, as it
turns out, an opportunity to practice hitting the ball before you actually
have to hit it in a game. Thanks to this student and to everyone’s sur-
prise, I got a base hit. Unfortunately, when asked what position I
played, I said I would play the same position my brother, Roscoe, had

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Transforming Organizations and the Quality of Life 7

played in high school—third base. The young men snickered. I had


unknowingly selected one of the most difficult and dangerous positions
on the field. Early in the game, a hard line drive headed straight to-
ward me and made a loud crack as it hit my shin. The ball bounced
off my shin into my glove. I made the play but limped off the field. On
the last day of class, my students awarded me with a softball that they
had all autographed.
I share this story because it demonstrates what has characterized a
lot of my work experiences: taking on a task I didn’t know how to do,
doing it anyway, and learning what there was to learn to get the job
done.
In addition to teaching the course in gender-based discrimination, I
also taught courses in evidence and legislation. The legislation seminar
was a wonderful adventure. I cotaught the course with a member of
the Ohio House of Representatives, who arranged internships for the
students. Our students worked for both Republicans and Democrats,
on committee staffs and for lobbyists. The students had a full view of
the legislative process from virtually every perspective. Occasionally, I
gave testimony before the legislature based on research by and in col-
laboration with my students.
As the only Black professor and as one of only two women profes-
sors at the law school, I was in great demand for speaking engage-
ments and media events. At this time, President Jimmy Carter’s
proposal to include women in a national service program was receiv-
ing wide attention. One day after class, one of my students came back
into the classroom and said a news crew was waiting for me in the
hallway. I opened the door of the classroom and saw only a bright
light and a microphone. A voice from behind the microphone said,
‘‘Professor Howard, do you have any comment on President Carter’s
proposal to require women to register for national service?’’ I said,
‘‘Aren’t you going to at least say ‘hello’ and introduce yourself?’’ My
politician-colleague grabbed my arm, pulled me back into the class-
room, and closed the door. He said, ‘‘If you are going to speak to the
press, you have to be nice.’’ I got the message and returned to the
interview with a neat sound bite. My colleague said I was a natural.
Shortly thereafter, I debated the head of the Ohio State ROTC on
whether women should be drafted into military service.

THE WHITE HOUSE


I received an invitation in February 1980 to visit the White House as
part of a delegation from the group Ohio Democratic Women. This
was when American hostages were being held in Iran, and President
Carter stayed in the White House to work on their release, even as the
presidential campaign was moving into high gear. I called the RSVP

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


8 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

number to accept the invitation, and the voice that answered said,
‘‘Linda Howard! Well, we finally found you. Come to Washington. We
need you here.’’ The voice belonged to a woman with whom I had
worked in Senator Bentsen’s office.
During those 2 days in Washington, I met the women who were
making history in the Carter administration: Women’s Bureau Director
Alexis Herman, Assistant to the President Sarah Weddington, Assistant
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Donna Shalala, Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission Chairwoman Eleanor Holmes
Norton, and several others. Sarah Weddington interviewed me for a
position in her office on a Sunday at 8:30 A.M. About 6 weeks later, I
was driving my Mazda from Columbus, Ohio, back to Washington to
start my fourth job: a member of President Jimmy Carter’s White
House staff.
I took a leave of absence from Ohio State to serve for a year as exec-
utive director of the Interdepartmental Task Force on Women. My 35-
member staff conducted research, created legislative proposals, and
educated the public about issues affecting women. A major focus was
to develop a new Small Business Administration (SBA) program that
provided technical services, access to capital, and guidance for doing
business with the government for women who were business owners.
That year was marked by many speeches, meetings, briefings, and din-
ner parties.
While working at the White House, I completed a law review article
about the rights of women who were being fired or demoted from
high-paying manufacturing jobs that exposed them to toxic chemicals
that could damage their ability to bear healthy children.
In the fall of 1980, I sat in a Georgetown restaurant with Donna Sha-
lala, who, by then, had been named president of Hunter College of the
City University of New York. Donna offered me the job of counsel of
the president at Hunter.

INTERNATIONAL SPEAKING TOUR


In the spring of 1981, I left Washington and returned to Columbus
for a semester to fulfill my commitment to return to law teaching at
Ohio State and to prepare to fulfill yet another dream. In April and
May 1981, I traveled to New Zealand, Japan, and India to give presen-
tations on American civil rights law. I delivered the paper ‘‘Civil
Rights and Remedies’’ at the New Zealand International Conference on
Law at the invitation of my law school mate Bruce Robertson (now Jus-
tice Robertson of the High Court of New Zealand). I was a featured
speaker at the conference in the city of Dunedin about the legal basis
for and technical operation of remedies that were available in civil
rights cases in the United States but not in other parts of the world.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Transforming Organizations and the Quality of Life 9

The conference organizers were particularly interested in affirmative


action and in the attorneys’ fees that were awarded to the prevailing
party in federal discrimination lawsuits. This was the first year that
women were allowed to attend the official conference dinner, and I
was the first woman to deliver the toast to the bench and bar, a highly
anticipated traditional after-dinner speech.
The New Zealand Human Rights Commission sponsored my visit to
several other New Zealand cities. Early one morning, a group of Maori
women who were not on my official itinerary arrived at my hotel room
and requested a meeting. They took me to a sacred meeting house,
where they spent several hours sharing their concerns. They spoke of the
gradual but unmistakable loss of their culture and their mistrust of the
mandatory Pakeha (the Maori word for White New Zealander) educa-
tional system. They described how their children learned English but lost
their facility with the native Maori language and learned the Pakeha’s
version of history. They were also deeply concerned about the health
care system, which ignored traditional Maori remedies, dismissed the
healing skills of Maori women, and excluded Maori women from their
traditional role as primary health care providers for their people. I doubt
that a male visitor would have been granted this extraordinary access.
My 2-week visits to Japan and India were sponsored by the United
States Information Agency (USIA), which was headed at the time by
John Reinhardt, a friend and colleague of my parents’ at Virginia State
College (now University). My 2 weeks in Japan were beautiful and
revealing. I addressed groups of lawyers, businessmen, and citizens in
seven cities and was treated to an extraordinary visit with the board of
trustees and faculty of Kyoto University. I saw few women in profes-
sional roles in Japan.
India offered a number of encounters with women in professional
and leadership roles. In visits to Ahmedabad and Calcutta, I met a
young woman in a diplomacy-related position and a popular activist
woman judge. At the Chester Bowles Seminar in Chail on challenges
facing democracy, I spoke on social challenges. I met woman newspa-
per reporters and editors. In Bombay, I was treated to lunch by the
Ladies Auxiliary of the Chamber of Commerce.
I returned from my international experience with a new appreciation
for and pride in the progress the United States has made in the arena
of civil rights for women and other groups. I embarked on my trip
armed with criticism of U.S. laws and policies. I returned understand-
ing that despite the difficulties and inequities, the United States leads
other nations in civil rights laws, including laws that protect access to
employment, public accommodations, and political participation. Other
nations look to the United States for guidance on and evidence for the
design and workability of laws that protect traditionally excluded
groups. I also returned with a new confidence in and an excitement

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


10 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

about the opportunities we have in this country to experiment with


new approaches.

HUNTER COLLEGE OF THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK


I went directly from my round-the-world trip to my new job at
Hunter College, the next great adventure. Hunter’s new president,
Donna Shalala, had the reputation of being a great manager, and I
wanted to work for a great manager. This job was also a terrific oppor-
tunity to put into practice through my writings and speeches the ideas
I had developed as a professor.
Donna Shalala’s best attributes were that she had a fierce intention
to make Hunter a great institution, she related to every employee indi-
vidually, and she was fearless. Donna was committed to revolutioniz-
ing Hunter College and set about doing so in every arena. In my role
as counsel, I advised on a wide range of issues, from copyright law to
governance to real estate finance. A major project was the addition of
three stories to the School of Social Work, located on Manhattan’s
Upper East Side.
I designed and implemented the college’s affirmative action policy,
which resulted in the hiring of anthropologist (and later Spelman Col-
lege president) Johnnetta Cole, poet Audre Lourde, photographer Roy
DeCarava, and a host of luminaries in the physical and social sciences
who placed Hunter in the vanguard of progressive educational institu-
tions that were building brilliant and diverse faculties.
I also managed the process that resulted in Hunter’s sexual harass-
ment policy and prevention program. The process and the resulting
policy represented an innovative model of community collaboration.
Hunter’s sexual harassment policy, procedures, and prevention activ-
ities had to address the actions and concerns of faculty members, admin-
istrators, staff, and students. Any member of the community could be a
complainant, an accused, or someone seeking guidance in a situation
involving possible sexual harassment. The procedures had to work for
faculty-to-faculty harassment, faculty-to-administration harassment, fac-
ulty-to-student harassment, administration-to-faculty harassment, admin-
istration-to-student harassment, and student-to-student harassment.
Complaints brought by students, faculty, and staff required different de-
cision makers in different offices. The faculty and administrative staff
were unionized, and we had to safeguard their specific procedural rights.
Our initial objectives were to make the procedure simple and to give
community members a choice of people with whom they could speak.
After close consultation with the president of the college, the staff, and
the faculty leadership, we decided to have one central receiving point
for all complaints. We created a panel that included men and women,
people of different ethnic backgrounds, faculty members from different

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Transforming Organizations and the Quality of Life 11

departments, administration and staff members of different ranks, and


a student. All Sexual Harassment Panel members were designated to
receive complaints.
Our next objectives were to educate the members of the college com-
munity about their rights and responsibilities under the new policy,
foster dialogue, and raise the community’s awareness about how to
prevent sexual harassment. Community education would be a central
theme, and it was decided that faculty members would lead the Sexual
Harassment Panel. We consciously included women’s perspectives and
men’s perspectives. We wanted to create a sharing of ideas with a view
toward changing values. President Shalala appointed two faculty mem-
bers, a man and a woman, as coordinators, thus allowing the educa-
tional and awareness program to be led by a male-female partnership.
Every aspect of the program would reflect the blend, balance, and chal-
lenge of that partnership.
The panel was the central group within the college community that
was responsible for raising awareness about sexual harassment. I
trained the panel members in sexual harassment law, investigative pro-
cedures, and other issues. The panel met regularly, stayed abreast of
changing legal requirements, accepted responsibility for its own
ongoing training, investigated complaints swiftly, shared with its own
members and with the administration what it learned about the con-
cerns of employees and students, and became a vigorous advocate for
the policy and a harassment-free environment at Hunter College. The
panel developed strong working relationships within the various
administrative offices, spearheaded the addition of new support serv-
ices for students, and became an important source of recommendations
for further actions to improve the program. It enjoyed the respect and
confidence of the various campus constituencies.
Our original coordinators, Professors Michele Paludi and Richard
Barickman, breathed life into the plan and later contributed to the aca-
demic literature about sexual harassment on campus and its causes.
The Sexual Harassment Panel fulfills the same role at Hunter College
as it once did, but now it is called the Sexual Harassment Awareness
and Intake Committee.
Today, the City University of New York requires each of its 20 con-
stituent colleges to have a sexual harassment committee as part of its
sexual harassment policy and procedures. It is a source of enormous
pride to have created something that continues to serve its purpose
well after 25 years.

THE LAW DEPARTMENT OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK


In November 1989, David Dinkins was elected mayor of New York
City. A few days before Thanksgiving, Victor Kovner, the well-known

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


12 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

First Amendment lawyer and political presence on New York’s West


Side whom Dinkins had named his corporation counsel (city attor-
ney), called to ask if I was interested in joining the new administra-
tion. In late January 1990, I joined the corporation counsel’s office
(also known as the Law Department) as senior counsel and a mem-
ber of the executive staff. There were two other woman executives,
Lorna Goodman and Edith Spivack, who had worked in the depart-
ment as lawyers since 1934. Lorna Goodman is now Nassau County
attorney. At the time, two of the department’s 17 division chiefs
were women.
Mayor Dinkins was in the process of making changes in the leader-
ship in several agencies, including the New York City Commission on
Human Rights. Despite the temporary lack of leadership, action was
necessary to address the growing backlog of complaints; this was my
first assignment. I had the challenging task of proposing, negotiating,
and implementing the initiatives from outside the commission and
with no management authority. The staff of the commission, whose
cooperation was needed, was reluctant to act before the new commis-
sion chairperson was in place and while the incumbent was still in
office but not working on the new administration’s initiatives. In the
end, we were successful in creating a program that allowed volunteer
lawyers to represent complainants before the commission and that
resolved individual complaints much more quickly. That was an im-
portant lesson in exercising power without force.
Within a year, I took responsibility for new attorney hiring, attorney
training, and the summer law student internship program. A few years
later, I was named Equal Employment Opportunity Officer. After 8
years, I created and managed a continuing legal education program
that would serve the 700 attorneys in the Law Department and the
approximately 1,000 attorneys working in other city agencies.
In my previous jobs, I served as a counselor or ombudsman. I did
the same at the Law Department, but I encountered special challenges.
One of the areas in which I developed myself at the Law Department
was investigating employment discrimination complaints. At Hunter
College I had also investigated employment discrimination complaints;
it was a role I had not enjoyed. Often, but not always, employment dis-
crimination complaints are the result of misunderstandings, miscom-
munications, and misperceptions. I had tried to bring people together
to understand the situation from another point of view. My early
efforts were almost always unsuccessful. Eventually, I realized that I
was having difficulties because I was not operating according to my
role in the process. I was not doing my job as it had been designed. As
a result, it was not working. I had been trying to bring people together,
to conciliate, when my job was to investigate. Once I took on investi-
gating, my work became easier. Instead of trying to get people to

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Transforming Organizations and the Quality of Life 13

understand one another, I mastered investigating. Once I mastered


investigation, I had the perspective and the credibility to recognize the
opportunities for bringing people together.
Understanding the design of the process and my specific role helped
me to be effective. I reasoned that if other people could understand my
specific role and the process, then they could also participate more effec-
tively. I incorporated an explanation of my role and an opportunity to
ask questions into every conversation and interview in an investigation.
My effectiveness in getting the facts and completing investigations soared.
My skills as an investigator led one of my colleagues to suggest that
I write a book, because my methods were not available anywhere in
written form. That suggestion resulted in the publication of my book,
The Sexual Harassment Handbook (February 2007). In The Sexual Harass-
ment Handbook, I offer plain-English guidance to working people,
supervisors, investigators, and business owners on how to deal with
sexual harassment in their particular roles. I also advise people on the
specific opportunities for dealing with sexual harassment when there is
still a possibility of resolving the situation among the people involved.
I launched other innovations at the Law Department, including the
following:

. A study course for new attorneys who had failed the bar exam. The
course dramatically increased the number of our new attorneys who
passed the bar exam.
. An automated system for regular reporting of city cases. The system
allowed the Law Department, for the first time, to report cases by agency,
by the legal unit handling the case, or by status, and it addressed a long-
standing request from the agencies for written reports on the status of all
their cases that were being handled by the Law Department.

PRIVATE PRACTICE AND CONSULTING


I left the Law Department after 13 years of service, wrote The Sexual
Harassment Handbook, and created a consulting business. I offer employ-
ers advice and training in employment discrimination, sexual harass-
ment prevention, and management of a diverse workforce. My
expertise also includes managing change in large institutions.
My life as a writer and consultant is very different from my life as a
lawyer in large public institutions. I spend many more days on my
own, writing, marketing, planning, and organizing presentations. I
work with different people in different organizations. I am having a
broader impact and am offering new ways of operating to different
organizations with different issues and concerns.
I am committed to transforming organizations and the quality of life
of the people who work in and for them.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Chapter 2

Speaking in a ‘‘Man’s World’’: Gender


Differences in Communication Styles
Susan Basow

At a weekly staff meeting, June said, ‘‘Maybe I’m off base here, but
perhaps we could try some type of incentive program for the sales
staff? Or something like that, something that will motivate them to sell
more? What do you think?’’ After some polite murmuring, the staff
members continued to discuss the problem of flat sales. Later in the
meeting, James said, ‘‘I know. Motivate the salespeople by giving them
rewards based on how much they sell. That should get them excited!’’
Everyone exclaimed about what a great idea this was—everyone except
June, who thought, ‘‘Didn’t I already suggest that?’’
What happened here? Was June guilty of ‘‘speaking while female’’
in a majority-male group? In this chapter, we will look at gender differ-
ences in communication styles: if, and to what extent, they exist; how
they might affect women in the workplace; and communication strat-
egies to improve women’s work experiences.

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN COMMUNICATION STYLES: NOW


YOU SEE THEM, NOW YOU DON’T
Let’s consider the vignette at the beginning of the chapter. June’s
way of presenting her idea was typical, in some ways, of women’s
style of communicating: she was tentative in her language and con-
tent (‘‘maybe I’m off base,’’ ‘‘perhaps,’’ ‘‘or something like that,’’ and
phrasing her statements as questions), wordy, and concerned about
what the others thought (‘‘What do you think?’’, an affiliative ques-
tion). In contrast, James’s utterance was more typical of men:

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


16 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

assertive (‘‘I know’’) and direct. Although such gender differences in


verbal speech have been supported by research as well as anecdote
(Leaper & Ayres, 2007; Mulac, 2006; Tannen, 1994), the magnitude of
these gender differences is relatively small and is moderated by a
host of other variables. Thus, although some generalizations can be
made about how men and women ‘‘speak different languages’’
(Tannen, 1990), the actual picture is far more complex. Let’s examine
the research findings on gendered patterns in specific types of
communications.

Affiliative Speech
Affiliative speech refers to the use of words to connect with others,
such as by expressing agreement, understanding, support, or acknowl-
edgement. Tannen (1994) argues that such speech is typical of women’s
more intimate and inclusive approach to communication. In a compre-
hensive meta-analytic review of research on gender differences in adult
speech, Leaper and Ayres (2007) found that although women did
indeed tend to use more affiliative speech than men did, the difference
was very small. There is actually more than an 85% overlap between
men and women in this type of speech.

There are circumstances in which the gender difference in affiliative


speech is more noticeable (i.e., sizable) than others. In particular, women
are more likely to use affiliative speech when talking with other women
as opposed to when in groups of both sexes; and also when talking about
non-personal topics, self-disclosures, and deliberations rather than when
talking about tasks, child-oriented activities, and disagreements. Also im-
portant to note is that in Leaper and Ayres’ meta-analysis, there was no
condition in which the size of the effect would be considered large (d 
.8, indicating that the overlap between women and men was less than
53%). Even the largest gender difference in affiliative speech would be
considered moderate (d ¼ .44) and that occurred in conversations about
non-personal topics. Overall, then, there is more gender similarity than
difference with respect to this aspect of speech, but when differences
occur, they are typically in the direction of women being more likely
than men to use language to connect with others.
Thus in the workplace, gender differences in affiliative speech would
be least likely in mixed-gender task-focused groups and most likely in
women-only groups, when discussing non-personal topics, or when try-
ing to come to a group decision.

Assertive Speech
Assertive speech refers to the use of words to achieve a goal or
advance one’s personal position, such as by giving information,

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Speaking in a ‘‘Man’s World’’ 17

offering directive statements or suggestions, and criticizing another.


Tannen (1994) argues that such speech is the province of men, who
tend to focus on issues of power and control in interactions with
others. Indeed, in Leaper and Ayres’ (2007) meta-analytic review, men
were found to use this speech style significantly more than did women,
but the gender difference was very small (d ¼ .09), meaning that there
was much more gender similarity than difference on this aspect of
speech.
There were some circumstances in which the size of the gender dif-
ference was larger, however. Men were most likely to use this speech
style (showing a moderate gender difference) when talking about non-
personal topics and when talking with strangers as opposed to with
people they knew well.
In the workplace, then, we might expect men to be more directive
and offer more suggestions than women when discussing a work-
related topic in a group of people, especially same-gender others, to
whom they are not close.

Talkativeness
A strongly held cultural stereotype in the United States is that
women talk more than men. Research, however, reveals the opposite:
Men tend to talk more than women, at least under some circumstances.
Leaper and Ayres (2007) found that men were significantly more talka-
tive than women. There appears to be no gender difference in the num-
ber of words that men and women speak per day (Mehl, Vazire,
Ramirez-Esparza, Slatcher, & Pennebaker, 2007). The difference was
greatest in discussions of impersonal topics or in disagreements and
was reversed when self-disclosures were included—women talked
more in those circumstances. Men also talked more than women in
close relationships than they did with strangers, and they talked in
mixed groups more than in same-gender groups. In the workplace, this
could mean that men will try to dominate conversations when they are
talking with one woman or several women.

Other Verbal Behaviors


There is some evidence that women, compared to men, tend to
speak more formally and politely (e.g., ‘‘please’’) and to use less pro-
fanity (Henley, 1977; Kramer, 1974). Tannen (1994) describes women’s
speech as more tentative than men’s (‘‘maybe I’m off base’’), often
ending with a question (‘‘What do you think?’’) or a questioning tone
(‘‘Maybe we should do this?’’), whereas men are less likely to
ask questions, perhaps because doing so indicates a lack of knowledge
or control.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


18 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

Nonverbal Communication
Communication occurs not only via words but also through body lan-
guage (e.g., nods, gestures, body position), facial expressions (e.g., smiles,
frowns), and paralinguistic cues (e.g., speed and timbre of speech). Like
spoken language, nonverbal communication also shows gender differen-
ces, but again they tend to vary with a number of factors.
In general, women tend to nod and smile more than men do, and
their voices tend to be rated higher in warmth than men’s voices (Hall
& Friedman, 1999; Johnson, 1994). These qualities enhance the relational
aspect of communication; in that regard, they parallel the finding that
women are more likely than men to use affiliative speech. Similarly,
men’s vocal utterances are rated higher than women’s on dominance
(Hall & Friedman, 1999), paralleling the finding that men are more likely
than women to use assertive speech. Body movements too can reflect
confidence and dominance (e.g., relaxed gestures, taking up space, ini-
tiating handshakes, maintaining eye contact while speaking), and these
behaviors are more common in men than in women (Henley, 1977).
Smiling is a particularly gendered nonverbal behavior. Although
even women in higher status positions tend to smile more than their
male counterparts (Hall & Friedman, 1999), smiling is more related to
positive affect for high-status and equal-status workers than it is for
low-status workers. Indeed, in many low status service jobs (wait-staff,
supermarket check-out people, airline attendants), smiling may be a job
requirement, especially for women (Hecht & LaFrance, 1998; Hochs-
child, 1983). Women appear to have an advantage over men in accu-
rately decoding the nonverbal cues of others, at least when such cues
are not deliberately deceptive (Hall, 1978; Rosenthal & DePaulo, 1979).
This skill can enhance women’s affiliative abilities and be related to
their lower status.
The issue of women’s status is important in examining gendered
communication styles, because such styles do vary by status. Women
in the workforce typically hold lower status jobs than men do. Thus,
what appears as gender differences might actually be status differen-
ces. To examine this, we will next explore various explanations for
gender differences in communication styles.

EXPLANATIONS FOR GENDERED PATTERNS OF


COMMUNICATION
Gendered patterns of communication can be attributed to socializa-
tion and/or contextual factors. Both types of explanations have received
some research support.
Socialization explanations emphasize the fact that boys and girls are
raised in different ways and consequently learn the communication

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Speaking in a ‘‘Man’s World’’ 19

style that is considered appropriate for their gender (Chodorow, 1978;


Leaper & Ayres, 2007; Maccoby, 1998; Tannen, 1990). Because girls are
usually raised by women and are viewed as future mothers, they tend
to develop a sense of self in relationship to others. These affiliative ten-
dencies are further reinforced in play with other girls, which tends to
emphasize cooperation and connection (e.g., playing ‘‘house’’). Boys,
who are also usually raised by women, must develop a sense of self by
disconnecting from their female caretakers and forging their identity
through autonomous activities. Play with other boys reinforces asser-
tive acts, competitiveness, and dominance (e.g., ‘‘king of the hill’’). Fur-
thermore, affiliative speech tends to be modeled by and reinforced for
females, whereas assertive communication tends to be modeled by and
reinforced for males.
Thus, gendered communication styles are learned and perpetuated.
This type of explanation is supported by the general pattern of gender
differences and the relatively greater strength of these patterns in
same-gender rather than mixed groups (Leaper & Ayres, 2007). Yet the
fact that gender differences in communication vary by situation and
can be over-shadowed by gender-role differences (i.e., the degree to
which men and women actually possess gender-linked traits) suggests
that this explanation is insufficient by itself (Basow & Rubenfeld, 2003;
Edwards & Hamilton, 2004; Leaper & Ayres, 2007).
A contextual explanation emphasizes that gendered behavior
depends on the specific social situation (Deaux & Major, 1987; Leaper
& Ayres, 2007). For example, in situations with strangers, individuals
might rely on traditional gender scripts as guidelines for behavior. This
supports the finding that gender differences in affiliative and assertive
speech are more likely when individuals are talking with strangers
than with people they know.
Gender also is confounded with status, and, as noted above, status
affects communication styles (Henley, 1977). For example, individuals
with more power in a situation (e.g., employer over employee, man-
ager over subordinate) tend to use more assertive speech and body lan-
guage and to talk more than those who have less power. In contrast,
those who have less power tend to use more affiliative speech and sub-
missive behaviors and be better at decoding nonverbal communication
than those who have more power. These status differences parallel fre-
quently found gender differences (Crawford & Kaufman, 2006; Kalb-
fleish & Herold, 2006; Wood & Karten, 1986). Thus, what looks like
gender differences in communication styles might really reflect status
differences, especially in the workplace, where men tend to hold higher
status positions than women do.
It is likely that both explanations contribute to gendered patterns in
communication style, but gender is sometimes a stronger influence
than status (Hall, 2006; Hall & Friedman, 1999).

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


20 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

THE EFFECTS OF GENDERED COMMUNICATION STYLES IN


THE WORKPLACE
Unfortunately, most of the research on gender differences in com-
munication focuses on college students or couples in intimate relation-
ships. However, we can supplement the few workplace studies with
extrapolations from other research settings to examine issues in the
workplace related to gendered communication styles.
Given the generally small and variable nature of gender differences
in communication styles, it perhaps is not too surprising that direct
studies of workers show a similar pattern of small to nonexistent gen-
der differences in the workplace. For example, men and women in sim-
ilar positions in the workplace are equally concerned about fairness
(Hale, 1999; Lentz, 1986), the quality of communication with supervi-
sors (Amason & Allen, 1997), and the need to understand the perspec-
tives of others (Hale, 1999). Men and women in similar positions also
show no difference in how they try to influence superiors (O’Neil,
2004) or in their views of the best way to cope with a job-related con-
flict (Mai-Dalton, Summers-Feldman, & Mitchell, 1979).
Despite these similarities, there is some research that suggests that
similar communication behaviors can have different effects, depending
on the gender of the speaker, the gender of the person spoken to, and
the nature of the interaction (e.g., same-gender or opposite-gender). Fur-
thermore, men and women are typically not in similar workplace posi-
tions. Thus, gender is often confounded with status; what looks like
gender differences can actually be differences in speech between high-
status and low-status individuals. Given the overlap, women in high-
status positions can face particular communication challenges because
their organizational status conflicts with their gender-role status.

Perceptions of Gendered Communication Patterns


Given the tendency for women to use more affiliative speech and
for men to use more assertive speech, it is perhaps not surprising that
these behaviors have become stereotypic expectations. Thus, women
whose communication style is not affiliative might be seen as violating
gendered expectations, which is generally perceived as negative by
others (Carli, LaFleur, & Loeber, 1995; Fiske, Bersoff, Borgida, Deaux,
& Heilman, 1991; Friedman & Yorio, 2006). For example, speech and
behavior that is seen as a sign of strength and confidence in a man
could be perceived as evidence of ‘‘bitchiness’’ in a woman. Yet if
women do conform to more ‘‘feminine’’ modes of communicating,
others may perceive them as lacking competence or leadership poten-
tial. This catch-22 becomes even more complicated when other varia-
bles are considered—for example, whether the perceiver is a man or a
woman or what the nature of the task is.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Speaking in a ‘‘Man’s World’’ 21

Women who conform to gendered communication stereotypes


(using affiliative speech, talking less, and using deferential nonverbal
behaviors) tend to be liked by others and viewed as more sociable, but
they are not necessarily viewed as competent (Carli et al., 1995; Juod-
valkis, Grefe, Hogue, Svyantek, & DeLamarter, 2003; Kuhlenschmidt &
Conger, 1988; Lindsey & Zakahi, 2006; Rudman, 1998). If women use a
more dominant communication style, they might be penalized on lik-
ability and sociability ratings, but they are also more likely to receive
higher competency ratings and make a better overall impression.
Because career advancement is more keyed to perceptions of compe-
tence than likability, it is not surprising that the 1970s saw a surge of
‘‘management training’’ workshops for women that focused on teach-
ing women how to change from an affiliative communication style to
an assertive one (as well as how to ‘‘dress for success’’ and the like).
Alas, communicating in the accepted male-stereotypic way does not
always work for women in the ways that it works for men. Carli (1990)
found that women were more influential with men when they spoke in
a tentative style rather than in an assertive style, although the latter
style was more effective with women. This pattern might reflect men’s
greater tendency to hold traditional views of women and their discom-
fort with women who do not incorporate traditional ‘‘feminine’’ behav-
ior. Similar results have been found in a variety of contexts in which
men have been asked to evaluate women (Basow, 1998; Glick & Fiske,
1999). Because men are more likely to be in supervisory positions, in
which the evaluation of subordinates is critical for job retention or
advancement, it is not always the case that ‘‘speaking like a man’’ is
the best communication strategy for women. Ann Hopkins found this
out the hard way.
In 1982, Ann Hopkins was denied partnership in the Price Water-
house accounting firm because some of her evaluators thought that she
was not ‘‘feminine enough,’’ especially in the ways she talked, looked,
and acted (Fiske et al., 1991). The fact that she had demonstrated profi-
ciency at her job—bringing in more business and accumulating more
billable hours than her male counterparts and earning praise for being
hardworking and exacting—appeared to matter less than her ‘‘macho’’
interpersonal style. Fortunately, in 1989 the Supreme Court, aided by
an amicus curiae brief on gender stereotyping research filed by the
American Psychological Association, found that Hopkins had been a
victim of gender-based discrimination. Still, the issue remains that
women who work with men probably have to communicate differently
than men do to be perceived positively.
Let’s examine three key workplace issues in which gendered com-
munication styles can be particularly important for women: applying
for a job and negotiating one’s salary, making decisions and handling
conflict, and serving as a supervisor or leader.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


22 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

Applying for a Job and Negotiating a Salary


Given the finding that gender differences in communication styles
are particularly noticeable with strangers and in discussions of imper-
sonal topics, gender differences seem likely to occur when applying for
a job and dealing with a specific job offer. Such differences, especially
if combined with a less confident attitude, appear to make women less
likely than men to negotiate a job offer, especially a salary offer. In fact,
Babcock and Laschever (2003) found that much of the salary differen-
tial between women and men is related to women’s reluctance to nego-
tiate their initial salary offer. These researchers found that women are
more than twice as likely as men to feel apprehensive about negotiat-
ing. As a result, men initiate negotiations about four times as often as
women do; consequently, their starting salaries are higher. Given that
starting salaries serve as the basis for future raises, what starts out as a
barely noticeable salary differential can add up to more than half a mil-
lion dollars in lost earnings over a woman’s lifetime.
Negotiating a salary offer or job conditions generally requires an
assertive attitude and communication style. It is just this type of speech
that men engage in more than women do, especially with strangers
and regarding impersonal issues. Women’s greater affiliative tenden-
cies in such situations can work to their detriment, because they might
be more concerned about offending the person making the job offer or
appearing self-centered or ungrateful than with their own career and
financial status. For example, Heatherington and colleagues (1993)
found that women tended to be more modest about their achievements
in public situations than in private ones because of self-presentation
concerns.
Although women certainly need to learn to negotiate job and salary
offers in an assertive but nonaggressive manner, strong and assertive
women are not always perceived positively, at least not by men (Carli,
1990; Carli et al., 1995; Wiley & Eskilson, 1985). Female employees, more
than male employees, are expected to avoid conflict, maintain relation-
ships, and facilitate interactions (Wilson, Lizzio, & Zauner, 2001).
Still, assertive women are more likely to be hired. For example, in a
simulated job situation (Juodvalkis et al., 2003), women who used a
more dominant communication style, as opposed to a more submissive
style, were rated as less likable and sociable but as more competent
and hirable. For men, dominant communication styles were associated
with positive ratings on all measures: likability, sociability, competence,
and hirability. Rudman (1998) found similar results for the different
effects of self-promotion in women and men. Thus, women often have
to trade off being viewed as likable in order to be hired, especially at a
salary that matches that of a male counterpart.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Speaking in a ‘‘Man’s World’’ 23

Making Decisions and Handling Conflict


Because women have a tendency to emphasize the affiliative style of
communication and men the assertive style, it is perhaps not surprising
that research finds that women and men tend to reach decisions
by using different communication styles. Studies that examined the
deliberation process consistently found small but significant gender dif-
ferences in affiliative and assertive speech in the expected directions
(Leaper & Ayres, 2007). In addition, men tended to talk significantly
more than women did in such situations, whereas women were more
likely than men to take turns when speaking.
Tannen (1994), in her observations of different workplace conversa-
tions, concurs: Women tend to consider the viewpoints of others and
the impact on others when making decisions, whereas men tend to
focus more on their own viewpoints. Like June in the vignette at the
beginning of this chapter, women in predominantly male work envi-
ronments often report difficulty in having their ideas heard; indeed,
many report feeling ignored (Hale, 1999). This might be the result of
their male colleagues’ tendency to use (and prefer) assertive rather than
affiliative speech during deliberations.
Different dynamics can exist, depending on whether communication
is in same-gender or mixed-gender groups. As Leaper and Ayres’
(2007) meta-analytic review found, affiliative and assertive speech may
be greatest in same-gender groups, whereas talkativeness by men is
greatest when at least one woman is in the group. Men’s need to assert
dominance over women could be responsible for their greater talkative-
ness and for their greater use of patronizing language in mixed-gender
rather than same-gender groups (Crawford & Kaufman, 2006). Women
appear to use more tentative language and disclaimers than men when
they are in groups with at least one man (Carli, 1990). Both men and
women smile more with women (Johnson, 1994). Indeed, women in
all-female groups have the highest rates of smiling, whereas men in
all-male groups have the lowest rates.
When we examine communications specifically geared to resolving
disagreements, a familiar pattern is found: Men tend to talk more, and
in a more assertive manner, than women do (Leaper & Ayres, 2007).
Women do not, however, appear to use more affiliative speech than
men do when discussing disagreements. Despite the fact that women
are expected to avoid conflict and facilitate interpersonal relationships
(Tannen, 1990; Wilson et al., 2001), men and women in the workplace
appear to deal with conflict with their superiors in similar ways:
smoothing over (i.e., minimizing differences), making compromises,
and confronting (i.e., bringing the problem out into the open)
(Renwick, 1977).

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


24 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

Serving as a Supervisor or Leader


Being a supervisor, manager, or task leader is a nontraditional role
for women, who typically hold subordinate positions in work and
gender relations. Furthermore, the expectations that people have of
managers—to be strong, decisive, assertive, and dominant—are traits
that are more typically associated with men than with women (Eagly,
2007; Eagly, Johannesen-Schmidt, & van Engen, 2003; Kalbfleish &
Herold, 2006). Thus, women in such positions face particular chal-
lenges, especially if their subordinates are men.
Given different gender socialization experiences and different sets of
expectations for women and men, it perhaps is not surprising that
women leaders, compared to male leaders, tend to show more positive
affect and warmth (Hall & Friedman, 1999). They are more likely to
emphasize communication, cooperation, and subordinate involvement
(Cowan, Wilcox, & Nykodym, 1990; Fox & Schuhmann, 1999). In fact, a
meta-analysis of 45 studies of different types of leadership styles found
that women were more likely than men to use a transformational style
(one in which the leader supports and empowers her followers, inspir-
ing them to reach their potential) as well as provide contingent
rewards for a subordinate’s satisfactory performance (Eagly et al.,
2003).
In contrast, male leaders were more likely than their female counter-
parts to use punishment to shape followers’ behaviors and to be unin-
volved at critical moments (i.e., a laissez-faire style). Although the
magnitude of these gender differences was small (meaning that men
and women leaders were more similar than different), the pattern of
results is in line with findings regarding gender differences in commu-
nication, with women leaders more likely than men leaders to express
support and encouragement of subordinates, and men leaders more
likely to use assertive and dominant communication styles.
Although men often claim that they would not want to work for a
woman because women are overly emotional (Eagly, 2007; Hale, 1999),
when studies examine men who actually have women bosses, the pic-
ture is quite different. Men are as satisfied with a female supervisor as
they are with a male, or they are more satisfied. The same picture
appears for women subordinates. The greater satisfaction with female
compared to male leaders is typically because of women leaders’
greater use of a democratic or transformational leadership style (Eagly
2007; Kalbfleish & Herold, 2006). Although different situations may
require different types of leadership at different times, the meta-analy-
sis by Eagly and colleagues (2003) found that the behaviors more typi-
cal of women than men leaders (i.e., a transformational leadership
style and use of contingent reward) are exactly the qualities associated
with maximum effectiveness. In contrast, the behaviors more typical of

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Speaking in a ‘‘Man’s World’’ 25

men leaders (i.e., a laissez-faire style or a focus on problems and fail-


ures) were either ineffective or had negative effects (see chapter 4 in
this volume for more detail on women as bosses).
Although men and women might be equally satisfied with their
supervisors regardless of the supervisor’s gender, it is still possible that
there are different communication styles whose effectiveness depends
on both the gender of the supervisor and the gender of the subordi-
nate. For example, in a simulated work environment, LaPlante and
Ambady (2002) found that the productivity and work satisfaction of
subordinates varied with the verbal and nonverbal behaviors as well as
the gender of their supervisor. Male supervisors received the highest
ratings for productivity and work satisfaction when they gave feedback
in a positive tone, even if the content was negative (e.g., ‘‘Aren’t you
through yet?’’). This was especially true with male subordinates, per-
haps because men become particularly defensive if they feel put down
by other men. In contrast, female supervisors received the highest rat-
ings for productivity and work satisfaction when they gave feedback
with positive content (e.g., ‘‘You seem like you’re getting it’’), even if
the tone was negative.
Wilson and colleagues (2001) found similar results when they exam-
ined the social rules for handling a ‘‘pushy’’ subordinate: It was
viewed as more socially acceptable for male managers to use formal
authority to put a subordinate in his or her place, whereas female man-
agers were expected to avoid ‘‘putting down’’ the subordinate. Women
managers were expected to avoid conflict and facilitate interaction.
Renwick (1977), in her study of managers, found that female supervi-
sors were perceived by their subordinates as less likely to resolve con-
flicts through force (i.e., using power to force acceptance of their point
of view) than their male counterparts. On the whole, however, both
male and female supervisors were perceived to handle conflicts in sim-
ilar ways, through compromise and confrontation. These two strategies
were associated with subordinates’ positive attitudes toward conflict.
The gender composition of the workplace may make a difference in
what behaviors are used or are effective. For example, in Renwick’s
(1977) study of 100 middle managers, supervisors of both sexes were
perceived as more likely to use compromise and smoothing over as
conflict resolution strategies when dealing with female as opposed to
male subordinates. Carli (1990) found that female speakers were more
influential with men when they spoke more tentatively than asser-
tively, but the reverse was true when the women speakers spoke with
women (i.e., they were more influential when they spoke more asser-
tively than tentatively). Interestingly, male speakers were equally influ-
ential regardless of whether they spoke in an assertive or tentative
fashion, to women or to men. These findings help explain why wom-
en’s leadership effectiveness is rated lower than men’s only in

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


26 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

workplace environments that are male-dominated or traditionally mas-


culine (Eagly, 2007). It is in just such situations that stereotyped gen-
dered expectations play the greatest role.
It is important not to overstate gender differences in the communica-
tion styles of male and female leaders, however. There is a consider-
able overlap between women and men in their communication and
leadership styles because these are often moderated more by status,
role, or situational requirements than by gender.

COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES FOR WOMEN IN A


‘‘MAN’S WORLD’’
As the above review indicates, gendered communication patterns in
the workplace are complex. In general, women and men communicate
in ways more similar than different, although situational factors (e.g.,
type of communication, mixed- or same-gender group, or status) can
exaggerate differences. Furthermore, what styles are most effective will
vary as a function of the gender of the communicator, the target of that
communication, and the gender-typing of the situation. What advice,
then, would be useful for women who aspire to be successful in a
workplace dominated by men?
Dell (1992) argues that part of what has hindered women from
reaching the top positions in organizations is that they do not adopt
men’s style of communicating. Because men have been the traditional
power holders in organizations, it is their style of communicating that
has predominated. Thus, women who want to break through the ‘‘glass
ceiling’’ have to adopt some of men’s communication characteristics—
that is, they have to focus less on the needs of the listener and more on
expressing their own opinions and ideas. Women (like men) must talk
about their accomplishments with confidence to achieve recognition for
them. Babcock and Laschever (2003) concur that women have to ask
for what they want in job assignments and especially in salaries. Nego-
tiation is expected in the workplace, and when women do not engage
in it, they suffer the consequences: lower salaries, lower job status, and
slower advancement.
Nevertheless, simply adopting men’s communication style will prob-
ably not work as well for women as for men. As Ann Hopkins found
out in the famous Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins case, women who engage
in the same behaviors as their male counterparts may be perceived
negatively, especially by men (Fiske et al., 1991). Although women
have to communicate in assertive ways to be perceived as competent
and to be hired, unless they also use an affiliative communication style,
they might not be liked, at least not by men (Carli et al., 1995; Juodval-
kis et al., 2003; Kuhlenschmidt & Conger, 1988; Lindsey & Zakahi,
2006; Rudman, 1998.)

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Speaking in a ‘‘Man’s World’’ 27

Thus, women must master a flexible style of communication, espe-


cially when dealing with men. Babcock and Laschever (2003) offer sev-
eral strategies for women to ask for what they want in ways that
consider the relationship as well. It is important to remember that true
assertiveness involves putting one’s own needs, opinions, and desires
on a par with that of others. It does not mean putting oneself above
another person—that would be aggressive behavior—but it also does
not meaning putting one’s own needs, opinions, and desires below
another’s. Women who learn an assertive style and who accept the
necessity to negotiate to achieve their objectives can be successful, at
least in some organizational contexts (Tannen, 1994; Yoder, 2001).
Unlike male leaders, however, women leaders have to work hard to
find ways to balance authority and friendliness (Carli et al., 1995;
Friedman & Yorio, 2006; Heilman & Okimoto, 2007). Through verbal
(e.g., affiliative speech) and nonverbal (e.g., smiling) cues, women must
signal that they are sociable as well as competent. However, women
must be wary of expressing too much emotion in the workplace.
Because of gender-role stereotypes, ‘‘emotional’’ women are perceived
very negatively (Friedman & Yorio, 2006; Hale, 1999).
Simply understanding gendered communication styles may facilitate
workplace dynamics. As Tannen (1994) describes, unless women under-
stand that what appears to be hostile behavior by men (such as banter-
ing, playful put-downs, jockeying for dominance) is simply part of
men’s conversational rituals, women may become defensive and either
hostile or alienated. If men do not recognize that when women down-
play their own authority and avoid taking credit for their achievement
they are engaging in a female-style conversational ritual, men may
view women as less competent and accomplished than they are.
Certainly, recent years have seen an increasing number of women
climbing the career ladder, especially in middle management. And, as
studies by Eagly and her colleagues (2007; Eagly et al., 2003) have
shown, women typically are very effective leaders, managing in ways
that empower their subordinates and achieve the organization’s objec-
tives. Gender differences in actual communication and leadership
behaviors are slight, although expectations of gender differences are
strong. The situations that remain most problematic for women are the
ones in strongly male-dominated or culturally masculine organizations,
such as the military or high-status political offices, probably because
these conflict most with stereotypes of women. Eagly (2007) notes,
however, that favorable attitudes toward women as leaders have
increased in the last 50 years, and it may just be a matter of time before
the playing field levels out even more for women in the workplace.
Whether true gender equality or neutrality will be achieved remains to
be seen.
I appreciate Ashley Rieder’s research assistance for this chapter.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


28 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

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30 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

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© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Chapter 3

On Work-Life Balance:
In My Own Voice
Michelle Wildgrube

When I was initially approached to write this piece, I mentioned the


task to my 11-year-old daughter. She responded, ‘‘You can’t do that,
you don’t have the time.’’ I think her perception is right, but somehow
I keep trying to squeeze the most time out of every minute, every hour,
every day. I’m a wife, a mother, and an attorney. I have a great hus-
band and two wonderful girls, ages 8 and 11. I am a partner in a small
law firm in Niskayuna, New York. I have two law partners, both
women, and our law firm is an all-women firm. I enjoy all my roles—
mom, wife, and attorney—and I am constantly challenged to find bal-
ance in my life to make it work.
It’s not easy to be a mother and an attorney in private practice.
Some days, I wish I’d chosen a different profession, maybe one that’s
more family-friendly. Teaching or nursing might offer benefits to my
family, summers off or a flexible schedule, that law does not. In col-
lege, I remember being encouraged by my mother to carefully consider
my career choice and the effect it would have on my family. I also
remember thinking, ‘‘This is the ’80s, it’s different now.’’ I remember
thinking that times had changed since my mother graduated from col-
lege in the 1960s, and I was certain that life for women would be easier
by the time I had children. In college I minored in women’s studies,
and I knew that the research showed that more women than ever were
working outside the home. It appeared to be a logical conclusion that
my community would support my needs as a working woman. How-
ever, I completely underestimated the career that I was preparing to
undertake.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


32 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

I graduated from Rutgers College in the winter of 1988 and started


law school at the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Law
in the fall of 1989. At my law school, we had nearly equal numbers of
men and women; I thought that boded well for my future career. I met
my husband in law school, and we graduated together in 1992. After
law school I accepted a position in a small law firm. My goal as a young
attorney was to be a partner in the law firm—that seemed to be a rea-
sonable goal, and it was not an unusual one for a young attorney.
The firm culture dictated long hours for all attorneys—not just asso-
ciates, but partners as well. I was expected to be in the office early,
and leaving before 6:30 P.M. was frowned upon. In addition, I fre-
quently worked on Saturdays, which was also expected. The work
never stopped. Private practice is very different from government or
municipal practice, where the attorneys work a regular schedule, often
9 A.M. to 5 P.M. There are great benefits with such work, but I have to
say that I enjoy the networking of private practice, the ability to see cli-
ents and help them, and the opportunity to be involved with my com-
munity as part of my work.
In order to represent my clients well, I spent long hours learning the
intricacies of the law. I had learned much about the law and legal theo-
ries at law school; now I had to learn the process and the application
of the law. In addition, I was required by my firm to maintain a heavy
caseload to ensure that I would be profitable for the firm. There was
always pressure to bill the clients, and because I was new, not all of
my time could be billed because much of my time was spent learning
what experienced attorneys could rattle off from experience. Because of
the learning curve, I had to put in long hours in order to bill a reasona-
ble amount of time. These long hours were at the expense of my per-
sonal life. I gave up early mornings, early evenings, and weekends
with friends and family so that I could get in my billable hours.
My husband and I became engaged in March 1993. I remember
struggling to put together our wedding while I was working. The week
before the wedding, in October 1993, I requested an additional unpaid
day off to prepare for the wedding and visit with out-of-town guests.
My request was denied. I am certain that the concern was the loss of
billable hours and the precedent that such an absence might set for the
firm. I have to say that I’m still bitter about that; it’s a day I’ll never
get back. It’s one of the things that I think of now as I consider
requests from staff for days off.
A couple years after getting married, my husband and I began to
think about starting a family. I thought about the impact that preg-
nancy and childbirth might have on my work, but I assumed that I’d
be able to manage a young family. I had some concerns because I had
observed that it was not easy to be a pregnant associate attorney at the
firm. I had watched a coworker struggle to work the expected hours

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


On Work-Life Balance 33

while good-naturedly managing a high-risk pregnancy. This coworker


was also the first female associate in the firm to have a baby, which is
somewhat surprising, given the fact that the firm had been in existence
for more than 80 years.
Overall, it seemed to me that the firm was not supportive. I noticed
a change in attitude toward my coworker: She was no longer included
in discussions about long-term planning, and comments were made
about her working fewer hours. No concessions were made because of
her pregnancy, meetings were scheduled for her before and after work
hours, and she was expected to be at those meetings. Despite this, I
continued at the firm, hoping that my experience would be different,
hoping that ground had been broken by my coworker and that my
path would be easier.
In 1995, I became pregnant with our first daughter, Anna. When I
became pregnant, I decided to wait as long as possible before telling
the partners at my firm; after all, I didn’t want to suffer the same treat-
ment as the last pregnant attorney in the firm. Fortunately, my daugh-
ter and my body aided me in this endeavor, because I wasn’t big at
first. I also had the help of a friend who loaned me all her clothes,
which were just a little bigger than my clothes but were not maternity
clothes. To the outside world, it just looked as if I’d gotten a new
wardrobe. I waited and waited and waited to share my news while
continuing to pretend that it was business as usual. Finally, my
parents, who live in the same town and interacted with many of the
same people that the partners in the firm did, begged me to tell the
partners. At that point, I was nearly 6 months pregnant.
I continued to work until the day I went into labor, 7 days past my
due date, because I didn’t want to waste any valuable maternity leave
time without a baby. The last few weeks of my pregnancy were the
only time that any of the partners encouraged me to go home from
work at 5 P.M.; I think I made them nervous, hanging out, almost ready
to give birth. I took a 6-week maternity leave, followed by 1 week of
‘‘vacation’’ and 2 weeks of unpaid leave. Because the firm was small,
the Americans with Disabilities Act did not apply, so I was unable to
take any more leave. I also agreed, when I took the maternity leave,
that I would continue to work at the firm for a year after the maternity
leave ended, or else I would refund the firm the 6 weeks’ paid salary
I’d received while I was on leave.
When I returned from maternity leave, I found that it was challeng-
ing to be the working mother of an infant. I was nursing my daughter
all night and working as hard as I could all day. I hated getting to
work early and leaving late. I tried to curb my hours at work during
the week, and I hardly worked on weekends. I was stressed out a lot
of the time, either worrying about work or worrying about my family.
Before having children, another female attorney had told me that she

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


34 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

had days when she felt sure she was doing nothing well. I could now
understand the struggle and challenge involved in spending quality
time with my family and doing my job in a competent manner. There
were days when it seemed as if everyone was getting short shrift.
After my daughter turned 1 year old and my year-long obligation to
the firm was complete, I asked the partners if I could work part-time. I
wanted to spend more time with my daughter and my husband. I pro-
posed working 5 days a week until 3 P.M. I thought that would be a
good compromise—I’d be in the office for most of the day, and I could
spend time with my daughter in the late afternoon, avoiding (I hoped)
the evening rush of day care, dinner preparation, and bedtime routine.
My request was denied.
I started to consider my options. Unfortunately, at the time, which
was 1997, I didn’t know of any attorneys in private practice law firms
who worked part-time. The women who had the flexibility were solo
practitioners or worked for the government. I found it difficult to put
together a model of part-time private law practice, because there were
no local examples to observe. Although I struggled with the firm cul-
ture, I knew that I still wanted a career in private practice. I liked the
camaraderie with staff and clients, I liked being able to work with the
people in my community. So I started to network, seeking support for
my ideas. I hoped to work at a firm, because I appreciated the support
that a firm could offer and I liked private practice. I also wanted to
work with other attorneys because I saw the value of sharing ideas
and legal theories with other attorneys in the office; in addition, I
thought that a firm offered clients more options.
I shared my dream of part-time work with other attorneys with
whom I worked in the community. One of the people I talked to was
my friend, Deb Slezak, who was an associate at a small firm, Carpenter
& Cioffi, which was located close to my home. Deb suggested that I
talk to the partners at her office; she explained that there were a lot of
part-time employees at Carpenter & Cioffi.
At a luncheon in the spring of 1998, I had the opportunity to speak
with Cris Cioffi, and I mentioned that I was interested in a part-time
job. Cris explained that at the time, the office of Carpenter & Cioffi
didn’t have the physical space for another person. I waited. A year
later, Deb told me that the firm had expanded its office space and had
the space it needed to add another attorney. I called Cris Cioffi again,
and she invited me to the office to meet with her and her partner,
Howard Carpenter. By then, I was 8 months pregnant with my second
daughter, Zo€e. Cris and Howard asked me what I was looking for in a
job, and I said that I was looking to work part-time, 3 days a week. I
suggested Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays; my theory was that Fri-
day was a quieter day and people could excuse me for being out then.
By the time I got home after the interview, there was a message on my

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


On Work-Life Balance 35

phone machine from Howard, and when I called back, I was offered
the part-time job—my dream job.
When I gave notice that I would not be returning after my (second)
maternity leave because I’d been offered employment at Carpenter &
Cioffi, the firm asked me to consider staying and also offered me part-
time employment. The firm’s proposal was for me to work from 9 A.M.
to 4 P.M. every day, to be compensated at a reduced rate, and to take
an additional pay cut because I wouldn’t be maximizing the office
space. In effect, the firm was proposing to rent my office to me during
the work hours that I wasn’t there. I thought that was an outrageous
offer, and I declined it.
In the summer of 1999, after taking nearly 4 months for a maternity
leave (a glorious and memorable amount of time!), I started work at
Carpenter & Cioffi on a part-time basis. This was a launching point for
me, embarking on part-time work as an attorney and finally getting to
spend weekday time with my children.
There were immediate surprises and rewards in working part-time.
I found that I was more productive working on Mondays, Tuesdays,
and Thursdays instead of for a full week. I am a conscientious em-
ployee, and I would never have questioned my productivity while I
was working full time; after all, I work in a business in which we keep
track of all our hours and everything we do, billable and nonbillable. I
used to joke that before I worked at Carpenter & Cioffi, I wrote down
my hours when I blew my nose or went to the ladies’ room. So it was
a surprise that even though I was working at a firm that was a bit
more casual and relaxed, I was billing even more effectively.
One of the reasons for my increased effectiveness was that working
part-time created more deadlines. Because I am committed to returning
phone calls and getting tasks done in a timely manner, the days at
home created deadlines on a weekly basis. As a result, if I had a client
in on a Monday, I’d work to have an answer by Tuesday, because if I
didn’t, the client wouldn’t hear from me until Thursday, which, in my
opinion, was too long to wait. By completing tasks before my days off,
I ensured that my clients were happy and that it would be less likely
that my office would call me at home for emergencies.
I’m sure that it also helped that I was better rested, more relaxed, and
happier with my life than I’d ever been as a working mother. Because I
was a nursing mom, just knowing that I could sleep in on Wednesdays
and Fridays was a huge help. I was more focused and better able to con-
centrate at work. It is impossible to sustain a high level of intensity on a
constant basis, and working full-time dilutes this ability. Working part-
time, I could stay intensely focused for longer periods, because I had
regular day-long breaks from the practice of law. My clients also had
the benefit of the rest, because I could use my downtime on days off to
mentally work through some of their challenges.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


36 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

In addition, I was more effective because I was not distracted by


home tasks while I was at work. Working full-time, I had no choice
but to schedule doctor’s appointments, deal with child-care issues, and
generally plan my life during working hours—distractions that were
normal and not extreme, but distractions nonetheless. On the part-time
schedule, I took care of these matters on my days off, so I received
fewer workday interruptions. I remember a friend who had joked that
she needed to go to work to ‘‘take care of business,’’ meaning her
social life. As a part-time employee, those interruptions occurred infre-
quently, because I knew that within a couple of days I could take care
of those matters at home. Furthermore, I noticed that my attendance
at work was nearly perfect working part-time; I almost never missed
a day of work as a result of a child’s illness. My husband and I had
always divided the ‘‘sick duty,’’ and now that I was home 2 days a
week, my husband always picked up the other days if a child was sick.
For the mother of two young children, that was a great benefit to
my firm.
What about my clients? I did not publicize my part-time schedule. I
tried to make my part-time work as seamless as possible so that the cli-
ents weren’t inconvenienced or delayed because I worked part-time.
Many of my clients didn’t realize that I was working part-time because
I always returned calls and e-mails promptly. On my days off, the
receptionist would send the call to my assistant, who could take a
detailed message, give a status report, and answer basic questions. I
had the constant support of a great team at work, and I am convinced
that my part-time work would not have gone as well without that
team. As technology advanced, I was eventually able to check my e-mail
from home and work from home when necessary, just as if I were at my
desk in the office.
There was also a silver lining to the part-time schedule: I found that
I gained clients by working part-time. On my days off, I would have
lunch or get together for play dates with other moms, some who
worked part-time and some who stayed at home, and I found that
these moms were becoming my clients and referring clients to me. A
few years later, when I attended a seminar on building a law practice,
the speakers recommended regular golf outings and entertaining of cli-
ents and acquaintances at least 2 afternoons a week to build a practice.
It turned out that my part-time schedule facilitated this kind of net-
working with the moms of my community and ultimately worked to
benefit the firm.
I can’t say that the part-time schedule was always perfect. There
were some home days that I was on the phone for blocks of time,
working out the details of a real estate closing or a corporate contract.
I’d close myself in my home office and work, letting the kids watch a
little too much television or take longer naps. Once, when I was called

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


On Work-Life Balance 37

by a judge while my children were yelling for my attention, I walked


into the playroom while I was on the phone and silently put down
a box of cookies and slowly backed away, as if I were feeding the
lions at the zoo. I was able to have a full, 15-minute conversation with
no interruptions! Fortunately, that didn’t happen very often, and
for the most part I was able to spend time with my children on my
days off.
As my children grew older and entered school, I picked up more
hours at work. By the time both children were in elementary school, I
was working 2 full days and 3 half days. In 2004, when my daughters
were 8 and 5, I was asked to become a partner at the firm. At the time,
Cris Cioffi, Howard Carpenter, and Deb Slezak were partners, and
Howard Carpenter was changing his status to become ‘‘of counsel’’ to
the firm. Our new firm, Cioffi Slezak Wildgrube P.C., was 100%
woman-owned. Remarkably, I was a part-time partner working at
approximately 80% of a full-time attorney’s position. Part-time partner-
ship is almost unheard of in the legal community. I was thrilled that I
had made my goal of partnership, and it was even sweeter to be able
to do so while working part-time.
I currently work what the firm considers to be a 90% schedule: full
days on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays and until 2 P.M. on Wed-
nesdays and Fridays. I work additional hours in the evenings and occa-
sionally on weekends, but I always get the kids off the bus on
Wednesdays and Fridays, and I am grateful to be able to do that. My
children look forward to those afternoons; it is a time to catch up with
them and work on school projects. That time also allows me to get a
head start on household chores and to run errands with the kids.
I am lucky to have a lot of support, both at work and at home. The
teamwork at the office helps me ensure that my clients will have re-
sponsive, high-quality legal services. At home, I have the help of my
husband and parents to care for the children. My husband is truly a
partner with me in parenting, and he spends lots of time with the chil-
dren—carpooling, going to their lacrosse practices and games, working
with them on their homework, and just spending time with them. I
also have the wonderful support of my parents, who live about 5
minutes away from my house and take care of the children after school
when I’m working. It helps me to know that my children are spending
valuable time with their grandparents when I can’t be there. In addi-
tion, my parents are always happy to pick up extra time when I have
meetings that just can’t be moved or real estate closings that must take
place on a Wednesday or a Friday.
As a partner in my law firm, it is my goal to give my staff the same
opportunities that I have had at the firm. We have 12 employees, 5 of
whom work part-time, and 3 partners, 2 of whom work part-time. Our
firm has found that part-time staff work well in our framework; we are

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


38 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

lucky to have a staff of very talented women who appreciate the con-
cept of teamwork and who work together to provide excellent legal
services to our clients. Because we are amenable to part-time schedules,
we have been able to hire great people who want to work outside the
home but also spend time with their families. It’s not a compromise to
hire part-time employees, it’s good business.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Chapter 4

When the Boss Is a Woman


Joan Chrisler
Sarah K. Clapp

Images of women bosses in popular culture are rarely positive—think


of Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada, Sigourney Weaver in Working
Girl, Helen Mirren in Raising Helen, Demi Moore in Disclosure, and
Glenn Close in 101 Dalmatians. The most enduring cinematic and liter-
ary images show woman bosses as mean, if not outright evil, harridans
who seduce their male employees and belittle their women employees.
Women bosses are portrayed as envious of their woman employees’
potential, often stealing their ideas, taking credit for their successes,
and trying to block their advancement. A current advice book
(Friedman & Yorio, 2006) for women managers purports to show its
readers how to be ‘‘a good witch’’ rather than ‘‘a bad bitch.’’ Are witch
and bitch the only managerial types available to women?
For nearly 30 years, Joan Chrisler has given the students in her psy-
chology of women classes an assignment to survey their friends to find
out how many had ever worked for a woman boss, what the experience
was like, and how many would like to work for a woman (or work for
one again). In the early years, relatively few had worked for women, but
in recent years more than half the people the students surveyed have
done so; usually the women were small-business owners or mid-level
managers in larger companies. Women are somewhat more likely than
men to say that they would like to work for a woman in the future.
The students are often shocked by the comments that their friends
and relatives make about women bosses. For example, many more
comments are made about the physical appearance and emotional state
of female bosses than of male bosses. The women bosses seem to fit

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


40 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

one of two stereotypes: (a) the motherly type, who is warm, nurturing,
patient, and wants to befriend her employees, and (b) the ‘‘bitch on
wheels,’’ who has a bad attitude and is on a power trip, like the
women in the films mentioned above.
Women often say that the best thing about working for a woman is
that there are no concerns about sexual harassment; men often say that
the best thing is that they can ‘‘turn on the charm’’ and manipulate a
women boss into ‘‘cutting them some slack’’ on the job. Both men and
women prefer the motherly type of boss, although both often comment
that she is not an authority figure and doesn’t command the respect of
her employees. Over the years a common answer to the question of
whether people would like to work for a woman is ‘‘Of course, if she’s
competent.’’ However, women bosses must prove their competence to
skeptical subordinates, whereas the competence of male bosses is
assumed until proven otherwise.
In 2002, U.S. businesses employed approximately equal numbers of
women (46.5%) and men (53.5%), and women held approximately half
(50.5%) of management and specialty positions. Nearly half (46%) of
privately held businesses were owned by women, who, in recent years,
have been starting their own businesses at a higher rate than men have
(Catalyst, 2007). However, when we look at the higher echelons of
major societal institutions, we find far fewer women than the numbers
above might lead us to expect. Women make up 15.7% of corporate
officers and 13.6% of corporate boards of directors, according to Cata-
lyst, but they are only 2.6% of the CEOs of the 500 largest corporations
headquartered in the U.S. (‘‘The Fortune 500,’’ 2006). Women constitute
only 14% of the U.S. Senate, 15.6% of the U.S. House of Representa-
tives, 24.8% of state governors, and 1 of the 9 Supreme Court justices
(Center for the American Woman and Politics, 2006). Women are only
5% of the highest ranked officers in the U.S. military (U.S. Department
of Defense, 2006). It is still lonely at the top for women.
These statistics are ample evidence that women who aspire to lead-
ership positions must negotiate many barriers, and there is a consider-
able amount of research that describes how qualified women are
blocked on their way to the top of their fields. However, it is important
to look beyond this harsh reality to explore what happens to women
who do make it off the sticky floor and through the glass ceiling to
occupy positions of authority. In this chapter we focus on how women
leaders are perceived by their subordinates and what can be done to
increase the effectiveness of women leaders in uncongenial contexts.

PERCEPTIONS OF AND REQUIREMENTS FOR SUCCESSFUL


LEADERSHIP
Early psychosocial research on leadership is based on what has
become known as the ‘‘great man’’ theory, because researchers focused

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


When the Boss Is a Woman 41

on trying to understand how the personal characteristics of individual


great leaders (all of whom were men, of course) contributed to their
success (Chrisler, Herr, & Murstein, 1998). It was believed that leaders
were born, not made; thus only those ‘‘great’’ people who possessed
the required characteristics from youth would emerge as leaders
(Northouse, 1997). An implicit assumption underlying this theory is
that women cannot possibly be ‘‘great men’’ and thus are not ‘‘natural’’
leaders.
Leadership has traditionally been portrayed as a masculine
endeavor, and organizational positions that are high in power and
prestige are considered to be especially masculine (Carli & Eagly, 2001;
Heilman, Rivero, & Brett, 1991). A line of research (Brenner, Tomkie-
wicz, & Schein, 1989; Heilman, Block, Martell, & Simon, 1989; Powell &
Butterfield, 1979, 1989; Schein, 1973, 1975; Schein, Mueller, Lituchy, &
Liu, 1996; Willemsen, 2002) known as the ‘‘think manager, think-male’’
studies has consistently shown that people in North America, western
Europe, and east Asia believe that the characteristics of successful man-
agers more closely resemble those of typical men than those of typical
women, although recent data from the United States (Schein, 2001) and
Germany (Sczesny, 2003) show this pattern to be shifting, especially
among women. Traditional views of leadership exclude women as both
incapable of effective leadership and undesirable in leadership posi-
tions. Despite these persistent stereotypes of the masculine nature of
leadership, the characteristics recognized as relevant to successful lead-
ership include a mixture: some stereotypically associated with men
(e.g., self-confidence, determination) and some stereotypically associ-
ated with women (e.g., integrity, sociability) (Cann & Siegfried, 1990;
Chrisler et al., 1998).
Leadership, by definition, takes place in a group; therefore, the situa-
tion in which the group finds itself and the patterns of interactions
among the group members affect both who is perceived as a leader
and how that leader is evaluated by the followers (Chrisler et al.,
1998). It is now widely recognized that followers’ expectations and per-
ceptions affect the process of leadership, and so do many situational
elements (Hollander & Offermann, 1990). For example, one study
(Cann & Siegfried, 1990) showed that stereotypical feminine character-
istics are more highly valued in leaders by their subordinates, whereas
stereotypical masculine characteristics are more highly valued in lead-
ers by their superiors. The quality of the leader–follower relationship,
which greatly influences leadership success, has been shown to depend
on such factors as the perceived competence of the leader, the leader’s
motivation, the leader’s personality characteristics, and the personality
attributes of the leader’s followers (Hollander & Offermann, 1990).
Stereotypical masculine (e.g., agentic) and stereotypical feminine
(e.g., communal) traits and behaviors are valued in different situations
and by different individuals. Effective leadership behavior has been

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


42 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

shown to include both agentic and communal traits and behaviors,


which indicates that, despite the stereotypes, effective leadership is
actually androgynous. Thus, traditional conceptions of masculine
leadership ignore important dimensions that are used by successful
leaders.

ROLE INCONGRUITY
Gender-role stereotypes are so well known that they are easily and
automatically activated (Eagly, 2003). Therefore, if a woman occupies a
position that requires characteristics that women as a group are not
expected to have, she will typically receive a lower performance evalu-
ation than her male counterparts. When people encounter particular
women in positions that are not believed to be congruent with the abil-
ities and characteristics of women in general, they tend to devalue the
women’s work, attribute the women’s success to external factors rather
than to their competence, or dislike and reject the women when their
success cannot be attributed to external factors (Carli & Eagly, 2001).
Service-oriented, communal traits are valued in women and are a cen-
tral part of women’s prescriptive norms. Traits that are valued in men
and considered de rigueur for successful leaders (e.g., assertiveness,
toughness, ambition) conflict with women’s prescriptive behaviors
(Heilman, Wallen, Fuchs, & Tamkins, 2004). When women take on lead-
ership roles, especially roles that require more agentic or ‘‘masculine’’
characteristics, observers are forced to evaluate those women in their
conflicting roles as women and as leaders. That is, people have to work
harder when they think about their woman bosses because they have to
consider divergent sets of characteristics (those of women and those of
managers), whereas when people think about their male bosses, only
one set of characteristics comes into play because of the redundant
expectations (i.e., think manager, think male) (Eagly & Karau, 2002).
When people are in the minority of a group (e.g., the only woman man-
ager, the only Black manager), more attention is focused on the aspects
that cause them to stand out, and when token status is combined with
other feminine personal qualities or characteristics (e.g., pregnancy, a
short skirt, a low-cut blouse), it can be especially disadvantageous to
women leaders because it reminds observers of the role conflict between
gender and position. The more these roles seem to be in conflict, the
greater the prejudice a woman leader will face.
Society’s overall approval of agentic qualities in men and communal
qualities in women leads to a general approval of men and disapproval
of women in high-level leadership positions. Despite decades of behav-
ioral science research that shows that women and men are more alike
than different (Hyde, 2005), most people believe that men and women
should differ (Eagly & Karau, 2002). This belief can lead to social

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


When the Boss Is a Woman 43

penalties for women and men who behave in ways that are distinctly
counter to gender normative patterns, such as women who are not
skilled at comforting a friend in distress (Holmstrom, Burleson, &
Jones, 2005). Competent women are often depicted as cold and unde-
sirable group members, and successful woman managers have been
described as having much worse personalities (e.g., bitter, quarrelsome,
selfish, deceitful, devious) than successful male managers. Thus,
women who achieve career success are often seen not as neutral parties
but as hostile and counter-communal individuals (Heilman et al.,
2004)—much like the characters in the films mentioned above.
When women are not in violation of their gender role, there is a
tendency for people to react more favorably to women than to men
and to report that they like women better than men (Carli, 1999; Heil-
man et al., 2004). When women occupy leadership roles that are con-
sidered feminine—that are believed to require interpersonal skills, such
as the ability to get along well with others—they are often judged as
more effective than men in the same roles (Eagly, Karau, & Makhijani,
1995). This suggests that male bosses may also be subjected to gender
prejudice when they hold leadership positions that are judged to
require stereotypically feminine traits.

Gender Differences in Perceptions of Women Leaders


Management research has shown that employees are often reluctant to
have a woman supervisor (Lyness & Thompson, 1997); however, results
are mixed about whether men and women are equally reluctant. Heilman
et al. (2004) showed that women and men are equally biased in their rat-
ings of woman managers, and the ‘‘think manager, think male’’ studies
cited earlier have shown that people in North America, Europe, and Asia
agree that men are perceived to be more qualified as managers than
women are, although men report this perception more strongly than
women do. Male subordinates have been found to react more negatively
than woman subordinates to woman leaders, and men tend to favor com-
petent men over equally competent women, whereas women respond
similarly to equally competent candidates (Carli, 1999). Part of the reason
for this discrepancy could be that men are less likely than women to have
had a woman boss, and therefore they could be less likely than women
to see leadership as an androgynous role (Eagly & Karau, 2002).
Another potential reason for men’s greater prejudice against female
leaders lies in the threat that female leaders present to men’s status and
to their views of their own masculinity. One study (Sinclair & Kunda,
2000) showed that when a female superior gives a male subordinate a
negative evaluation, he is likely to see her as less competent than a simi-
larly critical male superior. Ratings of female managers and professors
plummeted when their subordinates received a poor performance review;

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


44 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

however, the subordinates did not display gender-role stereotypes or bias


when the performance review was favorable. A negative evaluation by a
female boss emphasizes the superior position and power she holds over
her male subordinates, who then prefer to consider her incompetent
rather than to take responsibility for their own poor performance. Men
often devalue a female leader’s competence by attributing her achieve-
ments to luck or effort (Lyness & Thompson, 1997) and by defaulting to
stereotypes of incompetence in ambiguous situations in which cognitive
distortion can easily occur (Heilman et al., 2004).
Carli (1999) showed that participants in a group setting expressed
more overt hostility toward a woman who disagreed with the group
than they did toward a man who disagreed. Carli’s work has shown
that male college students explicitly report feeling threatened by articu-
late, task-oriented women. Whereas men respond more favorably to
other men who are competent, confident, and self-promoting than they
do to those who are not. Women who display similar behavior patterns
are not liked as well as humble women. This experience suggests that
women might have to choose between being perceived as nice or as
competent, which could explain the two types of female bosses that
Joan Chrisler’s students routinely describe.
Although the evidence for women’s bias against female managers is
mixed, there is some data to suggest that female managers discrimi-
nate against their female subordinates in the same ways that male
managers do. For example, one survey (Rosener, 1990) indicates that
both male and woman bosses pay their woman employees roughly
$12,000 less than their male employees with similar positions and titles.
Thus, it seems that even though successful women have personally
experienced career barriers to advancement due to their gender, they
continue to hold stereotypical views of women in general and might
see themselves (and certain others) as simply exceptions to the rule.
On the other hand, gender-role stereotypes are so pervasive throughout
society that even women who recognize that they have suffered from
those stereotypes themselves have difficulty escaping their influence
when they make judgments about their subordinates.

POWER AND INFLUENCE DYNAMICS


The dynamics of power within an organization play a large role in
determining what types of leadership approaches will be most effective
for women and for men. Organizational power can be described as
power over (i.e., the ability to dominate subordinates), power to (i.e., the
empowerment of self and others), and power from (i.e., the ability to
resist the demands of others) (Hollander & Offermann, 1990).
Although high status implies all three types of power, the dynamics
of organizations can limit the way that women use the six classic

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


When the Boss Is a Woman 45

power bases defined by French and Raven (1959): (a) reward (the abil-
ity to provide positive outcomes), (b) coercion (the ability to provide
negative outcomes), (c) expertise (the possession of special knowledge
or skills that others do not have), (d) information (the ability to per-
suade by argument, such as giving good reasons for the requested
action), (e) referent (the ability to persuade by virtue of a personal rela-
tionship, e.g., ‘‘do it for me,’’ ‘‘we’re a team’’), and (f) legitimate (the
‘‘right’’ to influence by virtue of one’s position in a hierarchy).
For example, the ‘‘motherly type’’ so often described by Chrisler’s
students exerts her power through the reference, reward, and informa-
tion power bases. However, her expertise and legitimacy are often
questioned by her employees, who are also unlikely to believe her if
she threatens them with coercion. Because the typical male boss has
easier access to more of these power bases than the typical woman
boss does, he is more likely to exercise power directly, whereas she is
more likely to exercise it indirectly (Carli, 1999). Power exercised indi-
rectly is often effective in the short term, but if subordinates do not re-
alize that they have been influenced by their superior, they do not tend
to see their superior as an effective leader.

Follower Influences on Power


Differences between female and male leaders’ social influence and
choice of power strategies are influenced by the gender composition of
the group; by the leader’s competence, dominance, and communality;
and by the nature of the task (Carli, 2001). For example, Carli (1989)
showed that men tend to disagree more when they interact with other
men, whereas women tend to disagree more when they interact with
other women. This suggests that both men and women have a tend-
ency to match the behavioral expectations of those around them, which
results in less stereotypical behavior in pairs of women and in pairs of
men than in mixed pairs.
Butler and Geis (1990) used a one-way mirror to observe partici-
pants in a discussion group with trained confederates. Male and
female confederates who were assigned to play assertive roles were
equally likely to be perceived by the other group participants as lead-
ers. However, the researchers noticed that the participants smiled and
nodded more often in response to male leaders than to female leaders,
and the participants frowned more often when female leaders rather
than male leaders were speaking. These subtle but certain differences
in approval can enhance or reduce a leader’s confidence.

Men’s Greater Flexibility in Influence Strategies


College men report the use of a wider range of influence strategies,
especially direct strategies, than college women do (Gruber & White,

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


46 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

1986), and men tend to have more latitude than women do to lead in a
variety of masculine and feminine styles without experiencing negative
consequences in their evaluations by others (Pratch & Jacobowitz,
1996). For example, as noted above, women can find it more difficult to
exert influence through legitimate or expert means, especially early in
their careers. As they gain legitimate and expert power, they tend to
lose referent power, which can factor into the perception of women
bosses as either competent or nice.
Different situations require the use of different influence strategies.
Although men have access to more power bases than women do—
especially to legitimacy, expertise, and coercion—it should not be
assumed that men will rely more heavily on those methods of influ-
ence. Research has shown that dominance and coercion are less likely
to motivate subordinates than other more benevolent forms of power
are, unless the subordinates believe that they have something impor-
tant to gain; people generally dislike domineering individuals and
resist them whenever possible (Carli, 1999). Both women and men tend
to avoid direct disagreement and negative or aggressive influence strat-
egies. Although men do use these strategies more than women do,
most men prefer not to rely on them too often (Carli, 1999).
Although men often might prefer to use referent power, the fact that
they have access to all the power bases allows them greater flexibility
to function as leaders in any situation. This advantage results in a
greater variety of positive outcomes for men than for women, includ-
ing greater upward influence (Hollander & Offermann, 1990) and more
credit for leadership success, even when subordinates are disadvan-
taged by particular actions.

Power Versus Gender in Mediating Influence


There is evidence that gender differences in influence strategies are
determined by gender differences in power rather than by gender dif-
ferences in personality. Both women and men tend to use more
direct, assertive forms of influence when they feel more powerful
(Carli, 1999). Ragins (1991) found that subordinates’ ratings of a lead-
er’s power accounted for a greater proportion of the variance than
the gender of the leaders did. This is an important result, because it
suggests that simple interventions could lead to better evaluations
of women bosses. Hogue, Yoder, and Ludwig (2002) showed that
(at least in the laboratory) ratings of the performance of women lead-
ers are higher when a reason that she is the leader is provided;
explanations stressed the leader’s expertise and conferred legitimacy
on her. In this way the researchers expanded the power bases that
were available and provided the possibility of greater flexibility in
leadership strategies.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


When the Boss Is a Woman 47

HOW WOMEN BOSSES MEASURE UP


The substantial amount of research that has been conducted on dif-
ferences between female and male leaders shows more similarities
than differences between them (Eagly, 2007; Hyde, 2005). An important
meta-analysis by Eagly and colleagues (1995) showed that women and
men do not differ overall in leadership effectiveness, except perhaps in
circumstances in which the leadership is male-dominated and the sub-
ordinates are all men. Some recent data (Pratch & Jacobowitz, 1996;
Sharpe, 2000) suggest that women make more effective leaders than
men do, and this might reflect a cultural shift in how people think
about leadership. Management texts and the popular press have begun
to define good leaders as more like coaches or teachers than authoritar-
ian bosses who issue orders to their subordinates, and this new image
is more compatible with the feminine gender role than the traditional
image is. Nevertheless, social science research and opinion polls still
show that people prefer male bosses (Eagly, 2007).
A trend in leadership research is the relationship between gender
and level of leadership. Men are seen as more effective in the higher
echelon (i.e., first-level positions), whereas women are seen as more
effective in middle management. One reason for women’s increased
effectiveness in middle-management positions might be that these posi-
tions are thought to require especially good human relations; middle
managers must deal effectively with both subordinates and superiors,
and they need coaching and teaching skills in order to motivate and
develop their subordinates. Research and popular culture suggest that
women, on the average, are socially skilled, and therefore they would
have an advantage in middle management (Eagly et al., 1995). These
beliefs fit well with the motherly type of boss described by Chrisler’s
students; the bitchy harridans portrayed in films inhabit the upper ech-
elon of their respective hierarchies.

Ambition
Ambition is a central aspect of the American dream, as codified in
Horatio Alger’s popular series of 19th-century novels. In fact, his her-
oes (e.g., Ragged Dick, Tattered Tom, Paul the Peddler) had little to
sustain them, yet their drive to succeed eventually made them both
rich and successful. Generations of American boys were encouraged to
emulate Alger’s characters, and to describe a man as ambitious is con-
sidered a compliment. However, the word ambitious applied to women
is at best ambivalent. The word is often said in an acid tone that clearly
suggests disapproval of a woman who has overreached.
Today’s girls, unlike those of the 19th century, are encouraged to de-
velop their talents and to set goals for themselves. They have no

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


48 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

difficulty competing with other girls in the classroom or on the playing


field, and more women than men are currently enrolled in American
colleges and graduate schools to prepare for future careers. Yet to
achieve success in the highest echelon requires a single-minded pursuit
of one’s goals, or at least the willingness to give a high priority to the
pursuit of one’s goals, and this does not comport with the traditional
feminine gender role, which requires a woman to support others and
to place others’ needs before her own.
Approval of women who pursue their own goals comes ‘‘only if
they have first satisfied the needs of all of their family members.’’ This
social requirement can lead women to scale back their careers or to
leave the workforce when their children are young, only to show their
true ambition later in life. Women who do not have families or who
appear to others to neglect their families often find that their ‘‘ambi-
tions as well as their femininity will be called into question’’ (Fels,
2004, p. 58).
In order to reach one’s goals, it is necessary on occasion to ‘‘toot
one’s own horn’’ to let others know of one’s talents and achievements.
It is much easier for men than for women to do this, for boasting is a
masculine activity that is considered impolite when women do it. Yet
if women do not bring their accomplishments to their superiors’ atten-
tion, their work will be overlooked when it is time to award raises or
promotions. The ‘‘feminine modesty effect’’ (Berg, Stephan, & Dodson,
1981; Gould & Slone, 1982) is a form of causal attribution that some
women use to explain their successes and failures. Two researchers
(Crittenden & Wiley, 1980, 1985; Wiley & Crittenden, 1992) have dem-
onstrated this effect and people’s reactions to it in several studies of
faculty attribution patterns concerning their productivity. Their results
clearly indicate that modest accounts of publication success (e.g., ‘‘I
was lucky that my manuscript was sent to helpful reviewers’’)
enhanced femininity but decreased professionalism in the eyes of col-
leagues. Similarly, self-serving accounts of publication failure (e.g.,
‘‘My manuscript was sent to incompetent reviewers’’) decreased femi-
ninity but enhanced professionalism in the eyes of colleagues.
Therefore, women, but not men, must choose between their gender
and their professional role when talking about their work to colleagues.
Once again, we can see this as a decision that determines whether
women are viewed as competent or as nice, and, whichever presenta-
tion style women choose, they risk rejection by some of their col-
leagues. Furthermore, the women who showed the ‘‘modesty effect’’ in
discussing their failures (i.e., blamed themselves rather than the
reviewers or editor) were less likely to make attempts to publish their
work elsewhere (Crittenden & Wiley, 1980). Thus, they preserved their
modesty, or humility, but decreased their motivation, self-confidence,
and chances for career success.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


When the Boss Is a Woman 49

Because women receive less support than men do in pursuing their


goals, women are more likely than men to question whether their goals
are rewarding enough to be worth the effort that is necessary to
achieve them. The personal and social recognition that ambitious
women receive for their accomplishments is quantitatively poorer,
qualitatively more ambivalent, and less predictable than the recognition
that ambitious men receive (Fels, 2004). Social sanctions and animosity,
in addition to lack of reinforcement, can cause women to abandon their
ambitions. This dynamic can limit some women to positions in middle
management, where they work to maintain the status quo rather than
developing new ideas and innovative directions for an organization. It
can lead other women to drop out of unrewarding organizations and
start their own businesses.

Transactional Versus Transformational Leadership


Men are more likely than women to describe themselves as exhibit-
ing behaviors that characterize transactional leadership, the belief that
job performance is a series of transactions with subordinates in which
rewards are exchanged for good performance and punishments for
poor performance. Research on transactional leadership suggests that
offering rewards (e.g., pay increases, bonuses) motivates people to earn
the reward but not to perform well over time (Herzberg, 2003).
Women are more likely than men to describe themselves as enacting
transformational leadership (Eagly & Johannsen-Schmidt, 2001; Eagly,
Johannsen-Schmidt, & van Eagen, 2003; Pratch & Jacobowitz, 1996), the
belief that a leader should encourage subordinates’ good performance
by encouraging them to transform their own self-interest by ‘‘buying
into’’ the group’s goal. Transformational leadership includes such com-
ponents as vision, role modeling, intellectual stimulation, meaning-
making, appeals to higher order needs, empowerment, the setting of
high expectations, and the fostering of collective identity (Yoder, 2001).
When women do use their organizational power in a transactional
way, they often do so in order to help their subordinates. Research
(Eagly et al., 2003) has shown that women are more likely than men to
deliver rewards to subordinates for good performance, which is a pre-
dictor of effective leadership.
Transformational leadership can be equally effective for women and
men in the right contexts; it is most appropriate during the birth,
growth, or revitalization of an organization (Yoder, 2001). Although
men have reported using transformational leadership somewhat less
often than women have, a recent meta-analysis (Eagly et al., 2003) has
shown this difference overall to be small, and it is possible that the
participants in these studies over-reported leadership behaviors that
align with prescriptive gender behaviors. For example, Eagly and

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


50 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

colleagues (1995) found that both women and men tend to emphasize
task accomplishment when they occupy a gender-congruent leadership
role in which most of their subordinates are of the same gender. The
small gender difference in transactional versus transformational leader-
ship style might be due to the fact that male bosses are more often
found in gender-congruent positions, and female bosses are more often
found in gender-incongruent positions, because most leadership posi-
tions are still considered to be masculine roles.

Participative Leadership
In follow-up interviews with respondents in a survey of leaders that
was conducted by the Independent Women’s Forum, Rosener (1990)
asked women who had characterized themselves as transformational
leaders how they thought their style differed from traditional mascu-
line conceptions of leadership. Rosener labeled these women’s style
‘‘interactive’’ or ‘‘participative’’ leadership, in which the women en-
courage participation in decision making, share power and informa-
tion, and enhance others’ self-worth. Rosener’s respondents generally
agreed that people perform best when they feel good about themselves
and their work, and her respondents said that they try to create an
environment conducive to this dynamic. Research has shown that a
supportive social environment, increased responsibility and participa-
tion, and the perception that one’s work is valued all increase workers’
motivation (Katzell & Thompson, 1990).
Successful leadership depends in part on reciprocity and the poten-
tial for two-way influence and power sharing (Hollander & Offermann,
1990). The women interviewed by Rosener (1990) reported that they try
to make their subordinates feel involved with the organization
by allowing them to have a say in nearly all aspects of their work and by
providing them with the information that is necessary to understand
and participate fully in the goals of the organization. Such participation
increases support for managerial decisions and increases employees’
motivation. When employees believe that the boss trusts them and
wants their input, it increases loyalty and information flow in both
directions. Subordinates readily communicate new ideas, and they let
the boss know when there are problems. Furthermore, the delegation
of some decision making to subordinates is associated with better em-
ployee performance (Hollander & Offermann, 1990).
Although participative leadership has clear advantages, there are also
potential disadvantages. The women interviewed by Rosener (1990)
acknowledged that their efforts to include everyone in decision making
could be seen as merely symbolic if the boss decides not to take the
employees’ advice. It takes time to solicit input from employees, and
giving up some power and control by delegating responsibility can leave

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When the Boss Is a Woman 51

a leader vulnerable to gender-stereotyped criticism. Subordinates might


view a female boss as less competent (e.g., as lacking her own ideas) if
she regularly seeks input from others. Because information is a source of
power and status, female bosses who openly communicate with subordi-
nates can be seen as na€ıve or as constantly seeking approval from
others. Finally, the enthusiasm that is characteristic of these female lead-
ers can sometimes be misinterpreted by employees as ‘‘cheerleading,’’
which can undermine their credibility.
Successful leaders must be able to use a variety of leadership behav-
iors, depending on the requirements of the situation (Goleman, 2004);
however, there are a number of reasons that women particularly like
the participative style. Women have traditionally been denied legiti-
mate power, and thus many female bosses learned early in their
careers to lead without formal authority. Even when they do possess
organizational power, such as in middle-management positions,
women must try to influence their male superiors as well as their male
subordinates; thus they might refrain from asserting their own superi-
ority or ‘‘pulling rank.’’ Male CEOs have said that they like to hire
woman managers in part because they are ‘‘less turf-conscious’’ than
men are and ‘‘seek less personal glory’’ than men do (Sharpe, 2000).
Women have been socialized from an early age to be cooperative, sen-
sitive, supportive, and vulnerable, whereas men have been socialized
to be competitive, strong, decisive, and in control (Rosener, 1990).
Thus, the qualities of participative leadership correspond more closely
with the feminine than with the masculine gender role, and this
increases the likelihood that women will be participative leaders.

Female-Friendly Organizations
Although women might have an advantage in participative leader-
ship, Rosener (1990) pointed out that this style works well only in
organizations that are willing to accept it. Only one of the women she
interviewed worked in an established, major corporation; all the others
worked in medium-size, fast-growing, and fast-changing companies.
Such companies tend to employ large percentages of educated profes-
sionals who want to be involved and challenged and who might have
specialized knowledge that their bosses do not share. This type of
organizational environment requires collaboration between superiors
and subordinates so that the company can utilize the full potential of
all the workers. Fast-changing companies emphasize performance
above all else, and they require flexible and innovative leaders. Being
part of an ‘‘old boys’’’ network is often irrelevant in those workplaces.
Women who want to be participative leaders will find it more diffi-
cult to deviate from traditional leadership styles when they work in
hierarchical, traditionally masculine organizations, such as investment

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52 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

banking or the military. Participative behaviors such as information


sharing could be detrimental to female leaders in such organizations.
Furthermore, any leadership style that is unconventional will probably
be rejected, especially if it is associated with women and thus can be
derided as too feminine.
The meta-analysis by Eagly and colleagues (1995) showed a weak
tendency for several types of organizations (e.g., education, government,
social sciences) to be places where female leaders are judged more effec-
tive than male leaders. The characteristics of organizations that tend to
be more favorable to women include flexibility for on-the-job training,
closer leader-follower interactions, and smaller work teams, which allow
for the development of deeper, more trusting relationships among
employees (Yoder, 2001).

Shifting Organizational Environments and Conceptions of


Leadership
The tendency to define leadership and management in masculine
terms has begun to weaken (Eagly, 2007), and many organizations are
now promoting styles of management that are less autocratic and more
participative (Eagly et al., 1995); such changes should be more favorable
to female bosses. In the past few decades, globalization has been shifting
the nature of the western nations’ economies and, consequently, the
nature of various organizations. Only about 20% of the workforce in the
developed nations is involved in industrial pursuits (i.e., manufacturing
and transporting things); the chief economic activity now is knowledge
and service work (Drucker, 1991). As the workforce becomes better edu-
cated, managers will be dealing with employees who have specialized
knowledge and skills and who insist on utilizing their potential. Thus,
contemporary businesses must deal with the challenge of globalization
and the need to empower their employees in a less stable and secure
environment (Yoder, 2001); this increases their need for flexible, transfor-
mational, and participative managers.
The shift away from traditional conceptions of leadership requires the
willingness of leaders to empower their followers and to pay closer
attention to group effort and team spirit (Hollander & Offermann, 1990).
Because of the pervasive belief, in traditional masculine organizations,
that empowering others means losing power oneself, men might have a
more difficult time than women in shifting to this new focus. Women,
many of whom have learned to lead without formal authority, could
more easily adjust to these organizational trends, and some woman lead-
ers might even be more comfortable operating this way.
The shift to follower-focused leadership requires emotional intelli-
gence, which includes an awareness of one’s own and others’ emo-
tional states, emotional self-regulation, empathy, and social skills. One

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When the Boss Is a Woman 53

study (Goleman, 2004) showed that 90% of the difference between star
performers and average performers in senior management positions
could be attributed to emotional intelligence rather than to cognitive
abilities. Men in the United States are socialized to view most emotions
as unacceptable and unmasculine (Kilmartin, 2007). Therefore, many
men are not good at understanding their own emotions (let alone those
of others), which makes critical components of emotional intelligence
(e.g., self-awareness, empathy) difficult for them. Women, on the other
hand, have been socialized to pay close attention to emotions, both
their own and others’, which gives them more opportunities to develop
and practice the components of emotional intelligence.

PROBLEMS UNIQUE TO FEMALE LEADERS


A number of career problems are unique to female leaders. For
example, women often lack mentors, and they tend to be excluded
from informal communication networks such as ‘‘old boys’ clubs’’
(Chrisler, 1998; Sharpe, 2000). Women at the highest executive levels
report a less comfortable ‘‘cultural fit’’ and less organizational support
than do men and lower-status women, and they are less satisfied than
others are with their income and future advancement prospects. When
matched with men in the same position, female managers have been
found to have less authority (e.g., to supervise fewer subordinates) and
fewer career-broadening opportunities (e.g., overseas assignments)
(Lyness & Thompson, 1997). Despite the well-established ‘‘personal-
group discrimination discrepancy’’ (Crosby, 1984; Taylor, Ruggiero, &
Louis, 1996)—in which women acknowledge gender discrimination in
general but deny that they themselves have been affected by it—female
executives often report that their career development has resulted more
from overcoming obstacles (e.g., lack of organizational support) than
from succeeding at challenging opportunities (Lyness & Thompson,
1997). Three other problems that provide unique challenges for women
are balancing work and family, tokenism and preferential selection,
and sexual harassment.

Balancing Work and Family


Men who dedicate themselves to high-powered careers often have a
spouse who takes care of the children, manages the household, and
entertains business associates. A woman rarely has a spouse who has
the time and/or willingness to do these things for her; consequently,
she has more roles to balance as her career advances. In a study of
managers who worked long hours, Brett and Stroh (2003) found that
all the managers juggled a variety of roles and reported that their
spouses facilitated their ability to do so. Most of the male managers

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


54 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

had wives who were not employed outside the home; the smaller num-
ber of female managers had both paid (female) help and husbands
who took substantial responsibility for child care. Women who lack the
financial and social resources of Brett and Stroh’s participants are
unlikely to reach high management levels, and most woman managers
cope with greater amounts of stress and role conflict than men, as well
as with the sometimes hostile disapproval of coworkers who think that
the women are letting their families down.
Female executives are less likely than male managers to be married
and to have children (Lyness & Thompson, 1997). Although senior-
level men and women both stressed the need to work long hours and
to put work ahead of family in order to succeed in certain careers,
women, but not men, often believe that they must sacrifice family life
altogether if they want to pursue careers that have been structured for
men with stay-at-home wives (Fels, 2004). Woman managers who do
have children report doing significantly more hours of child care and
housework than their male peers do; however, these women and men
still devote a similar number of hours to their careers (Lyness &
Thompson, 1997).
These women must take care not to let the stresses of the work–family
juggling act show on the job; any tense exchanges or episodes of
shortness of temper could cause their subordinates to move them from
the ‘‘motherly type’’ to the ‘‘bitch on wheels’’ boss category. Social psy-
chology research has shown that the terms feminist and career woman
are ‘‘synonymous with derogatory stereotypes of women who are not
nice and not feminine enough’’ (Goodwin & Fiske, 2001, p. 361).

Tokenism and Preferential Selection


Tokenism refers to the effects of only a small proportion (at most
15%) of some category of people (e.g., women, African Americans)
within an organization or job category. When women make up such a
small proportion of an organization (e.g., the military) or a job category
(e.g., senior management), gender-role stereotypes become more salient
to other members of the organization, and women encounter more
obstacles, such as exclusion from information networks, lack of recog-
nition for their achievements (Lyness & Thompson, 1997), heightened
visibility and resultant performance pressures (Yoder, 2001), and social
isolation (Biernat, Crandall, Young, Kobrynowicz, & Halpin, 1998;
Yoder, 2001).
In addition, when women constitute a token percentage of a group,
men tend to exaggerate the women’s differences from themselves by
engaging in actions and conversations (e.g., telling sexual or sexist
jokes) that emphasize those differences and exclude women in ways
that do not occur when the number of women in the group is larger

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When the Boss Is a Woman 55

(Lyness & Thompson, 1997). One study (Sackett, DuBois, & Noe, 1991)
showed that women’s performance was rated lower than men’s when
women made up less than 20% of a group, whereas women’s perform-
ance was rated higher than men’s when the percentage of women was
above 50%. Thus, negative stereotypes of women seem to decrease as
the percentage of women in a group or a job category increases. Token-
ism can have negative effects on the way that the tokens perceive
themselves as well as on the ways that they are perceived by others.
The increased attention to and salience of tokens tends to result in an
increased self-focus on the part of the token, which leads to anxiety
and to unrealistic self-expectations of perfect behavior on the job
(Biernat et al., 1998).
Token women are particularly vulnerable to the perception that they
were preferentially selected for their positions on the basis of their gen-
der, which can cause subordinates to doubt a woman’s competence
and to treat her disrespectfully. Rumors about reasons other than merit
for a woman’s hiring or promotion can lead the woman herself to
doubt her competence, devalue her own accomplishments and capabil-
ities, shake her confidence, and lower her motivation to succeed in her
leadership role (Heilman et al., 1991). Unlike women’s competence,
which is often in doubt until proven, a man’s competence is usually
assumed until disproved, even in cases in which reasons other than
merit are believed to account for his hiring (e.g., he’s the CEO’s son-in-
law). When people are unsure of their abilities, they tend to choose
assignments that are easily within their reach (Bandura, 1977); thus,
women managers whose self-confidence has been shaken by fear of
preferential selection might play it safe and not seek out challenging
opportunities in which they can show the true extent of their abilities
(Heilman et al., 1991).

Sexual Harassment
Sexual harassment is generally defined in two categories: quid pro
quo harassment, in which sexual conduct is required to receive or to
keep a job, a promotion, or job-related benefits; and hostile environ-
ment harassment, in which unwelcome sexual conduct interferes with
an individual’s job performance and creates a hostile, offensive work
environment. Most researchers have focused on women as the victims
of sexual harassment and have assumed that such harassment can
occur only if the offender has formal power over or higher status than
the victim (McKinney, 1992). The very definition of quid pro quo har-
assment is based on a superior harassing a subordinate, for subordi-
nates generally do not possess the organizational power to make
sexual conduct a condition of a superior’s employment. However, any-
one can create a hostile environment, and people in positions of

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


56 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

authority can be subjected to harassment by those with less organiza-


tional power (Grauerholz, 1989). This has been labeled contrapower har-
assment (DeSouza & Fansler, 2003: McKinney, 1992), and it can be a
serious problem for woman leaders.
Contrapower sexual harassment has been studied primarily in univer-
sity settings, where the victims are faculty and the perpetrators are stu-
dents. For example, one study (Grauerholz, 1989) showed that nearly
half (47.6%) of the female faculty that was surveyed reported that they
had experienced at least one of the sexually harassing behaviors on the
list, and more than half (59.1%) of those reported that they had experi-
enced two or more of the behaviors. DeSouza and Fansler (2003) showed
that more than half of the faculty members that they surveyed had expe-
rienced sexually harassing behavior from students within the past 2
years. These surveys typically inquire about the following behaviors:
sexist verbal comments, sexual comments written on course evaluations,
obscene phone calls believed to be from students, physical advances,
uninvited sexual looks or other body language, sexual bribery, and
sexual assault. The most commonly reported contrapower harassment
consisted of verbal and written sexist and sexual comments and inap-
propriate body language (Grauerholz, 1989; McKinney, 1992).
In most societies, men as a group are ascribed more social status
and power than women are, and it is the abuse of power on the basis
of one’s status as a man that forms the basis of contrapower sexual
harassment between subordinate men and their female superiors
(Grauerholz, 1989). Contrapower harassment is often an attempt on the
part of a male subordinate to reassert the dominance he expects to
have based on his status as a male. Women who hold positions of
authority in traditionally male-dominated workplaces can be especially
vulnerable (DeSouza & Fansler, 2003), for they represent a threat to
men who support traditional gender roles. Harassment of women man-
agers, faculty, military officers, and other women of high status is an
attempt to undermine their authority and to remind them that they are
‘‘merely’’ women and, hence, gender objects. Sometimes subordinates
direct hostility toward female leaders in anonymous ways, such as
comments on evaluations or defacement of her property, to avoid the
consequences of harassing a superior.
Research shows that victims of contrapower harassment, like those
of other forms of sexual harassment, are hesitant to report the harass-
ment because they fear repercussions, such as rumors, poor perform-
ance evaluations, loss of respect, and even physical assault. Studies
(Clapp, 2007; Grauerholz, 1989) have shown that woman faculty and
military officers most often report ‘‘doing nothing’’ or trying to take
care of the problem themselves (e.g., by avoiding or confronting the
perpetrator) because they feared the repercussions if the harassment
became known to others. Some women choose to cope with the

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When the Boss Is a Woman 57

harassment by defining it as ignorance, stupidity, or awkwardness on


the part of the harasser (Grauerholz, 1989). Thus, contrapower harass-
ment is rarely reported to formal authorities (McKinney, 1992), and
women at the top of organizations might not even have anyone to
whom to report it.
Although both women and men can be victims of contrapower har-
assment, women are more likely than men to describe the experience
as threatening, inappropriate, and distressing (DeSouza & Fansler,
2003). A male subordinate’s harassment of a female superior can realis-
tically be perceived by her as a threat (both physically and psychologi-
cally), but a female subordinate’s harassment of a male superior is
unlikely to be viewed by him as any type of threat. A typical female
subordinate has no power base from which to work, either through
gender status or legitimate position, and thus male superiors have no
reason to feel threatened by her. Furthermore, men have been social-
ized to believe that they should always want, need, and be ready for
sexual opportunities (Kilmartin, 2007), and they have been told that
they should view sexual advances from women as confirmation of their
masculinity. Thus, they often respond to suggestive behavior from
female subordinates with bemusement or a mixture of pride and
embarrassment; they are unlikely to see it as reducing their authority
in any way.

WHAT CAN BE DONE TO EMPOWER WOMAN BOSSES


The strategies that women and men use to lead effectively depend
on the situational context in which they will be leading and are influ-
enced by group composition, the nature of the task, whether task
performance is valued above all else, the availability of resources,
leader–follower relations, and available power bases (Hollander &
Offermann, 1990; Yoder, 2001). Women might find themselves in either
favorable or unfavorable contexts, and what they must do to maximize
their effectiveness depends on whether the situation is stereotypically
masculine (i.e., unfavorable for women) or one that approves of trans-
formational leadership (i.e., favorable for women). Yoder suggested
three categories of interventions that can be used effectively for women
to minimize the negative impact of masculine leadership contexts:
things that women can do, things that organizations can do, and ways
in which the context itself can be changed.

What Woman Bosses Themselves Can Do


Stereotypically masculine settings are generally male-dominated,
task-oriented, and emphasize hierarchy and ‘‘power over’’ more than
egalitarianism and ‘‘power to.’’ In such settings women must attempt

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


58 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

to enhance their own status and to minimize status differentials (Yoder,


2001). Women bosses can enhance their status by the successful com-
pletion of tasks, by rewarding (with compliments, challenges, and
bonuses) employees who perform well, and by showing that they have
the confidence of their own bosses or boards of directors. Women
bosses can minimize status differentials by treating their subordinates
with respect, by talking and listening regularly to their subordinates,
by avoiding dominant speech acts (e.g., commands), and by displaying
a sense of humor (Troemel-Ploetz, 1994; Yoder, 2001).
New group members can build credit for leadership by initially con-
forming to group procedures (e.g., ‘‘the way we do things’’), which
shows loyalty to and trust in the group (Hollander & Offermann,
1990). If a woman boss is hired from outside the company or depart-
ment she is going to manage, she should initially conform to the
group’s expectations and values, and she should not try to change too
much too soon. Initial conformity can form a basis for the use of refer-
ent power and provide her with more ‘‘credit’’ that can be used later
to introduce new ideas and exhibit nonconformist behavior.
Women who are extraordinarily competent compared to other mem-
bers of the group are more influential than women who are less or
equally as competent as other group members (and especially other
male leaders). Research (Brett & Stroh, 2003; Carli, 1999) has shown
that women are held to a higher standard of performance than men
are, and they must outperform men to be considered equal (as the say-
ing goes, like Ginger Rogers, who did everything Fred Astaire did,
except backwards and in high heels). These women stars will be
respected but might not be liked.
Both extraordinary and ordinary women can increase their influence
and their acceptance by the group if they also display personal warmth
(Carli, 1999), such as by smiling, complimenting others, sharing credit
for success, and remembering details about their subordinates’ per-
sonal lives. Although men who are agentic are often rated higher than
women who do so, women who exhibit both agentic and communal
traits are considered as hirable as their male counterparts (Carli &
Eagly, 2001). This is an important point: Women bosses can ‘‘get away
with’’ behaving in the stereotypically masculine manner that is
expected in many organizational contexts as long as they temper that
behavior with an obvious dose of warmth and communality.

What Organizations Can Do


Women bosses in stereotypically masculine organizations will be
more effective if they receive organizational support. This support
should be demonstrated from the start. A woman leader should be
introduced by her superiors (or hiring committee) in terms that make it

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When the Boss Is a Woman 59

clear that the organization values the woman’s experience and exper-
tise and has confidence in her abilities (Hogue et al., 2002). The
announcement of a new leader’s hiring or promotion should contain a
summary of that person’s credentials and accomplishments, so that a
woman in that position will not have to run the risk of being deni-
grated for bragging if she shares that information herself. Future
accomplishments could be announced in e-mail messages or in news-
letters prepared by the human resources department so that everyone
is aware that the boss (as well as her subordinates) is productive and
deserving of respect.
Organizations can help women leaders to succeed by providing
them with the support and resources they need to do their jobs effec-
tively, for the power of a leadership role can be enhanced or dimin-
ished by the resources that are available to the leader. This is related to
the finding that women’s influence is enhanced when men are placed
in situations in which they can benefit from her competence (Carli,
1999, 2001). The more resources a woman has that can be used in the
form of reward power, the more motivation her subordinates have to
view her positively.
Organizations must develop and enforce clear policies about gender
equality to create a climate that is favorable to women at all levels of
the organization. Furthermore, these policies should be integrated into
employee training. For example, information about contrapower har-
assment should be presented in anti–sexual harassment training. Social
psychology research (Goodwin & Fiske, 2001) shows that when people
are specifically ‘‘instructed to be as accurate as possible’’ in rating job
applicants or evaluating their managers or employees, ‘‘they can and
do provide less stereotypic[al] impressions’’ than they would otherwise
(p. 365).
Thus, training for managers and hiring committees should include
these instructions, and objective measurements (e.g., rating scales) that
also include these instructions should be utilized at all levels of an or-
ganization. It has often been noted that the highest echelon of leader-
ship in any organization sets the tone for the entire organization and
creates the climate that pervades it. If the leaders at the top set an
example of valuing and respecting female and male employees equally,
their views will have a positive effect on the dynamics of the organiza-
tion at all levels.

Changes in the Leadership Context


Often the context of leadership itself must change for female leaders
to be as effective as their male counterparts. Contexts especially unfav-
orable to women include groups composed of 85% or more men
(in which women can experience the effects of tokenism), situations in

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60 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

which task accomplishment is the only valued outcome, short-term


groups that do not get to know each other well, and groups that do
not require complex social interactions (Yoder, 2001). Research (Collins,
1998; Tolbert, Simons, Andrews, & Rhee, 1995) suggests that groups
must reach the level of 35%–40% women before the effects of tokenism
are completely negated, at least in academic settings. Thus, increasing
the percentage of women in male-dominated groups is one important
way to make the context more favorable for women.
Although it is not desirable to shift value entirely away from task
accomplishment, other outcomes such as unit cohesiveness, employee
satisfaction, and personal growth can also be considered when leaders’
(or potential leaders’) performance is evaluated. These accomplish-
ments tend to be related to skills that are utilized by transformational
and participative leaders, so increasing their importance makes the
leadership context more favorable to women. Social psychologists such
as Fiske and Neuberg (1990) have shown that interdependence
decreases stereotyping because people know more about the individu-
als with whom they work closely and want to have accurate and posi-
tive evaluations of them. Therefore, stressing the importance of
teamwork and interdependence can be helpful in reducing stereotypic
evaluations of woman bosses by their subordinates and by their superi-
ors, especially if the superiors are reminded that their own productiv-
ity outcomes depend in part on the success of woman middle
managers (Goodwin & Fiske, 2001).
Woman leaders should be aware of whether particular contexts are
likely to be more or less favorable to them so that they can pursue
opportunities at organizations in which they can thrive and so that
they can understand the challenges of working in stereotypically mas-
culine settings. Changing the context of a leadership situation is often
very difficult and is usually not within any one person’s control. For
example, the U.S. military, which is recruiting ever larger numbers of
women, cannot substantially increase the numbers of women in all job
categories because of government regulations that prohibit women
from direct engagement in combat.
Furthermore, organizations that do make efforts to change the lead-
ership context by increasing the numbers of women at all levels or by
broadening the definition of successful leadership can inadvertently
create other problems for women as a result. For example, the expan-
sion of the number of women in a group or an organization might be
seen by some employees as preferential selection, and the new women
could be greeted with a backlash and stepped-up attempts to marginal-
ize them (Collins, 1998). Women must be aware of these dynamics and
take steps to help themselves as well as to work for changes in leader-
ship contexts at their own workplaces and beyond.

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When the Boss Is a Woman 61

CONCLUSION
Although it is discouraging that women fare poorly in highly mas-
culine leadership contexts, it is encouraging that women fare somewhat
better than men do when leadership is defined in more androgynous
terms. Men still have access to a wider range of power bases, and they
are free to influence others by using any of those power bases without
consequences. Women, however, are more likely than men to have
developed the influence strategies that are required to excel in the
emergent contemporary workplace. As the communal components of
leadership become increasingly valued and the androgynous nature of
effective leadership is increasingly recognized, the bias against woman
bosses should diminish. In the meantime, there continues to be a
‘‘narrow band of acceptable behavior’’ that is allowed for woman lead-
ers—‘‘behaviors that are somewhat feminine but not too feminine and
somewhat masculine but not too masculine’’ (Eagly, 2003, p. 91).
Women and men alike will benefit from a new conception of leader-
ship, because the traditional notion of the ‘‘great man’’ excludes not
only women but also men who are not ‘‘born with’’ leadership ability.
Effective leadership is both an art and a science; it requires a relentless
dedication to the development of the skills and abilities that are neces-
sary to move people toward a common goal. The cultural embrace of
the androgynous leader will serve to access the large untapped poten-
tial of women as well as to enlighten current leaders of both sexes and
increase the effectiveness of all who currently hold, or hope to hold,
leadership positions. We look forward to the day that woman bosses
are described, evaluated, and appreciated for themselves and their
own leadership styles rather than for their adaptation to cultural ster-
eotypes such as ‘‘good witch,’’ ‘‘bad bitch,’’ or ‘‘mother.’’ We hope that
the wait will not be very long.

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© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Chapter 5

Women Who Started Up:


The State of Women in
Entrepreneurship
Presha E. Neidermeyer
Emily Buenn
Robert Edelman

Because women constitute more than 51% of the U.S. population and
47% of the workforce (Lowrey, 2006), women’s concerns are becoming
increasingly important as the business world seeks to obtain and retain
a qualified workforce. Given that women provide the majority of labor
within the home, alternate types of employment are becoming increas-
ingly popular as individuals, particularly women, seek to balance their
work and family commitments. Among these alternative business
arrangements is entrepreneurship, which is attractive to many because
of its potential flexibility compared to the conditions of a traditional
working environment.

THE U.S. PERSPECTIVE


Woman-led businesses increased at a substantial rate in the most
recently reported 5-year period. Although these firms are generally
smaller in scale than their male-controlled counterparts, they experi-
enced significant growth. There was nearly 20% increase in the num-
ber of independent contractors in general, whereas woman-controlled
firms with employees increased more than 8%. Compared to their

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


68 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

Table 5-1.
U.S. Firms, by Gender of Owner and Sales, 2002

Sales and Average


Number of Percentage receipts sales per
all firms of all firms ($ trillion)a firm ($)a

U.S. Firms (total) 22,974,655 100.00% 22.60 983,852


Female-Owned 6,489,259 28.25% 0.94 144,784
Male-Owned 13,184,033 57.39% 7.06 535,574
Equally Female- and 2,693,360 11.72% 0.73 271,660
Male-Owned
Other 494,399 2.15% 13.82 27,953,368
a
Not inflation-adjusted.

men-owned counterparts, woman-owned firms increased more than


4% (or 7% in firms with employees).
During this time, firms owned by women added 70,000 jobs to the
economy, whereas their counterparts decreased employment by 1 mil-
lion, according to the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business
Administration (Lowrey, 2006). Despite the overall magnitude of jobs
added, the smaller number of employees led to smaller sales from
woman-led firms. There were approximately 6.5 million woman-owned
businesses, which accounted for about 28% of all businesses. These
numbers are half of what men-owned firms generated. Moreover, the
average man-owned business generated more than 3.5 times as much
in sales and receipts ($535,574) as the average woman-owned business
did ($144,784). Table 5-1 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2006c) shows the 2002
statistics for American firms.
Focusing on those firms that have employees (see Table 5.2),
woman-owned businesses also lag behind man-owned businesses.
Although they employ 7.1 million people, only about 14% of all
female-owned businesses in comparison to 27% of male-owned busi-
nesses act as employers. Also, the average number of employees per
employing firm, as well as the average sales per employee, or the aver-
age payroll per employee, are smaller for woman-owned than for man-
owned firms. The category ‘‘Other’’ in both tables contains publicly
traded companies, which explains the significantly higher numbers of
average sales than those for either female- or male-owned firms.
Figure 5-1 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2006c) shows the main industries
for female-operated businesses. It shows that the vast majority (64%) of
women were involved in services; 14% in retail trade; and 8% in real
estate and rental and leasing.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Table 5-2.
U.S. Firms with Employees, by Gender of Owner and Sales, 2002

Average
Sales and number of Average Average
Number of Percentage receipts Number of employees sales per payroll per
firms of firms ($ trillion)* employees per firm employee ($)a employee ($)a

U.S. Firms (total) 5,524,784 24.05% 21.84 110,766,605 20.05 197,137 34,419
Female-Owned with Employees 916,657 14.13% 0.80 7,141,369 7.79 112,423 24,299
Male-Owned with Employees 3,524,969 26.74% 6.60 42,428,508 12.04 154,709 31,108
Equally Female- and Male- 717,961 26.66% 0.63 5,664,948 7.89 110,716 22,895
Owned with Employees
Other 352,720 71.34% 13.80 55,398,389 157.06 249,050 39,453
a
Not inflation-adjusted.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


70 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

Figure 5-1. Percentage of Female-Owned Businesses by Type, 2002

FEMALE AND MALE ENTREPRENEURS:


A COMPARATIVE APPROACH
The information shown in Figure 5-1 leads one to question the dif-
ferences between the intentions of women and men in starting their
own businesses. Why, for example, are there still fewer woman-owned
than man-owned businesses in the United States? Is it because woman
entrepreneurs encounter more hurdles in founding and developing a
business, or is it because women have less aspiration than men to
develop their businesses or to become entrepreneurs at all?
We interviewed 10 entrepreneurs of small firms in various industries
to discern their motivations and experiences. We will integrate the
responses of these women with reports on the research.
There are two main themes in the research on gender differences in
entrepreneurship. The first contrasts gender differences in entrepre-
neurship after venture creation. The topics that are often addressed in
studies that make those comparisons are the following: differences
between female and male entrepreneurs in psychological traits;
obstacles to and qualifications for founding a business; objectives for
the business and reasons for its foundation; and myths and perceptions
of woman entrepreneurs that prevail in their environment.
The second theme addresses gender differences in the desire to become
an entrepreneur before venture creation. Overall, there is little gender dif-
ference; it certainly exists, but the question is really whether the difference
accounts for the supply of potential entrepreneurs and the size differences
of the businesses. In most cases, contradicting findings have occurred, but
these might be the result of different research methodologies, samples,

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Women Who Started Up 71

and geographical and cultural issues (Menzies, 2004). The following sec-
tion discusses factors in entrepreneurship that are often thought to differ
between men and women.

CAREER ASPIRATIONS IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP


Zhao, Seibert, and Hills (2005) found, in a sample of students seek-
ing a master’s degree in business administration (MBA), that women
have significantly lower entrepreneurial intentions than men have,
which would explain the statistics that there are fewer women entre-
preneurs than men entrepreneurs. This research also showed that
women had the same level of entrepreneurial self-efficacy as men had,
suggesting that women feel as capable as men in being entrepreneurs.
One possible explanation for this combination of results is that women,
compared with men, evaluate an entrepreneurial environment to be
harder or less rewarding than working for someone else. In our current
research sample, not a single interviewee expressed an explicit desire to
become an entrepreneur after finishing her education; rather, each
worked for an employer initially, then decided to start her own business
after concluding that being an employee was unacceptable to her.

Motivation to Become an Entrepreneur


Income generation is an important motivation for female entrepre-
neurs as well as men entrepreneurs in starting a business (Coughlin,
2002). However, there are also gender differences in motivations for
starting a business redundant. Women often become entrepreneurs
for a better work–life balance—to have more flexibility in combining
their family responsibilities and professional accomplishments (Lee-
Gosselin & Grise, 1990). One of our survey participants responded as
follows:

The greatest challenge I face is in trying to integrate my family life with


being a surgeon (and running a successful plastic eye reconstructive busi-
ness). I am not only a surgeon, but also a wife and a mother of three.
Being female makes running this business three times as difficult.

Whereas women tend to start businesses to better balance their dif-


ferent life roles, men entrepreneurs mostly report economic and finan-
cial reasons as their motivators (Brush, 1992). This was echoed by one
of our survey participants, who stated, ‘‘I opened my legal services
business after working for other lawyers when I saw that otherwise the
majority of my labor would continue to benefit my employer (finan-
cially) more than me.’’
The motive for entrepreneurship goes beyond mere income genera-
tion; entrepreneurship can contribute to self-fulfillment and provides

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


72 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

room for personal development and success. This is particularly impor-


tant for women, who in many societies are given less respect for their
accomplishments than men are (Coughlin, 2002). Another one of our
survey respondents said the following:

I think that running your own business and being your own boss has tre-
mendous satisfactions and real benefits that are never or have not been
extolled. You are always told [that] it is difficult and [that] you may have
losses, but [you] are not told of the wonderful benefits of running your own
business. I enjoy working for myself. It provides me with the flexibility I
need and the creative expression necessary to run a successful business.

Entrepreneurship is sometimes said to be a promising way to escape


discrimination in the formal labor market, especially for women. The
wage gap between the sexes still exists, and the management level is
still harder for women to achieve than it is for men. Those circumstan-
ces can lead women to found a business to tap their full economic
potential and to avoid the ‘‘glass ceiling’’ in the formal labor market
(Weiler & Bernasek, 2001).
Two of our survey participants said the following: ‘‘I decided to
open my own business when it became apparent that I was not going
to move up anymore where I was employed. It was disturbing, because
I had worked there since graduating from college’’ and ‘‘I left the legal
profession because there was too much negativity.’’
Nevertheless, other findings (Allen, Langowitz, & Minitti, 2007) point
in another direction: One way to classify entrepreneurship by the moti-
vation to become an entrepreneur is to distinguish necessity from oppor-
tunity. Those who become entrepreneurs by opportunity choose
entrepreneurship among several career options, because this is what
they want to do. On the contrary, entrepreneurship by necessity is cho-
sen because of a lack of alternatives in existing and satisfying employ-
ment (Allen et al.). In Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, Allen et al. display
data about the amount of opportunity-and necessity-driven entrepre-
neurship, which allowed calculation of the opportunity to necessity ratio
differentiated by country and gender. In the United States, Allen and
colleagues found, 9.75 women chose entrepreneurship as an opportunity
for every 1 woman who chose it out of necessity. For men the ratio was
significantly lower (5.22:1). Therefore, women in the United States are
less likely than men to become entrepreneurs because of necessity. This
contradicts the theory that women start a business primarily to escape
the glass ceiling. This could be due to the demographics involved in the
evolving entrepreneurship environment.

Growth Intention
The statistics on woman-owned businesses show that a lot of them
tend to be small. Researchers do not agree on whether this is the result

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Women Who Started Up 73

of higher obstacles for women entrepreneurs or to fewer growth inten-


tions of women entrepreneurs.
Some argue that woman entrepreneurs do not have the same inten-
tion to enlarge their businesses as their male counterparts do, but that
they are content with a small and stable company. Lee-Gosselin and
Grise (1990) suggest the development of an entrepreneurial model that
reflects their findings that the vast majority of women entrepreneurs
have only modest objectives for growth. According to their study,
founding a business, for female entrepreneurs, is often a means to
achieve more flexibility for and a better balance of professional and
personal needs, especially regarding their family responsibilities, and
not a means to achieve above-average financial success.
However, newer studies find that female business owners’ growth
orientation is increasing. According to the Center for Women’s Business
Research (2003), the ‘‘new generation’’ of women entrepreneurs—
women who started their businesses in the 1990s—are more growth-
oriented and more similar to male entrepreneurs than their predecessors
were. Whereas only 25% of women who have been in business for
20 years or more report that they seek growth for their businesses over
the next years, 42% percent of the new generation has this objective.
This compares to 49% of all male entrepreneurs. The study also indicates
that the new generation of women entrepreneurs is not only seeking
growth but actually achieving it, for the revenue gap between this group
of women entrepreneurs and their male counterparts is less distinct.
When asked about satisfaction with their businesses, the 10 entrepre-
neurs we queried stated that they were intent on increasing the magni-
tude of their business sales. One woman said the following:

I could not be more thrilled by the performance of my business, yet I am


never satisfied so am constantly inventing and growing. I feel that com-
placency is the beginning of death, so you always have to have a fresh
page every day of your life.

Some studies even find that the modest growth intention of women
business owners is a myth that represents a hurdle for them, in terms
of acknowledgment of their entrepreneurial activity, but especially
when seeking funding for their venture (Brush, Carter, Gatewood,
Greene, & Hart, 2001; Menzies, 2004).

Access to Capital
A lack of access to funds to finance their venture is often mentioned
as an obstacle for women entrepreneurs. Although improvements in
access to capital are also reported, women business owners do in fact
acquire less funding than their male counterparts do. In 1998, 54% of
women entrepreneurs had bank credit, compared to 46% in 1996. Of

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


74 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

those women with bank credit, only 34% had credit higher than $50,000,
compared to 54% of male business owners with bank credit. Even more
striking is the low number of venture funds received by women. In
2003, only 4.2% of the $19 billion of venture capital was invested into
woman-owned businesses (National Women’s Business Council, 2005).
All the entrepreneurs in our study personally financed their new busi-
ness venture through either family capital and personal savings or credit
cards. It was not until the business was up and running that access to
more traditional lending sources, such as banks, became available.
Insufficient funds are a plausible reason that prevent women’s busi-
nesses from growing. However, this is not necessarily the result of
gender-based discrimination by suppliers of capital; there are studies that
show that female and male entrepreneurs are equally likely to receive
funding when they apply for it, but that women seek capital less often
than men do (De Bruin, Bush, & Welter, 2006). One possible reason for
this is that women’s businesses operate mainly in the service sector,
which usually is not very capital-intensive. Moreover, service compa-
nies tend to have few assets that can be used as collateral for loans
(Cleaver, 2004). According to the Center for Women’s Business
Research (2003), only about 25% of woman entrepreneurs (except Afri-
can-American women, among whom this percentage is significantly
higher) stated that they have encountered hurdles when searching for
funding for their venture. Woman entrepreneurs in the same study
reported that the reasons for the difficulties in funding their business
were personal risk aversion, gender discrimination, and hesitant invest-
ors because of a weak economy.

Qualification for Entrepreneurship


Although men and women achieve similar levels of education, the
fields of education differ widely. Men are more often enrolled in tech-
nological study programs such as engineering or computer science,
and this is reflected in a higher percentage of men creating high-tech
ventures (Menzies, 2004).
Previous work experience is also a factor of entrepreneurship that dif-
fers between men and women business owners. Whereas the women
most often had experience in teaching, retail sales, or office administra-
tion, the men had more experience in managerial, technological, and sci-
entific positions. Moreover, the men tended to have more previous
entrepreneurial experience when they founded a business (Brush, 1992).

Family Responsibilities and Ties


Women still adopt more family responsibilities than men do for
child care, dependent care, and responsibility for the household

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Women Who Started Up 75

(Coughlin, 2002). One fact that highlights this is the gender difference
in the numbers of single parents who are raising children under the
age of 18: In 2004 about 8.3 million single mothers (i.e., in almost 25%
of U.S. families) were doing so, but only 2.3 million single fathers were
doing so (Lowrey, 2006).
Family is often argued to play a more important role for women
than for men. Women not only still tend to carry the main proportion
of domestic responsibilities, they also tend to build their social network
in a way that is more dependent on family ties; this links them closer
to the family than men, who were found to have more diverse net-
works outside the family (Brush, 1992). For many women entrepre-
neurs, the family played an important role in the decision to found a
business—for example, to achieve a higher flexibility in work–life bal-
ance, such as in combining family responsibilities and professional
achievement (Jome, Donahue, & Siegel, 2006; Lee-Gosselin & Grise,
1990). This fits well with the finding that the presence of young chil-
dren in the household increases women’s likelihood of founding a
business (Caputo & Dolinsky, 1998).

Networks
One factor affecting entrepreneurship that is different for men and
women is networks and the social capital inherent in them. Although
no significant differences in the process of making contacts and build-
ing networks have been found between the genders, differences in the
composition of male and female networks have been discovered. Com-
pared to men, women tend to have smaller social networks as well as
networks with a higher proportion of women, which was found to be
disadvantageous in entrepreneurship (Brush, 1992). Because many
business networks are still male-dominated, favoritism shown toward
men is likely to create difficulties for women in the traditional labor
market as well as in entrepreneurial networks, such as with customers,
suppliers, or investors (Weiler & Bernasek, 2001). Renzulli, Aldrich,
and Moody (2000) confirmed that the composition of social networks
differs among the genders; however, they did not find that this leads
to disadvantages for women entrepreneurs. They suggest that, because
of the empowerment that women have experienced in the last few dec-
ades, the social capital of women’s networks has become more valuable
for business.
Virtually all of the interview participants cited a member of their
own family as their mentor, mainly their parents. The sole individual
who cited someone else as a mentor named a spiritual figure on whom
she had based her beliefs. Though certainly helpful, these mentors, by
and large, cannot open doors in the same manner that a business men-
tor can.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


76 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

Myths and Perceptions


For every woman entrepreneur (as for every entrepreneur in gen-
eral), the environment’s perception of her is important for her success,
because her business depends on how her customers, suppliers, and
business partners, including investors, view her.
Baron, Markman, and Hirsa (2001) revealed that the environment per-
ceives women entrepreneurs more positively than it perceives women
managers and that this effect does not occur for men entrepreneurs and
managers. People rated women entrepreneurs higher in personal traits
such as assertiveness, decisiveness, or ambition as well as in the causes
of their success; that is, their success was more likely to be attributed to
internal causes like effort than to external causes like luck.
Other studies, however, draw a less positive image of perceptions of
female entrepreneurs. Brush and colleagues (2001) came to the conclu-
sion that many of the differences that have been argued to be inherent
in women entrepreneurs are a common perception but are not actually
true. Some of the myths they identify are that women entrepreneurs do
not seek high growth for their businesses, that they have neither the
right education nor the necessary experience to start a successful ven-
ture, and that they do not submit business plans. Menzies (2004)
widely confirmed, by investigating a sample of Canadian women entre-
preneurs, that those myths do not apply to women entrepreneurs. It is
argued (Brush et al., 2001) that those myths impede women from doing
business, especially when they are seeking capital for their venture.

Minority Women as Entrepreneurs


In addition to gender, race is a factor that influences entrepreneurial
activity and leads to structural and experiential differences for the
women entrepreneurs who are generally the subjects of research (Harvey,
2005). Minority women who are entrepreneurs, or women entrepreneurs
of color, are non-White and/or Hispanic women entrepreneurs. The gen-
eral trend for minority women–owned business is an amplified version
of that for the overall women-owned business. The growth rates are even
higher than those for women entrepreneurs in general, but the success of
the businesses, measured in terms of revenues or numbers of employees,
tends to be lower. The number of businesses owned by women of color
has grown even more significantly than that of women entrepreneurs in
general. According to the Center for Women’s Business Research (2007),
the growth rate of minority women–owned businesses reached an aston-
ishing 120% from 1997 to 2006. Figure 5-2 shows that in all categories
women outpaced men in business ownership.
The U.S. Census Bureau (2006a, 2006b) describes the status quo for mi-
nority women–owned businesses for the 2002. Table 5-3 depicts how many

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Women Who Started Up 77

Figure 5-2. Growth in Minority-Owned Firms by Gender

businesses were owned by each minority and how many of these were
owned by women of that minority. In every minority category, the per-
centage of businesses owned by women of that minority was higher than
for White women. Whereas only about 28% of all White business owners
were women, almost 46% of all Black business owners were women.
However, when we look at the average performance of women-
owned businesses in terms of receipts per firm, we see that there is a
large gap between, on the one hand, the Black or African-American,
American Indian and Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian and Other
Pacific Islander businesses and, on the other hand, the White and
Asian businesses. As depicted in Table 5-4 (U.S. Census Bureau, 200b),

Table 5-3.
Ownership of Firms by Gender and Race

Percentage of
Total number of Number of female-owned
firms (male- and female-owned firms for all firms
Race female-owned) firms of that race

White 19,899,839 5,580,162 28.04%


Black or African
American 1,197,567 547,032 45.68%
Asian 1,103,587 339,554 30.77%
American Indian and
Alaska Native 201,387 78,292 38.88%
Native Hawaiian and
Other Pacific
Islander 28,948 10,582 36.56%
Hispanic or Latinoa 33.4%
a
No absolute numbers found.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


78 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

Table 5-4.
Female-Owned Firms by Race

Number of
female-owned Receipts Receipts per
Race firms ($1,000) firm ($1,000)

White 5,580,162 862,590,849 154.58


Black or African American 547,032 20,670,616 37.79
Asian 339,554 53,652,929 158.01
American Indian and Alaska
Native 78,292 5,763,268 73.61
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific
Islander 10,582 795,963 75.22

the average White and Asian women entrepreneurs have annual


receipts of $150,000–$160,000, whereas the average Black or African-
American women entrepreneur reaches only about $38,000 in annual
receipts. American Indian and Alaska Native as well as Native Hawai-
ian and Other Pacific Islander women entrepreneurs reach about
$74,000 and $75,000, respectively.
Thus, although the number of minority women’s businesses is
increasing at a tremendous rate, the performance of most subgroup busi-
nesses is below average in terms of receipt size and employment. This is
especially true for Black, American Indian and Alaska Native, and
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander women business owners.
One factor that contributes to this development is the higher level of
discrimination against minority women than against women in general,
which puts more pressure on them to find creative ways to reach suc-
cess. Minority women often find themselves at the bottom of the labor
pool, where they are offered little economic stability, income, status, or
opportunity for enhancement (Harvey, 2005). Lewis (1999) found that
race and/or gender discrimination was a main motivation for African-
American women entrepreneurs to start a business. Discrimination also
explains the higher percentage of women entrepreneurs among all
entrepreneurs in every minority group. With the prevailing discrimina-
tion, it seems more attractive to found a business than to be employed
because the opportunities in the labor market are so limited.
Another factor in these statistics is the increasing level of education
among minorities, especially Black women. Historically, they have been
excluded from many institutions of higher education (Harvey, 2005).
Because this has changed, and Black women are earning a greater per-
centage of bachelor’s and master’s degrees, they have the knowledge
that is necessary to found a business, and they make use of this knowl-
edge (Hopkins, 2006).

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Women Who Started Up 79

Nevertheless, entrepreneurship for minority women entrepreneurs


does not necessarily represent an end to economic problems and dis-
crimination. As the numbers above have shown, Black women business
owners especially, but also American Indian and Alaska Native as well
as Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander women entrepreneurs,
lag behind White and Asian women entrepreneurs (in terms of receipt
size and percentage of employing firms). The literature on minority
women business owners suggests that they are more disadvantaged
than White women in entrepreneurial options such as occupational
choices and entrepreneurial resources like access to capital (Smith-
Hunter, 2004).
For example, African-American women business owners report a
much higher percentage of obstacles when searching for access to capi-
tal than other racial groups do (Center for Women’s Business Research,
2003). Those findings closely relate to the lower performance of minor-
ity-owned businesses described above. As long as minority women
have fewer entrepreneurial opportunities and less access to entrepre-
neurial resources than White women have, their businesses will encounter
greater obstacles to success.
Although the high growth rates of minority women entrepreneurs
are promising, the situation still requires improvement. Specific affirm-
ative action is suggested to help deploy the full entrepreneurial poten-
tial of society.

INTERVENTIONS, SUGGESTIONS, AND SUPPORT TO


EMPOWER FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS
Although women’s entrepreneurial activity has experienced a tre-
mendous growth over the last 30 years, women still lag behind their
male counterparts in size of business, number of employees, and fund-
ing of the venture. The research is not clear whether this is caused by
external obstacles inflicted on women by the economy and society, by
less motivation for entrepreneurship inherent in women, or by the
socialization process since birth. Regardless of the cause, there are rea-
sons to encourage and support women for entrepreneurship.
If women’s entrepreneurial potential lies idle, that means unrealized
wealth creation, job creation, and innovation for U.S. society and the
economy. It also means unrealized opportunities for investors (Brush
et al., 2001). Furthermore, it prevents women from tapping the full
potential of economic well-being.
Governmental and nongovernmental initiatives, organizations, and
programs exist to empower female entrepreneurs. We will discuss dif-
ferent starting points, how to facilitate entrepreneurship for women,
and implementation in the United States.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


80 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

Laws and Regulations


The government can facilitate the position of women business own-
ers by implementing laws and regulations on their behalf. Laws against
discrimination, such as the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974
(which prevents creditors from basing credit decisions on gender, race,
or other factors that do not directly influence creditworthiness), are
aimed at achieving more equality (Federal Trade Commission, 1998).
The Women’s Business Ownership Act of 1988 (House Resolution
5050) was established to provide support for female entrepreneurs. It
provided further protection from unjustified credit rejection, for exam-
ple, by allowing commercial loan applicants to request a written state-
ment in case of denial (Myler, 1989). Moreover, it influenced the
entrepreneurial situation for women in the United States by supplying
seed funding for women’s business centers. These centers provide tech-
nical assistance, entrepreneurial education, and other resources for
women entrepreneurs. In 2006, about 100 women’s business centers
were providing support to women entrepreneurs (Langowitz, Sharpe, &
Godwyn, 2006).
Since this concept has proved to be successful, the Women’s Small Busi-
ness Ownership Program Act of 2006 granted more money for the founda-
tion of new women’s business centers and supported successful centers
with renewal grants (Center for Women’s Business Research, 2007).

Access to Capital
There are several ways to ease the access to capital for women entre-
preneurs. First, measures like the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of
1974 can be implemented to facilitate the regular process of getting
credit.
Second, there are attempts to make it easier for women to obtain
venture capital. An important factor that makes it difficult for women
to obtain venture funding is limited access to male-dominated venture
capital networks. Contacts with advisors, like accountants, attorneys, or
fellow business owners, are a means by which women business owners
get venture funding (Wells Fargo, 2000), and attempts are being made
to institutionalize such access (Sherman, 2002). One essential source of
support for women entrepreneurs (and small-business owners in gen-
eral) is the loan programs of the U.S. Small Business Administration
(SBA). These provide guarantees for loans made by private and other
institutions. In 2003, the SBA backed women-owned businesses with
$2.4 billion (National Women’s Business Council, 2004).
Furthermore, private institutions are increasing their support of
women business owners. Realizing that this group has a strong eco-
nomic base, several banks started programs with the intention of

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Women Who Started Up 81

backing women-owned businesses with credit. For example, Wells


Fargo and First Union have rolled out programs tailored specifically to
women-owned businesses (Guttner, 2000).

Mentoring
Another way to facilitate entrepreneurship for women is to provide
them with a mentor. A mentor for a women entrepreneur is a business
owner or an experienced person from a financial, legal, or other profes-
sion who gives advice, support, guidance, and training to the mentee.
The mentor can be viewed as a trusted counselor, and, often even more
important, acts as a role model for the mentee (Coughlin, 2002). It has
been shown that people are more likely to ‘‘do what they see’’; for
example, it was found that people who have an early exposure to an en-
trepreneurial relative or close friend are more likely to become entrepre-
neurs themselves (Jones, 2002). However, it is still harder for women
than for men to find an entrepreneurial role model who is in a similar
life situation, because there are still fewer female than male entrepre-
neurs. Mentoring institutionalizes the process of finding such a role
model and provides learning opportunities, coaching, and networking.

Education
Formal education on entrepreneurship makes entrepreneurial activ-
ity more likely (Zhao et al., 2005). Besides entrepreneurship classes in
colleges and universities that target everybody regardless of gender,
institutions that specifically aim at educating women on entrepreneur-
ship are a means by which to enhance female entrepreneurial activity.
Women’s business centers play an important role in entrepreneurial
education, training, and technical assistance for women (Langowitz et
al., 2006). In the United States, about 2,200 entrepreneurship courses
are offered at 1,600 colleges (De Bruin et al., 2006).
In terms of general education, the achievements of certain educa-
tional levels are similar for both sexes. However, the educational back-
grounds of women and men vary. Women obtain fewer degrees than
men in technological subjects such as science and engineering. More-
over, the number of high-technology ventures is significantly higher
among male entrepreneurs, making the venture more likely to be
funded by venture capitalists. If we may assume that the former is a
cause of the latter, then it is clear that programs that encourage women
to study computer science and engineering are an important step in
improving women’s position in entrepreneurship (Menzies, 2004).

Networking
Being part of a network is important for entrepreneurs—for exam-
ple, to obtain business, capital, or information. With a network in

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


82 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

which resources, knowledge, or information can be shared and busi-


ness decisions can be made, the process of founding and running a
business is facilitated for female entrepreneurs (Coughlin, 2002). Net-
works that link female entrepreneurs to each other, or to institutions
that can facilitate access to male-dominated networks for women, serve
this purpose (Ryann, 2006; Sherman, 2002).
An important step in the improvement of networking opportunities
for women is the current development of empowering women: The
more that women are in high positions, the easier it will become for
them to be part of useful networks (Renzulli et al., 2000).

Special Programs for Minority Women Entrepreneurs


As the section on minority women entrepreneurs has shown, certain
minority women are doubly disadvantaged. Therefore, in addition to
the above-mentioned measures to empower female entrepreneurs,
there are special actions that target minority women entrepreneurs.
The Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) has the objec-
tive to support entrepreneurs who belong to a minority (regardless of
gender). The MBDA is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce and
helps minority business owners through minority business develop-
ment centers, Native American business development centers, and
business resource centers. These assist minority business owners in the
development of business plans, marketing, management, and financial
planning (MBDA, 2005).

INTERNET RESOURCES
Finally, for readers who want additional information on women
entrepreneurs or for those who are seeking support while founding
or running a business, the following Internet resources can be helpful.
The list is not exhaustive, but is a good starting point for further
research.

. Association of Women’s Business Centers (www.awbc.biz)


. Center for Women’s Business Research (www.cfwbr.org)
. Minority Business Development Agency (U.S. Department of Commerce),
(www.mbda.gov)
. National Association of Women Business Owners (www.nawbo.org)
. National Women’s Business Council (www.nwbc.gov)
. Online Women’s Business Center (U.S. Small Business Administration)
(www.onlinewbc.gov)
. U.S. Small Business Administration (www.sba.gov)

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Women Who Started Up 83

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84 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

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© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Chapter 6

Leadership and Women


Karen Duff-McCall
William Schweinle

Female leaders are rare, at least if you believe the history books. For
instance, in Axelrod’s (2003) encyclopedic biography of historical lead-
ers, women are greatly outnumbered by men. Furthermore, the few
women who are mentioned are well known—for example, Joan of Arc,
Theodora, and Queen Elizabeth I—whereas several of the men who are
mentioned are fairly obscure—for example, Bajan, leader of the Avars;
Samudragupta, the ‘‘Indian Napoleon’’; and Toussant Louverture, a
Haitian independence fighter. This historical gender-based imbalance
in leadership appears to still be the case today. Simply put, women are
underrepresented in leadership roles (Eagley & Johnston, 1990).
Why are women so underrepresented in leadership? Is it because
their leadership styles differ from those of the men in their respective
eras? In this chapter, we begin with a discussion of leadership styles
and why men and women might lead differently. We follow with an
examination of historical women leaders and their leadership styles
through the lens of leadership theory.

MODERN LEADERSHIP
Most of the recent literature on managerial leadership cites two pri-
mary types of leadership: transactional and transformational (Eagley &
Johannesen-Schmidt, 2001; Ridgeway, 2001; Walumba, Wu, & Ojode,
2004). A third type—laissez-faire leadership—also appears in some of
the leadership literature.

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88 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

Transactional Leadership
First we must understand the traditional view of the leadership role.
Leadership roles, especially those in the workplace, have long been
held by men. Therefore, it is understandable that, when seeking histori-
cal knowledge of leadership, one will focus on the study of male lead-
ers, who tend to have had a transactional leadership style (Eagley &
Carli, 2004; Eagley & Johnston, 1990; Walumba et al., 2004).
Walumba and colleagues (2004) describe a traditional, or transac-
tional, leadership style as being focused on task structure, accomplish-
ment, and the exchanges that occur between a leader and his or her
followers. The relationships between leaders and followers are defined
as transactions in which the leader communicates the desired outcomes
to the subordinate(s) and uses a contingent-reward system to bring
about the desired behavior.
Transactional leadership can be divided into three subtypes:
contingent-rewards leadership, active management-by-exception lead-
ership, and passive management-by-exception leadership. Contingent-
rewards leaders emphasize the relationship between rewards and
effective performance. The active management-by-exception leader
monitors the subordinates to prevent any deviations from the desired
outcomes. Passive management-by-exception leadership is character-
ized by intervention when mistakes have been made by the subordi-
nates (Walumba et al., 2004).
A primary disadvantage of transactional leadership is the Skinnerian
contingency itself; employees will perform well only as long as they are
adequately compensated and recognized, and un-reinforced employee
behaviors will dissipate. This has the added negative effect of strongly
tying employee motivation to whatever the company or organization is
willing to offer as a reward. By this line of reasoning, leaders will have
great success as long as they have the resources to adequately compensate
their subordinates, and transactional leaders with fewer resources will be
less successful. This limitation in performance as a result of leadership
style has great implications for less resourceful or wealthy organizations.
However, it is the form of leadership that most people are familiar with,
and it is arguably the most comfortable, given its long tradition.
The social psychology of transactional leadership is centered on the
idea of transactions—that is, interactions that are bound by a social
contract between the leader and the subordinate in which the leader
defines the desired outcome and its rewards. This contract does not
lend itself to any negotiation between the leader and the subordinate,
nor does it encourage group cooperativeness. Instead, this leadership
style creates an autocratic environment in which the leader calls the
shots and the subordinates race for the rewards. An individual who is
competitive, self-confident, aggressive, dominant, and forceful has a

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Leadership and Women 89

distinct advantage in this situation. Such an individual would be com-


fortable issuing demands and would thrive as an autocratic, or direc-
tive, leader (Walumba et al., 2004).
What is it that makes transactional leadership ‘‘masculine’’? In an
attempt to answer this question, researchers have studied three possi-
ble explanations that are not necessarily exclusive of one another:
gender-role expectations, agentic versus communality, and the interac-
tion of leadership-role expectations with gender-role expectations. We
will examine each of these explanations in order.

Gender-Role Expectations
According to Eagley and Wood (1991), gender differences in behavior
can be explained by gender-defined roles—the limitation of each gender
to those traits and behaviors that society labels masculine or feminine.
Societal expectations create, reinforce, and subtly change these roles over
time. Gender-role conditioning for males includes encouraging competi-
tiveness, assertion, dominance, independence, and aggression. Because
men have long held leadership roles in this society, it is unsurprising
that masculine, or male gender-role, characteristics have become associ-
ated with leadership. These role expectations pervade the workplace
and influence behavior to various degrees, which explains why men are
expected to be more directive, aggressive, and independent in the work-
place. Eagley and Johannesen-Schmidt (2001) demonstrated that these
qualities were expressed by men more often than women, especially in
terms of a desire to manage competitively and assertively.

Agentic Versus Communality


Men tend to be agentic in their social interactions—that is, they are
more likely than women to act in their own interest and participate
in a social interaction as if it were a negotiation (Walumba et al.,
2004). The agentic qualities that have become associated with mascu-
line leadership include aggression, ambition, dominance, forcefulness,
independence, daring, self-confidence, and competitiveness (Eagley &
Johannesen-Schmidt, 2001). These qualities are also reinforced by
gender-role expectations in situations where communal qualities,
such as concern for others, would be socially unacceptable.

The Interaction of Leadership-Role Expectations and Gender-Role


Expectations
Forging congruence between leadership roles and gender roles is not
difficult for men; after all, the agentic qualities of a good transactional
leader are considered to be masculine in nature, so there is little need for

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90 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

men to adjust their leadership style to be congruent with the accepted


male role. Leading, especially in the managerial field, also includes role
expectations of the job itself; a person in the management role is con-
fined by what is expected from that specific role, and gender role activity
may be limited by managerial role activity. Those in leadership positions,
especially in organizations, have very clear behavioral guidelines, which
may or may not integrate gender expectations. On the other hand, cer-
tain differences in leadership style, such as aggressiveness and competi-
tive nature, could be explained by personality differences ingrained in
the sexes through gender roles. Young boys are encouraged to be rough,
rowdy, and aggressive. These personality differences, including a ten-
dency toward agentic behavior, do not differ from transactional leader-
ship role expectations; there is no need to adjust personality/gender
differences for male leaders (Walumba et al., 2004).
In summary, a transactional leadership suits the masculine social
interaction and leadership style, because men internalize the male gen-
der role, which supports an agentic desire for competition, aggression,
and assertion (Walumba et al., 2004). Transactional leadership, devel-
oped alongside the male gender role because men were leading, also
utilizes and rewards competition (through forcing subordinates to
‘‘compete’’ for rewards), aggression (leading in an autocratic, definitive
manner), and assertion (maintaining a position of power through trans-
actions with subordinates) (Eagley & Johannesen-Schmidt, 2001; Ridge-
way, 2001; Walumba et al.). Men are also encouraged, through gender
role socialization, to make use of and strive for the agentic qualities
that describe transactional leadership, and they are socially repri-
manded for acting communally. Finally, transactional leadership suits
the masculine social interaction style because there is no incongruence
between transactional leadership and cultural masculinity.

Transformational Leadership
The alternative to transactional leadership is transformational leader-
ship, which is characterized by a focus on individualized interactions,
inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and influencing sub-
ordinates positively (Walumba et al., 2004). Transformational leaders
encourage teamwork and attempt to change their subordinates’
motives, beliefs, and capabilities to raise performance beyond self-interest
or reward. Transformational leaders tend to focus on benefiting the
organization and are less concerned with individual power and recog-
nition. They are more interested in successful group dynamics. The key
distinction between transactional and transformational leadership is
focus: Transactional leadership focuses on the individual power of the
leader, whereas transformational leadership focuses on the success of
the group.

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Leadership and Women 91

Transformational leadership is thus intuitively effective for organiza-


tions of varying sizes and resources, because leaders are not restricted
by the organization’s ability to provide tangible rewards. By fostering
intrinsic motivation for success, as transformational leaders do,
employees and followers are encouraged to perform at a higher level
for the reward of group cohesiveness and the success of the group as a
whole.
How is transformational leadership associated with feminine qual-
ities? We will address this notion of ‘‘feminine ¼ transformational’’
within the same framework that we associated transactional leadership
with masculinity: gender role, agentic versus communality, and the
interaction between leadership roles/expectations and gender roles/
expectations.

Gender-Role Expectations
Gender-role beliefs are both prescriptive and descriptive (Rudman &
Kilianski, 2000). They tell men and women how they should act in day-
to-day life (descriptive) and how they will act (according to role restric-
tions) in certain situations (prescriptive). Eagley and Wood (1991)
discuss several aspects of the stereotypical female gender role and
describe gender differences that exist in several areas of social interac-
tion, including social behavior, nonverbal communication, and groups.
According to these researchers, the female role is characterized by the
social roles that women have historically held—especially childrearing
and domestic duties. Normative expectations for women include being
friendly, expressing concern for others’ welfare, and being emotionally
expressive.

Agentic Versus Communality


Whereas transactional leadership is associated with agentic qualities,
transformational leadership is associated with communal qualities
(Walumba et al., 2004). Communal characteristics include a primary con-
cern with the welfare of others as well as affection, kindness, sympathy,
nurturance, gentleness, and interpersonal sensitivity. Historically, these
qualities have been used to describe women and are considered femi-
nine qualities. For example, women more than men tend to agree with
other people in group settings. This demonstrates support for the group
and increases group cohesiveness (Eagley & Wood, 1991). Women are
encouraged, through gender-role expectations, to behave communally.
How does transformational leadership make use of these communal
qualities? The ability to intrinsically motivate subordinates to succeed
requires substantial ‘‘people skills’’—cooperation, interpersonal depend-
ence, appreciation, and support for subordinates. These interpersonal

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92 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

skills, along with group support and a keen understanding of nonverbal


communication cues from subordinates, allow women to lead more dem-
ocratically, i.e., transformationally (Eagley & Johnston, 1990; Eagley &
Wood, 1991).

The Interaction of Leadership-Role Expectations and Gender-Role


Expectations
Women face a different situation when leading others: Gender roles
and expectations create women who are ‘‘nice’’; they are expected to
behave communally with others, by being kind, supportive, etc. Mean-
while, traditional leadership qualities are masculine and agentic
(aggressive, independent, competitive, etc.). Women are in a bind; act-
ing agenticly is the traditional style of leadership, but women who act
agenticly violate a stereotypic expectation of female gender role behav-
ior (Rudman & Glick, 2001). There is a clear role incongruity between
traditional, transactional leadership, defined by agentic behaviors and
traits (Walumba et al., 2004) and behaving in a communal fashion, as
women are expected to do (Rudman & Glick, 2001; Eagley & Wood,
1991).
What’s a woman to do? Rudman and Glick (2001) argue that women
faced with this paradox have two options: act agenticly to be consid-
ered competent for leadership roles, or act communally and be liked
by their peers but not respected or considered for leadership promo-
tions. Queen Elizabeth I, who will be discussed in more detail later,
dealt with this paradox by assuming both roles. In her most famous
speech to her army (Axelrod, 2000), she showed masculine (agentic)
traits, but she tempers those traits by asserting that she would suffer
the same fate as her troops—a distinctly feminine (communal)
assertion.
Yoder (2001) suggests changes that women can make to become
more effective leaders. She does not describe these changes as transfor-
mational; rather, she lists them as methods to make women more effec-
tive in masculinized contents. The suggestions Yoder makes have a
distinctly transformational air. First, Yoder suggests that women
‘‘camoflag[e] dominant speech acts . . . [to] effectively enact leadership
dominance. . .’’ (p. 820). She also suggests women develop group-
oriented, as opposed to self-oriented, management, which is a key fea-
ture of transformational leadership (Yoder; Walumba et al., 2004).
Transformational leadership eases the role incongruity that women face
when confronted with gender expectations (of communality) and tradi-
tional leadership expectations (of agentic behaviors) by replacing mas-
culine leadership traits with feminine ones. Transformational
leadership thus eases the role incongruity that women face when they
are confronted with gender-role expectations (of communality) and

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Leadership and Women 93

traditional leadership-role expectations (of agentic) by replacing mascu-


line leadership traits with feminine ones.

FEMALE LEADERSHIP IN A HISTORICAL CONTEXT


To more fully understand the nature of modern women leaders, it is
helpful to examine women leaders of the past. The women in this dis-
cussion all led in distinctive ways. We are not able, in this limited
space, to provide a timeline of all women leaders, but we hope to elab-
orate on some of the most recognized historical female leaders, noting
differences and similarities with modern leadership styles. We discuss
two leaders, Joan of Arc and Theodora, who led in arguably transac-
tional manners, and Queen Elizabeth I, who led in an interesting mix
of transactional and transformational styles. It is interesting to note
that, during the research phase, we were unable to identify a promi-
nent, pre-modern female leader who appeared to lead in a purely femi-
nine, transformational manner.

Joan of Arc
Leadership did not come to Joan of Arc through the conventional
paths that were available in her era—i.e., birth, education, or marriage.
Instead, she assumed a leadership position as her ‘‘divine right’’ by
claiming to hear the voices of angels. These angels told Joan of Arc what
was necessary for victory over the English during the Hundred Years’
War. By following these divine instructions and leading the French army
accordingly, she was a successful military leader. However, to gain her
many victories, she had to defy the male military leaders of the time
and assert herself. Through her defiance, perseverance, and belief in a
divine mandate, she inspired her followers to action—despite her gender-
incongruent behavior (Axelrod, 2003).
After she was captured by the English, however, the popular senti-
ment toward her changed. She was imprisoned, burned at the stake for
heresy—specifically, for insisting on wearing male clothing (Wirth,
2006)—and eventually canonized as a saint (Axelrod, 2003). Her claim
of direct communication with God, which was the purview only of
male clergy at the time, and her masculine clothing suggest that she
led and behaved in a ‘‘masculine’’ manner. Her issuance of military
orders is also distinctly transactional in nature; so too was the asser-
tiveness required to see that her orders were followed.

Theodora
Theodora was an actress in the 6th century, when actresses worked
as prostitutes or in vulgar forms of entertainment. She married the

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


94 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

emperor of the Byzantine Empire, Justinian, and was immediately


crowned empress. In some historical accounts, Theodora is considered
the dominant partner in her marriage and is thought to have had con-
trol over some of Justinian’s actions, especially regarding marriage
laws. She was decisive and outspoken, according to historical legend,
and acted in an ‘‘improper, masculine’’ fashion, including insisting
upon being greeted as an equal with the emperor. She even insisted on
having followers prostrate themselves to her. She also promoted
changes in religious structure and in prostitution operations (Garland,
1999). Like Joan of Arc, Theodora appears to have led in a ‘‘masculine’’
style by being assertive, independent, and aggressive in her actions.

Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, was born in the
16th century into privilege and the potential for leadership. Despite this,
her ascendancy was difficult because she was renounced as illegitimate
because of her father’s indiscretions and divergence from Roman Cathol-
icism. After the death of her father, Elizabeth was accused of treason
and imprisoned by her half sister, Queen Mary I (daughter of Henry
VIII and Catherine of Aragon), who later died of cancer without having
declared an heir. By default, Elizabeth became queen of England
(Axelrod, 2003). Queen Elizabeth I’s subjects were especially wary when
she rose to power, due in part to her sister’s bloody reign. People of the
time believed that women were intellectually inferior to men and unable
to lead because of their feminine temperament. Men were rulers and
leaders, and that was believed to be the way of God (Axelrod, 2000).
Despite these obstacles to her ascendancy, Queen Elizabeth I led
England through a combination of leadership abilities and her feminin-
ity. This combination of roles, as a monarch and a woman, is exempli-
fied in a speech she gave to her army on the eve of an invasion by the
Spanish Armada (Axelrod, 2000):

I know I have the body of a weak, feeble woman; but I have the heart
and stomach of a king—and of a King of England, too! . . . [that] any
prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm; to
which, rather than dishonour should grow by me, I myself will take up
arms—I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of
your virtues in the field.

In supplication, Queen Elizabeth I acknowledges what the common


man believed about the inequality of women by declaring her body to
be ‘‘weak’’ and ‘‘feeble.’’ She then follows with very masculine state-
ments, wherein she claims that she has the ‘‘heart and stomach of a
king’’ and that she will be the army’s general. In essence, it seems as

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Leadership and Women 95

though Elizabeth I feels she must first acknowledge her gender con-
straints on behavior and strength so that she can make such masculine
statements.
Throughout her reign, Queen Elizabeth I led with a similar mix of
feminine and masculine leadership ideals. For instance, Axelrod (2000)
describes a speech that Elizabeth made in front of an all-male univer-
sity in which she showed respect for her subordinates by speaking in
Latin, the academic language of her day. She also acknowledged the
academicians’ good works and inquired what she could do as queen to
support the university. These actions could be described as communal
in nature because she was concentrating on acknowledging and
rewarding teamwork. (Axelrod notes that successful leaders in the
business world should acknowledge the talents of their subordinates,
speak with them, and show support.)
Queen Elizabeth I also walked with the men of the armed forces
and spoke to them directly, asserting her leadership as a judge of the
men’s actions. She said that she would share the fate of the soldiers, be
it glory or death. These statements are distinctly agentic in that they
are assertive, demanding, and finite. (Axelrod notes that leaders today
need to ensure that their subordinates believe that their leader can be
both a leader and a comrade.)
Queen Elizabeth I also maintained her leadership power by carefully
cultivating an image of herself as a Virgin Queen, much like Mary, the
Blessed Virgin, in Catholicism. She perpetuated this image by never
marrying and never producing an heir to the throne. Elizabeth knew
that if she married a man, power would shift away from herself and
onto her husband or male heir. Through this virginal image Elizabeth
also united England’s Catholics and Protestants with her emphasis on
piety, which further helped preserve her power.
A particularly feminine aspect of Queen Elizabeth I’s leadership was
her continued reliance on others: the privy, her advisors, her friends,
and her family all contributed to her decisions. She believed that the
key to success was evolution, not revolution. Therefore, she appointed
new advisors to help the country make advancements, while retaining
old and trusted advisors to maintain a sense of history and prevent
revolution. Elizabeth encouraged her followers’ loyalty by showing loy-
alty to her country. She was also unafraid of criticizing the actions of
others, although she did so without attacking personal or private
faults. This tempered forwardness of reprimands is a distinct feature of
her blend of communal and agentic leadership qualities.
In summary, Queen Elizabeth I exhibited a more feminine, commu-
nal leadership style when interacting with her people in more private
settings. As a monarch, she led in a more masculine, autocratic style,
especially when the situation called for a strong hand. Perhaps it was
this curious but effective combination of feminine and masculine

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96 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

leadership that led to Elizabeth’s success. Her mixture of agentic and


communality might well have paved the way for transformational
leadership—women’s leadership—to take root. She created a climate in
which femininity and leadership could coexist in one person.

WHICH LEADERSHIP STYLE IS BETTER?


Now that we have defined transactional and transformational lead-
ership and associated them with masculinity and femininity, respec-
tively, the following questions remain: Which is better? Which of these
two leadership styles yields greater results? Several investigators have
addressed this question with a number of different methods, which
have yielded varying results (see Eagley & Johnston, 1990, for a much
more comprehensive discussion of these studies). Eagley and Johnston
addressed these discrepancies in a thorough meta-analysis of 162 em-
pirical and non-empirical published reports, including non-technical
books on management. The non-empirical reports seem to agree that
men behave more autocratically, with hierarchal levels of power, and
problem-solve with little or no emotional involvement. Women lead-
ers, they argue, lead more democratically, with more collaboration
between leaders and subordinates, and solve problems with intuition
and empathy. On the other hand, the experimental research of social
scientists maintains that there is no significant difference between the
leadership styles of men (transactional, autocratic) and women (trans-
formational, democratic) (Berkowitz, 1953; Butterfield & Powell, 1981;
Day & Stogdill, 1972; Lee & Alvares, 1977; Rice, Instone, & Adams,
1984).
Eagley and Johnston (1990) surmised that the opposing conclusions
were arrived at from different methods of data gathering and process-
ing. Writers who insisted that there is a gender-based difference in
leadership style tended to base their findings on personal experience,
interviews with managers, and impressions derived from different
organizations. Social scientists, who argued that there is no gender dif-
ference in leadership, tended to gather data through questionnaires
and laboratory observations.
It is tempting, for someone with a scientific background, to discard
the anecdotal evidence provided by popular writers and focus only on
experimental evidence. However, both kinds of data offer valid infor-
mation about possible differences in leadership style, and both should
be considered. In summarizing their findings, Eagley and Johnston
(1990) concluded that gender differences probably exist but that they
are less pronounced in organizational settings than in laboratory or
assessment studies.
The strongest evidence of a gender-based difference in leadership
was in the tendency for women to behave more democratically than

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Leadership and Women 97

men and for men to behave more autocratically than women. Eagley
and Johnston (1990) noted that even when female and male leaders sat-
isfy the same selection criteria (e.g., work history, experiences, educa-
tion), they might differ in personality and behavioral tendencies.
Specifically, they noted that women’s interpersonal social skills would
enable them to manage more democratically than men do.
Foels, Driskell, Mullen, and Salas (2000) suggest that democratic
leadership is more satisfying to group members than autocratic leader-
ship is. In particular, they report that democratic leadership elicited a
stronger positive affect in laboratory groups as group size increased.
Furthermore, a group’s gender distribution affected satisfaction with
leadership style: Predominantly male groups were more satisfied with
an autocratic leader, whereas predominantly female groups were more
satisfied with a democratic leader. However, the gender composition of
the group was a factor only in real-world groups; all of the artificial
groups reported higher satisfaction with democratic leadership.
Although Foels and colleagues (2000) found greater group satisfac-
tion with democratic leaders, they point out that these findings are lim-
ited in real-world applications and practicality. Businesses that are
changing to a democratic leadership style will probably not notice any
appreciable difference in productivity or worker satisfaction. These
findings support Eagley and Johnston’s (1990) assertion that gender
differences do exist in the workplace and influence leadership style,
but only to a small degree.

SUMMARY
We have not entirely answered the question of which leadership
style is better. In short, the answer, unfortunately, seems to be, ‘‘It
depends.’’ It depends on group size, setting, goals, gender distribution,
etc. There is no clear answer on the superiority of transformational
leadership or transactional leadership. So what can we conclude?
We may conclude that, there are distinctive styles of leadership,
each leadership style seems to be gender-specific, and both leadership
styles, transactional, and transformational, are effective. There is no
doubt that people lead in different ways; these differences are not only
individual in nature but are influenced by gender expectations. Histori-
cally, there are exceptions: Joan of Arc and Theodora both appear to
have been masculine in their behavior and leadership qualities,
whereas Queen Elizabeth I seems to have created an effective mix of
leadership styles.
However, as women have entered the workforce and have more fre-
quently assumed leadership positions, they have discovered that the
prescribed female gender role and transactional leadership are incon-
gruent. As a result, a new form of leadership has begun to take shape.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


98 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

Integrating effective leadership with feminine, communal qualities has


led to transformational leadership. This leadership style, which is heav-
ily influenced by gender-role expectations, ease the incongruence
between being a woman and being a leader and allow women leaders
to earn the respect they deserve.
Research has shown that people respond positively to transforma-
tional, democratic leaders as well as to transactional, autocratic leaders.
Time will tell if one leadership style becomes significantly more effec-
tive than the other. It seems that the more important consideration is
not the leader but the leadership context.

REFERENCES
Axelrod, A. (2000). Elizabeth I CEO: Strategic lessons from the leader who built an
empire. Paramus, NJ: Prentice Hall Press.
Axelrod, A. (2003). Profiles in leadership. New York: Prentice Hall Press.
Berkowitz, L. (1953). Sharing leadership in small, decision-making groups. Jour-
nal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 48 (2), 231–238.
Butterfield, D. A., & Powell, G. N. (1981). Effect of group performance, leader
gender, and rater gender on ratings of leader behavior. Organizational
Behavior & Human Performance, 28 (1), 129–141.
Day, D. R., & Stogdill, R. M. (1972). Leader behavior of male and female super-
visors: A comparative study. Personnel Psychology, 25 (2), 353–360.
Eagley, A. H., & Carli, L. L. (2004). Women and men as leaders. In J. Antona-
kis, A. T. Cianciolo, & R. J. Sternberg (Eds.), The nature of leadership
(pp. 279–301). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Eagley, A. H., & Johannesen-Schmidt, M. C. (2001). The leadership styles of
women and men. Journal of Social Issues, 57 (4), 781–797.
Eagley, A. H., & Johnston, B. T. (1990). Gender and leadership style: A meta-
analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 108 (2), 233–256.
Eagley, A. H., & Wood, W. (1991). Explaining gender differences in social
behavior: A meta-analytic perspective. Personality and Social Psychology Bul-
letin, 17 (3), 306–315.
Foels, R., Driskell, J. E., Mullen, B., & Salas, E. (2000). The effects of democratic
leadership on group member satisfaction: An integration. Small Group
Research, 31 (6), 676–701.
Garland, L. (1999). Byzantine empresses: Women and power in Byzantium A.D.
527–1204. London: Routledge.
Lee, D. M., & Alvares, K. M. (1977). Effects of gender on descriptions and eval-
uations of supervisory behavior in a simulated industrial setting. Journal of
Applied Psychology, 62 (4), 405–410.
Rice, R. W., Instone, D., & Adams, J. (1984). Leader gender, leader success, and lead-
ership process: Two field studies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 69 (1), 12–31.
Ridgeway, C. L. (2001). Gender, status, and leadership. Journal of Social Issues,
57 (4), 637–655.
Rudman, L. A., & Glick, P. (2001). Prescriptive gender stereotypes and backlash
towards agentic women. Journal of Social Issues, 57 (4), 743–762.

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Leadership and Women 99

Rudman, L. A., & Kilianski, S. E. (2000). Implicit and explicit attitudes towards
female authority. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26 (11), 1315–1328.
Walumba, F. O., Wu, C., & Ojode, L. A. (2004). Gender and instructional
outcomes: The mediating role of leadership style. Journal of Management
Development, 23 (2), 124–140.
Wirth, R. (Ed.). (2006). Primary sources and context concerning Joan of Arc’s male
clothing. Historical Academy for Joan of Arc Studies. Available online.
Yoder, J. (2001). Making leadership work more effectively for women. Journal of
Social Issues, 57, 815–828.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Chapter 7

Feminist Competing Values Leadership:


An Investigation of the Roles Played
by Men and Women
Nancy Miller Frank
Alan Belasen

If effective managers are more successful than less effective managers


in handling novel or exceptional situations and generally exhibit
greater behavioral and cognitive complexity (Denison, Hooijberg, &
Quinn, 1995; Hart & Quinn, 1993), do men and women alike manifest
these behaviors in their organizational leadership roles across hierarchi-
cal levels? Are there any significant differences between men and
women across managerial levels? To answer these questions, we used
the competing values framework (explained below) to categorize the
roles that managers play and to identify gender differences.
Also relevant, however, is the question of whether women actually
manage in accordance with the predictions of feminist theory. Given
present-day attention to feminist theories of leadership, it is appropri-
ate to ask whether women align with traditional feminist role strengths
within the competing values framework compared to men. For exam-
ple, in spite of the apparent connection between transformational lead-
ership and feminist theories of leadership (Alimo-Metcalfe, 1995;
Barker & Young, 1994), are we correct in assuming that women in
particular are more likely to demonstrate transformational behaviors?
The results of a field study, though intriguing, led us to suggest that
access to higher managerial levels for women remains elusive and that
women frequently find themselves shifting into a state of hypereffectiv-
ity to advance their careers.

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102 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

In the next section we examine recent developments in research and


applications. We then review feminist theories and studies relating to
gender differences in leadership roles. Next, we identify the research
objectives and propositions for our study, examine the results, and sug-
gest a number of explanations for the interesting findings. We conclude
the study with a discussion of the hypereffective woman.

THE COMPETING VALUES FRAMEWORK


Originated by Quinn and Rohrbaugh (1983), the competing values
framework (CVF) highlights the contradictory nature of organizational
environments and the complexity of choices faced by managers when
responding to competing tensions. These responses include a variety of
managerial roles that differ by situation. The CVF displays the reper-
toire of leadership roles by aligning pairs of roles with specific organi-
zational environments (Figure 7-1). For example, the innovator and
broker roles rely on creativity and communication skills to bring about
change and to acquire the resources necessary for change management.
The monitor and coordinator roles are more relevant for system main-
tenance and integration and require project management and supervis-
ion skills. Although the director and producer roles are geared toward
goal achievement, the facilitator and mentor roles are aimed at generat-
ing a motivated work force driven by commitment and involvement.

Figure 7-1. The competing values framework.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Feminist Competing Values Leadership 103

The upper part of the framework contains transformational roles,


whereas the lower part contains transactional roles (Quinn, 1988).
Denison and Spreitzer (1991) pointed out that when managers over-
emphasize one set of values (or play certain roles extensively without
considering the other roles), the organization can become dysfunc-
tional. High-performing managers, on the other hand, display behav-
ioral complexity that allows them to master contradictory behaviors
while maintaining some measure of behavioral integrity and credibility.
The concept of paradox reinforces the idea that the structure of this be-
havioral complexity is not neat, linear, or bipolar but must take a more
complicated form (Denison et al., 1995). Support for this framework
was found in a study (Buenger, Daft, Conlon, & Austin, 1996) that
showed that giving priority to certain organizational environments
(e.g., internal processes) might impede the accomplishment of goals in
other areas (e.g., human relations).
Recently, the CVF has received renewed attention from organiza-
tional researchers and leadership development scholars. Much of this
attention has focused on the wide applicability of the CVF as a diag-
nostic and developmental tool, especially for cultural variables
(Cameron & Quinn, 1999; Garman, 2006; Igo & Skitmore, 2006), human
resource development (Belasen & Frank, 2004; Panayotopoulou, Bour-
antas, & Papalexandris, 2003), and the relationships between leadership
roles and management education (Belasen & Rufer, 2007).
Other directions of research came from investigations that set out to
modify the CVF configuration to include an additional role (Vilkinas,
2000; Vilkinas & Cartan, 2001), justification for the reordering of the
CVF roles within each quadrant (Belasen & Frank, 2005; Denison et al.,
1995), and variation in emphasizing particular roles depending on the
situation (Hooijberg, Bullis, & Hunt, 1999). A related question is how
managers actually choose appropriate roles to play and how cognitive
styles, reflected in personality traits, affect these choices. The interplay
of traits and leadership roles, for example, is a well-known tool for
selecting individuals and matching them with organizational positions
(Belasen & Frank, 2008; Dastmalchian, Lee, & Ng, 2000).
An interesting question is how managers at different hierarchical
levels classify their behaviors across the CVF levels. To answer this
question, the results of a study of managers in a large financial institu-
tion are reported in Tables 7-1, 7-2, 7-3, and 7-4 (Belasen, 1998, 2000).
One central finding of these surveys is that there are many striking
similarities in the importance of the roles played by managers at differ-
ent levels. Overall, the evidence suggests that the managers at each
level were able to identify with all eight CVF roles.
The results suggest that first-level managers can be classified as
committed intensive. These managers place a greater emphasis on the
importance of the innovator, broker, and producer roles than on all

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


104 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

Table 7-1.
Similarities and differences in motivating employees and setting
goals

Level Producer Director

All managerial . Maintains a high level of . Makes important work


levels energy decisions
. Shows motivation and effort . Sets goals
. Motivates others . Sets objectives for accom-
plishing goals
. Defines roles and expecta-
tions for employees
First level . Focuses on results and . Assigns priorities among
accomplishments multiple goals
. Gets others to excel in their
work
. Uses time and stress man-
agement
. Uses strategies to handle
delays and interruptions
Middle level . Creates high-performance . Garners support for goals
expectations in others from managers at lower
. Focuses on results and levels
accomplishments
. Considers individual differen-
ces in motivating employees
Top level . Creates high-performance . Establishes a context for
expectations in others decision making at lower
. Considers individual differen- levels
ces in motivating employees
. Gets others to excel in their
work

the other roles. These managers serve as the primary point of contact
for providing financial products and services to business clients
within the assigned market area. Committed intensives are character-
ized by the high intensity that they bring to their work. They are
almost obsessive about personal productivity for themselves and
others, to the point that they might have difficulty understanding,
and even tolerating, individuals who are not willing to work as hard
as they do (Quinn, 1988).
The middle-level managers in the sample can be described as concep-
tual producers. These managers work well in developing and selling
new ideas. This is consistent with the fact that these managers have a

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Feminist Competing Values Leadership 105

Table 7-2.
Similarities and differences in controlling work and tracking details

Level Coordinator Monitor

All managerial . Ensures that work is going . Disseminates information


levels according to schedule about policies and procedures
. Reallocates resources to . Relies on reports from
accommodate the needs of others and ensures the flow
work units of information to necessary
. Coordinates tasks and personnel and units
people . Sets up and maintains
necessary communication
channels
First level . Anticipates work flow . Oversees compliance with
problems procedures
. Plans workload adjustments
as needed
Middle level . Anticipates work flow . Interprets financial and sta-
problems tistical reports
. Schedules work flow of
tasks and projects
Top level . Determines subordinates’ . Carefully reviews the work
assignments on the basis of of others
individual skills and abilities
. Coordinates units as well
as individual employees

higher level of formal education than first-level managers do.


These individuals perceive themselves as being conceptually skilled,
production-focused, effective managers even though they pay little
attention to details. This is supported by evidence that the managers in
our sample emphasized the high importance of the innovator, broker,
producer, facilitator, and director roles at their level. The coordinator,
mentor, and monitor roles were assessed to be of less importance as
indicated by lower mean scores relative to the overall profile mean for
middle-level management.
Upper-level management appears to emphasize the external and
human interaction roles. Thus, upper management appears to be char-
acterized as open adaptive. These managers scored highly on the impor-
tance of the innovator, broker, producer, director, facilitator, and
mentor roles. It was evident that upper-level managers placed less em-
phasis on the coordinator and monitor roles. This is consistent with
research that suggests that upper-level managers spend more time
dealing with the institutional environment and the well-being of the

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


106 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

Table 7-3.
Similarities and differences in mentoring and facilitating interactions

Level Mentor Facilitator

All managerial . Gives credit to subordinates . Works to enhance em-


levels for their work and ideas ployee participation
. Maintains an open, approach- . Creates a cohesive work
able, and understanding atti- climate in the organization
tude toward subordinates
. Takes a personal interest in . Creates a sense of belong-
employees ing to the organization
First level . Helps employees work toward . Fosters a sense of team-
and prepare for promotion work among employees
. Does on-the-job training . Facilitates and leads
meetings
Middle level . Does on-the-job training . Fosters a sense of team-
. Creates opportunities for first- work among employees
line supervisors to challenge . Involves subordinates in
themselves discussions about work
matters
Top level . Advises lower level managers . Involves subordinates in
on how to handle difficult discussions about work
employee situations matters
. Creates opportunities for . Facilitates and leads
lower level managers to chal- meetings
lenge themselves

organization as a whole and are less concerned with internal processes


at the micro level.
Now we will explore the questions we asked at the beginning of this
chapter.

FEMINIST THEORY
Although indications of feminist leadership approaches appeared in
early 19th-century social movements, what became known as feminist
theory actually emerged in the social turmoil of the 1960s and 1970s
(Rusaw, 2005). Feminism is composed of several themes, but one of the
most prominent is that gender differences in behavior, cognition, and
perception derive from a combination of nature and nurture, from biol-
ogy and life history. We see these differences demonstrated in person-
alities, occupational preferences, social role identities, family role
expectations, communication preferences, and approaches to interper-
sonal relationships. Feminism also promotes beliefs in caring and com-
passion for others in the form of social responsibility and social justice

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Feminist Competing Values Leadership 107

Table 7-4.
Similarities and differences in managing change and persuasion

Level Innovator Broker

All managerial . Supports changes imposed . Builds coalitions and networks


levels on the organization among peers
. Nurtures contacts with exter- . Represents the unit to clients
nal people even when dis- and customers
agreeing with the changes
First level . Helps employees deal with . Interacts with people outside
ambiguity and delay the organization
. Assesses the potential impact . Presents ideas to managers
of proposed changes at higher levels
. Comes up with ideas for
improving the organization
. Assesses the potential impact
of proposed changes
Middle level . Turns problems into . Represents the unit to others
opportunities in the organization
. Encourages creativity among
employees
. Helps employees deal with
ambiguity and delay
. Helps subordinates see the
positive aspects of changes
Top level . Turns problems into . Represents the unit to others
opportunities in the organization
. Encourages creativity among
employees
. Personally helps individual
employees adjust to changes
in the organization
. Exerts lateral and upward
influence in the organization
. Helps subordinates see the
positive aspects of changes

issues (Gilligan, 1982; Helgeson, 1990). Feminist critiques of what they


considered masculine models of leadership appeared throughout the
1980s and 1990s (Fine & Buzzanell, 2000; Rusaw, 2005). Historically,
feminist approaches to leadership theory have roughly paralleled the
growth in applications of the CVF.
In addition to beliefs in fundamental differences between the gen-
ders, staunch adherence to social justice issues, and condemnation of
masculine leadership models, arguably the dominant theme of

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108 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

feminism is its manifest belief that male authoritarianism dominates


institutions and that this authoritarianism leads to discrimination and
institutional injustice (Barton, 2006; Irby, Brown, Duffy, & Trautman,
2002; Chin, 2004; Rosener, 1990).
Feminist critiques of management and leadership models argue that
management theories and models emphasize power and rational-legal
approaches while failing to recognize differences between the genders
in terms of motivation, communication styles, work preferences, cogni-
tive styles, and managerial style strengths. Among these differences,
for example, is the feminist preference for collegial decision-making
approaches and for pluralistic leadership that works toward shared
goals and purposes (Barker & Young, 1994). Feminist theory argues
that power does not derive from hierarchy and received authority, but
rather from shared experience, combined viewpoints, and joint
strengths. It should not be surprising that the preponderance of femi-
nist criticism of management theory seems to emanate from academia
and the field of education, institutions dominated for centuries by
male-based hierarchies (Barton, 2006; Irby et al., 2002; Fine, 2007).
The literature on women and leadership often seeks to identify
unique attributes that distinguish the styles of male and female leader-
ship, suggesting that gendered leadership styles reflect the power dif-
ferentials in society as a whole (Fine, 2007; Fine & Buzzanell, 2000) and
that masculine qualities—such as task focus, assertiveness, authorita-
tiveness, and lack of emotionality—are virtually synonymous with
leadership within the United States and Europe (Fine & Buzzanell,
2000; Izraeli & Adler, 1994; Schein, 2001). Meanwhile, as organizations
reinforce these qualities through rewards and incentives (Chin, 2004),
images such as the ‘‘glass ceiling’’ and the ‘‘glass cliff’’ (Ryan, Haslam,
& Postmes, 2007; Weyer, 2007) continue to reflect reality.
Growing interest in transformational leadership signals a promising
shift in attitudes, however. Mounting evidence that transformational
leadership contributes to increased employee motivation and perform-
ance has encouraged research into the mechanisms behind its achieve-
ments (Alimo-Metcalfe, 1995; Barker & Young, 1994; Eagley,
Johannesen-Schmidt, & Van Engen, 2003; Kark, Shamir, & Chen, 2003;
Rosener, 1990; Trinidad & Normore, 2005).
There is new support that the success of transformational leadership
can be attributed to interpersonal abilities to engender personal identifi-
cation of the follower with the leader and to promote social identification
with the work unit (Kark et al., 2003). The transformational leader affects
the feelings of the follower, creating a positive identification with both
the leader and the work unit. Ironically, this interaction is characterized
by both dependence and independence: an interpersonal dependence
between the leader and the follower and an empowering independence
that encourages work-group identification (Kark et al., 2003).

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Feminist Competing Values Leadership 109

FEMINIST THEORY AND COMPETING VALUES LEADERSHIP


ROLES
In spite of the apparent connection between transformational leader-
ship and feminist theories of leadership (Alimo-Metcalfe, 1995; Barker &
Young, 1994), however, are we correct in assuming that women in par-
ticular are more likely to demonstrate transformational behaviors?
To answer this question, we sought evidence in the literature that
men and women demonstrate different or similar managerial styles.
The argument that men and women are biologically and socially differ-
ent would certainly suggest basic dispositional and personality differ-
ences between male and female managers. Research streams support
the existence of basic personality differences between males and
females (Judge, Higgins, Thoresen & Barrick, 1999; Senykina & Linz,
2007; Xie & Whyte, 1997). For example, typically, women managers see
themselves as being more agreeable while men see themselves as being
agreeable at times and assertive at other times. Women often score sig-
nificantly higher than men on conscientiousness and national cultures
often signify this. In Russia, for example, men exhibit internal locus of
control, while women were found to have external locus of control
(Senykina & Linz, 2007).
In an interview-based study that was specifically designed to de-
velop leadership training programs that included a feminist perspec-
tive, the researchers (Irby et al., 2002) studied perceptions of effective
leadership skills. Women were seen as giving more attention to detail,
being more emotional, and being more likely to seek input from others.
Men were seen as more likely to delegate detail work to others.
In Prediger’s (1982) people–things dimension, women leaned more to-
ward the people side and men leaned more toward the things (task) side
(Lippa, 1998). However, although relation leadership was associated
with agreeableness and task leadership was associated with openness
and conscientiousness (Won, 2006), there was no support for gender dif-
ferences in relationship versus task orientation (Toren, Konrad, Yosh-
ioka, & Kashlak, 1997; Won, 2006). Although the connection of feminist
themes with transformational skill-related differences between men and
women seems to be well documented (Eagly et al., 2003), the relation-
ship of feminist beliefs to the eight CVF gender roles, particularly the
four people-focused roles, bears exploration. A feminist viewpoint
would predict the strengths from female managers shown in Table 7-5.
Unfortunately, these predictions are unsubstantiated, because research
on gender differences within the CVF is scarce, the methodologies vary
widely, and the results are mixed. For example, self-assessments of retail
sales managers place women higher than men in mentor and broker
roles (Kim & Shim, 2003); female communication and information tech-
nology managers preferred the producer role (Parker, 2004); and finally,

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


110 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

Table 7-5.
Transformational and transactional roles

Transformational Feminist theme CVF focus

Human Relations Caring Mentor


Empowering Facilitator
Open Systems Collegial Broker
Responsive Innovator

Transactional Feminist theme CVF focus

Rational Goal Consultative Director


Inclusive Producer
Internal Process Fair Coordinator
Equitable Monitor

360 assessments of both men and women found no significant differen-


ces in perceptions of role performance (Vilkanis, 2000).
Research often focuses on how women lead while rarely examining
the dispositional underpinnings that would explain why their leader-
ship styles might differ (Fine, 2007). Style and skill theories look at how
managers manage, but only recently have traits (the dispositional why)
been causally connected to managerial styles (Belasen & Frank, 2008).
Table 7-6 lists the causal relationships between traits and CVF roles.
Because trait research reports both male and female differences but
does not tie the traits to the CVF managerial role behaviors, this
research provides a unique opportunity to test for male–female differ-
ences in traits and their corresponding styles.
Because women are often seen as more emotional and people-ori-
ented, it would seem that their behaviors would align closely with
their basic dispositions and personality traits, consistent with the belief
that women are temperamentally different from men. Belasen and
Frank (2008) found direct influences of traits on managerial styles, thus
indicating that gender differences in traits should correspond to gender
differences in managerial styles.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND RESULTS


Because previous research supports women’s preferences for trans-
formational roles, we proposed the following research questions:

1. Women would prefer the transformational CVF leadership-role quad-


rants: human relations and open systems.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Feminist Competing Values Leadership 111

Table 7-6.
Traits associated with CVF roles

Traits CVF Quadrant roles

Agreeableness Human relations


Mentor
Facilitator
Openness to new ideas Open systems
Innovator
Broker
Assertiveness Rational goal
Director
Producer
Conscientiousness Internal processes
Coordinator
Monitor

2. Women would prefer the four transformational CVF leadership roles:


mentor, facilitator, broker, and innovator.
3. Trait differences would correspond to the preferred quadrant’s role dif-
ferences (in accordance with Table 7-6).

A representative sample of successful mid- and upper-level manag-


ers was selected from a pool of nearly 300 managers who were partici-
pating in an online MBA program. The respondents generally
represented higher levels of management within their organizations.
More than half represented large organizations. Finally, they repre-
sented a wide range of experience within their present positions. The
final 60-item research instrument was a consolidation of two separate
instruments that assessed competing values skills and work-related
personality traits, as measured by a new instrument.
Our findings failed to support the proposition that women would
demonstrate stronger role strengths in the four CVF transformational
leadership roles of mentor, facilitator, broker, and innovator. The CVF
quadrant of internal processes and its associated role, monitor, were
significantly different for men and women, however.
Among the explanations for the failure of our findings to support
the proposition that women would display stronger scores in the trans-
formational roles, several possibilities must be considered. First,
because our sample population came from an MBA program rather
than from helping or service organizations, it is possible that the
women who took part in the study were not strong advocates of femi-
nist theory. Self-selection into the business management field could
indicate a subset of women who are less feminist in thinking. Second,

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112 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

it is also not inconceivable that the men in our sample, because of the
educated and diverse nature of its population, yielded to behaviors
that were compatible with feminist theory and were more transforma-
tional in managerial styles than we might have anticipated. As sug-
gested by Eagley et al. (2003): ‘‘Self-definitions of managers may thus
reflect an integration of their managerial role and gender role, and
through self-regulatory processes, these composite self-definitions influ-
ence behavior, thereby shading the discretionary aspects of managerial
behavior in gender-stereotypic directions’’ (p. 572).
Third, although unlikely, it is possible that the CVF roles do not cor-
respond as strongly with transformational managerial behaviors as we
might have anticipated. In fact, while Figure 7.1 shows a configuration
of the transformational/transactional roles split between upper and
lower parts, the women in our sample showed stronger bias toward
the left side versus the right side of the CVF configuration displaying
behaviors that are closely associated with the socio-technical systems
(left side) more so than performance systems (right side). Operationali-
zation of these roles might not reflect the same constructs as previous
research on transformational leadership.
A fourth possibility is that differences in perceptions of conscien-
tiousness and monitoring would lead women to score themselves
higher than men even when there is actually little practical difference
in their behaviors (Costa, Terracciano, & McCrae, 2001).
Finally, we must consider the possibility that differences in the na-
ture of the sample might account for the previous failures to find a
strong monitoring role for women. Ultimately, we are left with the con-
clusion that, despite the fact that the other three quadrants have been
represented as showing distinctions between women and men in the
CVF in previous studies, women have not shown internal-process
quadrant strengths in previous research. This is surprising, because
traits can influence CVF role behaviors and studies have shown gender
differences in conscientiousness (Cavallo & Brienza, 2006a; Gelissen &
de Graaf, 2006), analytical cognitive styles (Hays, Allinson, &
Armstrong, 2004), and detail orientation (Irby et al., 2002).
According to Costa and colleagues (2001), personality variations
between the categories, compared to variations between the genders,
are actually fairly small. Because variations between the genders are
small, and reports of gender differences in personality rarely lead to
actual differences in managerial effectiveness (Xie & Whyte, 1997), per-
haps we should search elsewhere for our unexpected results.
Proven, successful managers are tested and honed by experience
and education. The managerial process may be viewed as evolutionary;
that is, upper levels of management are populated with higher propor-
tions of well-balanced, emotionally mature managers. Strong trait and
behavioral differences, gender-related or not, are filtered out along the

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Feminist Competing Values Leadership 113

way. Evidence of this leveling process is seen in the differences in role


strengths at the different levels of management, as well as by Xie and
Whyte (1997), who found that gender differences decreased as manage-
rial levels increased. Indeed, Xie and White found that gender differen-
ces in personality and needs were stronger than differences in
managerial attributes, indicating that although men and women might
start from different dispositions and tendencies, only those individuals
who adapt to (and allow themselves to be molded by) the requirements
of the next level in the managerial progression will increase their chan-
ces to climb the corporate ladder.

THE HYPEREFFECTIVE WOMAN


Why, with so much support for the effectiveness of transformational
leadership styles and the tendency of women to display these leader-
ship styles, do we not find this in the CVF?
One plausible answer lies in the need for women to demonstrate
value-maximizing behaviors in areas that have been traditionally
dominated by men (Irby et al., 2002). The old style of management,
which was based on trade (rather than communication) relationships
and which focused on short-term goals and competition among sub-
ordinates, stands in stark contrast to the transformational style gener-
ally preferred by women, with its focus on shared responsibility and
distributed leadership. This style fits well with the changing environ-
mental conditions that allow women to perform their leadership
roles by using their networks of social interactions and through in-
clusive decision-making processes that encourage participation and
ownership.
Already playing the CVF roles effectively, the women in our sample
seemed to shift their energy from personal, non–value-maximizing
behaviors to performance-enhancing activities, thus becoming hyperef-
fective. Belasen, Benke, DiPadova, and Fortunato (1996), who examined
the reactions of middle managers to downsizing, found that managers
have become hypereffective in performing their roles. The significant
increase in seven of the eight roles, including the critical producer and
director roles of the competing values framework, suggested that the
sample of managers studied might have become not only more effec-
tive but also what the researchers labeled hypereffective. Movement to-
ward efficiency was not conclusive, but the pattern of change in the
tasks and responsibilities underlying the roles suggested a severe loss
of discretionary time and an increase in the sense of powerlessness
among the managers surveyed.
Furthermore, the in-depth interviews conducted by the researchers
supported these preliminary findings. The reason that transactional
roles (e.g., director, producer, coordinator) increased was that the

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


114 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

managers had been working much longer and harder. Increased organ-
izational efficiency came about only, in part, as a result of changes in
work processes (reflected in part by shifting roles within the competing
values framework). The larger source of productivity gain was most
likely the result of the vastly increased allocation of managerial activity
from personal (non–value-maximizing) activities to activities enhancing
organizational effectiveness (Belasen et al., 1996).
A later study of the impact of hypereffectivity led the researchers to
conclude that this process is unsustainable, requiring top executives
and human resources directors to pay close attention to the work con-
text that breeds conditions of hypereffectivity and to develop possible
remedies (Belasen & Frank, 2004). Reminiscent of the Hawthorne
Effects and the dynamics that lead female employees to exceed expect-
ations, it is not too uncommon to conclude that the women in our sam-
ple, wanting to demonstrate their superior skills over their male
counterparts, resorted to the overemphasis of the CVF internal-process
quadrant and its accompanying roles, in particular the monitor.

CONCLUSION
Today’s women are emmanently qualified for executive responsibil-
ities. Taking advantage of their strengths in interpersonal and social
skills, for example, they excel in leveraging rewards power through the
granting of implicit rewards, such as personal expressions of apprecia-
tion, and information power through the explicit reward distribution of
information. However, access to higher managerial levels remains elu-
sive, and women frequently find themselves shifting into a state of
hypereffectivity to advance their careers. Human resource recruiters
and trainers should take this risky tendency into account in their selec-
tion processes and in their design of executive development programs.
Diversity is not achieved by pressuring women to overachieve in those
CVF roles outside their core strengths. A more suitable approach
would be to help women maximize all of their skills while simultane-
ously helping them learn to recognize the risks of hypereffectivity. One
approach, for example, might be to help women identify potentially
demanding projects and recommend that they set time limits on overly
demanding job assignments to prevent possible burnout. Another
approach might be to help them learn to overcome their weaker areas
by leveraging their strengths or by bringing in others with compensat-
ing strengths.
By focusing on continued improvement while tempering the drive
for success with an astute allocation of innate strengths and energy,
women can reach their full potential at the executive level.

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Feminist Competing Values Leadership 115

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Chapter 8

Sexual Harassment in the Workplace


Krystle C. Woods
Nicole T. Buchanan

Bonnie enters her office building and apprehensively looks around to


see if her coworker Carl has arrived. When there is no sign of him, she
breathes a sigh of relief and hurries to the break room. While pouring
her coffee, she suddenly feels him directly behind her, and her body
goes cold. In a feigned attempt to reach for a cup, he presses against
her and whispers, ‘‘Excuse me’’ with a wry smile. Bonnie grabs her
coffee and hurries for the door, feeling embarrassed and humiliated, as
if she were somehow responsible for Carl’s behavior. Despite Bonnie’s
attempts to avoid him, Carl has found a way to corner her two or more
times a week for several months. After realizing that she will have to
face him in a meeting later that afternoon, she becomes increasingly ill.
She can no longer concentrate on her work, and she develops a head-
ache that requires her to leave for the rest of the day.
This scene depicts workplace sexual harassment, which will be expe-
rienced by 50% of women at work (Fitzgerald & Shullman, 1993; Ilies,
Hauserman, Schwochau, & Stibal, 2003) and will cause a variety of
negative health, work, and psychological consequences (Dansky & Kil-
patrick, 1997; Munson, Hulin, & Drasgow, 2000; Rospenda, Richman,
Ehmke, & Zlatoper, 2005; Schneider, Swan, & Fitzgerald, 1997).
This chapter provides an overview of current theories and research
on workplace sexual harassment. Legal and psychological definitions
of sexual harassment, legal jurisprudence history, and the organiza-
tional antecedents and consequences of workplace harassment are
reviewed. Emphasis is placed on the work, health, and psychological
problems experienced by sexually harassed women and the coping

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120 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

strategies they use. The chapter concludes with a discussion of con-


cerns specific to minority women, directives for preventing sexual har-
assment in organizations, and directions for future research.

WHAT IS SEXUAL HARASSMENT?


Sexual harassment has been defined as both a psychological and a
legal phenomenon. Psychologically, sexual harassment is defined as
unwanted gender-based comments and behaviors that are considered
offensive by the people who are targeted, that exceed their available
coping resources, or that threaten their well-being (Fitzgerald, Swan, &
Magley, 1997). Three types of sexual harassment behaviors have also
been identified (Fitzgerald, Gelfand, & Drasgow, 1995; Fitzgerald,
Shullman, Bailey, Richards, Swecker, & Gold, 1988).
The first is gender harassment, which includes negative, non-sexual,
gender-based comments and behaviors, such as statements that women
are less intelligent than men or that they cannot do certain jobs because
it is ‘‘men’s work.’’ Unwanted sexual attention includes verbal and non-
verbal unsolicited comments, gestures, or attempts at physical contact,
such as attempts to touch or kiss someone or repeated requests for
dates. Sexual coercion encompasses any job-related threats or benefits
that are contingent upon compliance with sexual demands, such as a
supervisor promising to promote a worker only if she is sexually coop-
erative, or terminate employment if she refuses. Contrapower sexual har-
assment is another form that may include any of the above subtypes,
but involves a subordinate sexually harassing his or her superior
(Rospenda, Richman, & Nawyn, 1998).
Legal definitions address two forms of sexual harassment: quid pro
quo and hostile environment. Quid pro quo is the legal equivalent of
sexual coercion; it addresses any attempt to coerce sexual interactions
by threatening another’s employment. A hostile work environment is cre-
ated when unwanted gender-based behaviors become sufficiently per-
vasive that an employee perceives the general work environment to be
hostile and/or her job performance has been negatively affected (Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission [EEOC], 1980). Frequently, hos-
tile environment charges result from behaviors that would fall under
the behavioral definitions of gender harassment or unwanted sexual
attention.

INFLUENTIAL COURT DECISIONS IN SEXUAL HARASSMENT


JURISPRUDENCE
Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson (1986) was one of the most influential
cases in sexual harassment jurisprudence. This was the first U.S.

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Sexual Harassment in the Workplace 121

Supreme Court ruling that declared that sexual harassment is a form of


gender discrimination and a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights
Act of 1964. Determining which behaviors constitute prosecutable har-
assment has been an evolving process. In this first ruling, the Supreme
Court held that sexual misconduct can constitute sexual harassment
even when there are no tangible economic costs, thus establishing the
theory that a hostile environment can constitute gender discrimination
when its severity or pervasiveness creates an abusive work environ-
ment (Hogler, Frame, & Thornton, 2002).
Additional cases, such as Ellison v. Brady (1991) and Harris v. Forklift
Systems, Inc. (1993a) extended conceptualizations of a hostile environ-
ment by focusing on the subjective experience of a reasonable woman or
a reasonable person. In these cases, the jurors were urged to judge the
plaintiff’s experience against what a ‘‘reasonable woman would con-
sider sufficiently severe or pervasive’’ (Ellison, p. 879) and from ‘‘the
perspective of a reasonable person’s reaction to a similar environment
under essentially like or similar circumstances’’ (Harris, pp. 21–22). The
‘‘reasonable woman’’ standard had important judicial and organiza-
tional ramifications. Most important, its use increased the likelihood of
a court ruling in favor of the plaintiff by more than 26% (Perry, Kulik,
& Bourhis, 2004). As a result, organizations found further motivation
to not only set objective standards of what constitutes harassment but
also to assign meaning to the subjective experience of women.

WHY SEXUAL HARASSMENT OCCURS: SOCIOCULTURAL AND


ORGANIZATIONAL THEORIES
Sociocultural theory asserts that sexual harassment is an extension
of the general gender-role socialization process. Men are socialized and
rewarded for ‘‘dominance, sexual initiative, and self-interest,’’ whereas
women are socialized for ‘‘submissiveness, sexual gatekeeping,’’ and
self-sacrifice (Tangri & Hayes, 1997, p. 121). These socialization proc-
esses, as well as sexual harassment, function to maintain male eco-
nomic power by intimidating women in the workplace.
Conversely, organizational theories that focus on gender-role
‘‘spillover’’ and organizational power and climate have also been
posited. Gender-role spillover theory suggests that gendered expecta-
tions of behavior are brought into the workplace (Gutek & Morasch,
1982), making a woman’s gender more salient than her work iden-
tity. This in turn causes women to be treated differently from their
male coworkers and to be exposed to sexually harassing behaviors.
Such dynamics are exacerbated in male-dominated workplaces, which
increases both hostility toward and sexual harassment of women
who defy gendered work norms (Berhdahl, 2007; Morgan & Gruber,
2005).

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122 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

Formal and informal differences in men’s and women’s status and


organizational power can also be used by men to sexually intimidate
female workers (Cleveland & Kerst, 1993). Formal power, which
includes the hierarchy of positions held within the organization and
the relevance of such positions to the central mission of the organiza-
tion, is usually held by men. Furthermore, men frequently have more
informal power than women with comparable positions in the organi-
zation; this is created and maintained by their access to greater support
from peers, mentoring, and decision-making power (DiTomaso, 1989;
Ragins & Sundstrom, 1989). According to this theory, sexual harass-
ment is an extension of an organizational culture that grants male
workers organizational power over their female colleagues.
The above theories explain the function of harassment in some cases,
but not all. For example, sociocultural theory cannot account for har-
assment that occurs outside the workplace; gender-role spillover does
not explain why some men harass and others do not; and theories of
formal and informal organizational power do not fully account for the
fact that women are harassed by colleagues and subordinates as well as
by supervisors (Wayne, 2000). Because no one theory explains all types
of sexual harassment, a comprehensive model that addresses all these
layers is appropriate.

THE INTEGRATED PROCESS MODEL OF SEXUAL


HARASSMENT IN ORGANIZATIONS
Figure 8-1 illustrates the theory that workplace sexual harassment is
the result of the organizational climate and job-gender context and
leads to detrimental work, mental health, and physical health outcomes
(Fitzgerald, Drasgow, Hulin, Gelfand, & Magley, 1997; Fitzgerald,
Hulin, & Drasgow, 1995). Organizational climate refers to the degree to
which an organization is tolerant of sexual harassment (e.g., harass-
ment is modeled by superiors; harassers are not reprimanded). Job-
gender context refers to the job-gender ratio of the work group and
whether the job is traditionally considered a male or female occupa-
tion. A number of negative consequences of harassment have been
documented, such as lowered work satisfaction, increased absenteeism,
depression, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and gastrointestinal prob-
lems (Dansky & Kilpatrick, 1997; Munson et al., 2000; O’Connell &
Korabik, 2000; Schneider et al., 1997; Willness, Steel, & Lee, 2007).
Further research on the sexual harassment process has uncovered
additional factors that influence the perceived severity of the experi-
ence. Women who had a history of sexual harassment or who were
harassed by someone of higher status were more distressed by the sex-
ually harassing experience (Langhout, Bergman, Cortina, Fitzgerald,
Drasgow, & Williams, 2005), and women who experienced interracial

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Sexual Harassment in the Workplace 123

Figure 8-1. The Integrated Process Model

sexual harassment appraised their harassment as more severe (Woods &


Buchanan, 2007). According to theories of stress and appraisal (Laz-
arus & Folkman, 1984), subjective appraisal leads to differences in the
distress level that various individuals experience in response to similar
situations. Accordingly, the target’s appraisal of harassment has been
found to mediate the relationship between sexual harassment and neg-
ative work, health, and psychological consequences (Langhout et al.,
2005; Swan, Fitzgerald, & Magley, 1996).

WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT?


Experiences of sexual harassment have been linked to work-related
problems for those who are targeted. Studies have found that sexually
harassed women report lower job satisfaction, work productivity, and
supervisor satisfaction, as well as increased absenteeism (Langhout et
al., 2005; Lapierre, Spector, & Leck, 2005; O’Connell & Korabik, 2000;
Stockdale, 1998). Targets have also reported higher turnover rates and
lower levels of organizational commitment (Munson et al., 2000;
Schneider et al., 1997).
Physical and emotional distress are also common after harassment.
Among sexually harassed female federal employees, reports of negative
emotional and physical consequences of harassment were seen in the
thousands (U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board [USMSPB], 1981, 1987).
Among victims of sexual harassment who sought help from the Work-
ing Women’s Institute, 63% reported negative physical symptoms, and
94% reported emotional distress (Crull, 1982). Other physical conse-
quences of sexual harassment include appetite changes, headaches, gas-
trointestinal distress, and sleep disorders (Fitzgerald, Drasgow et al.,
1997). Although the link between sexual harassment and negative
physical health is clear, it is suspected to be a secondary effect of
increased psychological distress (Fitzgerald, Drasgow et al., 1997).
The negative effect of sexual harassment on mental health has also
been well documented. Specifically, sexual harassment has been

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124 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

associated with lower overall psychological well-being and higher rates


of depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress symptoms (Dansky &
Kilpatrick, 1997; Glomb, Munson, Hulin, Bergman, & Drasgow, 1999;
Richman, Rospenda, Nawyn, Flaherty, Fendrich, & Drum 1999; Schnei-
der et al., 1997; Shupe, Cortina, Ramos, Fitzgerald, & Salisbury, 2002).
Some sexually harassed women also show an increased use of pre-
scription drugs, drinking to intoxication, and escapist drinking motives
(e.g., to decrease tension, escape problems, feel better, or forget painful
memories or worries) (Richman, Rospenda, Flaherty, Freels, & Zlat-
oper, 2004). Victims of sexual harassment sometimes turn to prescrip-
tion drugs and alcohol to self-medicate, which places them at increased
risk for alcohol abuse or dependence and more serious psychological
problems over time.
These negative effects frequently persist long after the harassment
has ended. For example, in a longitudinal study on the effects of har-
assment, Glomb and colleagues (1999) found that even after 2 years,
sexual harassment was associated with lower psychological well-being,
less satisfaction with life, and more posttraumatic symptoms than in
women without this history.

COPING WITH SEXUAL HARASSMENT


Coping refers to any cognitive or behavioral strategy that is used to
reduce the stress of a traumatic event (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) such
as sexual harassment. The Lazarus and Folkman model suggests that
someone who is confronted with a stressful situation will employ ei-
ther problem-focused or emotion-focused coping strategies. Problem-
focused strategies are attempts to manage or change the situation (e.g.,
reporting the incident); emotion-focused strategies are attempts to man-
age one’s thoughts or feelings about the event (e.g., avoiding thoughts
about the event or reframing the situation in a more favorable manner).
Sexual harassment researchers have built on this model to better
understand the coping strategies that are frequently used by sexually
harassed women (Fitzgerald et al., 1995; Magley, 2002).
Knapp, Faley, Ekeberg, and Dubois (1997) proposed four categories
of coping methods: avoidance-denial (avoiding physical proximity with
the perpetrator or avoiding any thoughts of the event); social support
(relying on others for emotional support and advice; confrontation-
negotiation (approaching the perpetrator directly and insisting that the
harassment cease); and advocacy seeking (reporting the incident to
organizational authorities).
One study found that the type of coping method that is used is influ-
enced by the characteristics of the target, the harassing event, and the
culture (Cortina & Wasti, 2005). For instance, avoidance-denial coping
was used more frequently by women in collectivist, patriarchal cultures.

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Sexual Harassment in the Workplace 125

Women who experienced higher levels of unwanted sexual attention


were more likely to utilize coping methods from each category.
Buchanan, Settles, and Langhout (in press) found that their sample
of Black women commonly used avoidance and denial, but as the har-
assment increased in frequency and severity, they utilized additional
coping strategies, including confrontation. These findings follow Laza-
rus and Folkman’s (1984) theory that coping strategies diversify as
stressor severity increases and might also reflect that coping with sex-
ual harassment is a dynamic process in which women adapt their strat-
egies over time, depending on the strategies’ usefulness in ending the
harassment (Magley, Fitzgerald, & Buchanan, 2000).
Many different coping methods have been employed by harassed
women, but do any methods lead to positive results? One study of
African-American women serving in the U.S. armed forces found that
the women who used confrontation coping had the best psychological
outcomes, whereas those who used advocacy seeking (e.g., filing a
complaint) experienced the worst work outcomes (Buchanan et al., in
press). Although this study does provide valuable insight, more
research is necessary to determine how the various methods of coping
lead to positive or negative consequences. The study’s focus on Afri-
can-American women does, however, begin to highlight some of the
issues specific to the sexual harassment of ethnic minority women.

SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND WOMEN OF COLOR


Harassment has been studied in both academic and work settings,
but few researchers have considered the role that race plays in these
settings and its effects on sexual harassment. Theoretical and empirical
work addressing the sexual harassment experiences of women of color
is emerging (Adams, 1997; Berdahl & Moore, 2006; Buchanan, 2005; Bu-
chanan & Fitzgerald, in press; Buchanan & Ormerod, 2002; Cortina,
2004; Cortina, Fitzgerald, & Drasgow, 2002; Martin, 1994; Mecca &
Rubin, 1999; Moradi & Subich, 2003; Muliawan & Kleiner, 2001; Reder-
storff, Buchanan, & Settles, 2007; Texeira, 2002; Whitson, 1997; Wyatt &
Reiderle, 1995; Yoder & Aniakudo, 1996, 1997), but remains sparse.
This body of research theorizes that factors such as being both a mi-
nority and female (double jeopardy; Beal, 1970) and sexual stereotypes
influence the prevalence and type of sexual harassment experienced
among minority women. Consistent with theory, empirical studies
have found that the harassment experiences of ethnic minority and
Caucasian women do differ in a number of ways, including higher
prevalence (Berdahl & Moore, 2006; Cortina, Swan, Fitzgerald, &
Waldo, 1998), greater severity (e.g., gender harassment versus
unwanted sexual attention; Cortina et al., 1998; Nelson & Probst, 2004),
and racialized content (e.g., racially sexualizing behaviors; Buchanan,

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126 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

2005; Buchanan & Ormerod, 2002; Woods & Buchanan, 2007) associ-
ated with the sexual harassment experiences of women of color.
Minority women experience sexual racism (Essed, 1992) and racial-
ized sexual harassment (Buchanan, 2005; Buchanan & Ormerod, 2002;
Texiera, 2002) as unique forms of harassment that combine race and
gender simultaneously. Although much of the harassment literature has
described sexual and racial harassment as distinct, actual experiences of
harassment are often fused in such a way that the two forms become
indistinguishable (Buchanan & Ormerod, 2002; Collins, 2000; Essed,
1992). Studies of Black female firefighters and police officers, Filipina
women, and Latina working women offer evidence for the presence of
these behaviors (Cortina et al., 2002; Welsh, Carr, MacQuarrie, & Hunt-
ley, 2006; Texiera, 2002; Yoder & Aniakudo, 1996, 1997). These examples
call upon sexualized stereotypes of minority women (e.g., being called
‘‘mamacita’’ or a ‘‘geisha’’) and physical features thought to vary by race
(e.g., comments about a Black woman’s ‘‘large Black behind’’).
Although the negative work and psychological consequences of sex-
ual harassment have been well studied, the consequences of racialized
sexual harassment are less well known. Nevertheless, the evidence
asserts that it is present in a variety of institutions and can merge to
target other marginalized populations, such as lesbians (Bowleg,
Huang, Brooks, Black, & Burkholder, 2003; DeFour, David, Diaz, &
Thompkins, 2003).

SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND THE ORGANIZATION:


PREVENTION AND INVESTIGATION
Independent of litigation expenses, the cost of sexual harassment for
organizations is in the millions of dollars annually, in terms of absen-
teeism, reduced productivity, and job turnover (Faley, Knapp, Kustis,
& Dubois, 1999; Sims, Drasgow, & Fitzgerald, 2005). Given the negative
work outcomes, psychological distress, and increased litigation associ-
ated with harassment, it is in the organization’s best interest to develop
sexual harassment prevention methods. Employers can limit organiza-
tional liability in sexual harassment cases by using ‘‘reasonable care’’
to prevent or address incidents of harassment (Burlington Industries v.
Ellerth, 1998).
For legal purposes, reasonable care includes creating an antiharass-
ment policy, training employees in sexual harassment recognition and
penalties, promptly investigating any charges of harassment, and tak-
ing corrective action in harassment cases (Paludi & Paludi, 2003). An
antiharassment policy should include a statement of the organization’s
commitment to a harassment-free environment, a legal definition of
sexual harassment, and a description of disciplinary procedures for
perpetrators (Levy & Paludi, 2002).

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Sexual Harassment in the Workplace 127

Sexual harassment training involves educating employees on the


antiharassment policy and providing instructions for confronting and
reporting a harasser (Flynn, 1991). When such practices are enacted,
they can effectively reduce harassment within an organization (Wil-
liams, Fitzgerald, & Drasgow, 1999). Furthermore, because distress af-
ter harassment is exacerbated when the organizational response is
poor (Bond, Punnett, Pyle, Cazeca, & Cooperman, 2004), effective com-
plaint procedures decrease the likelihood of litigation and can even
limit an organization’s liability if the case is litigated (Hogler et al.,
2002).
When harassment has not been prevented, harassment investigations
should be conducted by an impartial party whose goal is to interview
the target, the perpetrator, and any witnesses. Ideally, the investigator
should be trained in sexual harassment policy and draft a report that is
presented to an organizational panel. The panel makes a decision, and
either side is allowed to appeal the ruling (Gutek, 1997). Disciplinary
actions may include an organizational transfer or a requirement that
the perpetrator attend sexual harassment counseling (Bell, Cycyota, &
Quick, 2002). As studies of the sexual harassment process have shown,
an organization’s tolerance of harassment, whether communicated for-
mally or informally to its workers, is associated with a higher fre-
quency of sexual harassment (Glomb et al., 1999). This suggests that
proactive prevention strategies have real power.

CONCLUSION
Sexual harassment research has sought to define harassment, explain
why it occurs, and explore the associated risk factors and outcomes.
Lower job satisfaction, work productivity, and supervisor satisfaction,
as well as increased absenteeism, turnover, depression, posttraumatic
stress symptoms, and health problems have all been associated with
sexual harassment, making it costly to the women who are targeted as
well as to the organizations in which they work. Women who have
been harassed use a variety of methods to cope with their experiences
and continue to adapt their responses; this indicates an active intent to
end their harassment, even when their responses appear to be passive,
such as ignoring the behavior.
Although guidelines for the prevention of sexual harassment in
organizations have been outlined by the courts and by researchers, the
need for studies on the efficacy of these prevention programs remains.
In addition, greater attention to the needs of marginalized workers,
such as women of color and lesbians, who often experience double or
triple jeopardy, is long overdue. Future research must begin to concen-
trate on these issues to provide proven solutions and a secure working
environment for all working women.

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128 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

REFERENCES
Adams, J. H. (1997). Sexual harassment and Black women: A historical perspec-
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132 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

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© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Chapter 9

Uncovering and Countering


Sexual Harassment in Israel:
A New Career Path
Ayelet Giladi

When I wrote a paper on gender and sexual harassment (SH) in the


workplace in Israel in one of my master’s degree courses at the He-
brew University of Jerusalem in 1996, I had no idea what effect it
would have on my career. This was a period of growing awareness
and initiatives against SH. I chose to study the topic in Jerusalem
hotels, focusing on the behavior of male guests toward chambermaids
and waitress, whom I interviewed.
While I was writing a chapter on the theoretical background, the
question arose of whether SH occurs only in high schools, universities,
and workplaces or starts earlier in the socialization process. Almost all
references I found at that time related to SH in the workplace. Since
then, I have been directing my attention to the roots of SH in Israeli
society.
In 1998, I submitted my paper on SH of young children between 4
and 7 years old, the first study in this field in Israel. At that time, I
was working as a manager in the life insurance department of a large
insurance company.
I became hooked on discovering the roots of this phenomenon.
Within a month, I decided to quit my job and devote the next few
years to sociological research for a PhD dissertation on when and how
SH occurs for the first time in the course of one’s life. I realized that
this would make life more difficult for my family because we would
have to do without my salary, but I was not aware that this decision

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


134 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

would lead to a challenging career with opportunities to take public


action.
Later that year, the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) passed a law
against SH. The law defines SH and sets down rules to prevent it in
the workplace, including the army and the police. It aimed to restore
personal respect, honor, freedom, and privacy and advance equality
between the sexes. This law reinforced my feeling that speaking to
young children and their educators about SH from the viewpoint of
respect and equality was important.
In my extensive reading, I came across the name of Dr. Susan
Strauss, who was among the first to report on SH in young children.
She helped me—first by giving me a great deal of moral support and
telling me about methods and other material by e-mail, and later by
coming to Israel and lecturing on SH to the top professional staff at the
Ministry of Education. This empowered me to continue my work and
made me understand how important networking is for helping women.
This work connection with Susan led to a very special friendship de-
spite the long distance between us. I could always count on Susan to
give the much-needed moral support whenever I felt like a fox in the
desert in my pioneering research on SH of young children.
After realizing that there was no one in Israel who could help me
with my specific research topic, at the Hebrew University’s recommen-
dation, I asked Prof. Janet Moyels in London, England, who does quali-
tative applied sociological research on this issue in young children, to be
my supervisor. To complete my thesis, I had to make the very difficult
decision of being away from home for long periods, with my youngest
daughter only 1 year old at the time. Looking back, it was like being
infected with a virus I had to overcome. Nobody could stop me. With a
great deal of help from my family—Oren, Nufar, Nir, and Tal—I man-
aged to accomplish this innovative research project in 4 years and then
go on to promote awareness of this phenomenon in Israel.
Meanwhile, in 2000, Mr. Itzik Mordechai, Minister of Defense at the
time, was found guilty of SH. This phenomenon became more and
more widely recognized. At that time, it was still taboo to speak to
children in kindergartens or primary schools about SH.
At the time of this writing, Mr. Ramon, Minister of Justice, has just
been found guilty of indecent acts, and the President of Israel is facing
trial for rape, SH, and indecent acts with several women who worked
under him. It is difficult to believe that such progress in considering
petting as sexual harassment has been made so soon. Clearly, the
younger generation understands the implications of the law against
SH, while the older generation, especially men over 50, are still having
problems with it and find it hard to change their behavior patterns.
On the contrary, the younger generation, now becoming parents,
does not tolerate undesirable behavior with their children and want

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Uncovering and Countering Sexual Harassment in Israel 135

them to find out how to avoid being sexually harassed. For this and
other reasons, I am heading a new group, ‘‘Voice of the Child Associa-
tion’’—for the prevention of sexual harassment among young children.
We are working with the media to raise awareness and promote a law
relating to SH in children under the age of 13 years.
Last year, I started teaching a seminar on SH in young children at
the Kibbutz College. The students in their fourth year of training as
kindergarten teachers and teachers carry out research on this phenom-
enon in first- and second-grade kindergartens. I find it rewarding to
teach the sensitive methodology I developed in my thesis, based on the
signs appearing in a young child prior to harassing behavior of his or
her friend and the expression of SH. The students are given a full set
of tools for asking about SH and examining and interpreting their
observations relating to sexual violence and for equipping children to
avoid SH. At the end of the academic year, students submit seminar
papers about their work, and, in this way, are ‘‘ambassadors’’ for this
important cause.
It is amazing to see the students realizing that they have been
‘‘blind’’ toward certain behaviors. This underlined for me the impor-
tance of the relation is between theory and field work for understand-
ing the motivation behind such behavior, identifying the different
stages and learning to use the various available tools. Thus, our work
is highly significant and is only the beginning of a long process.
During the last 4 years, it has become clear to me that I that my task is
to make people aware of this new form of behavior. In my research,
observing children’s games in kindergarten and the first grade of school, I
found that 20% of the children had experienced SH. Although it has
always been there, most educators and parents did not refer to it as SH,
but rather accepted it as a curiosity among young children, which is
undesirable and should be prevented—boys will be boys, etc.
The next stage was to provide SH prevention tools for kindergarten
and school teachers based on strategies developed by Dr. Strauss. Two
prevention programs were devised, focusing on gender and equality
between the sexes and referring to violence, in general, and SH, in par-
ticular: (1) for young children from kindergarten to second grade
(between 4 and 8 years old) and; (2) for fifth- and sixth-grade pupils
(between 11 and 13 years old).
These programs are now being taught in various places in the coun-
try. We are currently seeking funding in Israel and abroad to extend
this program to special-needs, Arab, Druze, Ethiopian, and Russian
populations in the appropriate mother tongues.
This shift in my career has led to two main directions: Specialization
in this field, including teaching, lecturing and research, and taking the
initiative to increase awareness of this phenomenon both in Israel and
worldwide.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


136 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

The commitment to raise awareness of SH among children has


turned to into a lifetime goal. However, pioneering a new field is
accompanied by feelings of isolation, frustration, and many hurdles to
cross. At the same time, if such programs had been available and
implemented in kindergartens and schools years ago, many SH cases
perpetrated by politician, public figures, and men in the workplace,
which often make the news headlines, may have been prevented.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Chapter 10

Career Preparation Programs in High


Schools: How Do Schools Ready
Students for Life and Work?
Beatrice Hall

It has now been more than half a century since the U.S. Supreme Court
wrote its eloquent paean to public education (Brown v. Board of Educa-
tion, 1954):

Today, education is perhaps the most important function of state and local
governments. Compulsory school attendance laws and the great expendi-
tures for education both demonstrate our recognition of the importance of
education to our democratic society. It is required in the performance of
our most basic public responsibilities, even service in the armed forces. It
is the very foundation of good citizenship. Today it is a principal instru-
ment in awakening the child to cultural values, in preparing him for later
professional training, and in helping him adjust normally to his environ-
ment. In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be
expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education.

Given the lofty personal and societal expectations for education rep-
resented in this passage, few would argue that career preparation is
the first purpose for the nation to establish and maintain public
schools. However, many, and indeed the Court itself, would assert that
the ability to earn a respectable living is essential to the well-being of
both the individual and the larger community. An association between
schooling and career opportunities is justified both theoretically and
experimentally. If, as some have said, education is more a journey than
a destination, at this historical moment it appears that many students

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


138 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

in U.S. schools are making short, rough ‘‘trips’’—this at a time when


much study points to the urgent need for longer, smoother ‘‘journeys’’
to prepare students for careers in a radically changed, globalized,
information-driven workplace.
This chapter will discuss trends regarding high school completion
rates and student enrollment and persistence in postsecondary educa-
tional settings because now, more than ever, secondary and post-
secondary attainment determine career choices and earnings levels.
These graduation trends, like all complex social phenomena, reflect a
mixture of good and bad news—for individuals, for racial groups, and
for the nation. A selection of current ‘‘reform’’ policies and practices in
high schools will then be discussed; these are innovations that offer
some promise to make educational journeys more empowering and
more useful for students’ lives and careers.
Today, and for the foreseeable future, rigorous high-challenge learn-
ing will be essential to all aspects of a satisfying and productive life.

EDUCATION LEVELS AND SALARY CATEGORIES


The good and bad news is ‘‘told in bold’’ in Diplomas Count 2007, an
annual report produced by the Editorial Projects in Education (EPE)
Research Center (2007); statistics from all 50 states document the ines-
capable trend that decent-paying careers require increased education or
training. The analysis examines the U.S. Department of Labor’s statisti-
cal data on five job classifications, or ‘‘zones,’’ and the number of
workers in those zones in each state.
The five job zones are defined on the basis of the education, experi-
ence, and training required to prepare for the various occupations. For
example, job zones 1 and 2 call for a high school diploma or less and lit-
tle in the way of training or experience. Occupations such as cashiers,
taxi drivers, sheet metal workers, and bank tellers are classified as zone 1
and 2 jobs. The median income for zone 1 is $12,638, and for zone 2 it is
$24,460. Zones 3, 4, and 5 generally demand substantial postsecondary
education or training and typically pay more than $40,000 annually; the
median for zone 5 is $59,113. Nationally, more than 76 million jobs in
fields such as law, computer programming, teaching, and engineering
fall into zones 3, 4, and 5 (EPE, 2007, pp. 15, 18, 20). Figures like these
indicate that a person’s educational attainments can usually be accurately
predicted when only his or her salary is known, and vice versa.
EPE (2007) also contains survey and interview data from trade and
business representatives, research groups, and college faculty. The goal
of these surveys was to learn what specific kinds of learning were
expected or sought by those who deal with students after high school
and postsecondary training. The existence of state-level education offi-
ces makes the coordination of expectations for K–12 and higher

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Career Preparation Programs in High Schools 139

education institutions regarding student readiness somewhat more


likely than a parallel coordination for highly varied businesses.
Still, the high attrition rates, about 50% for community college stu-
dents and about 25% at 4-year institutions (Kirst, 2004), suggest that
many high school graduates who appeared ready for college were not,
in fact. National and state-level reports from employer groups serve to
identify at least some academic and personal skills (also called soft skills
or applied skills) that business and industry seek in the people they hire.
EPE (2007) summarizes several key areas that both college and busi-
ness leaders identify as essential to success.
In academic areas, the crucial skills include competence in reading
and writing informational texts, oral communication and presentation
skills, and facility with math reasoning and problem solving. There are
disagreements about the significance of advanced math courses such as
Algebra 2, which has been associated with college and workplace suc-
cess. The soft skills that were identified as necessary but often lacking
include the following: personal accountability and work ethic, ability to
work with others, time management, and attendance and punctuality.
If employers and colleges found these academic and personal skills de-
ficient in large numbers of high school graduates, how much more
alarming must the work readiness picture be for the 30% percent of
adolescents who fail to graduate from high school?
The EPE (2007) data clarify the consistent association between level
of education and level of income that is our current employment real-
ity. This is compelling information, and its main value may be to fur-
nish a worthwhile starting point for problem-solving dialogues among
schools, businesses, and civic institutions. Such dialogues should focus,
with a fresh urgency, on consensus building about the content,
sequence, duration, and context of the educational experiences that
schools (and other institutions) provide to the nation’s young people.
A one-size-fits-all formula cannot be the goal of the stakeholder recom-
mendations to enhance current and future educational effectiveness.
Rather, given our complex societal needs and various human resour-
ces, planning should identify many ‘‘right mixes’’ for empowering stu-
dents to enjoy decent lives and livelihoods. Because the careers in
zones 3, 4, and 5 require college and/or technical training, an examina-
tion of how high school youth have been faring in recent years, and
any evident trends among different groups, can offer valuable insights
about high school-to-college transitions and perseverance.

COLLEGE ENROLLMENT, GRADUATION, GENDER, AND


GROUP IMPLICATIONS
According to the Education Trust (1999), there is positive talk about
continuing education even among very young students; 88% of eighth

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140 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

graders believe that they will pursue some form of postsecondary edu-
cation. Furthermore, 70% of high school graduates actually go to col-
lege within 2 years of graduating. However, low-income and minority
students apply to different institutions and complete their degrees at
much lower rates than their White peers do. Nationally, 20% of the col-
lege-going cohort, the wealthiest and best prepared high school appli-
cants, attend the most selective 4-year colleges (Adelman, 2001),
whereas the remaining 80%, including the majority of low-income high
school graduates, enroll primarily in broad-access, 2- and 4-year insti-
tutions (Fry, 2004).
Getting into a college of any kind is no guarantee of completing
one’s education, however. More than 40% of students who have earned
at least 10 college credits do not stay on to complete a 2- or 4-year
degree. About 25% of the freshmen at 4-year colleges do not return for
year 2, and, at community colleges that percentage doubles (Kirst,
2004). The rates at which students persist in college long enough to
obtain at least a bachelor’s degree vary greatly by race and ethnicity.
The highest success rate, 49%, is for Asian and Asian-American stu-
dents (Education Trust, 2001). In 2000, only 10% of Latinos and 18% of
African Americans nationally had earned a college degree, whereas the
figure for European Americans was 34% (U.S. Department of Educa-
tion, 2001).
After several decades of increasing numbers, women now constitute
the majority of enrollees at both undergraduate and graduate institu-
tions, and they obtain approximately 60% of the degrees at the associ-
ate, bachelor’s, and master’s levels. Although the proportion of White
females and males attending college is fairly equal, Latino and African-
American males are underrepresented at every level (U.S. Department
of Education, 1999).

CAREER-TRAJECTORY IMPLICATIONS OF STUDENTS’


COLLEGE PROGRAMS
Whatever the socioeconomic, racial, or ethnic background of young
people entering college is, these students join a highly gender-
segregated culture. This is evident in the composition of the campus
community, which, at most colleges, is an overwhelmingly female stu-
dent body. However, only 20% of the full professors are female. Finan-
cial and status advantages continue for males: 72% of male professors
are awarded tenure, compared to only 52% female professors; also, for
more than 30 years, full-time male instructors have been paid higher
salaries than their female peers (U.S. Department of Education, 1999).
Although many school inequities based on gender have withered
under the powerful influence of the 1972 Title IX legislation, which for-
bids gender discrimination in any education programs receiving

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Career Preparation Programs in High Schools 141

federal money, imbalances apparently unrelated to student aptitudes


and aspirations persist. In recent years women have been earning
approximately 40% of professional degrees (Sadker, 2002), but male–
female divisions in the professions are pronounced. For example, male
graduates outnumber female graduates in engineering and physical sci-
ences 2:1 (National Science Foundation, 2000). More imbalances are evi-
dent in fields such as education, nursing, psychology, and social work,
where women earn 75%–90% of the degrees. Gender-based career
majors are also obvious in the paucity of men in elementary education
(12%), social work (14%), and library science (12%) (U.S. Department of
Education, 1999).
Even when a woman has a college degree, she earns an average of
$4,000 less annually than a man with a similar education. With or with-
out degrees, women overwhelmingly work in low-paying occupations:
More than 90% of hairdressers, secretaries, and bookkeepers are
women (American Federation of Labor, 1997). In another example of
gender-based contrasts in the work world, 99% of the chief executives
of America’s 500 largest companies are men, but only 7% of nurses are
men (U.S. Department of Labor, 1999).
Both common sense and years of research attest to the influence of
many complex personal, familial, and social factors that combine in
countless ways to shape the academic experiences and choices of indi-
vidual students. Such factors modify the results of one-size-fits-all edu-
cational ‘‘fixes.’’ However, the same research studies have identified the
components of the educational experience that promote goals like aca-
demic achievement, persistence in school, and access to careers. The
factors that contribute to more positive educational results for learners
are the following: high student performance expectations by teachers;
collaborative and inquiry-based instruction; meaningful, high-cognitive-
demand curricula; and mentoring or modeling by parents or other
significant adults.
Given the high school dropout rates and college noncompletion data
referred to earlier in this chapter, it would appear that, for approxi-
mately 33% of our nation’s young people, family and/or school experi-
ences do not provide a critical mixture of the identified learning
supports. Again, it must be emphasized that learner motivation, apti-
tudes, needs, and resources make an idealized model of a good educa-
tion not only impossible but also undesirable.
Nevertheless, the changed employment realities reported by govern-
ment and industry studies suggest the loss of the decent-wage jobs that
formerly allowed millions of workers with a high school diploma or
less to enter and rise in the middle class. We know that high school
graduates will out-earn nongraduates by more than $500,000, and col-
lege graduates will earn $1 million more, on the average, than those
with only a high school diploma.

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142 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

Thus, while the pace of change suggests that today’s students must
be educated for jobs that do not even exist yet and that those jobs will
probably be in a constant state of evolution, it is inescapably clear that
all students need to graduate after being schooled in the content, dispo-
sitions, and skills that will enable them to have full and satisfying lives
and careers.

SOME EXEMPLARY PROGRAMS


This section provides a brief overview of some creative educational
programs. They implicitly address the fact that the combination of
diverse learner circumstances and predictions for a changing world of
work means that we cannot actually know the best schooling models
for all learners. We can, however, use instructional means and fashion
learning communities that enhance student achievement by remedying
some of the imbalances and inadequacies that have been identified as
undermining children’s school experiences in particular ways or in par-
ticular communities. These programs can serve as models for other
schools that are trying to improve the length and quality of education—
especially for students from marginalized groups whose schooling,
as the data suggest, is most negatively impacted by socioeconomic,
racial, or sexual inequities.

Humane Letters Requirement, Tempe Preparatory Academy


Tempe, Arizona, is home to a high school that was founded on the
principle that all students can be engaged by challenging academic con-
tent. The school, Tempe Preparatory Academy, is an open-enrollment
charter high school that requires a daily, 2-hour liberal arts sequence for
everyone in its racially mixed, middle- and lower-class student body. In
the humane letters block, students grapple with reading, writing, and
thinking about humanity’s enduring questions and issues, beginning
with an examination of how those themes are addressed by a wide
range of great writers such as William Shakespeare, Aristotle, and Henry
David Thoreau (Schmoker, 2007).
The intellectual work of analysis and evaluation, expressed in rigor-
ous writing assignments and seminar-style discussions, promotes and
refines the ‘‘argument literacy . . . central to being educated’’ (Graff,
2003). One indicator of the power of this humane letters immersion is
that all Tempe Prep students meet the Arizona state language arts
standards, which require clarity, inferencing, support of argumentation,
and synthesis and evaluation, among other higher-order thinking skills.
Students consistently score close to 100% on all sections of the state test
battery, the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards, and their aver-
age score on the SAT is 1250 (Schmoker, 2007).

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Career Preparation Programs in High Schools 143

Tempe Prep is enacting a school reform that could be widely imi-


tated: curriculum planning that coordinates 4 years of engagement
with high-quality texts, authentic discussion and argumentation about
humanity’s great questions, and numerous persuasive writing assign-
ments. Such scaffolded intellectual challenge provides students with
hundreds of hours of critical thinking experience—relevant and engag-
ing cognitive work in the marketplace of ideas.

Career Academies
In contrast to emphasizing the liberal arts as the best preparation for
tomorrow’s workers, there is a growing nationwide trend to increase
the number and types of career and technical courses and extend them
as requirements for all students who attend what were once traditional
comprehensive high schools. From this perspective, increasing career-
related content in the secondary schools is motivating for many stu-
dents because it allows them to have more choices and to specialize in
subjects they associate with meaningful future employment.
Thus, thousands of schools have established ‘‘career academies,’’
which permit students to major in culinary arts, forensics, medical-
technical training, and engineering, among other subjects. In fact, Flor-
ida, which has approximately 600 career academies, recently started to
have all ninth graders pick from more than 400 possible majors and
take at least four career-oriented classes in high school. To provide for
an exploration of various careers, the students will be allowed to
change their majors.
In Florida, California, South Carolina, and other states, reconceptual-
izing career and technical education for all students forces an evalua-
tion of the traditional comprehensive high school curriculum and
graduation requirements. The expectation of states’ school policy plan-
ners is that this structured career and vocational requirement will
sharpen all students’ awareness of the interdependence of educational
preparation and employment opportunities.
In addition to encouraging individual students to explore careers
and life-enriching experiences, several other important civic, organiza-
tional, and educational benefits may arise from changing high school
course offerings and graduation requirements in ways the career aca-
demies are now modeling. For example, a school-career focus could
lead to the following three improvements: closer communication
between secondary-level educators and leaders in industry, the profes-
sions, and postsecondary schools to verify the appropriateness or use-
fulness of the high schools’ career-oriented courses; higher graduation
rates as job-related courses give potential dropouts the motivation to
stay in school; and increased impetus for school administrators and
teachers to design challenging courses and sequences of study to

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144 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

complement the variety of vocational majors that students pursue. All


of these potential effects would benefit individual students and
enhance the democratic character and intellectual vitality of the
schools.

The High School Puente Project


Latinos are the largest ethnic minority in the United States, but they
are the least likely to gain the personal and economic benefits associ-
ated with schooling. In 2000, approximately 34% of (non-Spanish) Eu-
ropean Americans had earned a college degree, but only 10% of
Latinos had done so (U.S. Department of Education, 2001). Moreover,
Latinos’ education troubles start much earlier than the college years;
33%–50% of all Latinos drop out of school and never receive a high
school diploma (Rumberger & Rodriguez, 2002).
Even those who do make it to grade 12 seem to be limping along
academically; 88% of that group fail to achieve reading proficiency
(U.S. Department of Education, 1999, 2003). The High School Puente
Project—puente means ‘‘bridge’’ in Spanish—is a model of combined
interventions that is designed to provide Latino youngsters with the
academically rigorous and culturally nuanced supports that are neces-
sary to turn these disturbing statistics around.
Much research indicates that Latino students are negatively influ-
enced by their parents’ low education levels and socioeconomic status.
These two factors tend to limit the parents’ access to schools and their
knowledge of advocacy procedures for their children’s schooling, a
phenomenon often referred to as lack of social capital. Furthermore, Lat-
ino children disproportionately attend poorly resourced schools (those
with few guidance counselors and weak academic programs) (Betts,
Rueben, & Dannenberg, 2000). To counter these factors, Puente pro-
vides three mediating interventions: rigorous instruction in English lan-
guage arts; peer and adult mentors; and early, intensive college-prep
counseling for students and their parents (Gandara, 2004).
The High School Puente program evolved a decade ago from a pro-
gram established in California to move Latino students from 2-year to
4-year colleges. The program starts with a deep knowledge of the cul-
tural, socioeconomic, and academic factors that influence most Latinos’
school experiences. Multiple academic remedies are enacted in 9th and
10th grades, beginning with the special training of classroom teachers
to carry out demanding instruction. The students read difficult litera-
ture, including that of Latino authors, write daily in multiple genres,
conduct research with multicultural sources, and create comprehensive
portfolios of their best pieces—the antithesis of the skill-and-drill
activities that characterize many disadvantaged students’ school
assignments.

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Career Preparation Programs in High Schools 145

A second area of intervention involves the enlistment of successful


individuals from the business community and the professions who are
trained by the program to mentor students. A mentor’s commitment is
to maintain a relationship with a student and the student’s family,
meeting with them at least monthly for a minimum of 2 years. This
feature of the program counters a family’s low expectations or sense of
possibilities for their children and encourages aspirations for a better
life based on increased educational attainments. Puente has also tried
to provide 9th graders, an age group with a very high dropout rate,
with in-school guidance and community by pairing them with peer
mentors from grades 11 and 12.
The third distinctive component of Puente addresses the area of
educational advocacy. Puente employs Latino guidance counselors to
work with realistic numbers of students to ensure that the students are
taking college-prep classes in the correct sequence, that the students
have their academic problems addressed in a timely manner, and that
the students and their families receive all necessary information to pre-
pare for continuing the students’ education. These Latino counselors
are especially helpful in mitigating the often negative results arising
from the families’ lack of social capital. These school professionals offer
other benefits, as well—they understand the community’s language
and culture and serve as an example of Latinos who have succeeded in
college.
The effectiveness of the Puente interventions was investigated in a
survey of 2,000 program participants and nonparticipant peers. The
outcomes were significantly better for Puente students, who attended
4-year colleges at twice the rate of their non-Puente classmates (Gan-
dara, 2002). It appears that this model points to one avenue of effective
educational planning: paying attention to the specific needs and resour-
ces in a given community. Local language, culture, and talent should
be regarded as strengths to be built upon rather than as differences to
be overcome.

The Advancement Via Individual Determination Program


What about ‘‘middle performers,’’ students who attend school but
do not work or learn to their potential? The Advancement Via Individ-
ual Determination (AVID) Center in California was started in 1980 by
one determined high school teacher, Mary Catherine Swanson, who
wanted to move her students to college readiness. Her focused effort to
improve nonexcelling students’ access to substantive academic work
evolved to become a multipart program that is now used in 2,700 mid-
dle and high schools nationally.
AVID currently serves about 200,000 low-income students (Nelson,
2007). These are typically students whom teachers and guidance

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146 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

counselors have identified as having the following four characteristics:


the student is enrolled in undemanding or non-college-prep courses;
the student’s grades are too low for admission to more difficult
courses or for future college admissions; there is little or no personal
or familial expectation of the student continuing in postsecondary
schooling or training; and although the student is in the academic
middle, he or she is perceived to have the potential for much higher
achievement.
AVID is designed to nurture the students’ academic potential by
changing the expectation and preparation deficits that undermine
school success for these youngsters. When students enroll in AVID,
they commit to taking a sequence of rigorous courses to become
college-eligible. To equip students to function in these high-challenge
courses, AVID-trained teachers build up students’ learning skills and
soft skills, such as personal organization and time management, note
taking and synthesis of information, effective questioning, and group
collaboration (Nelson, 2007).
Other program components ensure that students will receive timely
academic counseling; for example, AVID includes programs that guide
8th graders into essential gateway courses such as algebra so that they
can take 4 years of advanced mathematics in high school. Peer tutors are
used at both the middle and high school levels, and college student
mentors trained in AVID strategies offer encouragement and remedial
assistance. These younger mentors, usually from the same racial or eth-
nic communities as their mentees, guide the new students as their intel-
lectual skills and stamina are increasing. The mentors also serve as
accessible role models of academic achievement. Finally, special electives
and after-school enrichment activities are offered to AVID students; these
help maintain a peer culture that is focused on academic aspirations.
The success of the combined program elements, especially for low-
income minority students, has been documented in recent studies of
AVID schools and students. For example, several California-based stud-
ies (Hubbard, 1999, 2005; Mehan, Villanueva, Hubbard, & Lintz, 1996)
concluded that because of AVID’s low dropout rates and structures that
supported students for at least 3 years, the program was effective in
enrolling a very large majority of its charges in college—students who
were not likely to have enrolled otherwise. The AVID model of interven-
tion for marginal performers appears to offer students experiences that
are both personally and academically transforming—the very definition,
many would say, of a good education.

DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS


Despite some fear-inducing rhetoric, such as the innuendo found the
A Nation at Risk report about ‘‘falling’’ test scores leading to economic

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Career Preparation Programs in High Schools 147

disaster (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983),


American schools have been educating a very competent workforce. In
2003, the World Economic Forum declared the United States number 1
in global competitiveness, including in an area called national innova-
tion capacity.
However, American public education has always had many more
goals than simply training the nation’s workforce. As Brown v. Board of
Education (1954) states so directly, education is required for the func-
tioning of our democratic society and for the success of individual
lives. Therefore, it is an ongoing responsibility of our society to be vigi-
lant, making sure that schools teach more than just ‘‘the basics.’’ Thus,
the recent studies that predict dire outcomes for students who drop
out of schools, or who receive inadequate services while in school, are
simply more urgent reminders to do now the kind of policy analysis
and program evaluation of schools that a just, democratic America is
duty-bound to do.
The nation’s lawmakers must debate the renewal of the No Child
Left Behind (NCLB) Act and its funding. This legislation requires that
all public schools be judged with a yearly assessment of ‘‘basics’’
through standardized testing. The learning and teaching consequences
of 5 years of such testing must be confronted in light of the other data
discussed in this chapter: the need for a more highly educated citizenry
and workforce, and the fact that 33% of the nation’s youth, especially
minorities, are dropping out of school. National, state, and local leaders
could combine these economic, societal, and educational realities in
such a way that they identify goals and affirm programs that foster
both high-challenge academic curricula and career-based learning.
With consensus on a few essential national goals identified by stake-
holder representatives, state and local school entities should then be given
the freedom and funding to enact educational models that address the
needs of their students and draw on the resources of their communities.
Accountability for good stewardship and school improvement would, of
course, be required, but one-size-fits-all testing should be eschewed
because it is both pragmatically and psychometrically bad practice.
Progress in engaging and retaining all students, improving commu-
nication skills, advancing problem-solving ability and critical thinking,
improving responsibility and work habits, and other academic and ca-
reer-related educational outcomes cannot be determined by ‘‘basics’’
tests; rather, they require a variety of authentic assessments administered
over time. There is much work to be done to correct some of the unin-
tended consequences of recent, test-driven accountability movements.
Recalling the old adage that ‘‘what gets tested is what gets taught’’
might spur government leaders and policy makers to permit education
professionals to align assessment with instructional goals. The complex
behaviors, dispositions, and skills that are desirable for tomorrow’s

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148 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

learners cannot be rated by inexpensive standardized tests. Artifacts


such as extended writing and student research projects and models,
performances such as debates and oral presentations, and cooperative
learning experiences all demand ongoing, situated evaluation by a
trained educator.
Although the importance and complexity of assessment merits an
examination beyond the focus and purpose of this chapter, these brief
remarks about changes in assessment and accountability measures are
made here because the role of high-stakes assessment in shaping what
is emphasized in schools is so significant that failure to align the
assessments of the future with the revised educational goals of the
future will doom the effort to boost life and career skills.
For a majority of students, America’s schools are performing at least
adequately, and many schools can build on what they already do well
to improve teaching and learning in their local settings. The recommen-
dations described below are presented as broad descriptions of ways to
change aspects of the curricula, services, or teaching in the nation’s tra-
ditional middle and high schools. The research suggests that these
changes, singly or in combinations, can bring about many of the goals
identified by parents, postsecondary educators, business and industry
spokespersons, and the students themselves. There is much evidence
that the intellectual depth and personal skills and dispositions that
American citizens desire for themselves and their children are the very
same qualities that are essential for success in one’s work.
Increase the number of guidance counselors and change their responsibil-
ities. The role of guidance counselors seems more vital than ever, both
for retaining students in school and giving them appropriate academic
advice as they plan for careers or continuing education. Currently,
guidance counselors work mostly in high schools and have 800–1,000
advisees. This is a situation of too many, too late. It is in middle school
that youngsters and their families need direction from guidance coun-
selors, because so many children become disaffected with school at that
stage and because many high school alternatives depend on prepara-
tion courses in the middle grades.
Therefore, it would be a great support to students and to their fami-
lies if middle schools had guidance counselors working in a coordi-
nated way with their colleagues in the secondary schools. Advisee
numbers should be drastically reduced to approximately 33% of the
current assignment. This manageable caseload would allow the counse-
lors to make their expertise and knowledge much more available to
neglected stakeholders. In this proposed model, every year counselors
would set up workshops or seminars to provide the parents, peers,
and teachers of their charges with up-to-date information on career
paths, college entry requirements, apprenticeships, scholarships, and
other planning fundamentals.

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Career Preparation Programs in High Schools 149

This broadening of the guidance dialogue is a wise use of relation-


ships and resources, because these three groups—parents, peers, and
teachers—have been shown to exert great influence on youngsters’
aspirations and self-efficacy, and the positive effects of home and
school collaboration has long been established (Cummins, 1986; Herr,
1996; Kush & Cochran, 1993). Several of the models of intervention
described in this chapter highlight the benefits for students of explicitly
expressed high expectations from their parents, teachers, and peers
(Brown & Krane, 2000).
Provide students with mentors and models. Teachers and parents regu-
larly hear students complain that they ‘‘don’t know why [they] have to
learn this stuff.’’ Numerous studies, including a survey of recent drop-
outs (Gates Foundation, 2006), capture the failure of schools to make
clear, or the inability of students to accept, the relevance of what
schools require to be studied. The most frequently cited reason for
leaving school (47% of respondents) was that the students were bored,
and the majority admitted to not being motivated or working hard.
When pressed for what would have helped them remain in school,
81% said ‘‘real-world learning,’’ and many recommended that schools
have some adults to whom students could talk about personal issues.
It is clear that much learning is based on imitation of models, and in
the large and diverse secondary schools that many students attend, it
is very likely that specific efforts must be made to ensure that students
are given access to appropriate models and mentors. Starting in middle
school and continuing throughout their schooling, students should
have the regular experience of diverse role models. Through guest pre-
senters, job shadowing, career fairs, working internships, and service
project assignments, students can have real-world encounters with suc-
cessful individuals of different races, ages, and sexes who can speak
directly to the need for a given kind of knowledge, skill, or work habit.
Such modeling complements well-explained and thoughtfully orch-
estrated classroom instruction. Some schools have tapped volunteer
mentors and trained them to give students long-term connections with
accessible models who are matched with the students’ gender or race.
It is well documented that these real-world experiences counter stereo-
typical thinking, such as the notion that science is a White male field,
and they can inspire aspirations that the student would otherwise have
considered ‘‘not for someone like me’’ (Beane, 1985; Hill, Pettus, &
Hedin, 1990; Malcolm, 1990).
Institute a more flexible schedule for the school day. Instead of nine 45-
minute classes, blocks of time that are flexibly alternated with some
longer and some shorter periods could allow in-depth work, such as
full science laboratory experiments and extended opportunities to draft
and revise writing pieces, as well as provide for briefer activities.
Although students would take fewer classes in such a schedule, its

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150 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

flexibility would offer support for teachers’ and guidance counselors’


efforts to make concrete connections between schoolwork and careers,
because there would be time to plan for visiting ‘‘teachers’’ from the
professions to present units in academic classes.
Time blocks could be realistically coordinated for cross-disciplinary
field trips to natural and business sites, and job shadowing or intern-
ships could more easily become aspects of academic programs as fewer
courses are ‘‘interrupted’’ by the student’s off-campus interning oppor-
tunity. These are but a few of the possible benefits of using the school
clock to promote high-level student thinking, real-world and school
interactions, and more individualized opportunities for students to
study content and careers in some depth.
Teach and require ample practice of soft skills. Many educators have
been decrying the resurgence of skill-and-drill instruction, which is
believed to be driven by NCLB’s high-stakes testing of math and read-
ing basics. Ideally, schools should limit the amount of such instruction
because it calls for lower-order recall thinking. Conversely, when stu-
dents must brainstorm, present research, peer-teach, give feedback on
written drafts, and carry out assigned parts of team-based cooperative
projects, learning is necessarily active rather than rote.
These types of instructional activities also require the students to
learn and use the soft skills of collaboration, negotiation, multiple per-
spectives, oral communication, and interdependence, among others.
These skills should be taught in the enactment of, and are necessary
to sustain, assignments such as researching the proportions of the dif-
ferent food groups served in a given week in the cafeteria or discus-
sing the possible motivations of different characters in a work of
fiction.
Communicating and problem solving among individuals with differ-
ent points of view are essential interpersonal skills and require clear
and flexible thinking. Teachers can also explicitly teach students to be
self-reflective. When teachers and mentors provide modeling and self-
evaluation opportunities, students can be led to meta-cognitive analy-
ses of their work habits, team contributions, content knowledge, and
use of resources. These are but a few of the soft skills that support the
daily essential tasks of learners, workers, neighbors, and citizens.
Clearly, the mission of our public schools is multifocal. The height-
ened realization of the economic value of K–12 schooling and post-
secondary attainment discussed in this chapter should not be interpreted
as an invitation to redefine education as job training. Nevertheless, the
associations among individual aptitudes, appropriate work preparation,
and successful employment experiences are inescapable. Therefore, the
primary duty of the nation’s schools—to educate students for full lives
as good citizens in a vibrant democracy—must also include educating
successful workers. Indeed, we cannot do one without the other.

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Career Preparation Programs in High Schools 151

REFERENCES
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of Education.
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Francisco: Public Policy Institute.
Brown, S. D., & Krane, N.E.R. (2000). Four (or five) sessions and a cloud of
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Kirst, M. W. (2004). The high school/college disconnect. Educational Leadership,
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152 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

Kush, K., & Cochran, L. (1993). Enhancing a sense of agency through career
planning. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 40, 434–439.
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success (pp. 114–146). New York: Palmer Press.
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Government Printing Office.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Chapter 11

Shifting the Load: Personality Factors


and Women in the Workplace
Jennifer L. Martin

I know I have no problem in the area of ‘‘too sexy,’’ ‘‘too busty,’’ or dis-
tractingly beautiful, but it is clear that for any woman, of any age or condi-
tion, being female is something to compensate for.
—Barbara Ehrenreich (2005, p. 105).
It is important that a woman find her own voice and that she discover ways
of projecting it into the universe. A woman must learn how to express her
views clearly and firmly without being afraid that this will offend, fatally
injure, or drive her intimates away.
—Phyllis Chesler (2001, p. 479)
Despite the occupational gains women have made in the past 50 years,
women have still not achieved true equity within the workplace for a
variety of reasons, one of which is the disconnect between the ways in
which people view women and the ways in which women view them-
selves. Socially prescribed gender roles can lead to unrealistic expecta-
tions for both sexes, which often results in the essentializing of the
sexes. As Chesler’s words above advise, women must see past these
limitations and strive for success, which often involves taking risks, to
achieve workplace equity. In this chapter I will examine these and
other factors that prohibit equity in the workplace for women, and I
will propose potential solutions.
Psychologists and biologists agree that biological sex is separate and
distinct from gender, which is a complex system of socially prescribed
traits that sometimes, but not always, correspond to biological sex. This
correspondence is more a matter of culture than of biology. However,

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154 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

traits such as agency and communion (and behaviors corresponding to


these traits) are often stereotypically defined as gender-related and thus
inseparable from biology, according to many scholars (Abele, 2003). Cul-
ture, history, and the family all dictate gender stereotypes. What is
deemed ‘‘appropriate’’ behavior for women and men influences individ-
ual self-concepts and personal expectations for the self related to gender.
These factors, which later become personality traits, affect both
women and men. Specifically, women’s adherence to stereotyped traits
(or failure to adhere to stereotyped traits) not only affects their career
advancement but also their personalities and how they are perceived
by others. The percentage of women in management positions has
risen from 15% in 1970 to 63% in 1995. However, despite this figure,
women hold middle management positions only 6% of the time, and
only 1.3% of women hold corporate officer positions in Fortune 500
companies. Not only do women expect less for themselves, others
expect less for them. For example, the percentage of women in the
workforce has increased by almost 50% from the 1970s to the 1980s;
however, this figure does not correspond to positions of power, such
as positions of management, supervision, and leadership (Crampton &
Mishra, 1999).
Perhaps the most telling facet of women’s success in the workplace,
or lack thereof, is this psychological precept: Observers perceive that
the abilities, attributes, and personality factors that enable a person to
succeed in a particular activity are somehow ‘‘natural’’ to that person
(or group of people) (Eagly & Steffen, 1984). Thus, when women are
absent from top positions of power and authority, society deems it to
be a natural problem with women, that something within them is miss-
ing that would enable them to be good leaders.
There are several theories to explain this phenomenon. Trait theory
(or the person-centered view) (Crampton & Mishra, 1999) posits that
women have not been granted access to top levels of management
because of factors that are inherent to the feminine gender; that is, cer-
tain traits that women generally possess, or are assumed to possess,
prohibit them from gaining promotions. For example, women have tra-
ditionally been perceived as more emotional and less rational; this
belief can influence promotions for women. What are still considered
to be masculine traits are valued more than stereotypically feminine
traits in American society. Furthermore, if a woman possesses a stereo-
typically masculine trait, like aggressiveness, or even assertiveness, it is
often looked upon negatively by others, whereas for a male it is
viewed as positive in many instances. If women are assertive, they are
often deemed ‘‘aggressive’’ and thus viewed negatively. However, the
very same behavior exhibited by men is perfectly acceptable.
Corresponding to trait theory (or the person-centered view) is the
socialization of women, which influences gender differentiation in

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Shifting the Load 155

personality characteristics and values. For example, women are often


socialized to value other things before career advancement, such as
home and family. Even if women do not hold these values as primary,
they are often perceived as holding these values by corporations who
do not want people in positions of authority who do not hold career as
their main priority. To complicate this situation, women who do not
hold these ‘‘traditionally feminine realms’’ sacred, as society deems
they should, may be harshly judged by this ‘‘failure of femininity.’’
Women are still, to a certain extent, expected to value children and tak-
ing care of the home and family as a priority, and if they deviate from
this convention they are often viewed with derision. Women are, to
this day, ‘‘damned if they do and damned if they don’t.’’
The ‘‘plaster versus plasticity’’ debate deals with whether gender
traits are malleable and can be altered in adulthood (plasticity). The
majority of research supports the ‘‘plaster’’ view (Kirchmeyer, 2002). In
other words, socialization of the gender into gendered roles contributes
to personality development and dictates how many people ‘‘perform
gender’’ for life.
Kirchmeyer (2002) argues that gender has more to do with career
choices than sex does. Thus, the ways in which people are raised in
terms of gender socialization is a greater predictor of career choice than
biological gender is. According to Goodman, Fields, and Blum (2003),
women and men possess similar career aspirations and values, which
suggests that women’s lack of prominence in positions of power must
be explained by barriers to workplace advancement.
Some scholars argue that women’s lack of aspirations and role con-
flict concerning their families lead to limited opportunities (Cotter,
Hermsen, Ovadia, & Vanneman, 2001). Another aspect of the socializa-
tion process that women have to face compromises with aspirations
and personal expectations: Women are often socialized to have lower
expectations for leadership or management positions (Crampton &
Mishra, 1999). In other words, women often feel less entitled to access
these types of power. The factors contributing to these lowered expect-
ations are a lack of role models, the potential impact of career advance-
ment on family life, role conflict, societal discouragement, and a lack of
female networks.
Research suggests that no direct relationship exists between gender
and job satisfaction (Phillips & Imhoff, 1997). Socialization has more to
do with career choice and success than biological gender does.
Although women are moving into the workforce and into traditionally
male-dominated professions in increasing numbers, the converse is not
true. Men are not moving into traditionally female professions. The
reason for this could be that what is considered to be ‘‘women’s work’’
is not as valued by society as what is considered to be ‘‘men’s work.’’
Whatever the reason, women and men still differ in occupational

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156 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

choices. According to Gati, Givon, and Osipow (1995), ‘‘Women’s pref-


erences and perceptions . . . may reflect their multiple life demands,
which include the responsibility for taking care of home and family
needs in addition to their work role’’ (p. 214).
Research suggests that women have not achieved workplace equity,
in either pay or position, in part because of the expectations for their
gender. Some critics and observers who are unwilling to face the depth
of this issue ask, ‘‘Why can’t women simply rise above the negative
expectations of them that still linger within the culture and pull them-
selves up by their bootstraps?’’ The answer to this question, in part,
might be that women are still raised with these negative expectations
and sometimes still believe them. Limiting gender expectations still
affect women. The truth is that there is no simple answer here.

BACKGROUND: IDENTITY, COMPENSATION, AND MINORITY


STATUS
Identity development and formation, as described by Erikson (1968),
is used as a paradigm for successful growth to adulthood. However,
identity and human development paradigms were often based upon
male models, in which the male became the standard of a human
being. Thus, women were often viewed as deficient because societal
expectations limited them from achieving certain levels of advance-
ment. Life-cycle theories are inadequate in conveying the experiences
of women and minorities; similar developmental tasks are completed,
but at different points in the life cycle (Kerka, 1991).
Kerka (1993) also cautions against the ‘‘essentialization’’ of women
and men. Some researchers (Gilligan, 1982) have called for a separate
approach to viewing women, suggesting that women have ‘‘different
ways of knowing.’’ Kerka (1993) warns that focusing on the differences
rather than the similarities between women and men can be dangerous.
Instead, validating a variety of types of thinking can help different per-
spectives to be valued instead of just one (read: male). Women are
socialized to focus on relationships and intimacy; because of this, wom-
en’s careers often do not follow a traditional or linear pattern (as is
common for men). Homemakers differ from women who are not
homemakers by having needs at both the high end and the low end of
Maslow’s (1954) hierarchy of needs (Brown, Eisenberg, & Sawilowsky,
1997).
Erikson (1959) has argued that work and work roles play an important
part in identity construction. Career momentum has much to do with
identity formation and thus with self-esteem; for example, women with
high career momentum have more opportunity to achieve workplace suc-
cess and thus tend to have more self-confidence, higher self-esteem, and a
heightened sense of independence (Roberts & Friend, 1998).

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Shifting the Load 157

Expectations of success have much to do with the actual workforce


success of women. Women in nontraditional fields experience more
self-efficacy and feelings of success than do women in traditional fields.
Moreover, women in traditionally female occupations tend to exhibit
less motivation for leadership positions and less ambition in general
than women in traditionally male fields (Brown et al., 1997).
Women historically have been linked to careers that deal with the
health and education of children, such as child care and teaching;
women who seek employment are often channeled into these occupa-
tions (Ranck, 1999). Because these fields are female-dominated, they
receive less status and possess the characteristics of low status occupa-
tions, such as low salaries, limited benefits, and limited opportunities
for advancement. The historical relationship between mother and child,
the belief that a woman is inherently maternal (the maternal instinct),
and the notion that child care is her natural role and responsibility fos-
ter the idea that the care and education of children is the primary
responsibility of women.
Because these things are associated with women, they are viewed as
simple; thus, societal resources, time and money, are not allocated to
them. Ranck (1999) indicates that 77% of women are situated in
female-dominated occupations. As Ferguson (1984) states, ‘‘The most
common types of employment for women outside the home—the pink
collar jobs, the service occupations, and the ‘helping’ professions—may
involve women in outside activities, but they also further reinforce the
conventional role’’ (p. 97).
In the corporate world, women do not fare much better in terms of
reaching economic equity. Only 2.5% of the highest earners in Fortune
500 companies are women. Women also infrequently appear on corpo-
rate boards and are underrepresented in business education (Bierma,
1999). Despite women’s better performance in college, upon graduating
they make only 80% of what men make, and this figure drops to 69% of
men’s earnings 10 years after graduation. Furthermore, the wage gap
between women and men is widening for recent female graduates.
These figures are lower for women than they were 10 years ago, and
even lower for women of color (Oliver, 2007).
The work world does not value women’s work on an equal basis to
that of men’s. This fact transfers to the personal level as well. Many
women do not value themselves and their own labor power as much
as they value men’s. Major, McFarlin, and Gagnon (1984) found that
when women are asked to ascribe monetary value to themselves and
others, they consistently pay themselves less. In fact, women pay them-
selves less than they pay men for the same amount of work (Shinew &
Arnold, 1998).
These findings reveal two core issues that affect women in the work-
place: personal entitlement and self-worth. Women often do not feel

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158 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

entitled to power and monetary rewards on a level equal to men, per-


haps because society tells them that they are less valuable and so is
their labor. This contributes to a negative self-worth that can exist on a
subconscious level. Both factors contribute to a vicious cycle in which
women do not value their labor or feel entitled to advancement, which
then contributes to not becoming personally invested in occupations,
and it certainly contributes to women’s failure to take occupational
risks that would promote their advancement. Ferguson (1984) states
the following:

The distortion of powerlessness affects women’s deepest psychic struc-


tures and cannot be dismissed as artificial externalities confining the real
person. We would not object so strenuously to oppression if it did not in
part accomplish that which it is intended to do, to elicit the complicity of
the oppressed in their oppression and to produce subjects appropriately
readied for subordination. (p. 94)

To suggest that women are complicit in their own oppression is not


to blame the victim but to suggest that all of us are somewhat com-
plicit in going along with the status quo. The oppression of women is
not simply the problem of women in general or of individual women
because they do not try hard enough. The inequities that women face
in career advancement and in compensation falls upon patriarchy, cul-
ture, and socialization. These things cannot be altered overnight.
According to Shinew and Arnold (1998), women tend, more than
men, to put other things ahead of work. In sum, researchers and com-
mentators have suggested that the pay disparity between women and
men could be caused by employers viewing women as ‘‘quitters’’
because they might take time off for childbirth and child rearing. New
opportunities and additional responsibilities, such as trainings, promo-
tions, and positions of leadership or management, are not assigned to
women for fear that they will quit to marry, raise children, or follow
their husbands in their careers (Stroh, Brett, & Reilly, 1996).
Women and minorities continue to face more obstacles than males
and Whites in career advancement and pay. The reasons for this are
biased evaluation processes, attribution displacement (i.e., attributing
some characteristics to people’s personalities and others to luck—most
often, attributing characteristics positively to the group most like one-
self), discrimination, and lack of networking opportunities and mentors
(Greenhaus & Parasuraman, 1993).
Shih (2006) found that workplace inequity for women and minorities
stems from three factors: gender and ethnic stereotyping, organiza-
tional segregation, and exclusion from information-networking or men-
toring relationships. Moreover, organizations can do a lot to prevent
advancement based on gender and race. Shih found that women and

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Shifting the Load 159

minorities are often channeled into lower career tracks, resulting in


‘‘intra-organizational job segregation’’ (p. 180). These individuals then
receive fewer opportunities for job training or differential (read: skilled)
training and thus fewer opportunities for advancement or transference
from the ‘‘de-skilled’’ track. Finally, Shih found that informal network-
ing groups and mentoring relationships prevent women and minorities
from advancing because of informal exclusion from these groups.
Women and minorities are seen as ‘‘outsiders’’ within the (White-male
majority) culture of the organization.
When women are the minority in an organization (or have token sta-
tus), they are likely to experience the following: anxiety and stress, ali-
enation and isolation, and sexual harassment. They might also have
less of a commitment to the work environment because of these factors
(Miner-Rubino & Cortina, 2004). As the size of a minority group
increases, however, stress is reduced. In addition, as the numbers
increase, more support networks can be formed (Dreher, 2003).
Although women are often divided by race and socioeconomic sta-
tus, all women still face stereotypes particular to gender and sex. As
Ferguson (1984) states, ‘‘Divided by lines of class, race, ethnicity, and
so on, most of us nonetheless encounter a characteristic set of linguistic
and institutional practices constitutive of the life experiences of the sec-
ond sex’’ (pp. 158–159). In other words, although women can be di-
vided by race, ethnicity, and income level, they still often share some
experiences that could be used to unite them.
Intersectionality, or interlocking oppressions, has an effect on career
advancement and success, and it can produce low self-esteem. For
example, Thompson and Keith (2001) found that dark-skinned women
with low incomes often have low levels of self-esteem. When people
possess more than one minority status simultaneously, it can contribute
to further oppression and discrimination. Some women face the ‘‘triple
oppression’’ of class, race, and gender, which can affect career opportu-
nity and advancement. Minority status is complicated when members
of a particular ethnic group discriminate against one another through
‘‘colorism,’’ giving preferential treatment based on the shade of the
skin. Colorism has a stronger effect on women than on men.
Gonzalez-Figueroa and Young (2005), in a study of professional Lat-
inas, found that they felt marginalized from their professional group as
well as from their social and ethnic group, which increased stress and
loneliness. Latinas were also found to earn less than Latinos and less
than other women in the same professions.
Hite and McDonald (2003) found that White women have lower ca-
reer aspirations than Black women. Among college women, these
researchers found that women who desired to enter traditionally male-
oriented fields had higher career aspirations than did women who
planned to enter traditionally female work.

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160 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

The largest minority group in the United States is individuals who


have disabilities, and there are more women than men within this
group. Poverty is a common consequence for individuals with disabil-
ities; there are more disabled women than men living in poverty.
Women with disabilities often face harsher scrutiny than women with-
out disabilities. They are often viewed as helpless, childlike, and
incompetent (Noonan, Gallor, & Hensler-McGinnis, 2004).
Brown and Barbosa (2001) examined the factors that affect low-
income women in achieving self-sufficiency. These include low self-
esteem, unhealthy relationships with men, lack of family and peer
support, lack of training, criminal history, and fear of success.
There are things that women can do today to bring about small
changes around them. First, they can become aware of these real
oppressions. Second, they can raise the awareness of others and
attempt to battle the status quo. Battling the status quo might mean
creating women-centered support networks, mentoring, and assisting
other women. Third, women must include women of various ethnic
and racial groups and income levels in these networks. Fourth, women
can try to develop a strong sense of self-efficacy despite the oppres-
sions that constrain them. Self-efficacy, as defined by Bandura (1995), is
the belief that one can master situations and control events. If a woman
attempts to master her life, despite the oppressions that are often
beyond her control, then she might not internalize a lack of advance-
ment and pay disparity—thus putting an end to the vicious circle.
Finally, if the open discussion of salaries were more socially acceptable,
it would not be a secret how much money people make. Women
would know how much their coworkers were making and how much
to negotiate for themselves, as opposed to simply accepting what they
are offered. Women can work toward this end as well.

GENDER-ROLE SOCIALIZATION AND GENDER STEREOTYPES


Ferguson (1984) writes the following:

Even in the best of circumstances, women have tended to lack the sense
of competence that comes from being able and entitled to act, to do, in
the larger public world of strangers, and to have one’s projects and
actions valued in the public currency. Their condition of powerlessness
has been closely bound up in their role as caretaker, so that the latter is
distorted by the former. (p. 26)

Stereotypes within the corporate and employment worlds often


hinder women’s advancement (Crampton & Mishra, 1999). Women are
thought to be not as tough as men; women are thought to lack commit-
ment to their employment, for they might leave to raise children or

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Shifting the Load 161

have babies; it is assumed that women cannot work long hours because
of household responsibilities; women are thought to lack judgment in
making difficult decisions or in a high-stress situation. The prevailing
feminine stereotypes promote the idea that all women are nurturing,
soft, caring, emotional, and communal. Midgley and Abrams (1974)
indicate that societal expectations and stereotypes have had negative
effects on women’s motivation. Fear of success in women was first
attributed to the anxiety caused in women by competition with males.
Women must fight these stereotypes to compete and succeed.
In general, men advance further, more quickly, and with higher com-
pensation than women do (Phillips & Imhoff, 1997). Men are socialized
to take on leadership roles more often than women are. Women are
socialized to care about relationships, which is not a trait that is neces-
sarily valued in the realm of leadership and management. Thus, women
are thought to be incapable of leadership roles, or at least not as capable
as men are. Society still prescribes roles that are deemed ‘‘natural’’ for
women and for men. What becomes associated with women is then
devalued (Kerka, 1993). Because women and men are still socialized dif-
ferently, including the tendency to value different things, women’s
workplace experiences continue to be very different from men’s.
Gender stereotyping can lead to gender discrimination. No matter
what the cause, gender discrimination is still a major problem for
women in the workplace and in academe (Carr, Szalacha, Barnett, Cas-
well, & Inui, 2003). To be successful, women have to overcome more
obstacles in a variety of areas simply by virtue of their gender. This
fact is often compounded by racial, socioeconomic, and heterosexist
biases as well. Despite the fact that ‘‘gender, like culture, is a human
production that depends on everyone constantly ‘doing gender’’’
(Lueptow, Garovich-Szabo, & Lueptow, 2001, p. 3), people do not usu-
ally view gender as a construction. Many view gender as a ‘‘naturally’’
occurring system in which behavioral roles are determined on the basis
of biology and are thus immutable.
Gender socialization theory posits that gender differences in career
attributes stem from stereotypes, which are handed down through
socialization. Women and men unknowingly accept these traditional
norms, values, expectations, and roles as ‘‘normal,’’ natural, and ‘‘their
own’’ (Konrad, Yang, Goldberg, & Sullivan, 2005). Conformity to these
norms is enforced by the culture; those who do not adhere to these
behaviors are punished by isolation, lack of promotion, social exclu-
sion, workplace exclusion, and ridicule. Because masculine and femi-
nine stereotypes are still enforced for men and women, men often
gravitate toward careers that relate to or represent the masculine role.
The same is true for women and the feminine role.
Kasen, Chen, Sneed, Crawford, and Cohen (2006) argue that wom-
en’s personality characteristics stem from societal expectations and are

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162 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

subject to shifts in societal norms. Nevertheless, women and men are


still socialized into different societal roles. Historically speaking,
women have been socialized for homemaking and child rearing (com-
munal traits), and men have been socialized for providing for (mone-
tarily) and protecting their families (agentic traits). These historical
prescriptions, have, over time, come to be seen as ‘‘natural.’’ Lueptow
and colleagues (2001) state, ‘‘As males are disproportionately full-time
workers in higher status jobs and family leaders, these characteristics
account for the perception of males as agentic [sic] and females as com-
munal’’ (p. 3).
We still feel the effects of traditional gender-role socialization, which
can have negative effects on career women. For example, even women
who have highly demanding careers invest more time on household
responsibilities than their male peers do (Cinamon, 2006). Moreover,
women are often socialized to have different views of achievement and
relationships than men are (Kerka, 1993). Some women are taught not
to value competition but relationships. The traditional view that
women are noncompetitive can cause women to fear being competitive
out of a concern that their behavior will be viewed as unattractive
(Crampton & Mishra, 1999). Because of these attitudes, and the rein-
forcement of them by cultural norms, women experience not only dif-
ferent societal expectations but also different workplace opportunities.
Gender-role expectations exaggerate gender characteristics and mini-
mize the individual differences between people.
McGowen and Hart (1990) suggest that women’s and men’s devel-
opmental experiences affect both their professional and personal expe-
riences. Kasen and colleagues (2006) found that traditionally masculine
traits were higher in women who worked full-time, which suggests
that adult personality traits (especially concerning agency) can be
shaped by the environment:

For women in a high-powered professional or business position, the


increase in agentic [sic] traits may come at the expense of a decrease in
communal traits, perhaps because expression of the latter by working
mothers, especially those in demanding career-track occupations, may
heighten others’ perceptions of lessened commitment to the workplace.
(p. 954)

Gender-role socialization influences self-efficacy, which in turn influ-


ences one’s career decisions (Cinamon, 2006). Because American
women are socialized to pursue career and family simultaneously, this
often results in women selecting less demanding careers that will allow
more time for family and children. Because of this double workload
and work–family conflict, women sometimes experience lower levels
of self-efficacy, which can reduce feelings of competency in both

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Shifting the Load 163

realms, and then a vicious cycle is created. Ferguson (1984) states the
following:

The feminine role is inherently depoliticizing, in that it requires women


to internalize an image of themselves as private rather than public
beings. Women have largely been spectators rather than participants in
public life, and the more firmly they have been integrated into the femi-
nine role the more removed they have been from the public realm.
Women are not powerless because they are feminine; rather, they are
feminine because they are powerless, because it is a way of dealing with
the requirements of subordination. (p. 95)

In sum, socialization and gender-role stereotypes contribute to inter-


nalized perceptions that people hold of women and that women hold
of themselves that they are more effective within the home than out-
side it. The realities that women face in the workplace, such as discrim-
ination, lack of networking opportunities and mentors, and the
struggle for balance between family and career, also contribute to
women’s continued career lag behind men.
Women’s socialization into the feminine gender role results in their
gaining less access to information, which results in lower career self-effi-
cacy in comparison to men, and thus fewer opportunities to develop
their career potential (Sullivan & Mahalik, 2000). Although many women
behave in nontraditional ways in the workplace and in the home (e.g.,
by expecting more from their male partners), the pressure exists to per-
form traditional femininity in a variety of areas (Kirchmeyer, 2002).
Pressure to possess traditionally masculine behavior increases
women advance in nontraditional fields; likewise, traditionally femi-
nine traits decline in women with career advancement (Kirchmeyer,
2002). The dilemma for women is that many have to alter themselves
to fit into the work world, which is still organized around stereotypi-
cally masculine characteristics, or they have to strive to change the sta-
tus quo to be more accepting of and accommodating to women and
the needs of women (McGowen & Hart, 1990).
However, even when women adopt stereotypically masculine char-
acteristics to gain acceptance in nontraditional fields, they are judged
more harshly than men, or they are deemed undesirable, for they are
stepping outside their socially prescribed role. It is not surprising, then,
that women sometimes avoid striving for career advancement (man-
agement or leadership roles), for if women do venture out or take these
risks, they have to struggle to maintain a sense of positive self-worth
when it seems that the deck is stacked against them. Kirchmeyer (2002)
states the following:

Women in such occupations often are required to prove themselves


extensively to earn advancement . . . and according to social identity

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164 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

theory, if such pressures are perceived to threaten self-esteem, they can


lead to defensive rigidity. . . . In comparison, men in traditionally male
occupations may feel more secure and open to expand their behavioral
repertoires following advancement. (p. 932)

In other words, a woman’s path for career advancement is not a


clear one; even when traits like assertiveness are valued in a certain or-
ganization, they might not be accepted when they are exhibited by
women. Women must be doubly careful to read the unspoken code of
an organization to know how to behave in a manner that is acceptable
to the organization and to figure out where her efforts will be
rewarded. Shepard (1997) argues that women must pay attention to
perceived employment characteristics regarding gender and gender-
role expectations in the workplace to achieve success; such awareness
allows women to present themselves in a positive light in their work-
place environment and in a manner that will counteract negative
expectations.
Women can fight such double standards (one code of conduct and
expectations for men, another for women) in organizations, but to do
so they must overcome the crisis of confidence that will naturally result
from going against the grain (of socialization and stereotypes).
According to Kasen and colleagues (2006), gender-role socialization
tends to inhibit characteristics in women that are traditionally associ-
ated with men, especially during the young adult years; during middle
age, women are more likely to embrace facets of their personality that
have been suppressed as a result of societal pressure; i.e., as women
grow older and gain more experience, being accepted on an individual
basis as opposed to being viewed merely in terms of societal stereo-
types of expected behavior for women.
Although research indicates that the gap is closing, gender stereo-
types in the realm of personality traits do persist. For instance, when
women are perceived as possessing less agentic, their careers can suffer
(Abele, 2003). Focusing on differences rather than similarities is limit-
ing and downplays the sociocultural basis of these supposed differen-
ces (Whiston & Bouwkamp, 2003). According to Williamson and
Hudson (2001), a major issue regarding workplace socialization is the
extent to which people challenge the norms.

PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS OF WOMEN IN THE


WORKPLACE
‘‘Since women’s psychology of dependence is tied to the reality of
male power,’’ Ferguson (1984) notes, ‘‘women are not likely to view
self-assertion as safe; assertiveness is always risky for the powerless’’
(p. 168).

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Shifting the Load 165

Although women have made gains in the workforce, traditional ster-


eotypes persist about appropriate feminine behavior and women’s role
in the home. In the United States, more often than not, men are still
perceived to be the principle breadwinners within the traditional nu-
clear family, and women are still perceived as the primary providers of
home and family care. Those who deviate from these patterns are
judged harshly (Marler & Moen, 2005).
Traditional masculine characteristics include the following: adven-
turous, aggressive, ambitious, assertive, competitive, decisive, domi-
nant, independent, individualistic, and self-confident. Traditional
feminine characteristics include the following: affectionate, communal,
emotional, empathic, expressive, gentle, submissive, sympathetic, and
talkative (Kirchmeyer, 2002; Lueptow et al., 2001). Intrinsic qualities
that contribute to career success include a strong sense of self, inde-
pendence, self-efficacy, assertiveness, persistence, and the ability to
take risks (Hite & McDonald, 2003). Tomlinson-Keasey (1974) found
conflict between societal expectations for women and women’s per-
sonal aspirations. Thus there is a disconnect between what some
women want for themselves and what society expects of them.
Hutri and Lindeman (2002) found that women experience more
occupational crises than men do; these stem from trait anxiety, such as
unexpressed anger and depression. Keim, Strauser, and Ketz (2002)
found that women experience more anxiety and lower self-esteem than
men do, which can affect career potential and prevent women from
achieving as much as men achieve.
In Finland, Pulkkinen, Ohranen, and Tolvanen (1999) found that
extroversion in adult women led to a high career orientation. Lueptow
and colleagues (2001) found that gender-typing personality characteris-
tics as ‘‘typical’’ of men or women still continues—that nothing much
has changed in this realm in the last few decades. If anything, such
stereotyping is on the rise in the United States with the nation’s
renewed climate of conservatism (Lueptow et al., 2001). In other words,
many personality characteristics are still, to a large degree, thought to
be gender specific.
Characteristics that correlate positively with workplace involvement
and success include emotional stability, independence, high self-
esteem, self-efficacy, an internal locus of control, assertiveness, and a
lack of anxiety (Pulkkinen et al., 1999). These are also characteristics
that are typically associated with men. Because of the societal tradition
of essentializing the sexes into opposite and separate entities (e.g., yin
and yang), when certain stereotypically masculine traits are associated
with women they have a different connotation—or women are thought
not to possess them at all.
The explanation for why women exhibit more communal traits than
men do is controversial. Some believe that it is a result of biology, of

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166 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

evolution, and that it speaks to men’s and women’s essential or


‘‘natural’’ differences. Communal traits in women might not be related
directly to occupational roles or to women’s lack of holding positions
of power throughout history; they might stem from women’s role in
the home. That is, women have traditionally played the nurturing role
in the home, and although women are more prevalent in the workplace
than they were 50 years ago, the role of primary nurturer in the home
still predominantly falls upon the woman. Thus, although the commu-
nal style or group of traits is sometimes ascribed to biology, it is more
likely caused by sociology.
Roberts (1997) found that high levels of career advancement for
women result in higher levels of agency, which is a traditionally mas-
culine trait. The association between masculinity and career success
and advancement has been found in both women and men (Kirch-
meyer, 2002). Abele (2003) found that agency is more important to
workplace success than is communion.
Women tend to possess fewer agentic traits than men so (Eagly & Stef-
fen, 1984). The reasons for this involve the perceptions of observers, or so-
ciety in general: Women are more likely than men to hold positions with
low levels of status and authority and are more likely than men to be in
the unpaid labor force (i.e., working within the home). Thus, women are
perceived by society to be less likely to enjoy positions of power, and this
can translate to perceptions of women’s capabilities—which further leads
to women’s perceptions of their own capabilities (and contributes to the
vicious cycle that maintains women’s secondary status).
Specifically, if women perceive their opportunities to be less than
those of men, they might strive for less or not try for promotions or
certain management positions for fear of failure. This fear can then
cause a lack of motivation and thus perpetuate the cycle of there being
few women in top management positions (Dreher, 2003). Moreover,
when women take career risks or achieve success in nontraditional
realms, they are sometimes viewed negatively by others. Heilman,
Wallen, Fuchs, and Tamkins (2004) note the following:

A woman’s success in areas traditionally reserved for men can give rise
to social penalties, causing them to be disliked and negatively viewed.
These results also are suggestive [of] the nature of the negative character-
izations likely to result. When women violate gender prescriptions by
being successful in areas that are not traditionally part of their domain,
they seem to be cast in a light that not only is negative but also is anti-
thetical to the traditional stereotype of women and conceptions of how
they should be. (p. 417)

To further complicate the societal prescriptions for women, a wom-


an’s family and peers also influence her career expectations and career
decisions (Guay, Senecal, Gauthier, & Fernet, 2003). Parental belief in

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Shifting the Load 167

stereotypical roles can discourage girls and young women from pursu-
ing nontraditional fields (Creamer & Laughlin, 2005). According to
Pulkkinen and colleagues (1999), constructive activity in one’s child-
hood correlates with positive management of working life as an adult.
Socially passive and anxiety-ridden behavior as a child are indicative
of problems later—stressful situations as an adult are likely to be dealt
with internally rather than confronted externally. Pulkkinen and col-
leagues note, ‘‘Previous research has shown that in stressful life condi-
tions women tend to react by internalizing rather than externalizing
their problems’’ (p. 54).
It is more difficult for women, especially those who are traditionally
oriented, to be successful in male-dominated fields because they have
to alter their personalities to be accepted as competent. There is social
pressure on women to change within traditionally male fields (Kirch-
meyer, 2002). Peplau (1976) presents a traditional view of women’s ca-
reer development by arguing that women who find themselves in
competition with men fear losing their femininity, and women’s
achievement may be impacted because women strive to maintain, at
the very least, an illusion of male superiority.
Peplau (1976) found that traditional women perform better in
noncompetitive or team settings, whereas nontraditional women excel
in competitive situations. Androgynous oriented women experience
less fear of success than traditionally feminine women do (Kearney,
1982).
Whiston and Bouwkamp (2003) found that career-oriented women
possess more intrinsic needs, such as independence and achievement.
According to Twenge (1997), communal traits have remained higher in
women than in men, whereas agentic traits have increased in women
over time. Twenge found that the gap between women and men is
decreasing in terms of feelings of personal agency.
Twenge (2001) found that assertiveness (an agentic trait) in women
has been increasing in the past 20 years but that it varies with status
and roles. Women in nontraditional fields, such as engineering, do not
show gender differences in agentic and communality. Both women and
men reported possessing agentic, or dominant, behavior when in posi-
tions of supervision; however, it was mainly women who reported
communal, or submissive, behaviors when in positions of workplace
subordination (Abele, 2003).

Personal Expectations
Personal expectations with regard to one’s career have much to do
with how far one will advance. ‘‘The self-concept contains a number of
‘possible selves,’ which are defined as conceptions of what we ideally
will become in the future, what we expect we will become, and what

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


168 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

we fear we will become’’ (Chalk, Meara, Day, & Davis, 2005). Accord-
ing to Creamer and Laughlin (2005), women are more likely than men
to seek advice from others about career decisions and are more influ-
enced by others.
Bizzari (1998) found that some women think that their values are
not universal values; they also found that women put their personal
needs on hold to first serve the needs of the family. In other words,
serving the needs of others, or putting others first, whether at work or
at home, is often common among women. Selflessness serves as an ob-
stacle to workplace success for women. Bizzari found that responsibil-
ity for women was often synonymous with being ‘‘good,’’ providing
for the family in a variety of ways, and that selfishness was defined as
meeting one’s own needs. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs might not be
reflective of self-actualization for women, because self-fulfillment for
women is directly tied to the nurturing of others—not for biological
reasons, but as learned behavior.

Expectations of Others
Self-actualized, secure, and independent women are not nurtured
and cultivated by our society. In fact, people ask what is wrong if a
woman has chosen not to have children. Although women might be
perceived as possessing the necessary (read: male) characteristics for
an occupation, these characteristics are not considered to be what
women ‘‘should’’ actually ‘‘be like.’’ There are consequences for
women who do not fit their prescribed role, such as social ostracism
and receiving negative personal feedback. Women who behave in tra-
ditionally male ways are less well received than are men who deviate
from traditional norms (Heilman et al., 2004).
Competent women and women leaders can be viewed by others as
cold, bitter, quarrelsome, and selfish when they simply possess the same
personality characteristics as their male counterparts (Heilman et al., 2004).
Sometimes they don’t even possess the characteristics but are merely
believed to possess them. According to attribution theory, the personality
characteristics and accomplishments of women and men are explained dif-
ferently. For example, women’s accomplishments are often attributed to
luck or other external factors, and their advancement is attributed to af-
firmative action and not to personal ability (as men’s accomplishments
are) (Kirchmeyer, 1998; Lyness & Thompson, 1997). Moreover, women’s
performance on traditionally male-oriented tasks is often attributed to luck
or to effort, whereas men’s performance is attributed to skill (Greenhaus
& Parasuraman, 1993). The reason for the former is that such success vio-
lates people’s gender-role expectations; thus, to avoid cognitive disso-
nance, the observers attribute negative attributes to women, such that
women are not responsible for their own successes—they just ‘‘got lucky.’’

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Shifting the Load 169

Appearance
Finally, another form of oppression that women must face within
the workplace is the issue of appearance. According to Thompson and
Keith (2001), the ‘‘pursuit and preoccupation with beauty are central
features of female gender-role socialization’’ (p. 354). Women who are
deemed unattractive are more vulnerable to bias within the workplace.
Author Grant Bowman (cited in Ehrenreich, 2005) points out,
‘‘Marcia Clark . . . changed her hairstyle, dress and personal manner,
became softer, more feminine, warmer and more open—in short, less
like the aggressive trial lawyer she is and more like a stereotypical
woman’’ (p. 108). To be accepted in the work world, women often have
to spend more time and money on their appearance than men do. If
women do not pay as much attention to their appearance as is deemed
socially necessary, or if their appearance is seen as unfeminine, they
will be judged harshly for it.
Appearance and its judgment by others seem to affect all women in
some way, but currently there is a lack of formal research in these
areas.

WOMEN IN ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE


According to one theory, skewed gender ratios in organizations cre-
ate negative self-fulfilling prophecies for the nontraditional or token
group (e.g., women). That is, the dominant or majority group (at the
top) exaggerates the differences between itself and the token group,
thus resulting in negative consequences for the token group. Lyness
and Thompson (2000) state, ‘‘Men’s negative behaviors toward token
women are also thought to be more likely when the women hold male
gender-typed positions, that is, those typically held by men or thought
to be more appropriate for men . . . such as senior management’’
(p. 87).
According to Kanter’s (1977a, 1977b) research on tokenism, women
experience many negative consequences for their secondary positions:
believing that that they need to change to fit in the organizational cul-
ture, being excluded from informal interactions, having less mentoring,
being viewed as stereotypes, and receiving fewer developmental
assignments. Token status also often leads to increased scrutiny of job
performance, which in turn prevents women from gaining entrance to
the higher levels of the organization (Goodman et al., 2003).
The majority of corporate environments are created and controlled
by men. In addition, corporate culture is perpetuated by a homogene-
ous group of White males (Bierma, 1999). For women to be successful,
they must learn to navigate through this culture or attempt to change
it. Lyness and Thompson (2000) found that women executives

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


170 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

experience more barriers to advancement and lower job satisfaction


than their male counterparts do. Vinnicombe and Harris (2000) state,
‘‘The informally accepted definition of success in an organization tends
more closely to match the one held by men. This often results in
women being perceived as less ambitious’’ (p. 28).
Corporate culture consists of beliefs, philosophies, language, rituals,
traditions, and norms that perpetuate the traditional power structure
(Bierma, 1999). The current corporate male hierarchy perpetuates the
advancement of men and the stalling of women in positions that lack
formal power and corporate influence. For example, decision makers
report a confidence level of 75% when promoting men, but only a 23%
confidence level when promoting women (Ruderman, Ohlott, & Kram,
1995).
Bierma (1999) studied how women function within corporate culture
and found that women go through stages of learning and development,
including the following: compliant novice, competence seeker, and
change agent. In the compliant novice stage, women attribute their learn-
ing to an external authority and consider themselves to be naı̈ve or
overly grateful for what they receive in terms of pay and advancement.
At this stage, women think that, if they simply cause no trouble, they
will be rewarded. As women gain experience and find that simply
being nice and compliant will not in itself warrant promotion, they
begin to focus on gaining competence.
These women then attempt to develop their own peer networks and
mentors to gain this organizational competence. The competence seeker
stage presupposes being accepted in the current organizational struc-
ture and culture; this is crucial to being accepted by men. These
women are often afraid of offending men and try to fit in with them
(thus, no overt feminism here, no attempting to change the status quo).
At this stage, women adapt and assimilate to the culture; they do not
try to change it. When feeling dissent, they express it through silence.
As one participant states (cited in Bierma, 1999):

A lot of women make mistakes by being too much pro-woman. I think


that you have to recognize that you are bucking the old-boy’s network.
It’s alive and well and kicking very strongly. If you fight that in a nega-
tive way then you’re looked upon as a troublemaker and a women’s lib-
ber. [The men] don’t need that. (p. 111)
These women accept the male centrism of the organization without
question, even though they are excluded from the informal networks
or cliques.
In the change agent stage, women transition out of the male-oriented
stages and into an arena in which they feel comfortable challenging the
status quo. This type of change is inspired when women realize that
they are not advancing as their male counterparts are, despite their

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Shifting the Load 171

competence and expertise. At this stage, women have gained more per-
sonal experience and have achieved some degree of personal power.
They become empowered through their associations with women in
similar positions, and they form networks geared to organizational
change. These women view themselves as organizational change agents
and seek to change the culture, either overtly or covertly.
Bierma (1999) also found a lack of feminist identification in the
women she studied. Women believed that adopting the label feminist
could be damaging to them in their career advancement. Nevertheless,
they did adhere to many feminist beliefs and used feminist language.
However, they refused to attribute their unfair treatment in the organi-
zation to discrimination or harassment, despite their knowledge, trans-
formation, and progression through the stages. This set of beliefs
contributes to an organizational culture in which gender discrimination
and even gender harassment are unacknowledged and thus tolerated.
This research highlights the importance of consciousness-raising for
women in traditional male organizations or corporate cultures. It also
addresses the importance of helping others who are excluded from
informal networks and of the importance of mentoring other women
(and other members of token groups) so that they can also achieve suc-
cess and advancement within the organization. This research also im-
plicitly raises the question of whether a feminist identification is
beneficial to women in the workplace, especially women who are grap-
pling with discriminatory environments.
Vinnicombe and Harris (2000) found that many organizations are
run as closed and informal systems in which opportunities for promo-
tion and advancement are discussed and agreed upon through infor-
mal networks, many of which exclude women. These informal
networks create and perpetuate the organizational culture. Career or
job commitment, for example, is defined through these informal net-
works; because these consist primarily of men, women’s definitions of
commitment, which allow for conflicts (e.g., work-family balance,
child care), are absent from these networks and thus from the boss’s
perceptions and evaluations of women workers. In other words,
women are often evaluated unfairly because of this omission and
inconsistency.
According to Dryburgh’s (1999) examination of Canadian workplace
culture in engineering, it is more difficult for women than men in this
field to achieve success because women have to make more of an
adjustment to the organizational culture in terms of the perceptions of
others and solidarity with others within the profession. She states the
following:

Women have to work harder than men, and they face obstacles not there
for men of similar ability. Women . . . have to adjust [not only] to the

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


172 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

occupational culture but also to the masculinity of that culture. They . . .


have to portray themselves as competent [not only] to their employers
and clients but also to male colleagues. Finally, women have to prove
their solidarity to others in the profession, a more difficult task for
women than men, given engineering’s masculine identity. (p. 666)

Each profession has its own culture with which successful employ-
ees (members) must become acclimated. It is easier for men, with their
informal informational networks, to successfully acclimate themselves.
Women often have to compensate simply for being women.
Women in nontraditional fields have to adapt not only to a work-
place culture but also to the masculinity of that culture. This can pro-
duce anxiety. Group identification leads to empowerment (Chronister
& McWhirter, 2006), but when women do not possess identification
with a group—with the majority culture or with other women—
workplace satisfaction is greatly reduced, and anxiety increases.
In sum, women often face tremendous obstacles to gain acceptance
in an organizational culture, especially in nontraditional fields. They
must deal with negative expectations, gender-role stereotypes, and
doing more than is expected to be seen as competent. They must try to
find a mentor or a way into the informal networks that are often closed
to them so that they can learn to navigate the hostile waters of organi-
zational culture. Women must also face the hostility that results when
they advance into nontraditional realms. Heilman and colleagues
(2004) note the following:

Terms such as bitch, ice queen, iron maiden, and dragon lady are invoked to
describe women who have successfully climbed the organizational
ladder. . . . These characterizations provide some insight into why, despite
their success, high-powered women often tend not to advance to the very
top levels of organizations. (p. 426)

To achieve career advancement, especially in corporate culture,


women must overcome the reluctance of those in power to ‘‘take risks’’
with women. Having a sponsor who has power within the organiza-
tion is helpful in this regard (Lyness & Thompson, 2000). Finally,
battling the status quo to change the perception that it is, in fact, a risk
to hire or promote a woman is something that requires immediate
attention.

PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS OF WOMEN IN


LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
Because women have traditionally held less power, they are thought
to be less deserving of respect and of positions with high status (or in

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Shifting the Load 173

which power can be achieved) (Miner-Rubino & Cortina, 2004).


Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, and Tarule (1997) argue that women find
it more difficult than men do not only to assert authority but also to
consider themselves as authorities in their fields. Traditionally, wom-
en’s occupations have had less authority in general than men’s have
(Lyness & Thompson, 1997), and traditionally masculine characteristics
have been more valued in the field of management than traditionally
feminine characteristics (Crampton & Mishra, 1999). Women have
to work harder to be seen as deserving of positions of leadership or
management.
Because of these realities, women leaders need not only mentoring
and networking but also opportunities to shine so that others will
acknowledge their leadership. This in turn will encourage women to
believe in themselves as leaders. Women need opportunities to show
their skills and to alter the faulty perceptions that their personalities
are deficient in the appropriate characteristics for leadership.
Traditional masculine characteristics, such as assertiveness and indi-
viduality, are the preferred personality characteristics for managers.
Male managers are perceived much more than women to possess the
necessary personality characteristics to be successful leaders (Kirch-
meyer, 1998; Lyness & Thompson, 1997). When female managers are
perceived as not possessing these personality traits, they have to try
harder to be viewed as competent. When women behave in tradition-
ally feminine ways, they may be perceived as not being successful or
as not fitting into their positions as leaders.
In fact, there is a perceived lack of fit in general between the stereo-
types of women and the characteristics of successful managers; there
are also expectations for the failure of women in leadership and man-
agement positions. Lyness and Thompson (1997) found that there are
more similarities than differences, overall, between female and male
executives. The differences are merely perceived rather than real.
According to Lyness and Thompson (1997), research on leadership
has demonstrated that people are more reluctant to have a female
supervisor, and this results in a less supportive environment for
women to achieve success in management or leadership. Goodman
and colleagues (2003) note the following:

We found that women are more likely to hold top management jobs in
establishments with higher turnover and lower average management sal-
aries. To some extent, unfortunately, women appear to be securing top
jobs in less desirable establishments, possibly as men seek top jobs in
more stable, higher paying organizations. (p. 493)

Gender-role theory posits that people come to develop behavioral


expectations for themselves and others based on the behavior that they

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


174 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

deem to be appropriate for women and men. Similarly, within organi-


zations, people develop expectations for behaviors that they deem to
be appropriate for managers or leaders (Eagly, Makhijani, & Klonsky,
1992). The theory of gender-role spillover is also relevant to this discus-
sion, for it posits that people (e.g., leaders) are perceived simultane-
ously in terms of their gender and in terms of their role in the
organization—thus, gender-role expectations for women and men carry
over into their workplace roles.
The consequences of this are vast. Because people’s expectations for
leaders and managers are more consistent with traditional expectations
for men in general, male leaders and managers are often perceived to
be more effective than women are in similar roles. This results in
another dilemma for female leaders and managers: Women must
decide whether to fulfill people’s expectations for them as women or
as leaders and managers. This is a no-win situation. Eagly and col-
leagues (1992) state the following about women:

By fulfilling people’s expectations concerning leadership, they violate


conventions concerning appropriate female behavior. As a consequence,
women in leadership roles may be devalued relative to their male coun-
terparts—that is, perceived as behaving less competently and as having
less ability and effectiveness as a leader. (p. 5)

A third option would be for women leaders to do what comes natu-


rally to them; however, they will be judged harshly for this if they vio-
late traditional norms of femininity.
Another explanation for why women have limited access to leader-
ship roles and management positions is that women’s credentials and
performances are not evaluated in a fair manner; similar leadership
qualities, such as assertiveness, are viewed less favorably when shown
by a woman. Eagly and colleagues (1992) found that women leaders
were devalued compared with male leaders when the leadership was
carried out in a stereotypically masculine manner. This devaluation
was exacerbated when women leaders occupied male-dominated
realms and when male evaluators were used. Eagly and colleagues also
found that women leaders were more harshly evaluated when the eval-
uators were men:

Because placing women in leadership positions upsets the traditional


societal gender hierarchy, male subjects might, in a sense, have more to
lose by approving female leadership because their status vis-
a-vis women
would decline. Thus, male subjects may be more prone than female sub-
jects to reject female leaders. (p. 7)

Women also reported that their style of management (personality


factors) were obstacles to their advancement (Shinew & Arnold, 1998).

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Shifting the Load 175

Women leaders often describe their leadership styles as being funda-


mentally different from men’s. This is not because women are essen-
tially different from men, but because they are perceived to be
different and societal expectations for them are different. Thus, women
often attempt to get their subordinates to come to a consensus.
In sum, the way that management should be conducted is still
viewed in terms of individualistic traits (rather than relational traits).
Vinnicombe and Harris (2000) argue that this perception persists
because of the processes (e.g., hidden attitudes and stereotypes) of the
informal organization. ‘‘The balance of the sexes in management can
still be summed up by the phrase ‘think manager, think male,’ just as
it was in the 1970s’’ (p. 28).
Schwartz (1989) found that there are two types of female managers
and calls them career-primary and career-and-family. Williamson and
Hudson (2001) found that women who possess what is perceived as a
feminine leadership style will have their style questioned; for example,
some women have had their sense of calm misperceived as weakness.
Women in positions of leadership who possess a traditionally feminine
style are often perceived as weak, wimpy, and wishy-washy. Women’s
leadership goals include making a difference and personal fulfillment
rather than ambition and power.
In a study of female managers, Stroh, Brett, and Reilly (1996) found
that women tended to leave management not because of marriage and
children, which is the predominant perception, but because of a per-
ceived lack of opportunities (i.e., a glass ceiling) within the organiza-
tion. In fact, these researchers found that family created more stability
for managers rather than less. ‘‘Job-hopping,’’ says Shih (2006), is a
strategy often used by women to circumvent bias.
Stereotypes of female managers include jealousy, micromanaging,
inability to delegate, and being overly emotional. These are also traits
of people without power (token status). Sometimes female leaders want
to stay away from politics, for they are taught to value relationships.
They fear that the political system of networking is damaging to val-
ued relationships. However, finding personal power and developing
political savvy is instrumental in achieving success within organiza-
tions (Crampton & Mishra, 1999).
Sex-role stereotypes still exist and thus create a double standard that
negatively affects the evaluation of women in management (Dreher,
2003; Pardine, Fox, & Salzano, 1995). The percentage of women in posi-
tions of management has increased since the mid-1970s; however, the
perception still endures that women are unqualified or unable to per-
form in such capacities. Those women who do make it into positions
of management do little to contribute to the change in perception or
changes in stereotypes of women; on the contrary, these women are
instead thought to be the ‘‘exception’’ to the stereotype. They are seen

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176 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

as unrepresentative of women in general, so their accomplishments do


not impact societal beliefs about the qualifications of women in posi-
tions of management.
In the last 30 years, the percentage of women in positions of power
in low and middle management has increased significantly. However,
the percentage of women in positions of power in top management is
relatively small (Dreher, 2003). For example, in 2000, women made up
12.5% of corporate officers in Fortune 500 companies, but less than 5%
of the top earners (Catalyst, 2000).

Education and Female Administrators


Education is a field that is still dominated by women, yet women do
not typically pursue administration positions (Weller, 1988). Hensel
(1991) found that women still experience gender discrimination in
higher education; they experience higher attrition rates and have
slower career mobility than men do. The gender discrimination in this
field, however, is more subtle: Women who do research on women are
less valued, women’s performance is more critically evaluated, and sal-
ary differentials favoring men still exist.
According to the American Association of University Professors eq-
uity study (West & Curtis, 2006), women hold only 24% of full profes-
sor positions in the United States. Despite the gains that women have
made in higher education in the past few decades, they are highly
underrepresented in tenure-track positions. Women face more obstacles
to career advancement in higher education than they do in the corpo-
rate world. The areas with the fewest number of women in higher edu-
cation are the most prestigious and most highly paid. Women make far
less money than men in higher education because they are more likely
to hold positions at institutions that pay lower salaries, and they are
less likely to gain senior rank.
The perceptions of others has much to do with whether female
administrators will experience success, and it has been found that to
reach success as an administrator is more difficult for women than it is
for men (Shakeshaft, 1987). Women administrators are more readily
accepted when they possess certain personality characteristics; they are
also more constrained than their male counterparts by cultural norms
of appropriate behavior (Duncan & Skarstad, 1995). Women may be
perceived differently based upon the ways in which they implement
and use their power (Duncan & Skarstad, 1995).
To achieve workplace success, female administrators often have to
project certain characteristics of what is deemed to be appropriate femi-
nine behavior. These characteristics include ways of speaking, dressing,
interacting, and leading. Also, women administrators who possess the
power to do something are more accepted than those who exhibit

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Shifting the Load 177

power over others. In a study of female administrators, Duncan and


Skarstad (1995) found that the expectations for these women were tre-
mendously high. These expectations came from both the women them-
selves and from others. Women have to do more than men to be seen
as competent.
According to Weller (1988), successful female administrators strive
for the following: to know oneself, to have shared goals, to have a
mentor, to network, to be prepared and above reproach, and to not
focus on gender. However, it is not the responsibility of individual
women alone to change the status quo. Organization can do their part
to increase equity for women in the workplace; they can be proactive
to reduce organizational barriers for women and other minorities.
In sum, women have to work harder to be taken seriously or to be
seen as deserving of their positions. Despite the fact that more and
more women are entering the workforce and positions of power, lead-
ership is still, to a great degree, perceived to be a male realm
(Boatwright & Egidio, 2003). Women should have knowledge of male–
female issues within the workplace so that they can navigate through
gender-role stereotypes and the perceptions of others instead of blam-
ing themselves when their leadership styles are not readily accepted.

THE GLASS CEILING AND OTHER BARRIERS TO WOMEN’S


WORKPLACE SUCCESS
The glass ceiling is a metaphor created to signify the artificial barrier
that prevents women from advancing in the workplace because they
are women (Anderson, 2005). Women of color report experiencing
additional barriers to advancement because of race; thus, the term con-
crete ceiling was coined to describe the interlocking oppressions of gen-
der and race. One real barrier to women’s advancement that falls
under the metaphor of the glass ceiling is the lack of informal networks
open to women in the workplace (i.e., a female counterpart to the ‘‘old
boys’ network’’) (Cotter et al., 2001; Weiler & Bernasek, 2001).
Such a network would be unnecessary if women did not experience
workplace discrimination and exclusion from the existing workplace
networks. Informal networks have been very beneficial for men who
are advancing in corporate America. It allows them to enjoy mentor-
ship, learn the hidden rules of the organization, and learn of opportu-
nities for advancement. Women are often left ‘‘out of the loop’’
because they are excluded from these networks and have none of their
own.
Women’s networks do not exist for a variety of reasons that stem
from the problem of patriarchy: There are not enough women at the
top to build them; the women who are at the top feel loyalty to the
men who put them there and are thus hesitant to help the women

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178 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

beneath them; and, because there are so few opportunities for women,
they consider other women as competitors and fail to help them.
Anderson (2005) cites the view that ‘‘the occupational behavior
and status of women and men is determined not so much by the
characteristics they bring with them into the workplace, but by the
structures they encounter there’’—that is, being relegated to low-sta-
tus jobs (p. 63). Therefore, women have fewer opportunities, resour-
ces, and access to power and resources than men do. However,
individual mentors can assist in career advancement for women and
minorities.
Women in general experience both internal and external barriers to
their workplace success (Whiston & Bouwkamp, 2003). Internal barriers
to gainful employment and advancement for women include role con-
flict, low self-efficacy, negative perceptions of women by others, low
expectations, limiting gender-role identities, etc. External barriers
include sexual harassment, lack of mentors, socioeconomic status, dis-
crimination in education and occupation, and gender-role stereotyping
(Noonan, Gallor, & Hensler-McGinnis, 2004).
Men’s careers often follow a linear path (Sterrett, 1999). Women’s
careers often progress in a nonlinear fashion, involving gaps that are
related primarily to issues with child care (Pulkkinen et al., 1999).
Women are more likely than men to experience an employment gap
(Reitman & Schneer, 2005). Sterrett (1999) indicates that women tend to
put less emphasis on pay and more on career satisfaction. Furthermore,
if women are not oriented toward competition, they can be put off by
the corporate structure. For example, women are often unwilling to
make the personal sacrifices, such as less time spent with family, that
are demanded by organizations. Despite these findings, more research
is necessary on how women experience their careers.
Another internal barrier that some women face is guilt. Women who
want to advance in the workplace often feel bad about leaving their
homes and families. Successful women have indicated that they had to
put their careers first at certain times. Men do this quite frequently in
order to advance, but women are often judged negatively for it
whereas men are not. Mentors are important for women in dealing
with this and other issues (Crampton & Mishra, 1999).
Women also report that they are provided with fewer opportunities
for advancement and that women with children are directed into
slower employment tracks (Shinew & Arnold, 1998). Women often
compare themselves to other women and not to men within the work-
place, so some might not analyze their experiences as resulting from
discrimination or differential treatment (Sterrett, 1999). Women in the
workplace report experiencing more discrimination and gender-based
obstacles to advancement (such as sexual harassment), as well as lower
career aspirations, than men do; women are also more likely to report

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Shifting the Load 179

harassment and discrimination (Miner-Rubino & Cortina, 2004; Shinew


& Arnold, 1998).
Miner-Rubino and Cortina (2004) found that when women experi-
enced gender-based discriminatory and/or harassing behavior, the
health of all employees decreased. The same was true when employees
perceived the organization to be tolerant of this behavior. As Miner-
Rubino and Cortina (2004) state, ‘‘This raises the possibility that the
legal definition of hostile work environment should extend beyond tar-
gets to include employees whose harassment experiences are ‘merely’
vicarious or indirect—for example, employees who have witnessed the
sexual harassment of female coworkers but who have escaped direct
harassment themselves’’ (p. 119).

Miner-Rubino and Cortina (2004) found that working in an environment


that is hostile to women affects the well-being of employees even if they
do not personally experience this hostility directly. In other words,
misogyny in the workplace affects everyone: bystanders, groups of work-
ers, and the organization as a whole. Bystander stress can be caused from
being in an environment where sexual harassment occurs: even if this
type of harassment involves hostile environment or gender-based harass-
ment (Miner-Rubino & Cortina, 2004). According to Miner-Rubino and
Cortina (2004), ‘‘. . . ambient sexual harassment, or indirect exposure to har-
assment, contributes to negative outcomes among employees, over and
above influences of direct exposure to sexual harassment and general
occupational stress’’ (p. 108).

Men can also suffer negative consequences from sexual harassment


and misogyny in the workplace, for the tolerance of these behaviors
sends them the message that the organization does not value individu-
als or treat people equally (Miner-Rubino & Cortina, 2004). Organiza-
tional cultures that tolerate sexual harassment actually show an increase
in incidents of sexual harassment (Welsh, 1999). Timmerman and
Bajema (2000) found that unwanted sexual conduct is less of a problem
in organizational cultures that are perceived as providing equal oppor-
tunities for both women and men. Furthermore, experiences of gender
discrimination result in lower job satisfaction, decreased career self-
confidence and satisfaction, and increased isolation (Settles, Cortina,
Malley, & Stewart, 2006).

Role Conflict and Role Overload


Role conflict occurs when family and career expectations are com-
pounded by the behavioral expectations placed on women (Crampton
& Mishra, 1999). Domestic circumstances are still very different for
women than they are for men (Wajcman & Martin, 2002). For example,
women usually have to deal with additional responsibilities at home

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180 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

(i.e., they have dual roles), so they are unable to take on additional
work that would assist them with future promotions. Feminists have
discussed the concept of the double workload for decades. This term was
coined to describe the many women who have entered the workplace
and who come home from one full-time job to another full-time job:
housework and child rearing. This concept corresponds to the lack of
child care and housework that is taken on by husbands and boy-
friends.
The division of labor in the home between women and men is still
unequal. Women spend twice as much time as men do on household
tasks and on child care, despite working outside the home the same
amount of time (Williams, Manvell, & Bornstein, 2006). This tradition
is reinforced by the media. Television commercials and print advertise-
ments typically portray only women using cooking and cleaning
products—unless, of course, the role carries a certain amount of pres-
tige, such as a chef. Williams and colleagues state, ‘‘The leveling off of
women’s employment and men’s household contributions are likely
related. Because most men do not carry an equal share of household
work, women’s ability to accept promotions or to remain in good jobs
is constrained’’ (p. 21).
Women with children often take jobs with fewer responsibilities and
less compensation or decline promotions in order to be in positions
that are more flexible so that they have more time for the family.
Unmarried women in the workforce experience better health than their
married counterparts; married women experience better health if their
husbands contribute to household labor. Heavy workplace demands
and a low level of personal control contribute to health risks (Long,
1995).
The benefits of motherhood (e.g., caring and nurturing) have been
emphasized over the costs of motherhood, or what women have to
give up to be considered ‘‘good mothers.’’ Role conflict and role over-
load are often used to dissuade women from entering the workforce
or returning to it after giving birth to or while rearing children. The
complications of paid employment, marriage, child rearing, and home-
making can cause social-role dissonance, psychological distress, physi-
cal stress, and strains on one’s health and well-being (Baruch, Biener,
& Barnett, 1987; Cinamon, 2006). However, with more support from
the employment realm (e.g., on-site child care) and the family (e.g.,
support from the husband in terms of shared responsibilities), women
can be more successful in the workplace and less torn by their many
roles.
According to a study on work, marriage, and life satisfaction (Per-
rone, Webb, & Blalock, 2005), there are differences in how women and
men spend their time, but no differences in what they value or how
women and men wish they could spend their time. This study suggests

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Shifting the Load 181

that if women and men structured their lives in terms of what they val-
ued, there would be no gender differences in role participation in the
major areas of life: work, family, and leisure.
College women pursuing nontraditional careers reported desiring
fewer children, held more feminist attitudes, and planned to share
household responsibilities (Cinamon, 2006). Having a spouse that is
supportive is related to less role conflict and heightened well-being
(Kasen et al., 2006). Long (1995) found that, in terms of stress,
employed women are better off than women who do not work outside
the home. Lack of career progression for women can be a source of
stress. Long suggests that women are subject to the same workplace
stressors as men are; however, women are also subject to additional
stressors, such as sexual harassment, gender discrimination, gender-
role stereotyping, and role conflict.

Evaluation Procedures
Effective performance is often attributed to ability when the em-
ployee being observed is a member of the in-group rather than the out-
group; in the latter case, success is often attributed to luck. This does
not just apply to gender; it also applies to race, class, and sexual orien-
tation. White males are more likely to have their successes attributed to
their own ability than are White women, Black women, and Black men
(Greenhaus & Parasuraman, 1993). Black women face increased dis-
crimination because of the double bind they experience when facing
both racial and gender discrimination. People who possess token status
are more likely to be noticed in an organization and thus have their
work more closely supervised (Miner-Rubino & Cortina, 2004).
Employees who were thought to perform well because of ability were
also judged more worthy of promotions than were those whose suc-
cesses were attributed to luck or effort (Greenhaus & Parasuraman,
1993).
Women experience discriminatory evaluation procedures, have their
competence denied, and have their performance devalued as a result
of their gender (Heilman et al., 2004). These unfair processes perpetu-
ate negative expectations of women, which result from the inconsis-
tency in how women are viewed and the characteristics that are
necessary to perform a particular job. Even when women are successful
in traditionally male occupations, they are still often judged unfairly.
Settles and colleagues (2006) examined the causes of levels of attri-
tion in women in science-related fields. These high levels of attrition
seem to suggest an atmosphere that is problematic for women in gen-
eral. Women of color were found to have less influence in their depart-
ments than White women had. Women in the field of science
experience fewer opportunities for leadership and influence, slower

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


182 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

advancement, and heightened isolation. Settles and colleagues argue


that, to be successful in science-related fields, women must realize
three outcomes: job satisfaction, productivity, and a ‘‘felt influence.’’
Sexual harassment and sexist environments in general affect these
areas. These factors and the tolerance of them within an organization
hinder the success of women and are tied to lower productivity and ca-
reer outcomes for women.

Backlash
The term opt-out revolution was coined in 2003 by journalist Lisa Bel-
kin to convey the phenomenon of women who choose to leave the paid
workforce to raise children full-time. This phenomenon created a
media frenzy and was picked up by a variety of papers, including The
New York Times. It is more accurate to say, however, that women are
leaving the workforce because of the following: inflexible workplaces,
discrimination and stereotypes, lack of support for working families, or
workforce-workplace mismatch (Williams, Manvell, & Bornstein, 2006).
These opt-out stories started a firestorm of antifeminist rhetoric in the
media, where several false assumptions were made on the basis of quasi-
scientific data—for instance, that the pay gap was a result of women’s
decisions and not as a result of discrimination. To make matters worse,
many readers accepted these stories without question because they con-
firmed the traditional stereotypes of women, many of which the readers
already held. Williams and colleagues (2006) stated the following:

Why is fuzzy data so uncontroversial in this arena? People tend to accept


stereotype-affirming information readily; data that disconfirm stereotypes
are more likely to trigger demands for formal documentation. . . . This is
just one of many ways the Opt Out story repeats and reinforces stereo-
types about women. (p. 19)

Workforce-workplace mismatch occurs when an organization’s


expectations of the workforce do not accommodate the needs of work-
ers, such as workplaces being inflexible for working mothers who need
a more flexible schedule. This notion creates a more accurate picture of
what was and is occurring with American women. Another problem
with the opt-out news stories was that they focused on upper-class and
upper middle-class White women who were in high-status, traditionally
male-dominated careers. Williams and colleagues (2006) state, ‘‘Women
married to the wealthiest men have lower levels of employment than
any other group, but over half of even this group is employed’’ (p. 25).
The opt-out stories do not reflect the experiences of the majority of
working women in America. Rather, they convey an unrealistic picture
of women’s chances of picking up their careers where they left off if

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Shifting the Load 183

and when they choose to return to work after raising children. This
further contributes to the backlash against women; it provides a false
sense of encouragement to women by implying that they will not suf-
fer any negative consequences from opting out—such as being unable
to regain their positions.
The opt-out articles also focus on a return to traditionalism or tradi-
tional values. However, this is truly not what is occurring. There has been
a change in what women expect from men, and women’s roles have
changed as well. Women are not extricating themselves from working al-
together. Rather, they are removing themselves from the ‘‘all-or-nothing’’
workplace. This is quite different from what the opt-out articles are sug-
gesting. Williams and colleagues (2006) state the following:

American families are pressured into an all-or-nothing pattern in which


fathers work very long hours, while mothers work very short ones and
function virtually as single mothers—hardly an ideal pattern that should
be celebrated as a return to traditional values. (p. 31)

The opt-out articles also imply that child care is inherently women’s
work. Williams and colleagues (2006) state, ‘‘More often reporters take
masculine privilege for granted and treat it as uncontroversial’’ (p. 34).
One article in The New York Times (cited in Williams et al.) presented a
more realistic view of this opt-out issue by noting that the majority of
stay-at-home mothers stated that even though their husbands had
expressed a willingness to help with the children and the house, ‘‘the
men rarely lifted a finger unless they were specifically asked and given
detailed instructions about the task at hand’’ (p. 34).
The United States is only one of four countries worldwide that does
not provide for paid parental leave. The other countries are Lesotho,
Papua New Guinea, and Swaziland (Williams et al., 2006). Opt-out sto-
ries ignore the discrimination against women that is still present in
today’s workforce and that causes many women to leave their jobs and
perhaps the working world in general (if they can afford to, that is).
Finally, the opt-out stories penalize younger women because they
provide them with an inaccurate picture of how things really are; young
women might not be aware of the wage loss they will incur from taking
a few years off. These stories minimize the economic penalties of leaving
the workforce and make it seem easy to come back without penalty.

ANECDOTAL FINDINGS
I sent out an e-mail questionnaire to gather anecdotal data from
female educators and university professors, women in law, and women
in the corporate world for current perspectives on women’s workplace
experiences, focusing specifically on personality characteristics. (The
questionnaire can be found at the end of this chapter.)

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


184 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

I received a response from a district court judge who went to law


school later in life, after she had had a child. She summarized some of
her workplace experiences as follows:

I’ve been approached for gender, flirted with and sexually harassed. I’ve
also been ignored and discounted, and my ideas and work [have] been
passed off as someone else’s. I’ve been called ‘‘honey,’’ ‘‘dear,’’
‘‘sweetie,’’ and ‘‘girl.’’ After I became an attorney, my male boss used to
come in my office at 6 P.M. and say, ‘‘Take a letter to _________; I need to
get this done today and my secretary is gone.’’ And I would actually
type his letter for him!
She described some of the challenges she faced in the workplace as
follows:

One, men mistake my being feminine or ‘‘nice’’ for being weak; two, I’ve
had to turn down male coworkers and/or clients who asked me out on
dates in a way that didn’t make them mad; three, some men don’t think
I’m as smart as they are because I tend to be quieter and less assertive;
four, men assume that because you’re a woman of childbearing years
(and you might have children or be planning to have children), you’re
not as dedicated to the job as they are; five, I believe (but I have no
proof) that I was paid less than my male counterparts; six, juggling child
care and work was very difficult when I was a single mom and my son
was young; seven, some men (many times, older men) feel more comfort-
able dealing with men than with women at work because, I think, they’re
used to thinking of women in a sexual or maternal context and not as
equals in the workplace; eight, many men don’t value what they consider
‘‘female’’ traits, such as good communication skills or the desire and abil-
ity to form consensus instead of fighting, as much as they value ‘‘male’’
traits such as aggression and competition.
About female leadership, the judge had this to say:

I do think women leaders face more scrutiny and are judged more harshly
than their male counterparts. Women who are leaders, bosses, managers,
etc., are expected to be beautiful as well as extremely good at their job, or
they will be criticized, discounted, or laughed at. I’m not sure whether peo-
ple want women [who are] leaders to be feminine or masculine. As I said
before, if you’re too feminine, they think you’re weak; but if you’re too mas-
culine, you’re a dyke or a bitch. It can be a no-win situation for the female. I
think women need to combat their natural tendency to be quiet—they need
to speak up as much as the men when they have something of value to say.
Finally, the judge ended her commentary with some suggestions:
I think women are routinely given less responsibility than men. Some-
times, women who do not fulfill others’ expectations can be ostracized,
or excluded, from real power. I think, above all else, that female leaders
need to appear strong, or men will think they are weak. No hesitation is

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Shifting the Load 185

allowed for females! And they should never, never cry in front of any-
one! They should have a superior command of the English language—
good public speaking is essential.

Another response I received was from an elementary school teacher


in an affluent district. Working a female-dominated field, she had
many interesting observations to share, such as the following:

I believe that if men dominated the field of education, had as much respon-
sibility, and were required to have as much education, the overall wages
earned by educators would be higher. My school had a female principal for
5 years; teachers, in general, thought it was appropriate to comment nega-
tively about how she dressed. They criticized her because they thought she
spent too much money on her clothing. She always looked professional, in
my opinion. This principal was generally able to accomplish what she
wanted to accomplish, but sometimes had to fight hard in order to do so.
When she left rather abruptly, a male principal was hired to be the in-
terim [principal]. I was unable to attend the staff meeting that was held
on his first day, but I arrived as it was letting out. The teachers were
actually swooning as they walked down the hall after the meeting, each
carrying a rose and a doughnut, indicating that they felt like someone
was there who was really ready to listen to them. I never heard one
word about his choice of clothing, and in my opinion, he was rather inef-
fective as a leader, but the staff was never happier. He never bothered to
learn anyone’s name, just called everyone ‘‘dear,’’ ‘‘sweetie,’’ or ‘‘dar-
ling.’’ The staff at this school is almost entirely female. The custodian is
male and would not do what the female principal asked of him. [Yet] he
was at the male principal’s beck and call.

I also received a response from a high school teacher. She indicated


that the majority of teachers in her building are female, but the major-
ity of administrators are male. Prior to having children, she aspired to
be an administrator, but now she thinks that it is too much of a time
commitment:

I see the administrators here from 7 A.M. until 10 P.M., working during the
school day and supervising extracurricular activities in the evening. I do
not want that type of work schedule. I want to do my job and be home
with my family by 4 P.M. I think that many of my female colleagues feel
similarly, which is one reason there are so few female administrators at
the high school level. I know one woman who is interested in becoming
an administrator. She is at a point in her life where her children are
grown, and she is ready for another challenge. Maybe I’ll feel the same
way in 18 years, but for now, I’m happy doing what I’m doing.

The following is from an assistant superintendent of a large school


district, a woman who was formerly the first female principal in the
district:

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


186 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

I have noticed that women often have strength in the workplace that
men in management sometimes lack. Women seem to be able to work
through the personality conflicts that so often occur in the workplace.
Women can forgive. Women can apologize. Women can get two people
to recognize that they need to ‘‘get over’’ their past differences.

The assistant superintendent also recognizes the need for informal net-
works for women: ‘‘Finally, the only obstacle that still occurs is the
informal, after-hours networking. Golf, fishing, card games, etc., still
tend to be male-oriented, and so you are often excluded.’’
Another response I received was from an aspiring leader. She had
many interesting things to say about people’s perceptions of women in
the workplace:

I think that we still walk a fine line between being assertive and being a
‘‘bitch.’’ It doesn’t seem that there is room for the more emotional, feel-
ing side of women in the workplace. Many times it still feels like I need
to be more like a man in order to succeed. I think women face greater
scrutiny and are judged more harshly, particularly by men from the
‘‘old-school’’ way of thinking. As I stated above, women walk a fine line
between being assertive and being a ‘‘bitch,’’ and men who don’t like
what they are hearing from their female leaders are likely to try to deni-
grate the woman by calling her names. It is a cop-out on their part, but it
happens. I think that some women self-sabotage or fail to take the risks
necessary to advance. Female bosses are highly visible, so their self-
sabotage or lack of risk taking are more visible to others and can tend to
lead others to conclude that all female bosses will act in a particular way.
An assertive woman in particular needs to be certain to temper it some-
what so as to not appear aggressive, even though it is okay for men to be
aggressive. Society still isn’t ready for that in women.

With regard to how women treat other women, this woman stated the
following:

I think our treatment of each other—snide comments to the face, mean


snarky comments behind the back, spreading gossip, etc.—create the
largest of obstacles. We no longer know who[m] we can trust within our
workplace, and [we] must be constantly on guard against this type of
slanderous attack. These attacks result in hard feelings, and then if one
woman is put into a position of power, the others can and [will] attack
her from below, resulting in her downfall (potentially). I think that wom-
en’s success will be increased the day that we stop fighting one another
with our snarky comments and petty jealousies. Women need to stand
together and disagree because of facts, evidence, and data and not for the
personal reasons that so often seem to enter female conflict. Men do this
already, in large part. I’m not saying that we need to treat conflict like
men or lead like men, but I do think that the ability to put aside the per-
sonal and focus on objective facts would serve women well.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Shifting the Load 187

In sum, these findings indicate that women’s role conflicts often pre-
vent them from entering leadership or management positions, that men-
toring and networking are very important for women’s advancement,
that women are still excluded from men’s information networks, and
that there are still different expectations for women and men in terms of
personality characteristics, which affects women’s advancement and the
evaluation of women’s performance in positions of leadership.

SELF-REALIZATION AND FEMINIST IDENTIFICATION


‘‘Many women tend to choose peace over conflict,’’ notes Chesler
(2001). ‘‘This often means accepting the status quo and punishing any-
one who dares challenge it’’ (p. 32).
Men often view career success by position and pay. Women often
have different standards by which to judge success, such as achieve-
ment, recognition, and influence (Vinnicombe & Harris, 2000). How-
ever, women value self-realization and personal freedom within the
workplace just as much as men do (Whiston & Bouwkamp, 2003).
Women can benefit tremendously by having other women mentor
them (Lockwood, 2006). Women, like men, also benefit from group net-
working. When women enter nontraditional fields, such networks
might not be open to them. The solution to this is to create a new net-
working system or to fight the status quo and attempt to gain admit-
tance to these seemingly closed systems. Having a mentor and/or a
network for assistance can increase women’s workplace advancement
and success and thus contribute to women’s self-realization. As Ches-
ler’s (2001) words above indicate, women, especially middle-class
women, are still, to a large degree, socialized to avoid conflict. This
prevents many women from attempting to challenge the powers that
be for fear of being labeled ‘‘difficult,’’ ‘‘bitchy,’’ or ‘‘feminist.’’
If women are to recognize the need to create their own networking
systems within organizations, consciousness-raising must occur first. A
woman must first determine that a problem exists within her organiza-
tion, then she must convince other women that this problem exists and
to join her in her crusade: to start a new networking or mentoring sys-
tem to benefit women and transmit knowledge of the inner workings
of the organization, or else to battle the status quo.
Developing a feminist consciousness can assist women in these endeav-
ors. Some people feel that to develop a feminist consciousness means to
denigrate men. This is in no way the case. Dismantling the inequities and
abuses of patriarchy is decidedly different from disparaging individual
men. Bell Hooks (cited in Chesler, 2001) states the following:

We must challenge the simplistic notion that man is the enemy, woman
the victim. We all have the capacity to act in ways that oppress,

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188 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

dominate, wound (whether or not that power is institutionalized). It is


necessary to remember that it is first the potential oppressor within that
we must resist—the potential victim within that we must rescue—other-
wise we cannot hope for an end to domination, for liberation. (p. 474)

Women too can behave in sexist ways. Women harm other women
all the time and can block their advancement. Women, like men, are
influenced by and have internalized patriarchal norms. Chesler (2001)
states that ‘‘women are so used to having their boundaries routinely
violated at home by men and by other women that they often repeat
such invasive behavior in business and professional relationships’’
(p. 364). Women within a patriarchy have been kept apart by the
divide-and-conquer mentality. Women have been socialized to compete
with one another for the attentions of men or for the token position
instead of coming together to work for a common cause. Feminism has
brought many women together, but even feminists can hold sexist
attitudes.
Several recent studies on feminist identification suggest that women
are hesitant to self-identify as feminists primarily because of the term’s
perceived negative connotation. Some researchers indicate that young
women tend to express feminist ideas without labeling themselves as
feminists (Henderson-King & Stewart, 1994; Morgan, 1995; Percy &
Kremer, 1995; Renzetti, 1987; Rupp, 1988; Stacey, 1987; Weis, 1990).
Burn, Aboud, and Moyles (2000) found that even when women and
men agree with the goals of feminism, they avoid self-identification
with the term for fear of being associated with a stigmatized label.
The cultural messages that women receive from patriarchy are the
devaluation of all things female. Instead of identifying with what is
perceived as negative (i.e., female), women often choose to male-iden-
tify, to strive to be ‘‘one of the boys,’’ or an honorary man. This gives
women a false sense of power, because they can never truly be what
they seek to imitate or ‘‘put on.’’ This male identification, or ‘‘perform-
ance,’’ is further revealed in their need to qualify the term feminist if
they do in fact choose to use it as a self-identifier.
Aronson (2003) found that feminist identification can be classified on
a continuum: ‘‘I’m a feminist,’’ ‘‘I’m a feminist, but . . .’’, I’m not a femi-
nist, but . . . ’’, ‘‘I’m a fence-sitter,’’ and ‘‘I’ve never thought about femi-
nism.’’ This qualification often stems from this need to male-identify:
‘‘I’m a feminist, but I don’t hate men,’’ ‘‘I agree with many feminist
causes, but I’m not a prude,’’ or ‘‘I would be a feminist, but I’m not that
uptight.’’ According to Aronson, most women are fence-sitters. Some
researchers believe that this ambivalence toward feminism can be culti-
vated into active support for the feminist movement (Martin, 2006).
If raising a feminist consciousness can, at the very least, promote
individuals to see societal or systemic inequities as stemming from

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Shifting the Load 189

discrimination as opposed to individual inadequacy, then the individ-


ual hesitation of women (and men) to embrace a feminist identity does
not seem valid. Feminist identification can also serve to heighten wom-
en’s self-esteem by cautioning women to be willing to attribute work-
place ‘‘failure’’ not to a lack in themselves but to organizational (read:
patriarchal) norms. To challenge workplace inequities, women must
begin to view gender as a variable (i.e., as a potential cause for their
lack of advancement).
Feminist consciousness-raising can assist women in developing an
awareness of discrimination and harassment and how to deal with it,
in promoting the notion of mentoring and obtaining a mentor, and in
creating women’s networks to assist women in organizational naviga-
tion. ‘‘Feminism is for everybody,’’ Hooks (2000) informs us. ‘‘Feminist
change has already touched all our lives in a positive way. And yet
we lose sight of the positive when all we hear about feminism is
negative.’’
In sum, feminism is still important and relevant to our lives as
women, and the issues of gender and sex are still relevant to research
on women in the workplace.

POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS
Ferguson (1984) argues the following:

Real androgyny, defined not as simply adding together the misshapen


halves of male and female, but rather as a complex process of calling out
that which is valuable in each gender and carefully disentangling it from
that which is riddled with the effects of power, is a political struggle.
(p. 170)

Conscientization, a term coined by Freire (1971), is the process of


developing a critical consciousness, or ‘‘learning to perceive social,
political, and economic contradictions, and to take action against the
oppressive elements of reality’’ (p. 19). This process involves analysis
of self, of others, and of the relation of self to others to better under-
stand one’s control of situations and one’s power to change the sur-
roundings from oppressive to liberating. This phenomenon can assist
in providing solutions to workplace inequities for women. Women
can use this technique to raise awareness of the problems inherent
in today’s organizations and in battling the status quo to create a
more equitable workplace. To do this, however, one must possess
courage.
Hite and McDonald (2003) provide some insight into the hindrances
to women’s career advancement, which include discrimination, failure
to understand organizational culture (or the politics of the

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


190 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

organization), lack of management experience, supervisors who do not


support women, fewer opportunities for women to prove themselves,
and fewer opportunities to gain visibility within the organization.
Additional factors that influence women’s career progress include hav-
ing mentors, being persistent and assertive, displaying competence
(and having the opportunities to do so), performing well, and accept-
ing risky assignments (i.e., assignments that stretch one’s abilities).
Female counselors who work with women in the workplace should
focus on self-efficacy and autonomy to decrease career indecision
(Guay et al., 2003). Counseling programs should focus on increasing
the self-efficacy of young people in combining work and family roles
(and conflicts), especially with women who have experienced tradi-
tional parenting (i.e., women as primary caregivers who carry the ma-
jority of child-care and household responsibilities) (Cinamon, 2006).
Counselors and practitioners must also focus on the role conflict that
women experience and on the differences between societal expectations
for women and women’s personal and career aspirations (Tomlinson-
Keasey, 1974).
There are many things that women can do on an individual level to
assist themselves and the women around them to heighten workplace
success and advancement, such as the following:

. Work to value yourself as a woman.


. Have confidence in your own abilities.
. Have high expectations for yourself.
. Do not fear politics.
. Do not necessarily avoid conflict.
. Do not be intimidated.
. Develop relationships.
. Be proactive in managing your own career.
. Set career goals.
. Accept challenging assignments.
. Take career risks when possible.
. Attribute your successes to your abilities, not to mere luck.
. Encourage other women to take career risks.
. Form alliances with other minority groups.
. Develop consciousness-raising groups.
. Network and strive to create networks for women.
. Get a mentor.
. Mentor another woman.
. Do not fear feminism. Raise awareness about the benefits of feminism for
both women and men.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Shifting the Load 191

. Find profeminist men to be allies.


. Find a supportive partner who is a true partner in the home.
. Work on developing an internal locus of control.
. Work for the establishment of progressive gender-role identities.
. Intervene when gender harassment and sexual harassment is witnessed.
Report instances on the organizational level and support victims. Behavior
such as this negatively affects the organization and everyone involved
within it. Intervene for the health and well-being of all individuals and
for the overall health of the organization.
. Vote for legislators who value women and who will fight for laws that
promote equity for all people.

Despite the above prescriptions for individual women, the challenge


of achieving workplace equity with men in both compensation and
position must not simply fall on individual women. Organizations
must also take part in egalitarian practices if women are to advance to
a level equal to that of men. To do this, organizations must adapt
to meet the needs of today’s women (e.g., child care). There are
many organizational and societal changes that would contribute to
workplace success and advancement for women. These include the
following:

. Paid leave, such as maternity, parental, and family


. Child-care options, including flexible work hours, staggered shifts, and
child-care facilities within or sponsored by the organization or included
in benefits packages
. Regulated working time, so that employees without children are not inad-
vertently rewarded
. Health care for employees and their families
. A tax system that does not penalize two-income families

Additional organizational and family changes that could be made to


promote workplace equity include:

. Equity in pay and benefits for women


. Bias-free job evaluations
. Educational opportunities for women
. Education for men on shared responsibilities in the home and in the care
of children
. Parental leave
. Day care
. Alternative work schedules for working families
. Flexibility for women in order to manage work–family conflict

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192 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

. Education for women in leadership/management


. Mentoring and networking
. Educational opportunities for women on how to deal with politics in the
workplace (especially when organizational culture is male-centrist).

FUTURE RESEARCH
More research is necessary on how a woman’s appearance affects
workplace success and advancement. This is an area that seems to
affect all women in some way, but little research exists in this area.
More research is also necessary on the question of what personality
characteristics have to do with gender and with workplace success and
advancement for women. The intersections of class, race, and gender
should be examined for how they continue to affect women’s work-
place experiences. An examination of race and gender and how these
impact performance attributions and performance assessment would
be useful in gauging how workplace discrimination affects employees.
Socialization and gender-role stereotypes, sexual harassment, and
sexist environments affect women, men, and the organization in gen-
eral; these are areas that require further study. How organizations train
employees to avoid these problems and how they deal with offenders
also requires further study. More research in general is necessary on
how women experience their careers and deal with workplace stress.
Additional research is required in the area of feminist identification.
For instance, does overt feminist identification inhibit advancement for
women in general? Do women believe this to be so? How can individ-
ual and collective feminist identification assist women in forming the
networking relationships that are so crucial to success in an organiza-
tion? Does the extent to which women challenge the status quo affect
workplace success and advancement? Finally, is the failure to develop
a feminist consciousness relevant to women’s success? Is keeping a
feminist consciousness secret important to women’s continued work-
place success and advancement?
Attempting to find the answers to these and other related questions
would contribute tremendously to the study of feminism in the work-
place and to the continued importance of feminist ideals for women
today.

CONCLUSIONS
Ferguson (1984) wrote the following:

Real social change comes about when people think and live differently.
Feminist discourse and feminist practice offer the linguistic and

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Shifting the Load 193

structural space on which it is possible to think, live, work, and love dif-
ferently, in opposition to the discursive and institutional practices of bu-
reaucratic capitalism. At least it is a start. (p. 212)

Women in general face more obstacles to career success and


advancement, in terms of pay and position, than men do. However,
this does not mean that women are simply victims of the anonymous
patriarchal bureaucracy. Women have more agency than this; women
have made tremendous advancements in the past 50 years. Neverthe-
less, there are still institutional and systemic barriers to women’s
advancement. Much has to be done within organizations to combat
these obstacles, but women can participate in the creation of better
realities for themselves.
Women must often fight the way they were raised—which can feel
like fighting themselves—to achieve workplace equity. For example,
women have to learn to combat their silence and lack of voice. Women
also have to fight the tradition of hiding their intelligence for fear of
seeming intimidating or threatening to both men and other women.
Women are raised and socialized not to ‘‘show off.’’ Confident women
are often accused of this. Finally, women are instilled with the desire
to be liked—sometimes no matter what the cost. Women must not
trade off their successes in order to be liked by the group.
In short, if their workplace and home situations do not reflect what
they want for themselves, women must work to create new patterns
of how to work and how to live that best suit them. This might be a
radical notion to some, but the truth is that women do not have to
do what is expected of them. They can actually take risks, challenge
the status quo, and create new visions of how to live in the world.
Those who possess power and privilege will not readily give them
up. Women will have to continue to fight for every gain, but they
will fare better if they have a say in creating the world in which they
live.

QUESTIONNAIRE

1. What experiences or challenges have you (or women you know) had
in the workplace specific to your gender?
2. What are some obstacles women still face in the workplace?
3. In your experience, are the leadership styles of women with whom
you are acquainted inherently different from those of men?
4. Do female leaders face greater scrutiny than male leaders do, in your
experience? Why or why not? Are female bosses, supervisors, and
leaders judged more harshly than their male counterparts? Why?
What can be done to combat these harsh judgments?

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


194 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

5. How are expectations for women in the workplace different from


those of men in terms of personality characteristics? In terms of work-
load? In terms of responsibility?
6. What are the consequences for women who do not fulfill others’ be-
havioral expectations?
7. What personality characteristics do successful female leaders need to
possess? Are these characteristics different from those of their male
counterparts?
8. Describe how women’s personality characteristics can interfere with
workplace politics. What challenges in terms of personality factors do
women face?
9. Is there a counterpart to the ‘‘old boys’ network’’ that can assist
women in the workplace to navigate through organizations?
10. Are women in the workplace perceived to have less power in general
than their male counterparts? Why? Is this true for bosses and super-
visors? What does personal power have to do with success for women
in the workplace? How is this achieved for women?
11. How can role conflict interfere with career success for women? How
can personal perceptions of role conflict interfere?
12. Can feminist identification assist with any of these workplace issues
for women? If so, how? Is feminist identification important for work-
place success for women?

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© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Chapter 12

Women Supporting Women in the


Workplace: In My Own Voice
Carrie Turco

Presently employed as a finance analyst, I create reports for higher


management on invoice and discount information. I am the functional
owner of a third-party auditing project and of banking management
applications. I have been in my present position since January 2007.
Previously, I worked for 6 years as a manager with various corporate
restaurants. My most recent restaurant position was as a training man-
ager. In this position, I trained newly hired managers in all areas of the
restaurant, ensuring that they were trained to uphold corporate busi-
ness standards. I also worked as a kitchen manager, controlling 70%
of the restaurant’s resources. I helped raise more than $5,000 for the
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital by encouraging my employees to
volunteer their time and efforts to help those in need.
In each of my jobs, I incorporated voluntary community service proj-
ects with the employees. I truly believe that the success of any com-
pany lies in its ability to give back to the community that supports the
company and its employees. Without a strong local community, most
companies would not last.
I also have experience working for the Walt Disney Company as a
photographer and retail intern, and then as a campus recruiter for its
internship program. My experience working for Walt Disney World
was the most influential in my career thus far. Upon the completion of
the internship program, I was more focused on and driven in my ca-
reer and education. As an undergraduate at Plattsburgh State Univer-
sity of New York, I majored in management and minored in
accounting, economics, and business analysis. While attending school

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


202 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

full-time, I also worked full-time as a manager, played collegiate wom-


en’s tennis, and was president of my dorm. I also volunteered with the
local chapter of Project Help and was actively involved in the Omni-
com Delta Kappa National Leadership Honor Society. I am currently in
the last year of my MBA and human resources certificate programs
from Union Graduate College. To complement my education, I have
also attended several conferences throughout my career, with a focus
on educating managers on all aspects of human resources.
Throughout my professional experiences, I encountered several peo-
ple who truly impacted the outcome of my education and my career.
Each of these people was instrumental in helping me learn about who
I am, not only as a person and a colleague but, most important, as a
businesswoman. While interning at Walt Disney World, I took two
courses at the Disney Institute: Organizational Leadership and Human
Resource Management. My professors helped me develop a better
understanding of my potential as a business student and as a human
resource professional.
More recently, a previous boss taught me to stand up for myself
and for what I believe in, even if I was standing alone. Working in the
restaurant industry as not only a young manager but also a woman
proved to be the biggest challenge to my character and my ethical
standards. As a moral and ethical person and manager, I was con-
stantly challenged because of my beliefs as well as my age and gender.
I am grateful that I was raised with a high level of ethical and moral
standards and to believe in myself and stand up for what I believe is
right.
During my 6-year career in restaurant management I was challenged
to confront higher management, employees, and regional directors to
ensure the moral standards of the environment in which I worked. I
tackled sexual harassment lawsuits at the age of 20, even before I com-
pleted my business degree. I have been in predicaments that resulted
in my immediate boss being fired for illegal conduct, theft, and harass-
ment. Finding my place among male management teams was challeng-
ing, but equally as challenging was finding my place as a manager
among employees who were mostly my age.
Proving yourself as a leader when you are the same age as, or even
younger than, your employees can be difficult. Doing it as a female can
make it even more strenuous. In the end, not only did I grow and
evolve as a great manager, I also became one of the most respected
managers in the region. Each restaurant that I left tried for several
months to convince me to come back; effective female managers are
few and far between in the restaurant industry. In the end, quality of
life is what is most important. Female managers bring an entirely dif-
ferent perspective to the table. Not only do women think differently
from men, they tend to be more detail-oriented.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Women Supporting Women in the Workplace 203

Presently, I have encountered a professor who truly knows the value


of being a great educator. Far too often, colleges and universities focus
on everything except the students. Today’s students, particularly busi-
ness students, are tomorrow’s leaders. Professors are instrumental in
the development of business students, thus impacting the development
of the business world of the future. My current professor has allowed
me the opportunity to work on special projects, like this one, to share
my experiences and knowledge to other women and students. She has
helped me stand up to the administration of our university and chal-
lenge it to treat all students fairly and equally.
It is rare to find faculty members who are willing to help the stu-
dents when there is no direct benefit to themselves. I am grateful to
have encountered each of the mentors I have had through my career. I
look forward to their guidance and assistance as I continue to grow
professionally. Women have to fight hard to establish themselves in
any career, but without women, most industries and businesses would
fail. Some men might still openly ridicule women as leaders and
employees, but deep down they know that their job security relies on
the hard work and dedication of a woman. It is for these reasons that I
was honored to be included in Who’s Who of Executive Women.
Working with women can also be challenging and difficult. Women,
in general, are more competitive and sensitive by nature. My first expe-
rience working with women was not what I thought it would be, how-
ever. Having worked with all-male management teams in the
restaurant industry, I was excited to work with women, particularly
women my age. I thought I would find a camaraderie that I had never
experienced before. I thought that for the first time in my life I would
actually be able to make friends at work and to have allies in making
the working environment an ethical and successful place.
What I found, however, was the complete opposite. Women can be
spiteful and will go out of their way to get ahead, even at the expense
of their female colleagues. With my advanced education and 6 years of
management experience, I thought I could share my knowledge, both
professional and personal, with the people I worked with on a team.
Synergy is the success of any team. Having female coworkers pit them-
selves against one another rather than joining forces was discouraging
to me. Women have had to work so hard to establish themselves in all
areas of business. It is sickening that we fought so hard and for so long
(although we still have such a long way to go) just to compete with
each other, in my opinion.
In 5 years I hope to be working in managerial human resources. I
enjoy my current finance position and would like to find a way to
incorporate this experience into a human resource career. Human
resources has so many functions, and the technical/analytical side of it
is of great interest to me. I believe that human resources is a growing

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


204 Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium

and developing field that will evolve as the business world of today
and tomorrow grows. My extensive background in all areas of business
strengthens my understanding of how a corporation as a whole suc-
ceeds. It is for this reason that I believe I can benefit any human
resources department or team.
To all the women out there—young and old, educated and not, pro-
fessionals and students—I want to say the following: To truly rise into
the next era of business, we must stick together for what is right, not
only for the people we work with and the company we work for, but
for each other.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Index

Page numbers followed by f indicate figures; t indicates tables.

Advancement Via Individual Bay Area Rapid Transit System


Determination (AVID) Program, (BART), San Francisco, 3
145–46 Bentsen, Lloyd, Senator, Howard,
Affiliative speech, gender differences, Linda Gordon and, 4–6
16 Bitch on wheels, women bosses,
Affirmative action policy, Hunter 39–40, 54
College, 10 Body language, gender differences,
Agentic qualities: society’s 18
expectations in men, 42; Broker role, in CVF, 102–7
in transactional leadership, 89; Brown v. Board of Education, 137
in transformational leadership, Burlington Industries v. Ellerth, 126
91–92
Ambition, women bosses, 47–49 Career academies, 143–44
American civil rights law, Howard, Career-and-family managers, 175
Linda Gordon, 8–9 Career choices, work-life balance,
Americans with Disabilities Act, 33 31–38
Appearance: future research, 192; Career preparation programs:
women in the workplace, 169 discussion and recommendations,
Applied skills, 139 146–50; high schools, 137–52;
Assertive speech, gender differences, trajectory implications of college
16–17 programs, 140–42
Association of Women’s Business Career-primary managers, 175
Centers, 82
Career woman, term as derogatory
Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority stereotype, 54
(MARTA), 3 Carter, Jimmy: Howard, Linda
Gordon, 8; women in national
Barickman, Richard, sexual service program, 7
harassment policy and prevention, Center for Women’s Business
Hunter College, 11 Research, 82

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


206 Index

Change agent stage, in corporate Decision-making, gender differences


culture, 170 in communication, 23
Coercing, as a classic power base, 45 Developing Mass Transit Systems
College: career preparation and, (UMTA), Howard, Linda
139–40; career-trajectory Gordon, 3
implications of, 140–42 Director role, in CVF, 102–07
Committed intensive managers, 103–4 Discrimination, minority women as
Communal qualities: society’s entrepreneurs, 78
expectations in women, 42; in Double workloads, dual roles for
transactional leadership, 89; in women, 180
transformational leadership, 91–92
Communication: gender differences Editorial Projects in Education (EPE)
in, 15–30; gendered patterns of, Research Center, 138
18–19; gendered styles in the Education: anecdotal findings, 185;
workplace, 20–26; perceptions of exemplary programs, 142–46;
gendered patterns, 20–21; strategies female administrators and, 176;
for a woman in a man’s world, gender differences in qualification
26–27 for entrepreneurship, 74; minority
Competence seeker stage, in corporate women as entrepreneurs, 78; salary
culture, 170 categories and, 138–39
Competing values framework (CVF), Ellison v. Brady, 121
102–6, 102f; controlling work and Employment discrimination
tracking details, 105f; feminist complaints, Howard, Linda
theory and, 109–10; hypereffective Gordon, 12–13
woman, 113–14; managing change Empowerment: changes in leadership
and persuasion, 107f; mentoring context, 59–60; interventions,
and facilitating interactions, 106f; suggestions and support for
motivating employees and setting entrepreneurs, 79–82; what
goals, 104f; research objectives and organizations can do for women,
results, 110–13, 111t; traits 58–59; what women can do for
associated with, 111t; themselves, 57–58
transformational and transactional Entrepreneurship: career aspirations
roles, 110t in, 71–79; comparative approach,
Compliant novice stage, in corporate 70–71, 70f; internet resources, 82;
culture, 170 interventions, suggestions and
Conceptual producers, 104–5 support for women, 79–82;
Concrete ceiling, 177–83 minority women, 76–78, 77–78t,
Conflict resolution, gender differences 77f; women in, 67–85
in communication, 23 Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974,
Conscientization, 189 80
Contextual factors, in gendered Equal Employment Opportunity
patterns of communication, 19 Officer, New York City, Howard,
Contrapower sexual harassment, Linda Gordon, 12
56–57, 120 Ethnicity, career preparation and,
Coordinator role, in CVF, 102–7 139–40
Coping mechanisms, sexual Evaluation procedures, gender
harassment, 124–25 differences in, 181–82
Copyright Act of 1976, Howard, Evidence course, Howard, Linda
Linda Gordon, 5 Gordon, 7

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Index 207

Expectations of others, women in the solutions, 189–92; race and, in


workplace, 168–69 ownership of firms, 77t; role
Expertise, as a classic power base, 45 stereotypes, 42; serving as a
External barriers, workplace supervisor or leader, 24–26; versus
success, 178 status differences, 18, 19; in
transactional leadership, 89; in
Facial expressions, gender transformational leadership, 91;
differences, 18 U.S. firms, 68–69t
Facilitator role, in CVF, 102–7 Gender harassment, 120
Family. See Work/family balance Gender ratios, in organizational
Federal Rules of Evidence, culture, 169–72
amendment to, Howard, Linda Gender-role expectations, interaction
Gordon, 4 with leadership-role expectations,
Female-friendly organizations, 89–90, 92–93
leadership in, 51–52 Gender-role socialization, 160–64
Female leaders. see Women bosses Gender stereotypes, 160–64
Female-owned business by type, 70f Glass ceiling, 177–83
Feminist, term as derogatory Great man theory, 40
stereotype, 54, 171 Growth intention, women
Feminist competing values leadership, entrepreneurs, 72–73
101–18
Feminist identification: future Harris v. Forklift Systems, Inc., 121
research, 192; self-realization and, Herman, Alexis, Women’s Bureau
187–89 Director, Carter Administration, 8
Feminist theory, 106–8; CVF roles High School Puente Project, 144–45
and, 109–10; research objectives Historical women leaders, 87, 93–96
and results, 110–13, 111t; Hostile environment harassment, 55,
transformational and transactional 120
roles, 110t Humane Letters Requirement, Tempe
Financing: to empower women Preparatory Academy, 142–43
entrepreneurs, 80–81; for minority Hunter College of the City University
women entrepreneurs, 79; women of New York, Howard, Linda
entrepreneurs and, 73–74 Gordon, 8, 10–11
Followers, influences on power, 45 Hypereffective woman, CVF and,
113–14
Gender-based discrimination,
Howard, Linda Gordon, 6–7 Identity, development and formation,
Gender differences: career 156
preparation and, 139–40; Independent Women’s Forum, 50
communication, 15–30; India, visit by Howard, Linda
communication strategies for a Gordon, 9
woman in a man’s world, 26–27; Influence strategies, 44–46; power
communication styles in the versus gender in mediation of, 46
workplace, 20–26; Information, as a classic power base, 45
entrepreneurship, 70–71; law Innovator role, in CVF, 102–7
school, 1970s, 2; in mediating Interdepartmental Task Force on
influence, 46; nonverbal Women, Howard, Linda Gordon, 8
communication, 18; perceptions of Internal barriers, workplace success,
women leaders, 43–44; potential 178

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


208 Index

Interviewing, law firms, 1970s, 2–3 Legislation course, Howard, Linda


Israel, sexual harassment, 133–36 Gordon, 7
Legitimate, as a classic power base, 45
Japan, visit by Howard, Linda
Gordon, 9 Maternity leave, 33
Joan of Arc, 93 Mentoring, for women entrepreneurs,
Job applications, gender differences in 81
communication, 22 Mentor role: in CVF, 102–7; self-
Job-gender context, in sexual realization and, 187
harassment model, 122–23, 123f Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, 120–21
Johnson, Lady Byrd, 4 Minority Business Development
Agency (MBDA), 82
Kovner, Victor, Law Department, City Minority women: as entrepreneurs,
of New York, 11–13 76–78, 77–78t, 77f; sexual
Krim, Arthur, 4 harassment and women of color,
Law career, work-life balance, 31–38 125–26; special programs for
Law Department, City of New York, entrepreneurs, 82
Howard, Linda Gordon, 11–13 Monitor role, in CVF, 102–7
Laws and regulations: to empower Motherly type: power dynamics, 45;
women entrepreneurs, 80; sexual women bosses, 39–40, 54
harassment in Israel, 133–36 Motivation, for women entrepreneurs,
Leadership: anecdotal findings, 71–72
184–86; changes in context, 59–60; Myths and perceptions, for women
definition of role, 41; education entrepreneurs, 76
and female administrators, 176; National Association of Women
female-friendly organizations, Business Owners, 82
51–52; feminist competing values, National Women’s Business Council, 82
101–18; follower-focused, 52; Networks, for women entrepreneurs,
gender differences in 75, 81–82
communication, 24–26; gender New York City Commission on
differences in perceptions, 43–44; Human Rights, Howard, Linda
historical concept, 93–96; Gordon, 12
identification in masculine terms, New Zealand Human Rights
52; participative, 50–52; Commission, Howard, Linda
perceptions and requirements for Gordon, 9
success, 40–42; personality Nixon, Richard M., impeachment and
characteristics of women, 172–77; resignation, 5
problems unique to females, 53–57; Nonverbal communication, gender
sexual harassment and, 55–57; differences, 18
tokenism and preferential Norton, Eleanor Holmes, Equal
selection, 54–55; traditional Employment Opportunity
portrayal, 41, 52; transactional Commission, Carter
versus transformational, 49–50, Administration, 8
87–89; which style is better, 96–97;
women and, 87–99; women Ohio Democratic Women, Howard,
supporting women, 201–4 Linda Gordon, 7–8
Leadership-role expectations, Ohio State University College of Law
interaction with gender-role (now Mortiz College of Law),
expectations, 89–90, 92–93 Howard, Linda Gordon, 6–7

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Index 209

Online Women’s Business Center, 82 Qualification, for women


Open-adaptive managers, 105–6 entrepreneurs, 74
Opt-out revolution, 182–83 Quality of life, 1–13
Organizational climate: prevention Queen Elizabeth I, 94–96
and investigation of sexual Quid pro quo harassment, 55, 120
harassment, 126–27; in sexual
harassment model, 122–23, Racial differences, law school, 1970s,
123f; women in the culture, 169–72 2
Organizational power, 44; shifting Rape shield law, Howard, Linda
environments and conceptions of Gordon, 4–5
leadership, 52 Reasonable woman standard, in
Organizational theories, sexual sexual harassment cases, 121
harassment, 121–22 Referent, as a classic power base,
45
Paludi, Michele, sexual harassment Reward, as a classic power base, 45
policy and prevention, Hunter Robb, Chuck, 4
College, 11 Role conflict, 179–81
Paralinguistic cues, gender Role incongruity, 42–44
differences, 18 Role overload, 179–81
Participative leadership, 50–52
Part-time employment, 34–37 Salary categories, education levels
Payton, Sallyanne, 3 and, 138–39
Perceptions: anecdotal findings, 186; Salary negotiation, gender differences
gendered patterns of in communication, 22
communication, 20–21; for women Self-realization, feminist identification
entrepreneurs, 76; women leaders, and, 187–89
43–44 Sexual coercion, 120
Personal expectations, women in the Sexual harassment: consequences,
workplace, 165–68 123–24; coping, 124–25; court
Personality factors, 153–200; future decisions, 120–21; definition and
research, 192; women in leadership types, 120; female leaders, 55–57;
and management, 172–77; women future research, 192; Hunter
in the workplace, 164–69 College policy and prevention,
Plaster versus plasticity, 155 10–11; integrated process model,
Power and influence, 44–46; follower 122–23, 123f; Israel, 133–36;
influences, 45; men’s greater prevention and investigation in the
flexibility, 45–46; power versus organization, 126–27; why it
gender, 46 occurs, 121–22; women of color,
Power from, 44 125–26; workplace, 119–32
Power over, 44 The Sexual Harassment Handbook
Power to, 44 (Howard), 13
Preferential selection, female leaders, Shalala, Donna: Hunter College, 8, 10;
54–55 Urban Development Secretary,
Pregnancy, effects on work-life Carter Administration, 8
balance, 32–33 Slagle, Orin, Dean, 6
Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins case, 26 Smiling, gender differences, 18
Private law practice and consulting, Socialization: future research, 192; in
Howard, Linda Gordon, 13 gendered patterns of
Producer role, in CVF, 102–7 communication, 18–19

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


210 Index

Sociocultural theories, sexual U.S. Small Business Administration


harassment, 121–22 (SBA): Howard, Linda Gordon, 8;
Soft skills, 139 internet resources, 82
Sowle, Kathryn D., 6
Speaking while female, 15
Venture funding, obtaining for
Stereotypy: female managers, 175; women entrepreneurs, 80
feminist and career woman as Verbal behaviors, gender differences,
derogatory terms, 54; future 17
research, 192; gender differences in
communications, 17; gender-role,
42; gender-role socialization and, Weddington, Sarah, Assistant to the
160–64; leadership, 41–42; President, Carter Administration, 8
perceptions of gendered Women bosses, 39–65; empowerment
communication patterns, 20–21 of, 57–60; how they measure up,
Supervisory role, gender differences 47–53; problems unique to,
in communication, 24–26 53–57
Women in national service proposal,
President Jimmy Carter, 7
Talkativeness, gender differences, 17
Women-led businesses, 67–85; U.S.
Theodora, 93–94
perspective, 67–69, 68–69t
Tokenism, 54–55, 169
Women’s Business Ownership Act of
Traits, gender-role stereotypes, 42–44
1988, 80
Trait theory, 154
Women’s Small Business Ownership
Transactional leadership, 49–50, Program Act of 2006, 80
87–89, 96–97, 110t Women’s treatment of other women:
Transformational leadership, 49–50, anecdotal findings, 186–87; support
87–91, 96–97, 110t in the workplace, 201–4
Work experience, gender differences
University of Virginia (UVA), Law in qualification for
School, 1–2 entrepreneurship, 74
Unwanted sexual attention, 120 Work/family balance: female
Urban Mass Transportation leaders, 53–54; role in women as
Administration (UMTA), Howard, entrepreneurs, 74–75
Linda Gordon, 3 Work-life balance, 31–38
U.S. Department of Transportation Workplace issues: anecdotal findings,
(DOT), 3 183–87; gendered communication
U.S. Information Agency (USIA), styles, 20–26; women supporting
sponsor of Howard, Linda women, 201–4
Gordon, 9 Workplace success, barriers for
U.S. Senate, Howard, Linda Gordon, women, 177–83
4–5 Wright, Bill, 4

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


About the Editor and Contributors

Michele A. Paludi, PhD, is the author or editor of 27 college textbooks


and more than 140 scholarly articles and conference presentations on sex-
ual harassment, the psychology of women, gender, and sexual harassment
and victimization. Her book Ivory Power: Sexual Harassment on Campus
(1990), received the 1992 Myers Center Award for Outstanding Book on
Human Rights in the United States. Dr. Paludi served as Chair of the U.S.
Department of Education’s Subpanel on the Prevention of Violence, Sexual
Harassment, and Alcohol and Other Drug Problems in Higher Education;
she was one of six scholars in the United States to be selected for this subpa-
nel. She was also a consultant to and a member of former New York State
Governor Mario Cuomo’s Task Force on Sexual Harassment. She is the se-
ries editor for Praeger’s Women and Psychology Series.
Dr. Paludi serves as an expert witness for court proceedings and
administrative hearings on sexual harassment. She has had extensive ex-
perience in conducting training programs and investigations of sexual
harassment and other equal employment opportunity issues for busi-
nesses and educational institutions. In addition, Dr. Paludi has held fac-
ulty positions at Franklin & Marshall College, Kent State University,
Hunter College, Union College, and Union Graduate College, where she
directs the human resource management certificate program. She teaches
the following courses in the School of Management: Foundations of
Human Resource Management, Managing Human Resources, and Inter-
national Human Resource Management.

Susan Basow is Charles A. Dana Professor of Psychology at Lafayette


College in Easton, Pennsylvania, where she helped found the women’s
studies program and chaired the psychology department for 6 years.
Dr. Basow has taught courses on the psychology of gender since 1974 and

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


212 About the Editor and Contributors

is the author of the textbook Gender: Stereotypes and Roles. A licensed psy-
chologist, she also has published the results of many of her studies of gen-
der issues in course evaluations and of women and their bodies. She has
been a member of the executive committee of the Society for the Psychol-
ogy of Women since 2000.

Alan Belasen is an associate professor of management at the State Univer-


sity of New York–Empire State College and chairman of the MBA program.
For more than 15 years Professor Belasen has taught leadership and organi-
zational communication topics in the Department of Communication, Uni-
versity at Albany. Professor Belasen has also taught leadership and human
resource management topics in the MBA program of Union Graduate Col-
lege in Schenectady, New York. Professor Belasen has provided manage-
ment development consulting and training to government, nonprofit,
business, and academic institutions. His books include Leading the Learning
Organization: Communication and Competencies for Managing Change (2000)
and The Theory and Practice of Corporate Communication: A Competing Values
Perspective (2007).

Nicole T. Buchanan, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of


Psychology at Michigan State University. Her research examines the
intersection of race and gender in workplace and academic harassment,
racialized sexual harassment, coping and resilience among women of
color, and gendered-based bullying among adolescents. Her work
appears in scholarly journals such as Psychology, Public Policy, and the Law;
Psychology of Women Quarterly; Journal of Vocational Behavior; Journal of
Occupational Health Psychology; Women and Therapy; and Black Women, Gen-
der and Families. Dr. Buchanan has also contributed chapters to books
addressing harassment and multiculturalism, such as P. Morgan & J.
Gruber (Eds.), In the Company of Men: Re-Discovering the Links between Sex-
ual Harassment and Male Domination, C. M. West (Ed.), Violence in the Lives
of Black Women: Battered, Black, and Blue, and A. R. Gillem & C. A. Thomp-
son (Eds.), Biracial Women in Therapy: Between the Rock of Gender and the
Hard Place of Race. Dr. Buchanan was also the 2007 recipient of the Associ-
ation of Women in Psychology’s Women of Color Award for empirical
research publications that ‘‘contribute significantly to the understanding
of the psychology of women of color’’ and Michigan State University’s
2007 Excellence in Diversity Award in the category of Individual Emerg-
ing Progress for outstanding research and teaching accomplishments in
the areas of diversity, pluralism, and social justice.

Emily Buenn is finishing her studies in engineering management at the


University of Karlsruhe, Germany. She holds an MBA from Union Gradu-
ate College in Schenectady, New York. During her studies she did several

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


About the Editor and Contributors 213

internships and supported freelance business consultants through work at


a student consultancy, where she worked as a freelance consultant herself.

Joan Chrisler, PhD, is a psychology professor at Connecticut College. She


has published extensively on the psychology of women and gender and is
especially known for her work on women’s health, menstruation, weight,
and body image. She has served as president of the Society for Menstrual
Cycle Research, the Society for the Psychology of Women, the Association
for Women in Psychology, the New England Psychological Association,
and the Connecticut State Conference of the American Association of Uni-
versity Professors. She recently completed a 5-year term as editor of Gen-
der Roles: A Journal of Research and is editor or coeditor of seven books,
including Women over 50: Psychological Perspectives (2007), From Menarche
to Menopause: The Female Body in Feminist Therapy (2004), Arming Athena:
Career Strategies for Women in Academe (1998), and Lectures on the Psychol-
ogy of Women (2008).

Sarah K. Clapp earned her BS in behavioral sciences and leadership from


the U.S. Air Force Academy and her MA in psychology (with a concentra-
tion in social psychology) from Connecticut College. She is currently serv-
ing as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. Her research has focused
on gender roles, leadership, and sexual harassment.

Karen Duff-McCall is a psychology student at Boise State University


(BSU) and works with Dr. Will Schweinle in the BSU Social Interaction
Lab. Her research interests include empathic accuracy, women’s leader-
ship, and abnormal psychology.

Robert Edelman holds a BA from Union College in Schenectady, New


York. He works for New York Sports Clubs and has many passions; when
he is not writing he enjoys creating art and going to the beach. Some of his
work can be seen in Schenectady and Long Beach Long Island, New York.

Nancy Miller Frank, PhD, is an assistant professor at the State University


of New York–Empire State College MBA program. She has also taught at
the School of Management, SUNY-Albany. Dr. Frank has extensive expe-
rience in the area of personality traits assessment. Her consulting and
research activities focus on the relationship between personality trait pro-
files and managerial competencies.

Ayelet Giladi, PhD, is a pioneer and recognized expert on the harassment


of young children in Israel. Dr. Giladi, a professor at Kibbutz College,
teaches her students how to recognize sexual harassment of children, con-
duct qualitative research, and report on the phenomenon. In addition, she

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


214 About the Editor and Contributors

conducts research on the issue, consults with a variety of organizations,


and conducts training about sexual harassment at an early age. She has
authored two prevention programs for use with children ages 4–7 and
11–13, entitled Getting Along and Getting Along in Big, which are widely
used in kindergartens as well as public and private schools throughout
Israel. She is the chairwoman of the Voice of the Child Association: Pre-
vention of Sexual Harassment Among Young Children. Clients served by
the association are young children with visual impairments, children
from various religious backgrounds, and new immigrant children, espe-
cially from Ethiopia. She is the author of a book chapter and several
articles in Israeli professional journals about the sexual harassment of
young children. She has been featured on Israeli television, radio pro-
grams, and newscasts and in Israeli newspaper articles.
Dr. Giladi has spoken about sexual harassment at an early age to the
Knesset (Israeli parliament) and at international conferences in the United
States and England. She trains family judges, physicians, nurses, psychol-
ogists, educators and school administrators, social workers, parents, and
children about the phenomenon. Dr. Giladi has a doctorate in sociology
education from England ARU university, a master’s degree in sociology
and education, and a bachelor’s degree in education. She has been an ac-
tivist in developing awareness about sexual harassment at early ages
since 1996.

Beatrice Hall is a clinical professor and associate dean in the School of


Education at Union Graduate College in Schenectady, New York. Her
responsibilities include the admission, advisement, instruction, and
supervision of prospective teachers in the college’s intensive, 1-year mas-
ter’s program in the art of teaching, as well as close work with public
school teachers and administrators in the Albany capital district. As a
clinical professor, Ms. Hall also teaches classes in pedagogy, assessment,
organization of schools, and literacy. For these duties, she draws on more
than 20 years of classroom teaching in grades 4–12. She is currently com-
pleting her doctoral work in curriculum and instruction at State Univer-
sity of New York at Albany, where she graduated summa cum laude in
English; she also holds a master of education administration degree from
Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. Her research interests include lit-
eracy skill building for adolescents, instruction to support critical think-
ing, and models for mentoring teachers.

Linda Gordon Howard is an attorney and consultant in workplace diver-


sity issues, including sexual harassment. She has spent the last 30 years
successfully practicing, advising, counseling, and teaching in the areas of
employment discrimination and sexual harassment law. Ms. Howard has
trained thousands of employees in how to understand and comply with

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


About the Editor and Contributors 215

the difficult and confusing laws regarding sexual harassment. Her origi-
nal and proven methods communicate the logic behind the laws and illus-
trate how to deal with sexual harassment as it happens. Her book, The
Sexual Harassment Handbook (2007), is a practical, street-smart guide for
working men and women.
Ms. Howard received her law degree from the University of Virginia
Law School and her undergraduate degree from Reed College. She is a
former law professor at Ohio State University, member of the White
House staff, college legal counsel, and senior attorney for the City of New
York. She serves as a trustee of Reed College and a director of the non-
profit group A More Perfect Union, Inc., and she leads transformational
programs for Landmark Education. Ms. Howard practices law in New
York City.

Jennifer L. Martin is the head of the English department at a public alter-


native high school for at-risk students in Michigan and holds a PhD in
educational leadership. Dr. Martin is also a lecturer at Oakland Univer-
sity, where she teaches in the Departments of Educational Leadership
and Women’s Studies. She is a past cochair of the Girls’ Studies Interest
Group for the National Women’s Studies Association. Her research inter-
ests include peer sexual harassment, feminist identification, teaching for
social justice, and the at-risk student.

Presha E. Neidermeyer, PhD, CPA, is an associate professor of account-


ing at West Virginia University’s College of Business and Economics. She
has published numerous articles in behavioral accounting, focusing on
the way that gender and culture affect decision making. Her nonresearch
activities include involving business students in philanthropic activities,
harnessing the students’ unique skills to assist various African charities
in their quest to resolve the AIDS pandemic.

William Schweinle, PhD, is an assistant professor of quantitative psy-


chology at Boise State University. He has published several research
articles on men’s empathic accuracy, empathic bias, and the maltreatment
of women, including inter-partner aggression and sexual harassment.

Carrie Turco is currently completing her MBA and certificate in human


resource management at Union Graduate College. Her career goals
include becoming a director or vice president of human resources in the
private sector. She enjoys photography, tennis, and volunteering for the
St. Jude Children’s Hospital.

Michelle Wildgrube has been a principal attorney at Cioffi Slezak Wild-


grube P.C. since 2004, and has been with the firm since 1999. Before

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


216 About the Editor and Contributors

joining the firm, Ms. Wildgrube worked for a general practice firm that
provided a broad foundation for her law practice, which now concen-
trates on estate planning and administration, corporate and business law,
and real estate. Ms. Wildgrube holds a BA in English from Rutgers Col-
lege and a JD from the State University of New York at Buffalo School of
Law.

Krystle C. Woods, MA, is a clinical doctoral candidate in the Department


of Psychology at Michigan State University. Her research examines the
influence of perpetrator race on sexual harassment outcomes, racialized
sexual harassment, and depression in African-American women. Ms.
Woods was the 2005 recipient of the Michigan State University Enrich-
ment Fellowship ‘‘recognizing academic achievement, research goals,
contribution to a diverse educational community, and a record of over-
coming obstacles.’’

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


The Psychology of
Women at Work

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Recent Titles in
Women’s Psychology
‘‘Intimate’’ Violence against Women: When Spouses, Partners, or Lovers Attack
Paula K. Lundberg-Love and Shelly L. Marmion, editors

Daughters of Madness: Growing Up and Older with a Mentally Ill Mother


Susan Nathiel

Psychology of Women: Handbook of Issues and Theories, Second Edition


Florence L. Denmark and Michele A. Paludi, editors

WomanSoul: The Inner Life of Women’s Spirituality


Carole A. Rayburn and Lillian Comas-Dıaz

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


The Psychology of
Women at Work
Challenges and Solutions for
Our Female Workforce

Volume 2
Obstacles and the
Identity Juggle

Edited by
MICHELE A. PALUDI

Praeger Perspectives

Women’s Psychology

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The psychology of women at work : challenges and solutions for our female
workforce / edited by Michele A. Paludi
p. cm. — (Women’s psychology, ISSN 1931-0021)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-275-99677-2 ((set) : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-275-99679-6 ((vol. 1) :
alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-275-99681-9 ((vol. 2) : alk. paper) —
ISBN 978-0-275-99683-3 ((vol. 3) : alk. paper)
1. Women—Employment—Psychological aspects. 2. Work and family.
3. Women—Job stress. 4. Women—Psychology. I. Paludi, Michele Antoinette.
HD6053.P75 2008
158.7082—dc22 2008004119
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.
Copyright 
C 2008 by Michele A. Paludi
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced, by any process or technique, without the
express written consent of the publisher.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2008004119
ISBN: 978-0-275-99677-2 (set)
978-0-275-99679-6 (vol. 1)
978-0-275-99681-9 (vol. 2)
978-0-275-99683-3 (vol. 3)
ISSN: 1931-0021
First published in 2008
Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
www.praeger.com
Printed in the United States of America

The paper used in this book complies with the


Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National
Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


For Antoinette and Michael Paludi, who encouraged me
to define what women’s work is for myself

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Contents

Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xi
Chapter 1: Explaining Too Few Women in STEM Careers:
A Psychosocial Perspective
Bianca L. Bernstein and Nancy Felipe Russo 1
Chapter 2: Women as Leaders: From the Lab to the Real World
Florence L. Denmark, Erika M. Baron, Maria D. Klara,
Janet Sigal, Margaret Gibbs, Dorothy Wnuk 35
Chapter 3: My Life as a Woman Psychologist: In My Own Voice
Marilyn P. Safir 57
Chapter 4: Workplace Incivility, Sexual Harassment, and Racial
Micro-Aggression: The Interface of Three Literatures
Eros R. DeSouza 65
Chapter 5: Sexual Harassment and Male Dominance: Toward an
Ecological Approach
Phoebe Morgan and James Gruber 85
Chapter 6: Challenges for Women of Color
Darlene C. DeFour 109
Chapter 7: On Being a Woman Chiropractor: In My Own Voice
Patricia Campbell 121
Chapter 8: Relationships with Men
Donna Castan~eda and Breena E. Coates 125
Chapter 9: What I See Is What Matters: In My Own Voice
Sharon Butler 149

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


viii Contents

Chapter 10: Women in Ethiopia: The Sound of Hope:


In My Own Voice
Haimanot Kelbessa 151
Index 155
About the Editor and Contributors 161

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Acknowledgments

I thank Debbie Carvalko at Praeger for her encouragement and support


throughout the writing of these three volumes. It is an honor to work
with her. I also thank the graduate students in my human resources
classes for their comments about the changing nature of work for
women. I am confident that they will make a difference in the lives of
the next generation of women employees and their families. I am grate-
ful to Carrie Turco and Sharon Butler for their comments on earlier
versions of the introduction.
The following family, friends, and colleagues have been invaluable
during the preparation of these three volumes. Thank you to Rosalie
Paludi, Lucille Paludi, Presha Neidermeyer, and Paula Lundberg Love.
I especially acknowledge Carmen Paludi, Jr., for his friendship and
sage advice. Together we continue to make the dreams of our grand-
parents on Weaver Street into realities.
Finally, I wish to thank William Norton Dember, my advisor and
mentor in graduate school, who, like my parents, told me to seek my
own career path and be tough-minded and kindhearted at the same
time. I started drafting these books after I last saw Bill in May 2006,
when we discussed my career since graduate school (it had been
26 years since I received my PhD). He reminded me that I came to
work with him as a graduate student at the University of Cincinnati
because I was interested in the psychology of women’s work and
achievement motivation. Moreover, he inquired why I hadn’t written
or edited a book in that field during the course of my career. These
three volumes are in response to Bill’s question. Bill died in September
2006. These books are in tribute to him as a psychologist, mentor, pro-
fessor, colleague, and friend.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Introduction

Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed.


If I fail, no one will say, ‘‘She doesn’t have what it takes.’’
They will say, ‘‘Women don’t have what it takes.’’
—Clare Boothe Luce
Clare Boothe Luce’s sentiment was once again highlighted during the
preparation of these three volumes of The Psychology of Women at Work:
Challenges and Solutions for Our Female Workforce, when Senator Hillary
Rodham Clinton announced her candidacy for the presidency of the
United States. Throughout the initial part of Senator Clinton’s candi-
dacy, comments about a woman president received media attention.
Polls from CNN.com (July 24, 2007) and YouTube (January 21, 2007;
March 5, 2007) reported the following quotations:

‘‘Hillary Clinton needs to wear a dress or skirt now and then. Her
always making public appearances in pants gives a sense she is trying to
‘fit in’ with the boys, which is never going to be the case.’’
‘‘Hillary is cute. Those are her qualifications for prez.’’
‘‘It’ll be nice to have a woman president but you know white America
won’t let her.’’
‘‘Women, above all, should reject hillary. Missus clinton is the biggest
misogynist of all.’’
‘‘hillary clinton running must be a joke! A woman for president! Ha!
Now that[’]s a joke.’’

Elizabeth Edwards, whose husband, John Edwards, also declared


his candidacy for president, joined the chorus in criticizing Hillary
Clinton. Elizabeth Edwards stated the following:

She [Hillary Clinton] and I are from the same generation. We both went
to law school and married other lawyers, but after that we made other

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


xii Introduction

choices. I think my choices have made me happier. I think I’m more joy-
ful than she is.

Elizabeth Edwards also stated, ‘‘Sometimes you feel you have to


behave as a man and not talk about women’s issues.’’
Mrs. Edwards’s comments prompted a comparison of the two
women—one perceived as ‘‘feminine’’ and the other ‘‘masculine.’’
Responses from a CNN.com poll (July 24, 2007) included the following:
‘‘It would be awesome if Hillary was more like Elizabeth. But Hillary
lacks the compassion and realness Elizabeth possesses.’’
Tucker Carlson, host of MSNBC’s Tucker, asked a guest, ‘‘I mean,
let’s take this critique [by Elizabeth Edwards] seriously—is Hillary
Clinton too manly to be president?’’
This is in direct contrast to the view that many people had of Con-
gresswoman Patricia Schroeder, who, when she dropped out of run-
ning for U.S. president in 1984, cried. This raised the question of
whether a woman was too ‘‘emotional’’ to be president. Schroeder
(1998) wrote, ‘‘Crying is almost a ritual that male politicians must do
to prove they are compassionate, but women are supposed to wear
iron britches.’’
In 1870, when Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for presi-
dent, declared her candidacy, the New York Herald commented: ‘‘She is
rather in advance of her time. The public mind is not yet educated to the
pitch of universal woman’s [sic] rights’’ (‘‘Woman’s Idea of Govern-
ment,’’ 1870, p. 6). In 2008 we are still hearing arguments that the United
States is not ready for a woman president—a view expressed not only to
Victoria Woodhull but also to other women candidates for president
before Hillary Clinton: Margaret Chase Smith (in 1964), Shirley Chisolm
(in 1972), Patricia Schroeder (in 1984), Elizabeth Dole (in 2000), and Car-
olyn Moseley Braun (in 2004). Similar comments were directed toward
Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman to be placed on a national presiden-
tial ticket (as Walter Mondale’s vice president in 1984). Ferraro was
criticized for wearing short-sleeved dresses while campaigning because
her arms wobbled when she waved (considered not ‘‘feminine’’).
‘‘The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females
begins when the doctor says, ‘It’s a girl,’’’ Shirley Chisholm once noted.
Gender-role stereotypes about ‘‘appropriate’’ and ‘‘inappropriate’’
occupations for women still abound. Gender stereotyping is a psycho-
logical process that illustrates a structured set of beliefs about the per-
sonal attributes of females and males (Ashmore & DelBoca, 1981;
Doyle & Paludi, 1997; Fiske & Stevens, 1993). When asked to describe a
woman, for example, individuals commonly cite ‘‘caring,’’ ‘‘nurturing,’’
‘‘sensitive,’’ and ‘‘passive.’’ When asked to name a woman’s occupa-
tion, individuals cite ‘‘nurse,’’ ‘‘elementary school teacher,’’ or ‘‘social
worker,’’ but not ‘‘president of the United States.’’

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Introduction xiii

I have frequently used the following riddle when students and train-
ees indicate that they believe that they themselves do not hold gender-
role stereotypes about occupations:

One afternoon, a man and his son go for a drive through the countryside.
After an hour or so they get into a terrible car crash. The father dies
instantly. The son is taken by a helicopter to the nearest hospital, where
a prominent surgeon is called to help save the boy’s life. Immediately on
entering the operating room and looking at the boy, the surgeon
exclaims, ‘‘I can’t possibly operate on this boy . . . he’s my son.’’ How can
this be?

The responses I have received to this question have ranged from


‘‘The father didn’t really die—he sustained only minor injuries and
could perform the surgery’’ to ‘‘It was the boy’s stepfather who died,
and his biological father was the surgeon’’ to ‘‘The boy’s adoptive fa-
ther is the surgeon, and his biological father was with him in the car.’’
Individuals rarely solve this riddle: The surgeon is the boy’s mother.
When the answer is revealed, these individuals are angry with them-
selves that they initially stated that they hold no occupational stereo-
types for women and men. Individuals also usually ‘‘mark’’ an
occupation if they believe that the gender of the person performing the
job is atypical. Thus, they say ‘‘male nurse,’’ ‘‘female physician,’’
‘‘female professor,’’ and ‘‘male model’’ (Paludi, Paludi, & DeFour,
2004). Markings alert listeners or readers to something atypical for the
occupation—that it is held by an individual of the sex other than the
one with which it is traditionally associated.
An awareness of the contents of occupational stereotypes related to
gender begins in the preschool years and is well developed by first
grade (Betz, in press; Gottfredson, 1981; Heyman & Legare, 2004;
Hughes & Seta, 2003; Sczesny, 2003). Among 6-year-olds, there is
research evidence of gender stereotypes in the kinds of occupations
that children consider for future employment. Girls commonly choose
the occupations of nurse, teacher, or flight attendant. Boys, on the other
hand, select police officer, truck driver, architect, or pilot. Children’s
ranges of occupations are difficult to change once they are set (Betz, in
press; Eccles, Wigfield, & Schiefele, 1999).
Levy, Sadovsky, and Troseth (2000) reported that a stereotypic view
of the world reinforces many of the common gender-role stereotypes
and is a factor in prompting young boys’ interest in more than twice
as many occupations as that of young girls. Girls thus restrict their
occupational aspirations. In addition, girls have a more limited concept
than boys do of the career possibilities available to them in math- and
computer-related occupations (Burger et al., 2007; Creamer & Laughlin,
2005; Naua, Epperson, & Kahn, 1998; White & White, 2006). Girls focus

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


xiv Introduction

on occupations that are associated with less status, less satisfaction,


and less pay than the occupations considered by boys (Heyman, 2000;
Richardson & Sandoval (2007).
Siegel and Reis (1998) reported that although teachers perceived
gifted girls as working harder and doing better work than gifted boys,
these teachers gave higher grades to the boys. Similarly, Fennema and
colleagues (1996) found that teachers perceived that boys are better
than gifted girls at math and science. Kerr, Colangelo, and Gaeth
(1988) reported that gifted girls are concerned about the negative
effects of being gifted on their peers’ attitudes toward them. The
researchers found that, by the sophomore year of college, most gifted
women changed their majors to less intellectually challenging ones.
Furthermore, Kerr, Colangelo, and Gaeth found that, by their senior
year, these gifted women reduced the level of their career goals.
Brody (1977) reported a decline in self-esteem among girls but not
boys in elementary, middle, and high school. For example, 55% of ele-
mentary school girls agreed with the following statement: ‘‘I am good
at a lot of things.’’ This percentage declined to 29% in middle school
and 23% in high school. The American Association of University
Women (AAUW) (1992) reported that girls who pursued math and sci-
ence courses and participated in sports maintained their self-esteem
from elementary school through high school.
Hall and Sandler (1982) and Allan and Madden (2006) argued that,
for girls and women, the educational system is a ‘‘chilly climate.’’ Girls
and women are discouraged from classroom participation, are sexually
harassed by teachers as well as peers, receive a lack of mentoring, and
are advised by guidance counselors to lower their expectations for a ca-
reer (AAUW, 2001; Paludi, Martin, & Paludi, 2007; Richardson & San-
doval, 2007).
As can be seen from this brief review, an important manifestation of
gender-role stereotyping is a progressive decrease in girls’ and wom-
en’s career aspirations (Betz, 2007; Farmer, 1997). ‘‘The test for whether
or not you can hold a job should not be the arrangement of your chro-
mosomes,’’ Bella Abzug once protested.
Lacampagne, Campbell, Herzig, Damarin, and Vogt (2007) reported
that gender differences are significant in math-related careers and in
career aspirations. For example, of students who took the SAT in 2005,
5% of boys and 1% of girls reported planning to major in computer sci-
ence. In addition, 10% of boys and 2% of girls were planning to major
in engineering (College Board, 2005).
Career education programs continue to be gender-segregated; 90% of
women in training programs are in traditionally female fields—for exam-
ple, office technology and health care (AAUW, 2002). More than 90% of
teachers (preschool, elementary, and special education), secretaries, child-
care workers, waitresses, hairdressers, speech therapists, occupational

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Introduction xv

therapists, dental hygienists, and teacher’s aides are women (U.S. Depart-
ment of Labor, 2003). Betz (in press) reported that women remain under-
represented in technical and scientific fields as well as in managerial
positions in education, government, business, and the military.
In a recent study conducted by Catalyst (2007), gender-role stereo-
typing was linked to women’s participation as leaders in business.
According to this report, ‘‘Gender stereotyping, one of the key barriers
to women’s advancement in corporate leadership, leaves women with
limited, conflicting and often unfavorable options no matter how they
choose to lead.’’
Catalyst found that women constitute more than 50% of manage-
ment and professional occupations but are only 15.6% of Fortune 500
corporate officers and 14.6% of Fortune 500 board directors. Ilene Lang,
president of Catalyst, comments on this as follows:

When companies fail to acknowledge and address the impact of gender


stereotypic bias, they lose out on top female talent. . . . Ultimately, it’s not
women’s leadership styles that need to change. Only when organizations
take action to address the impact of gender stereotyping will they be able
to capitalize on the ‘‘full deck’’ of talent.

Women earn less than 20% of the bachelor’s degrees in fields such
as engineering and physics and less than 10% of the graduate degrees
in engineering (Betz, 2007). Women represent only about 14% of engi-
neers, 30% of computer systems analysts, and 25% of computer pro-
grammers (U.S. Department of Labor, 2003, 2005). Women account for
8% of physicists and astronomers, 7% of air traffic controllers, 5% of
truck drivers, 4% of pilots, 5% of firefighters, and 2% of carpenters and
electricians (Betz, 2007).
Equally important, women are paid less for full-time employment
than men are; women make only 77% as much as men do when both
are employed full-time (U.S. Department of Labor, 2005). This income
disparity is greater for Black, Asian, Native American, and Hispanic
women than for White women, and for middle-age and older women
than for younger women.
‘‘We haven’t come a long way,’’ noted Elizabeth Janeway, ‘‘we’ve
come a short way. If we hadn’t come a short way, no one would be
calling us baby.’’
These realities of the psychology of women at work require an in-
depth look at not only the barriers to women’s success but also the
strategies for empowering women at the individual, organizational,
legal, and societal levels. These three volumes provide an overview of
the scholarly research on the issues related to women and work.
Volume 1, ‘‘Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium,’’
provides an overview of research on comparisons of men and women

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


xvi Introduction

in gender-relative (i.e., stereotypical masculine and feminine) commu-


nication styles, women as bosses, women as entrepreneurs, personality
factors that impact women in the workplace, feminist competing values
leadership, career preparation programs in high school, and sexual
harassment.
Volume 2, ‘‘Obstacles and the Identity Juggle,’’ offers reviews on
the double standard for women in the workplace; sexual harassment;
women and leadership; the glass ceiling; pay inequalities; incivility to-
ward women in the workplace; women in the sciences, technology,
engineering, and math; and the economics of women in the workplace.
Volume 3, ‘‘Self, Family, and Social Affects,’’ discusses women and
self-esteem, the impact of work on women’s physical health, mental
health issues for women in the workforce (especially women who have
experienced discrimination), women’s relationships with male co-workers,
and religion and women at work.
In addition to the scholarly reviews of research on the psychology of
women at work, I have included women’s personal accounts of their
career development, especially their experiences in the labor force. A
variety of careers is represented in these personal accounts—attorney,
human resource manager, college president, chiropractor, and psychol-
ogist—as well as students who are pursuing careers. For many years
researchers have defined for women what success is, what work is,
and what achievement striving should be. These definitions have typi-
cally contained masculine biases (Paludi & Fankell-Hauser, 1986). Thus,
these personal accounts of women’s experiences recognize that women
differ in the strength of their striving for achievement and in the roles
that elicit their striving, taking into account the effects of family,
friends, role models, and partners. It is the goal of these volumes that
these personal accounts stimulate additional research, legislation,
and advocacy on behalf of female students and employees so that a
woman running for the United States presidency will be accepted and
encouraged.

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American Association of University Women (AAUW). (2002). Title IX at 30:
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© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Introduction xvii

Ashmore, R., & DelBoca, F. (1981). Conceptual approaches to stereotypes and


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Creamer, E., & Laughlin, A. (2005). Self-authorship and women’s career deci-
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Levy, G., Sadovsky, A., & Troseth, G. (2000). Aspects of young children’s per-
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© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Chapter 1

Explaining Too Few Women in STEM


Careers: A Psychosocial Perspective
Bianca L. Bernstein
Nancy Felipe Russo

The explosion of research on gender differences and similarities (Eagly &


Wood, 1999; Hyde, 2005, 2007), stereotyping processes (Steele, 1997;
Prentice & Miller, 2006; Steele, Spencer, & Aronson, 2002), and new
forms of discrimination in the workplace (Cortina, 2008) provides a
context for understanding the work and careers of women in a range
of employment sectors and leadership roles. Nine out of 10 women can
be expected to work outside the home during their adult lives, but the
distribution of women continues to be skewed toward positions of
lower pay, responsibility, and prestige (U.S. Department of Labor,
2007). Among the science and health professions, for example, 91% of
registered nurses and 83% of social workers are women, compared to
32% of physicians and surgeons, 34% of chemists and materials scien-
tists, 27% of computer scientists, 12% of civil engineers, and 7% of en-
gineering managers (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2007).
The realities of gender stereotyping, pernicious barriers to advance-
ment, and subtle as well as not-so-subtle forms of discrimination con-
tinue to mark the experience of women’s work (Benokraitis, 1997;
Catalyst, 2007). We argue here that academic careers in science and en-
gineering reflect these forces in particularly stark relief and that under-
standing academic career outcomes as a result of interactions between
intra-psychic and environmental variables can substantially explain the
severe underrepresentation of women in these high-stakes, nationally
important fields.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


2 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

Each new national report confirms that the underrepresentation of


women in academic science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
(STEM) careers persists and that women are still the exception in many
science and engineering departments (e.g., Committee on Maximizing
the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering
[CMPWASE] et al., 2006; National Research Council, 2001; National Sci-
ence Foundation (NSF), 2004, 2007). The scarcity of women in academic
departments of the physical sciences, mathematics, computer sciences,
and engineering is more pronounced than in virtually every other
employment sector for scientists and engineers or academic discipline
for individuals with PhDs.
The underrepresentation of women in academic STEM fields is found
at multiple levels and is reflected in who is recruited and hired, gets
promoted to higher ranks, receives rewards and recognition, and
becomes appointed to academic leadership positions. The picture is par-
ticularly dismal at senior levels. Women comprise less than 5% of full
professorships at top 50 departments in some fields (math and statistics,
electrical, civil, mechanical, and chemical engineering), (Nelson, 2005).
In 2000, women held only 2% and 4.6%, respectively, of department
head positions in engineering and math and physical science depart-
ments at research extensive universities (Niemeier & Gonzales, 2004).
Attributing the small numbers of women in academic science careers
to lack of availability of women through prior pipeline leaks is no longer
adequate. Recent years have seen steady increases in numbers of women
with undergraduate degrees in STEM fields, with some fields like biol-
ogy now reaching parity (NSF, 2007). Significantly more women are
entering graduate programs in science and engineering, although the
attrition rates for women from STEM PhD programs are higher than for
men in these fields (Anderson-Rowland, Bernstein, & Russo, 2007a,
2007b; Bernstein & Russo, 2007; Danecke, 2005). The proportion of
women earning research doctorates among U.S. citizens has hit an his-
toric high (51%) (Hoffer, Hess, Welch, & Williams, 2007). Yet, the ratio
of women earning PhDs in a field to the proportion of full professors at
top 50 departments is around 4:1 or worse (biology, chemistry, physical
science, math and statistics, civil, chemical engineering) (Nelson, 2005).
And, there is growing evidence that even women who have the appro-
priate credentials and experience for entering STEM careers leave their
positions significantly more often than men. For example, one study
estimated 6-year attrition in the information technology workforce at
40% for women compared to 25% for men (Stephan & Levin, 2005).
Why pay special heed to the persistent phenomenon of male-domi-
nated departments in academic science and engineering? The answers
are varied and compelling. From the perspective of national economic,
scientific, and security interests, the failure to retain women scientists
and create environments that nurture talented women’s success

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Explaining Too Few Women in STEM Careers 3

represents a serious erosion of intellectual capital. The loss of women


from science research careers and the academy has even more impact
locally and nationally when each woman is viewed as the embodiment
of ‘‘knowledge value’’ (Bozeman, Dietz, & Gaughan, 2001), that is, ‘‘a
walking set of knowledge, skills, technical know-how and, just as im-
portant, a set of sustained network communications, often dense in pat-
tern and international in scope’’ (Dietz, Chompalov, Bozeman, Lane, &
Park, 2000). As Dietz and his colleagues (2000) have suggested, the
migration [or loss] of knowledge value produced by the job change [or
attrition] of a scientist or engineer has a profound impact on scientific
discovery, technological innovation, and economic development. Yet
little is known about what leads to the post-appointment attrition of
‘‘survivors’’—women who have successfully earned PhDs and com-
pleted postdocs, overcome obstacles, and obtained academic positions.
When women are scarce in academic science and engineering posi-
tions, students are deprived of their vital educational and motivational
contributions. There is no more robust finding than the importance of
successful women and minority faculty who serve as role models and
mentors for future generations of women and minority scientists (Fort,
2005; Nettles & Millett, 2006). Although access to such role models and
mentors is important for all academic fields and professions, they are
in short supply in STEM fields. Further, gender and ethnic diversity in
these fields advances the agendas of innovation, discovery, and use-
inspired research well beyond what can be accomplished by people
with less diverse perspectives, interests, and worldviews.
From an equity and social justice standpoint, the power and prestige
associated with science careers is a fundamental reason to address the
underrepresentation of women in STEM fields. As Fox (2001) summar-
ized so aptly, science is a prototype of a professional claim to ‘‘authori-
tative knowledge,’’ defines what billions of world citizens take for
granted, and provides the power base for controlling the future. The
academic profession occupies a particularly privileged position among
careers in that ‘‘its members train and allocate the people of all profes-
sions’’ (Hermanowicz, 2003). The profile and quality of the future sci-
ence and technology workforce depend on the expertise and
effectiveness of diverse role models, teachers, and mentors.
There is no dispute, then, about the level of continued underrepre-
sentation of women among STEM faculty, especially at senior levels, or
about the importance of the problem in terms of loss of intellectual
capital and knowledge value, shortage of vital role models and men-
tors, and social justice concerns. The numbers of women with degrees
in the sciences and engineering are increasing, so the availability of
women for faculty positions is now less of an issue (albeit far from
resolved) than before. However, we place new attention on the issue of
why qualified women do not enter or why they actually leave faculty

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


4 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

careers in science and engineering. We ask how we can better explain


the meager numbers of eligible women who enter, stay, and are pro-
moted in academic science and engineering careers.
We use a psychosocial perspective to illuminate the complex factors
that lead women to continue in or eschew academic life. We propose
that the key to understanding career persistence and outcomes from a
psychosocial perspective is the individual’s perception about fit with
the work environment, her success in negotiating disjunctions to
improve fit, and the choices she makes as a result. In applying this par-
adigm, we focus on two drivers of career persistence in science—
research productivity and personal satisfaction—and we draw on the
literatures of social, vocational, and counseling psychology, as well as
the sociology of science.

CAREERS, CHOICE, AND CONSTRUCTION


We begin with the view that careers are individual constructions that
are dynamic in nature and nonlinear and idiosyncratic in form. Voca-
tional psychologist Mark Savickas (2004) described it this way: ‘‘Careers
do not unfold; they are constructed as individuals make choices that
express their self concepts and substantiate their goals in the social real-
ity of work’’ (p. 43). From a constructivist perspective, careers represent
subjective processes by which individuals derive or impose personal
meanings on their memories, experiences, and aspirations.
Career construction theory (Savickas, 2004) is congruent with anthro-
pologist Mary Catherine Bateson’s (1989) description of women’s lives
(and careers) as personal compositions: ‘‘Each of us has worked by im-
provisation, discovering the shape of our creation along the way, rather
than pursuing a vision already defined’’ (p. 1). Bateson observed that
the model of a successful life as one of early decision and commit-
ments to education and a certain career path with a single trajectory on
an ascending ladder may be particularly outmoded, inappropriate, and
even harmful for women (and men) who experience instead disconti-
nuities, disruptions, and new opportunities.
Findings congruent with this view come from a study by the Man-
hattan-based Center for Worklife Policy (Hewlitt, Luce, Shiller, &
Southwell, 2005), The study reported that more than a third of highly
qualified women were found to have left their careers for a time and
almost 60% took ‘‘scenic routes’’ such as reduced-hour or flexible work
options to accommodate child or elder care. The evidence that women
in science and engineering actively seek nonlinear pathways is compel-
ling. Using a life-course approach to large datasets, Xie and Shauman
(2003) concluded that, for women, ‘‘career processes are fluid and
dynamic, with exit, entry, and reentry all being real possibilities at any
given point in a career’’ (p. 209).

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Explaining Too Few Women in STEM Careers 5

The realities of women’s lives stand in stark contrast to the masculine


script that portrays a successful life as linear, singularly purposeful, and
narrowly focused on career progression. This script, which continues to
dominate the world of the academic sciences, is out of step with the
more contemporary conception of a career as a ‘‘highway’’ with many
on- and off-ramps (Hewlitt et al., 2005). We view women as active
agents who assess their options and make choices in keeping with their
values and preferences in navigating, avoiding, or leaving STEM
careers. Therefore, understanding the psychosocial processes by which
individual women make choices to persist in, exit from, or take a detour
from their prior career choice may help us better explain the ‘‘brain
drain’’ of talented women from academic environments and scientific
fields.
One way to understand the choices people make as they encounter
opportunities, surprises, or obstacles is by considering the role of
future-oriented notions of the self. Control theory (Carver & Scheier,
1982), for example, predicts that when people experience a discrep-
ancy between their current selves and ideal selves, they are motivated
to make changes that reduce the discrepancy. The concept of ‘‘pos-
sible selves’’ (Markus & Nurius, 1986) refers to the imagined future
selves that ‘‘represent individuals’ ideas of what they might become,
what they would like to become, and what they are afraid of becom-
ing’’ (p. 954). These cognitive components of hopes, fears, goals, and
threats function as incentives and motivators for future behavior and
contribute to how the individual evaluates and interprets herself in
the present. Understood as personalized representations of important
life goals (Ruvolo & Markus, 1992), thinking about a lost possible self
is related to regrets and distress (King & Hicks, 2007), and making
changes in the present may be linked to avoiding anticipated future
regrets.
The construct of possible selves has been studied in the context of
identity development and early career choice (career possible selves),
particularly as applied to young women considering math and science.
In Gottfredson’s (1981, 1996, 2004) model of the career development
process, his fourth and last step is related to early career choice. This
step involves compromise by having to select a career that is a best or
‘‘good enough’’ middle ground between the individual’s aspirations
and avoidance of feared futures. Scholars are beginning to examine the
implications of possible selves for later stages of career development,
and what happens when individuals experience external threats (such
as getting poor grades or being denied admission to a preferred pro-
gram) to the viability of their desired career possible selves (e.g., Pizzo-
lato, 2007).
We believe that the construct of possible selves has considerable
potential in explaining the changes in direction that women in science

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


6 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

and engineering make after they have completed advanced degrees


and postdocs, embarked on their careers, and attained faculty posi-
tions. When eliciting possible self-narratives, researchers ask partici-
pants to imagine their ‘‘best possible life’’ or their ‘‘happily ever after’’
(King & Hicks, 2007). The Cinderella imagery notwithstanding, one can
expect that many women might combine elements of brilliant careers
and happy families in their visions of their ideal futures. However, as
we elaborate below, the large majority of women in science have no
role models, mentors, or guidance for crafting this ideal nor confidence
that they can accomplish it. Instead, their negative experiences may
reinforce their ‘‘feared possible selves’’ that lead to choices that prevent
anticipated regrets (King & Hicks, 2007). We propose that a dynamic
model of possible selves that illuminates women’s constructions of
ideal future selves in both career and personal realms would provide a
useful framework for conceptualizing the choices STEM women make,
remake, and alter as they encounter each new challenge in their career
paths. We have found no studies in this area but believe it is a promis-
ing avenue of investigation.
An agentic view holds that women create lives and careers in a pro-
gressive and often nonlinear fashion by deriving meaning, making
choices, and taking action in relation to their environments and experi-
ences to achieve their desired life goals. However, as noted above and
elaborated below, the large majority of women aspiring to STEM
careers find themselves in highly competitive, male-dominated envi-
ronments, with few female role models, mentors, or guidance for how
to craft their ideals for their careers and personal lives, and declining
confidence in their ability to attain them.
Thus, women’s agency must be considered in the context of the
choices that are open to them, that is, in the context of environments in
which the choices are made. From an environmental ‘‘deficit model’’
perspective (Sonnert & Holton, 1996), the focus is on the elements of
institutional and disciplinary culture that limit women’s opportunities
and introduce obstacles that reduce success, satisfaction, and retention.
These barriers include ambiguous and gendered expectations, inad-
equate access to resources, discriminatory practices, isolation, and a
focus on individualistic achievement. We use research productivity and
career satisfaction as organizing concepts for how women make their
choices with respect to persisting in academic science environments.

WOMEN AND PRODUCTIVITY IN ACADEMIC SCIENCE AND


ENGINEERING ENVIRONMENTS
Lotte Bailyn (2003) links the definitions of academic success in sci-
ence and engineering fields directly to the gendered nature of these
disciplines and institutions: ‘‘The academy is anchored in assumptions

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Explaining Too Few Women in STEM Careers 7

about competence and success that have led to practices and norms
constructed around the life experiences of men, and around a vision of
masculinity as the normal, universal requirement of university life’’ (p.
143). The productivity that counts is research productivity. Indicators
vary slightly by discipline, but in general, salary, rank, external fund-
ing, quantity of publications and patents, and scholarly awards com-
prise the traditional notions of career success in the academic sciences.
Research productivity (primarily measured by number of publications,
number of citations, and level of external grant funding) remains a cen-
tral value in the academic sciences and continues to serve as the pri-
mary measuring stick for tenure and advancement.
It is important to note that an individual’s products are subjected to
the evaluations of others in the academy and do not automatically trans-
late into achievement until they are recognized and valued as appropri-
ate and meeting explicit and often implicit standards. There is a
complex web of internal (institutional) and external (professional) gate-
keepers whose subjective judgments determine the granting of status
and prestige required for advancement in the academic environment. As
Fox (2005) has argued, understanding what is recognized as productivity
by gatekeepers is critical to the understanding and advancement of
women’s status in the sciences and engineering because productivity
functions both as a partial cause and an effect of that status.
These gatekeepers—including tenured faculty, department chairs,
deans, and upper administrators; journal reviewers and editors; study
section members and granting agency staff; scientific and professional
societies’ program and awards committees, among others—often have
ambiguous, conflicting, and unrealistic expectations and demands.
Sometimes what ‘‘counts’’ as productive is not clear until the tenure
decision. For example, teaching may be lauded, and service on commit-
tees may result in expressions of strong gratitude and appreciation
from one’s department chair. A woman may take on a teaching over-
load in response to departmental requests, serve as a member of
numerous graduate student committees, and provide key leadership
on a host of committees at the behest of the chair and higher adminis-
tration. But in STEM disciplines in many universities, although this
form of productivity is valuable to the institution, it is generally invisi-
ble and unrewarded at evaluation time. All these contributions will not
‘‘count’’ unless she first has a sufficient number of publications in the
‘‘right’’ journals and external funding for her research. Further, there is
no one number of publications to shoot for—that depends on what
others have done in one’s department or peer institutions (the fact that
others may have more resources or be less productive in other ways is
not relevant to the equation).
The consistently high levels of research productivity that are
expected at the top-tier universities require intense mental focus and

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8 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

the dedication of most waking hours to research, publication, and grant


proposal preparation. The key activities that are essential for recogni-
tion and validation of scientific productivity—gathering data, making
presentations at conferences, publishing in peer-reviewed journals, and
obtaining grants—are particularly taxing for women who are parents.
One study found that almost half of the University of California faculty
women surveyed, compared to a quarter of the faculty men, reported
that doing field work or field research away from home, attending and
giving papers at conferences, and writing and publishing placed stress
on their parenting (Mason, Stacy, Goulden, Hoffman, & Frasch, 2005).
The competitive environment combines with ambiguous and shifting
standards of evaluation to provide a highly stressful context for pursu-
ing a career, and the degree of stress may be heightened by the partic-
ular context in which the faculty member works. All young STEM
faculty must learn to assess their environments, identify hidden or
implicit weights among evaluation criteria, and weigh and negotiate
among multiple expectations and demands at work and at home as
they carve out their career paths. The hierarchical nature of science
and the gendered nature of these expectations and demands mean that
women in STEM fields have a more complex task that has been cited
as contributing to the low proportions of women in the sciences (Fox,
2001; Corley, 2005).
The specific context and environment where an individual scientist
or engineer works frame the preferences, commitments, and choices
she makes. Thus, it is useful to consider differences in the within-
science environments where academic scientists and engineers are
employed. Hermanowicz (1998, 2003, 2007) has described three types
of university physics departments and the corresponding aspirations of
their faculty members: elite (most highly ranked in the National
Research Council studies) where the greatest emphasis is placed on
research productivity; pluralist (major public universities) where
research is important but teaching and service are valued as well; and
communitarian (usually lower ranked institutions) where teaching and
service are emphasized more than research productivity. It should be
noted that among science and engineering fields, there is a hierarchy of
prestige as well:

[Physicists] are regarded as having a kind of genius that sets them apart
from ordinary mortals. Physics is taken as society’s science par excellence. . . .
Because demigods are part of the direct professional parentage of those
who enter the field of physics, the mythification of careers may be espe-
cially prominent in this field.’’ (Hermanowicz, 2003, p. 50–51)

Through interviews with physics faculty from each institution type,


Hermanowicz (1998, 2003, 2007) traces the meanings they attach to

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Explaining Too Few Women in STEM Careers 9

their work, their satisfactions, and their self-doubts. According to Her-


manowicz (2003), elite physics faculty aspire to be among the very best
nationally and internationally and ‘‘appear in regular need of reassur-
ance about their [professional] self-worth’’ (p. 55) and research stand-
ing compared to other eminent scientists. Communitarians emphasize
teaching and service and consider their responsiveness to their institu-
tions and local communities to be a shared responsibility of highest im-
portance. They are more likely to frame their concerns within nonwork
spheres and may question the value, meaning, and usefulness of
research. Scientists in these settings who have been productive in their
research express self-doubts about adequate achievement in relation to
their scholarly aspirations. Pluralists contribute their unique talents
and motivations to a mix of faculty who together meet the teaching
loads and research and service needs of the local community and state;
their concerns reflect their unique priorities.
The top research universities described by Hermanowicz are fertile
grounds for scientific advancement and discovery for top performers
according to the traditional models of research productivity. These elite
environments provide a rich mix of intellectual stimulation, resources,
and recognition for elite faculty (Hermanowicz, 2003) and constitute
the targets of aspiration for most people who enter doctoral programs
in STEM fields. People who choose science over other careers are more
often motivated by passion for the field, their specific focus of interest,
and their hopes for making a significant contribution to the field than
are people who choose other professional fields, who are more often
motivated by extrinsic professional rewards (Stephan, 2007). As Austin
(2002) has noted, aspiring faculty begin their graduate programs ‘‘with
enthusiasm and idealism about engaging in meaningful work’’ (p. 106)
and sustain their hopefulness as they enter the academy (Trower, Aus-
tin, & Sorcinelli, 2001). Fort (2005) uses the term ‘‘inextinguishable
commitment to science’’ (p. 167) to describe the strong motivation that
characterizes women who enter these fields.
As women and men pursue their education and careers, however,
they begin to consider multiple priorities in their lives and must con-
sider the extent to which they will balance their continuing passion for
science and meaningful work with their commitment to other prior-
ities. For women, especially, this consideration appears to deepen in
graduate school (Bernstein & Russo, 2007). It is during this time the
perceived incompatibility between meeting the demands of academic
culture with fulfilling other life goals (such as family formation or com-
munity service) may account for the choice that many talented PhD-
level women make to pursue positions outside of research universities.
Women faculty’s preferences and patterns of employment are con-
gruent with this conceptualization. Female scientists are significantly
less likely than men to set their sights on a position in the top research

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10 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

universities, select their research topics on the basis of scientific curios-


ity alone, and believe they will be a leading researcher (Corley, 2005).
Women comprise less than a quarter of full-time faculty at public
research universities but almost half of the total full-time faculty at
public two-year colleges. Almost three out of four female faculty mem-
bers are non-tenure-track instructors (West & Curtis, 2006). Further, the
preponderance of academic mothers is concentrated in comprehensive
universities and four-year colleges (Mason & Goulden, 2004), career
environments that allow a broader range of activities and commitment
to both professional and personal roles (Hermanowicz, 2003, 2007).
The interview findings of Hermanowicz, a sociologist of science, war-
rant multi-method replication as they hold promise for partially explain-
ing why women scientists and engineers may choose to work outside of
elite research universities. In these latter environments where the defini-
tion of success, tenurability, and advancement is narrowly focused on
high levels of research productivity, it is reasonable to expect that multiple-
role, multiple-commitment women (and men) would be fewer in
number. The stressful overlap of the tenure clock and the biological clock
of childbearing exacerbate the conflict of commitments that talented
women face in elite universities and fields that have a constricted set of
expectations and norms for achievement for tenure and promotion.

SATISFACTION AMONG STEM ACADEMIC WOMEN


Job satisfaction has been studied in an array of occupations and con-
tinues to be identified as a key factor in predicting retention and inten-
tion to stay in a position (Glomb, Richman, Hulin, Drasgow, Schneider,
& Fitzgerald, 1997; Higgins & Thomas, 2001; Sourdif, 2004). The associ-
ation between women’s satisfaction and their persistence in universities
has prompted many universities to conduct climate surveys in tracking
the mood of faculty and the impact of attempted interventions.
A repeated finding in annual surveys of junior faculty at multiple uni-
versities through the Harvard University COACHE program (Collabora-
tive on Academic Careers in Higher Education) is that junior women
faculty are significantly less satisfied with their department and institu-
tion than men (e.g., Trower & Bleak, 2004). Clearly, tangible rewards and
recognition for accomplishments are associated with satisfaction. How-
ever, it is important to recognize the central role of collegiality and positive
relationships in determining women’s satisfaction in their immediate aca-
demic environment. In fact, women faculty job satisfaction is related more
to their perceptions of relational supports and collegial and inclusive work
environments than to the academic resources they receive (Bilimoria,
Perry, Liang, Stoller, Higgins, & Taylor, 2006; Cross & Madsen, 1997).
Women place more value on collegiality and positive interactions,
opportunities to collaborate and interact professionally with senior

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Explaining Too Few Women in STEM Careers 11

colleagues, and female representation on the faculty than do men (Bar-


bezat, 1992; Trower & Bleak, 2004). Women are often uncomfortable
with the prevailing culture of combative conversational styles, the cli-
mate of individualism and fierce competition, the preference for curios-
ity-driven rather than use-inspired research, and apparent invisibility
of and lack of recognition for their contributions. An interesting ques-
tion for further study is whether men and women differ in the degree
to which they perceive these characteristics of science environments as
uncomfortable and incompatible with collegiality. One is reminded of
the ease with which many men can move from tense and adversarial
business negotiations to tee times without difficulty.
People who are severely outnumbered by others in their environ-
ments often experience the adverse effects of being tokens (Kanter,
1977). As numerical minorities in physical science, mathematics, com-
puter science, and engineering departments, women may experience a
heightened pressure to conform, greater exclusion from group activities
and conversations, expectations that they represent ‘‘all women,’’ and
more discrimination. Effects of tokenism are consistent with the findings
of Trower and Bleak (2004) that women reported less satisfaction with
their perceived fit in the department along with perceiving more pres-
sure than their male colleagues to conform to colleagues in the depart-
ment with respect to personal behavior, dress, and political views.
In the natural sciences and engineering, where women faculty are the
exception, the women’s experience that they don’t belong is reinforced
at every turn (American Association of University Professors [AAUP],
2000). The concomitant disappointments, along with disruptions and
conflicts, reduce job satisfaction (Reybold, 2005), and this association is
strongest among those who are motivated primarily by passion and the
ideals of science. The consequences of being ‘‘the only’’ extend beyond
personal discomfort to actual interference with recognized productivity.
Isolated women often lack the interpersonal contacts, which are sources
of information, mentors, and role models for learning policies, getting
resources and social support, learning of research opportunities, or
receiving the feedback necessary to be successful (Smith, 2005).
The forms of exclusion potentially most harmful for women and mi-
nority faculty are those that interfere with their acquiring the ‘‘tacit
knowledge’’ of success patterns. Women faculty who are not part of
the after-hours drinking group, basketball pick-up game, or faculty
club buffet line may miss learning about how to get what they deserve.
In a context with ambiguous, unarticulated, and shifting standards,
knowing the differences between ‘‘soft’’ and ‘‘hard’’ money, what jour-
nals are ‘‘A list’’ versus ‘‘B list,’’ between power and authority in a
hierarchy, and who the real decision maker is with respect to lab space
(some examples from Rankin, Nielsen, & Stanley, 2007) can make
or break the pre-tenure years. Although there are surely many

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12 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

contributing factors, even at an elite institution such as MIT women


scientists were found to have received less salary, space, awards,
resources, and response to outside offers, despite professional accom-
plishments equal to those of their male colleagues (Committee on
Women Faculty, 1999).
Among the strategies that have been suggested to combat isolation,
exclusion, and their effects, two are especially promising. The first is to
deliberately employ and co-locate multiple women in a department or
research group through cluster or cohort hiring. There is strong evi-
dence that as the proportion of women begins to be more equitable
with men within the organizational unit, in-group/out-group distinc-
tions break down, and the climate, collaboration, and ways of working
become more satisfying and encouraging to women, as well as enhance
their productivity. The other strategy is facilitating new bonds and
communication between women and other individuals and groups that
would not otherwise connect. Enhancing these ‘‘weak links’’ as named
by Rankin and her associates (2007) can catalyze large and small insti-
tutional changes and help compensate for the exclusion and lack of
vital information that isolated women experience in their home units.
Both strategies can be undertaken if the university commitment to
improving conditions for women faculty is strong and there is a cadre
of ‘‘organizational catalysts’’ (Sturm, 2007).

BARRIERS GONE UNDERGROUND


For decades now, researchers have catalogued the characteristics of
academic and work environments for scientists and engineers that
women report as particularly repelling, discouraging, exclusionary, or
obstructionist. Some of the more egregious legal, political, and social
obstacles that excluded women from laboratories and benches have
been reduced. Equal opportunity laws, articulation of discriminatory
actions in hiring, prominent court cases, and the rise of strong advo-
cacy groups have served to lower many of the structural barriers to
women’s entry in STEM programs and positions. It is more difficult
now for search committees to invite only white males to an interview,
and quid pro quo sexual harassment generally results in punitive
actions against the aggressor. Nevertheless, despite the regulatory
improvements in the 1970s and 1980s, later studies found almost three
out of every four career women with PhDs in science or engineering
reported that they experienced discrimination (Holton & Sonnert, 1996;
Sonnert, 1995), and women, significantly more often than men, have
continued to report being discriminated against on the basis of gender
(Corley, 2005). The finding that female natural scientists report more
sexual harassment and a more negative department climate than social
scientists (Settles, Cortina, Malley, & Stewart, 2006) is partially

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Explaining Too Few Women in STEM Careers 13

expected because of differences in the proportions of women in each


but should also provide caution in generalizing across all scientific
fields.
In a study of tenure-track and tenured faculty women in the natural
sciences, engineering, and social sciences at one university, women sci-
entists who reported more sexual harassment and gender discrimina-
tion experiences also reported having less influence in their
departments and being less satisfied with their jobs (Settles et al.,
2006). In contrast, women science faculty who perceived their depart-
ments as having a positive climate (more collaboration and coopera-
tion, respect, and collegiality) reported higher levels of job satisfaction
and productivity; effective leadership by the chairperson was positively
related to felt influence (Settles et al.).
The more egregious forms of discrimination that were visible and
could be documented have now been replaced by more subtle and hid-
den forms of marginalization and discouragement of women in the sci-
ences rooted in gendered stereotypes, perceptions, and assumptions
(Rapoport, Bailyn, Fletcher, & Pruitt, 2002). The 2005 Beyond Bias and
Barriers report calls attention to the elements of the current ‘‘meri-
tocracy’’ that are particularly deleterious to women: The abilities and
commitment of all women in science and engineering are continuously
challenged, and while assertiveness and single-mindedness are valued
and celebrated, women are penalized for demonstrating them. Subtle,
unconscious, and unintentional discrimination interferes with women’s
success and promotion in science (Committee on Women Faculty,
1999).
For women faculty in STEM, the under-the-radar discrimination
manifests itself as an extreme form of the ‘‘damned if you do, doomed
if you don’t’’ double-bind for women (Catalyst, 2007). Being viewed as
having ‘‘feminine’’ traits (e.g., being gentle, warm, and helpful) can
lead to perceptions of incompetence and devaluation (Cuddy, Fiske, &
Glick, 2004); having ‘‘masculine’’ traits (e.g., being forceful and asser-
tive; having a strong personality and leadership ability) can lead to dis-
liking and sanctions, with ‘‘uppity women’’ at even higher risk for
sexual harassment (Berdahl, 2007).
The often imperceptible stereotyping that results in exclusion from
influential committees, lack of feedback or advice from colleagues, and
the necessity for self-promotion, can be the most harmful because it is
difficult to document and challenge. Virginia Valian (1998, 2000, 2007)
has catalogued how gender schema are enacted, including identifying
men as rising stars more often than women, early grooming and advo-
cacy for the careers of men, and assigning more weight to the accom-
plishments and productions of men. She also describes how male
decision makers make selections according to similarity to self. A large
body of literature has documented a broad impact of this in-group

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


14 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

favoritism effect: People give their in-group members more positive


evaluations, make more positive attributions for their behavior, give
them more rewards, and find them more persuasive compared to out-
group members (Brewer & Brown, 1998). As Faye Crosby (2007) has
pointed out, ‘‘Often, those in positions of power (men) may not be as
interested in keeping women out of good jobs as they are in bringing
other men into their in-group. Discrimination in favor of men has the
same effect as discrimination against women’’ (p. 50).
It is important to note that benevolent stereotyping (where, for
example, colleagues or a department chair assumes that a mother does
not want to attend conferences) interferes with women’s career
advancement as well. Similarly, professional neglect is not benign—the
‘‘null environment’’ (Betz, 1989; Freeman, 1979), which neither encour-
ages nor discourages women, contributes to their sense of invisibility
and not mattering. As Nancy Betz (1989) has argued, a null educational
environment ‘‘is inherently discriminatory against women because
external societal environments are different for men and women with
respect to the amount of encouragement they receive for nontraditional
career aspirations and achievements’’ (p. 136).
The complex relationship between gender stereotyping and produc-
tivity is illustrated in a series of studies by Vescio and her colleagues
(Vescio, Gervais, Snyder, & Hoover, 2005) that found powerful men who
stereotype women in a weakness-focused manner (i.e., women are illogi-
cal and weak) in a male-dominated domain give fewer valued resources
and more praise to subordinate women. That is, women mentored by
men holding stronger gender stereotypes were likely to receive more
verbal praise, but fewer professional resources and opportunities, than
their male peers. Their findings revealed how the same event may lead
to different responses on the part of women and men. When given deval-
ued positions by a supervisor, both men and women felt angry, but this
anger predicted better performance among men and lower performance
among women. Thus, the argument ‘‘there’s no discrimination—he’s
equally mean to everyone’’ rests on an inadequate analysis of the gen-
dered effects of negative feedback (Steinberg, True, & Russo, in press).
Perceptions of exclusion are strongly linked with lower job satisfac-
tion and well-being for women and minorities (Barak & Levin, 2002).
The effects may be cumulative; that is, early discouragement among
junior women faculty who experience social isolation and embedded
hints that they do not belong may set the stage for subsequent disillu-
sionment and intentions to leave (Boice, 1993; Xie & Shauman, 2003).
At MIT, it was tenured women in the sciences who were more likely to
feel marginalized and excluded from significant roles. Perceptions of
marginalization increased as women progressed through their careers
at MIT, and this pattern repeated itself in successive generations of
women faculty (Committee on Women Faculty, 1999).

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Explaining Too Few Women in STEM Careers 15

A tendency not to perceive gender injustice in society as personally


relevant contributes to the slow pace of change toward gender equality
in the workplace. The ‘‘denial of personal disadvantage’’ (Crosby,
Pufall, Snyder, O’Connell, & Whalen, 1989) refers to the failure to rec-
ognize that we as individuals face the same employment disadvantages
as women in general. Crosby and her colleagues (1989) summarize
emotional and cognitive mechanisms that help account for the denial
of women’s disadvantage on the part of both women and men, includ-
ing self-protective cognitions. Because people have difficulty in perceiv-
ing discrimination when data are presented on a case-by-case basis, it
is important to identify with an oppressed group for discrimination to
be perceived. Crosby and colleagues (1989) underscore that all people,
whether gender-biased or not, have difficulty in perceiving gender bias
in individual cases and that for both men and women information is
needed in aggregate form before discriminatory patterns can be
revealed. They conclude that the need for social reform should not be
measured by how concerned people are with their personal situation—
people do not have a well-developed sense of their personal disadvant-
age. Their advice: ‘‘Do not trust your own impressions any more than
you trust the impressions of the women in your organization. Women
may be motivated to deny their own disadvantage; but nobody . . .
should trust conclusions based on unaggregated figures. Only by bringing
all the data together can one see patterns’’ (p. 97). The subtlety of these
patterns, the confidential personnel practices of universities, and the diffu-
sion of authority and oversight increase the likelihood that they will
neither be detected as gendered nor targeted for action.
Even when women and their employers recognize that they may be
disadvantaged in some way, it is altogether too easy to ascribe the dif-
ferences to special circumstances rather than to discrimination (Crosby,
1984). The experience of being ‘‘the only’’ in an environment, such as
being the only woman and the only Latina in a department, makes it
all the more difficult to name the etiologies of some difficulties. The
accumulation of slight disadvantages and micro-aggressions (Bernstein
& Russo, 2007; National Academies, 2006; Sonnert & Holton, 1995; Val-
ian, 1998) for an individual woman, especially in environments with
masculine norms and where women are outnumbered by men, erodes
women’s career satisfaction and impedes their productivity and
advancement.
Psychologists are tracing the intrapersonal mechanisms by which
subtle sexism and unconscious bias interfere with productivity. The
seminal research on stereotype threat by Claude Steele and colleagues
(Steele, 1997; Steele & Aronson, 1995; Steele, Spencer, & Aronson, 2002)
has led to recognition that situational cues (such as a colleague’s por-
traying a task as a measure of ability rather than skills that can be
learned or referring to gender) can trigger women’s concerns about

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


16 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

being judged via gender stereotypes; these worries in turn can nega-
tively affect their performance in math and science and lower self-
confidence (Johns, Schmader, & Martens, 2005).
Recent research on identity threat (Murphy, Steele, & Gross, 2007)
suggests that one response of women and minorities to situational cues
that trigger discomfort (e.g., a woman being outnumbered by men in a
group) is allocation of more attention toward those cues. This redirec-
tion of attention and focus away from the tasks at hand may lead to a
diminution of performance. In a study (Salvatore & Shelton, 2007) of
responses by Black volunteers to subtle racism (unfair but ambiguous
hiring decisions; e.g., candidate with superior resume rejected without
reason) versus overt racism (reason for hiring decision is that the can-
didate belonged to too many minority organizations), Black partici-
pants performed more poorly on a cognitive task under the ambiguous
condition when compared with the overt condition. The authors specu-
late that Black participants were applying their cognitive resources to
diagnose the vague unfairness and that this cognitive burden interfered
with a competing task. They reason that it is the constant and subtle
micro-aggressions that actually interfere most with the cognitive proc-
essing necessary for optimum task performance, rather than the overt
acts of discrimination that are more easily recognized and cognitively
processed.
Discouragement and discrimination, whether acute or accumulated,
are particularly damaging for women who feel they have no good
alternatives to withdrawing or leaving the institution altogether. The
case of the women scientists at MIT is notable for the risk they took
and exemplary in illustrating the power of mounting a group effort:
Driven all their professional lives to achieve at the highest possible
level, to many it seemed they were putting a lifetime of hard work and
good behavior at risk. They feared being seen as radical troublemakers,
as complainers. But the feeling of an injustice, the anger that accumu-
lates from this recognition, and the strong desire to change things for
themselves and for future generations of women propelled them for-
ward (Committee on Faculty Women, 1999, p. 7).

WOMEN . . . AND MEN . . . WANT MORE


There is growing evidence that the majority of both men and women
in the new and emerging generations of professionals seek more bal-
anced lives, place heavier emphasis than ever before on their personal
lives outside of work and careers, and wish to apply their talents and
abilities through multiple roles (Barnett & Hyde, 2001; Gilbert, 2002).
In a study of career changers among ‘‘30-something’’ young adults
(Wise & Millward, 2005), both men and women, with or without chil-
dren, valued employment that allowed time for personal lives. With

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Explaining Too Few Women in STEM Careers 17

regard to the academic setting, a recent survey of 7,000 early career fac-
ulty were found to report even more dissatisfaction than the previous
year’s cohort with the imbalance between their professional and per-
sonal time; women continued to express significantly more dissatisfac-
tion than men with respect to work/life balance and institutional
support for having and raising children (COACHE, 2007). In a study of
over 1,500 women in the chemical industry (Fassinger & Giordan,
2007), 63% reported balancing work and family responsibilities among
the top two work-related stressors.
Hewlitt and Luce describes a rise in the phenomenon of ‘‘extreme
working’’ (2006), where excessively demanding careers exact a high toll
from their members. In a series of studies by the Center for Work-Life
Policy (Hewlitt & Luce, 2006), most women were found to decide
against ‘‘extreme’’ jobs, and among the 20% of extreme job holders
who are women, 80% of them do not want to work with the pressure
or long hours more than a year, compared with 58% of the men.
Research-intensive universities—particularly in the sciences and en-
gineering as described by Hermanowicz (1998, 2003, 2007)—represent
the epitome of extreme working organizations and what Coser and
Coser (1974) termed ‘‘greedy institutions.’’ In contrast to the increased
desire for more balance in work and other life roles on the part of new
and aspiring faculty members, the expectations of faculty in research
universities are increasing. Research universities, in a perpetual cycle
of efforts to strengthen rankings and external support, set ever higher
standards for judging the faculty for excellence in multiple academic
roles. While perhaps effective in boosting effort in the short run, over
time stressed and exhausted individuals experience diminished creativ-
ity and become at high risk for burning out. Cathy Trower (2007) of
COACHE concludes from hundreds of interviews with talented junior
faculty that the anxiety of junior faculty goes way beyond the usual
worry about establishing their research programs; rather, the stress
derives more from ‘‘the lack of resources, time, and support to be an
excellent scholar and an outstanding teacher and a stellar colleague and
campus citizen, all at once’’ (COACHE, 2007).
But the expectation for faculty to excel at multiple roles within the
academy is only a part of the picture. There is a strong albeit some-
times implicit expectation that faculty give their work roles their high-
est priority. There is little tolerance for decrements in research
productivity or performance that result from the responsibilities that
stem from competing professional or personal roles. Bailyn (2006) notes
that the lack of clear boundaries between work and family in academic
lives adds to the ease with which work crowds out family:

The academic career . . . is paradoxical. Despite its advantages of inde-


pendence and flexibility, it is psychologically difficult. The lack of ability

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


18 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

to limit work, the tendency to compare oneself primarily to the excep-


tional giants in one’s field, and the high incidence of overload make it
particularly difficult for academics to find a satisfactory integration of
work with private life. . . . It is the unbounded nature of the academic ca-
reer that is the heart of the problem. (p. 61)

Commitments to work and family are viewed as essential for


healthy adult development (Erikson, 1968; Levinson, 1978; Vaillant,
1977). However, it is still more acceptable for men to assert these com-
mitments without assuming their concomitant responsibilities, such as
routine tasks of domestic work, chauffeuring children to after-school
programs, and making medical visits (Perna, 2005).
Faculty men are more likely than faculty women to have spouses
who pick up the responsibilities for house, home, and family. The find-
ing that two of every three University of California faculty mothers
compared with half of University of California faculty fathers reported
slowing down their careers for parenting (Mason et al., 2005), likely
reflects this imbalance of responsibilities. The differential in the pace of
career progression may reflect the fact that women scientists may be
more likely than men scientists to have a spouse with a demanding ca-
reer that leaves little time for sharing domestic responsibilities. For
example, one study found that in physics, more than two-thirds of
women physicists had spouses who were scientists compared to 17%
of men physicists (MacNeil & Sher, 1999). As Hewlitt stated poignantly
(2007), ‘‘Only cosseted white males—many of whom have at-home
wives and come from upper middle class backgrounds—can easily
conjure up the 65-hour work-weeks that are increasingly needed for
advancement in today’s competitive professional environments.’’
Gendered stereotypes related to motherhood magnify the detrimen-
tal effects of allocating time to family responsibilities for women. As
one blogger put it, ‘‘The brilliant young mother appears stressed out
and underproductive. The brilliant young father, no longer the obnox-
ious young nerd he might have seemed when he was hired, now
seems all the more human and charming for his (discrete) family
responsibilities’’ (Stansell, 2007). When working women become moth-
ers, they become perceived as more warm but less competent (a trade-
off not experienced by men), which puts them at a disadvantage in
fields where competence is highly valued (Cuddy et al., 2004). Indeed,
discrimination against working mothers, characterized as the ‘‘maternal
wall,’’ has emerged as the new frontier in the struggle for women’s
equality in employment (Biernat, Crosby, & Williams, 2004; Steinberg
et al., in press).
For some women scientists, the answer is to avoid having children.
Two out of three faculty women in research extensive universities do
not become mothers (Mason & Goulden, 2004). Sonnert and Holton

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Explaining Too Few Women in STEM Careers 19

(1995) found that among married women scientists who decided


against having children, three out of four reported career considera-
tions compared with fewer than half of the men.
Academic careers in science and engineering require more time
devoted to work than positions in industry and government (Hoffer &
Grigorian, 2005). Women in academic careers, particularly those with
children at home, are the most busy, spending more than 100 hours
per week in professional, caregiving, and household responsibilities,
while faculty without children at home report spending 85 hours a
week on these responsibilities (Mason et al., 2005). As Bernstein and
Russo (2007) calculated it, ‘‘If Mason’s faculty women sleep eight hours
per night, they are left with an average of one hour and forty minutes
per day to choose among exercise, spending time with partners or
friends, leisure reading, or other worthy pursuits’’ (p. 106).
Too many conflicting demands on one’s time raises stress levels and
can undermine health and productivity. Time restrictions are stressful,
but the psychological impact of multiple role demands can be more
fully understood by considering the centrality of the respective roles
that are presenting conflicts of commitment for the individual. One
woman, quoted by Handelsman, Cantor, Carnes, Denton, Fine, Grosz,
Hinshaw, Marrett, Rosser, Shalala, and Sheridan (2005), described the
conflict well:

I feel like my career is a constant gamble to strike the right balance


between three things: (i) how much I must commit myself to my career
in order to get tenured/remain a competitive scientist/earn enough clini-
cal revenue; (ii) how much time and effort I give to my husband/house-
hold to stay married; and (iii) how much time and effort I give to my
children to guide their growth and development.

There is considerable evidence that married women’s participation


rates in science and engineering are becoming increasingly similar to
men’s (Goldin, 2004). However, the evidence is also compelling that
having children, particularly within 5 years after the award of a doctor-
ate, hampers professional advancement for women faculty (Mason &
Goulden, 2004). Faculty who are mothers and assume child-care
responsibilities reduce their involvement with some productivity-
related activities such as having lunch with colleagues, putting in extra
hours, and going to conferences (Preston, 2004). In one study, tenure-
track faculty men with children at home reported spending 41% more
time on research than did the tenure-track faculty women with chil-
dren in the home. The importance of time management is highlighted
in interviews with scientists who are also mothers (Cole & Zuckerman,
1987): These women make especially ‘‘disciplined allocations’’ of time
and attention to work and children, but little else.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


20 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

Interventions that have been found to be effective in reducing the


conflicts between work and family responsibilities in other employment
sectors, such as introducing shorter work schedules (Anttila, Natti, &
Vaisanen, 2005), are incompatible with the norms of science and
research universities. Although COACHE surveys indicate that women
and men view institutional policies and practices to support research
and career success as important, opinions on policy effectiveness vary.
Among women and men who viewed policies as ‘‘fairly important,’’
those related to assistance in obtaining grants and child care were rated
as least effective (COACHE, 2007).
Largely through the efforts of teams working with the support of
the NSF ADVANCE program, significant progress has been made in
crafting an array of benefits that constitute ‘‘family-friendly policies’’ at
universities. These benefits have included automatic tenure-clock exten-
sions for new parents, part-time and modified duties options for pre-
tenure faculty with special family or personal health circumstances,
dual career hiring assistance, and paid leaves for graduate students for
pregnancy and childbirth.

PROMISING PATHWAYS
Recent developments to improve the representation of women in the
sciences and engineering have focused largely on flexible work sched-
ules, improved mentoring, and management training to address bias
and equity in hiring and evaluation. There is much to be learned about
other best practices from the strategic initiatives launched at the 28
institutions that have received major NSF ADVANCE grants for Insti-
tutional Transformation projects in these areas.
A significant shift is occurring in science away from the celebration
of the individual genius; teamwork now characterizes much of science
(Wuchty, Jones, & Uzzi, 2007). Research collaborations among scientists
around a theme of interest, as opposed to the more traditional group-
ing by narrow topic, discipline, or methodology, are characteristic of
the large interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research ventures now
being supported by federal sponsors. These projects operate through
research centers, training programs like IGERTs (NSF grants for Inte-
grative Graduate Education and Research Traineeships), and the multi-
institutional projects geared toward ‘‘big science’’ questions. In many
science and engineering fields, about 4 in 10 faculty members are affili-
ated with research centers in universities (Corley & Gaughan, 2005).
Some scholars have suggested that these types of research groups
are more likely to attract and favor women, but there has been little
empirical attention directed at verifying or refuting this supposition
(Rhoten & Pfirman, 2007). Following the psychosocial model proposed
here that a person’s perception of fit between one’s own preferences

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Explaining Too Few Women in STEM Careers 21

and commitments with the environment is related to satisfaction, the


critical difference for women might be in the configuration, member-
ship, and organization of the research group rather than by the
research content. For example, research groups, whether in centers or
in departments, that are characterized by more collaborative, collegial,
and less individualistically competitive interactions may be more suc-
cessful in attracting and retaining women.
Some evidence is available that this may be the case. For example,
Etzkowitz and colleagues identified ‘‘relational departments’’ as those
with collegial and cooperative atmospheres that facilitate innovation,
networking, and safety for taking risks (Etzkowitz, Kemelgor, & Uzzi,
2000). Their interviews with scientists identified several tenured
women faculty who left prestigious, competitive, and hierarchical
departments where they struggled for recognition and status to more
relational departments to heal the isolation and anxiety they experi-
enced.
There is evidence as well that the presence of and ready access to
other women are beneficial. Hiring a critical mass of women from the
start helps to inhibit patterns of gender segregation (Smith-Doerr,
2004), especially when the women have similar interests and frequent
contact (Etzkowitz, Kemelgor, & Uzzi, 2000). The success of several ini-
tiatives that have purposefully recruited clusters of faculty women and
students (e.g., at Carleton College in the sciences, Wilson, 2006; and
Tufts University in engineering, Abriola & Davies, 2006) point to the
power of focused strategies to build a critical mass of women role
models, mentors, and colleagues. In our judgment, a valid test of
whether women are more attracted to, satisfied with, or benefit from
participation in collaborative efforts cannot occur until women have
comparable exposure and access to these new forms of working and
until the mechanisms of collaborative efforts are better understood.
Researchers have focused recently on describing the conditions that
appear to enhance research productivity among women. The potential
for women’s greater satisfaction with their careers in collaborative envi-
ronments notwithstanding, the increasing evidence that collaborations,
team science, and networked organizations enhance research produc-
tivity and advancement for participants suggests that these settings for
faculty work might be particularly advantageous for women. Two vari-
ables associated with collaborations are viewed as critical for research
productivity: access to information and resources, and time for
research. The finding that women with young children and women
who do not engage in research collaborations with other scientists are
less research productive than both men and women who do collaborate
(e.g., Kyvik & Teigen, 1996) supports this view. Similarly, the majority
of married women in science are married to other scientists; the addi-
tional access to mainstream networks of information, funding, and

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


22 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

resources for research may contribute to the higher productivity of


married scientists over single ones (Astin & Milem, 1997; Creamer,
1999).
Citation frequency, often used as a proxy for research quality and as
an indicator of impact of the researcher on a field, is an important ele-
ment in the gatekeepers’ evaluations of a scholar’s research productiv-
ity. There is evidence that in addition to patents obtained, research that
is cited frequently is more likely to have been produced by teams than
individual researchers (Wuchty, Jones, & Uzzi, 2007). It is important to
note that the statistical association can be explained partially by the
phenomenon that more members of a team can disseminate findings
more widely and cite a particular publication more often than can a
sole author. Similarly, co-authoring a publication with one or more
highly regarded or highly cited scholars is likely to result in higher
citation rates. Further, as Wuchty and colleagues (2007) have pointed
out, it is possible that papers with multiple authors require less time
by each contributor than does a solo publication, hence participating in
team research allows more articles to be produced with higher citation
counts for the body of work.
The persistent differences in research productivity between men and
women faculty (Cole & Zuckerman, 1984) continue to reflect the accu-
mulated disadvantages (Cole & Singer, 1991) associated with less inte-
gration into professional networks, less access to research assistants,
collaborators, professional contacts, and other resources, as well as less
time available for research because of caretaking responsibilities that
many women experience. It may be that participating in collaborative
research teams with prominent scholars is a good strategy to maximize
the number of well-placed publications and corresponding citation
rates, key indicators for definitions of productivity for tenure and pro-
motion. Viewed in this way, women’s access to and inclusion in
research groups and the extent to which women are mentored and
their contributions are valued will influence their actual productivity
and their satisfaction.
The possibility of bias in attribution for credit given the context of
gender stereotypes of women as dependent and more suited for
‘‘helping’’ roles must also be considered. Just joining a team is insuffi-
cient and may even impede a woman’s advancement if patterns of
exclusion, marginalization, isolation, and subtle sexism continue una-
bated, attribution for collaborative efforts are denigrated, and collabo-
ration is viewed as evidence for an inability to develop as an
independent researcher.
An alternative way to understand the conditions under which
women are productive, recognized, and content with their work lives
is to compare organizational environments that are hierarchical with
those that are flatter and have more permeable boundaries. Smith-

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Explaining Too Few Women in STEM Careers 23

Doerr’s (2004) important work traced the experiences and pathways of


women with PhDs in the life sciences who entered academia or bio-
tech companies from 1992 to 1996. In Smith-Doerr’s analysis, the
biotech companies are prototypical examples of ‘‘networked organiza-
tions,’’ where collaboration, cooperation, teamwork, role flexibility,
and open communication are essential to proposing, developing, and
delivering the products of the network, not of a single investigator
or research lab. In contrast, the levels of hierarchy and bureaucratic
rules common in male-dominated organizations increase ‘‘the power
and salience of informal hidden modes of operation’’ (Smith-Doerr)
that characterize subtle sexism. In a dramatic illustration of the tan-
gible benefits to women of more fundible work settings, Smith-Doerr
found that female scientists were eight times more likely to be
supervisors in networked biotech firms than in hierarchical biotech
organizations.
The unit of analysis for performance evaluation remains one of the
unchallenged sources of implicit sexism. The salience of individualistic
forms of achievement and competition for status in universities is
embodied in hiring the one ‘‘best’’ candidate, appointing one ‘‘x’’ and
one ‘‘y’’ to a key committee, and comparing faculty by decimal points
on teaching evaluations, numbers of publications in the ‘‘right’’ jour-
nals, and order of authorship. In a tantalizing suggestion about tenure,
for example, Smith-Doerr (2004) asks her reader to ‘‘imagine if team
tenure were an option, in which three or four academics would be
evaluated on their collective productivity’’ (p. 151). We would invoke a
similar challenge in asking, ‘‘What if administrators were evaluated
not on how many women they hired but rather on the basis of their
success in coaching women and minority faculty to tenure and full pro-
motion?’’ In some academic settings, departments may recognize that
the research productivity of their research-focused faculty is only possi-
ble because of the productive contributions of other faculty that take
up the slack in meeting the teaching, mentoring, and service needs of
the unit, and wish to recognize and reward all members of the ‘‘team.’’
Ironically, upper administration’s focus on the individual may lead to
overturning recommendations for promotion and tenure based on fail-
ure to recognize the full range of productivity of the faculty member—
and ultimately undermine the overall productivity of the unit.
Evidence for the advantages that networked organizations in indus-
try provide women suggests that new organizational forms may hold
significant potential for enhancing the satisfaction and productivity of
women faculty. Networks broaden the number of people for interaction
and enhance the collaborative connections among them. The elabora-
tion of professional networks is a central component of success that
NSF ADVANCE institutions name (Stewart, Malley, & LaVaque-Manty,
2007), and one that internal groups and organizations, like a faculty

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


24 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

women’s association, a local AWIS chapter (Association for Women in


Science), or the women faculty in several departments can develop.

CONCLUSIONS
We have argued that the persistently low numbers of women in
many science and engineering positions, particularly on the faculty of
research universities, can be attributed largely to the clash between
what STEM departments and universities offer and demand and what
talented women (and more and more junior faculty men) want and
deserve. University administrators as well as faculties have been slow
to recognize and respond to what even some industry sectors have
made central to their planning. Building an organizational culture that
promotes and honors both the career satisfaction and personal goals of
the individual along with the needs of the institution is becoming a
necessary condition for attracting and retaining the most talented
workforce. Bailyn (2006) noted that these matters pertain to all profes-
sionals now, not just to women:

The assumption that work roles can engage the exclusive commitment of
those who occupy them is no longer tenable. Nor can the difficulties of
pursuing complex careers any longer be seen as individual dilemmas, to
be solved in isolation. The issues transcend individual boundaries. They
involve the very core of organizational processes and demand dramatic
revision in a number of key underlying assumptions of organizational
life. (pp. xvi–xvii)

We have gone beyond the time when gender stereotyping and dis-
crimination were merely lamentable. We have a body of law that
makes overt discrimination, sexual harassment, and hostile working
environments illegal. However, overt discrimination, documentable in
courts of law, has mutated into more subtle forms of discrimination—
with their damage just as potent. The hierarchical structures of decision
making, the purveyors of departmental rankings, the striving for inclu-
sion in the disciplinary elite, the ambiguous and shifting standards of
evaluation, and the adherence to an individualistic, linear, reductionist,
and limited definition of productivity contribute to the circumplex that
characterizes today’s research universities and that makes them such
inhospitable and unforgiving environments in which to work.
Research universities continue to be slow to consider the very real
transformation that is occurring in the American psyche, and therefore
among students and aspiring and current faculty. Talented people,
whether women or men, scientists or artists, students or professionals,
have choices about how to construct or re-construct their lives.
Scientists and engineers, already elite by virtue of their educational
and professional achievements, are typically not hindered by doubts

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Explaining Too Few Women in STEM Careers 25

about what they can achieve if they set their sights in a given direction.
They have the advantage of attractive options and the luxury to base
their actions and choices more on what they want for their lives.
As professional men and women shape their lives and careers today,
they are more likely than their parents to consider careers and places
of work that provide flexibility, allow a blend of productive work with
a satisfying personal and family life, and encourage creativity, collabo-
ration, and connection. They seek environments that provide active
support for professional success, demonstrate concern for the individ-
ual, and celebrate improvisation and change. Women who are talented
and accomplished scientists and engineers make choices that help them
progress toward their desired possible selves: productive, satisfied, and
meaningfully connected to colleagues, family, and society. It is the
challenge for universities to become the environments of choice for
these women.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science
Foundation under Grant No. REC-0634519 to Bianca L. Bernstein.
Nancy Felipe Russo is a co-investigator.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations
expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessar-
ily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Chapter 2

Women as Leaders: From the Lab


to the Real World
Florence L. Denmark
Erika M. Baron
Maria D. Klara
Janet Sigal
Margaret Gibbs
Dorothy Wnuk

Barriers preventing women from becoming leaders in a wide variety of


settings have been the focus of research for a number of years. The
‘‘glass ceiling’’ concept (Morrison, White, & Van Velsor, 1987) illustrated
the idea that women could succeed in climbing the ladder to leadership
positions only so far, until they reached the invisible glass ceiling; that
is, the existence of barriers, both direct and subtle, have prevented
women from achieving top leadership positions in professions as diverse
as academia, the military, and the corporate world. Eagly and Carli
(2007) argued that the appropriate metaphor is a labyrinth, not a glass
ceiling; rather than a single barrier, women in their attempt to become
leaders encounter a series of dead ends, detours, and unusual paths.
Leadership studies in the laboratory examined a variety of theories
explaining who becomes a leader, including the ‘‘trait approach,’’
which suggested that leaders are born, not made, and have tremendous
influence based on their personality characteristics, and charisma (Zac-
caro, 2007); the ‘‘situational approach,’’ which at first claimed that sit-
uational factors outweighed the importance of the attributes of any
particular leader, but subsequently changed to the ‘‘contingency

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


36 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

approach,’’ which focused on the types of leaders who are most effec-
tive in specific types of situations (Vroom & Jago, 2007); and ‘‘inte-
grative theories’’ of leadership, which not only examined the
contribution of specific characteristics of leaders and the impact of the
situation, but expanded the analysis to include factors such as relation-
ships with followers, and the role of the context and culture in deter-
mining effectiveness of leaders (Avolio, 2007).
Many of these past and current theories appear to be more explana-
tory of how men achieve high positions rather than women. For years
in business, academia, and the military, the majority of leaders were
male, which can account for the research emphasis on men as leaders.
More recently, however, women began to be promoted to middle-man-
agement positions in a variety of settings, including politics. Although
the situation has improved somewhat for potential women leaders, it
still appears that the glass ceiling exists with respect to the highest
positions; for example, women are underrepresented as chief executive
officers (CEOs), on corporate boards, as presidents of universities, as
generals and admirals in the Armed Forces, and as president and vice
president in the United States. In the past 2 years, the gender imbal-
ance in U.S. politics seems to be changing to some degree. Nancy
Pelosi is the first woman Speaker of the House, an extremely powerful
political position; there are female senators; and Hillary Rodham Clin-
ton is running for president of the United States.
In this chapter, first we will describe a model or approach to leader-
ship that has considerable applicability to women in various fields. In
subsequent sections, we will examine barriers preventing women from
achieving leadership positions as well as the conditions that favor
women leaders. Brief discussions of conditions in the corporate world,
academia, the health professions, and blue-collar occupations, with
accompanying barriers and recommendations to eliminate these bar-
riers, will be presented.

LEADERSHIP STYLES
As described by Eagly (2007), Burns (1978) distinguished among
three types of leadership styles:

1. Transformational style: Leaders adopting this approach are role models,


are sensitive to followers’ needs, ‘‘mentor and empower their subordi-
nates,’’ ‘‘creatively innovate,’’ and help organizations achieve their goals.
Eagly stated that these leaders have been termed ‘‘charismatic leaders.’’
2. Transactional style: Leaders reward subordinates for constructive behavior
and criticize them for falling short of organizational goals.
3. Laissez-faire style: Leaders adopt a hands-off approach to leading, which
generally is ineffective.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Women as Leaders 37

Eagly described several studies that indicated that the transforma-


tional leadership style was most effective, although the rewarding as-
pect of the transactional style also was a positive factor. What is
particularly pertinent for this chapter is that leadership styles seem to
be intertwined with gender role characteristics. Women, on the one
hand, in terms of sex-role stereotypes are considered to be ‘‘commu-
nal,’’ warm, sensitive to other people’s feelings and needs, inclusive,
and rewarding. These characteristics, according to Eagly, seem to
embody the qualities of transformational leadership styles, plus the
positive rewarding aspect of transactional styles. Men, on the other
hand, are considered to be ‘‘agentic,’’ which implies traits of confi-
dence, assertiveness, and toughness, qualities more associated with
transactional than transformational styles. Therefore, according to
Eagly, women should be more effective leaders than men because
women embody the style that has been shown to be effective.

BARRIERS TO LEADERSHIP FOR WOMEN


If the Eagly model, which asserts that transformational leadership
is in fact more effective and that women are more likely to adopt this
style, is accurate, women should have an easy road to leadership.
However, there are a number of factors that prevent women from
achieving high positions. One explanation advanced by Eagly and
Karau (2002) is that the perceived incongruity between agentic leader-
ship and female gender roles means that women are perceived as
ineffective leaders regardless of their actual leadership performance.
The authors also argued that even if women are agentic, their behav-
ior is misperceived, and if they are identified accurately as agentic,
they will be perceived negatively because their behavior is unfemi-
nine. This paradox is referred to later as the ‘‘double bind’’ (Oakley,
2000, p. 323).
Another viewpoint suggests that stereotyped associations may medi-
ate between actual performance and evaluation of women leaders. Fer-
nandes and Cabral-Cardoso (2003) provided empirical support for this
explanation when they found that ‘‘man manager’’ and ‘‘manager’’
constructs are perceived as closer than ‘‘female managers’’ and ‘‘man-
ager’’ in a Portuguese sample. In terms of power, Ridgeway (2001) sug-
gested that one of the major components of gender stereotypes is
status. Men are automatically accorded higher status, and when
women are placed in high-status positions, there is a perceived incon-
gruity. In fact, women also may feel uncomfortable at higher-status
positions because of conflict with traditional gender norms.
In an attempt to further resolve inconsistent findings on women and
leadership, Yoder (2001) adopted an integrative approach. She stated

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


38 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

that the transformational approach to leadership, which is more con-


sistent with traditional gender stereotypes associated with women than
with men, should be effective in what Yoder called ‘‘a congenial set-
ting.’’ In this type of situation, empowering subordinates is valued and
the product or achieving the goal is not the sole or determining crite-
rion defining effective leadership.
Yoder (2001) also asserted that the issue of women as leaders is
inevitably associated with gender and gender stereotypes. She sug-
gested that women can become more effective leaders (and overcome
barriers caused by rigid or traditional sex-role stereotyping) through
their individual efforts, such as being extremely competent, valuing
group as opposed to individual rewards, or adopting some characteris-
tics associated with male leaders (e.g., assertive speech patterns). How-
ever, Yoder argued that it is important not to place the burden of
becoming an effective leader upon the woman. The organization
should play a supportive role by legitimizing and encouraging women
leaders and by ensuring that the male/female ratio of employees is not
skewed in favor of male employees. Yoder thought that transforma-
tional leadership also may be more effective at certain times in the de-
velopment of companies than at other times.
It is apparent that barriers exist at several different levels. Women
internalize cultural and institutional values, and often must fight
against feelings of lack of self-worth (Eagly & Carli, 2007). These self-
perceptions may prevent women from seeking leadership positions. In
addition, current practices may tend to favor agentic leadership, which
is a less comfortable style for women to adopt than the transforma-
tional style. Most institutions also do not make it easy for women to
devote time to their families, while at the same time condemning them
if they do not have families.
Some of the barriers to female leadership discussed in this section
will become clearer in sections describing leadership within particular
fields. Specifically, female leadership in the corporate world, in aca-
demia, in the helping professions, and in the blue-collar workforce will
be discussed and case vignettes will be provided. This analysis, and
further suggestions to be presented subsequently, may be conducive to
developing strategies to enhance women’s abilities to achieve upper
management and administrative positions. Lastly, future recommenda-
tions that are pertinent to all women leaders will be discussed, regard-
less of the specific field of expertise.

FEMALE LEADERSHIP IN THE CORPORATE WORLD


Both Oakley (2000) and Kottke and Agars (2005) report that
although women have achieved a significant proportion of middle
management positions in business (possible estimates are around 40%),

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Women as Leaders 39

there is a much smaller percentage of women in top CEO management


positions, particularly in large and prestigious companies such as the
Fortune 500.
Oakley (2000) analyzed some organizational processes and policies
that may act as barriers or glass ceilings preventing women from
achieving high leadership positions. One important factor preventing
women from moving up the corporate ladder is what Oakley termed
‘‘lack of line experience’’ (p. 323). Because many women middle man-
agers are in areas such as human relations, they have not had essential
experiences in line jobs (e.g., production, sales, marketing). This lack of
line experience often is used as a reason to prevent women from being
promoted to higher administration positions in corporations.
Another crucial factor in terms of guiding women’s work perform-
ance to achieve success and visibility is the lack of constructive per-
formance-related feedback from their supervisors. This feedback is
crucial in assisting women to alter their behavior appropriately, accord-
ing to Oakley. Women also receive lower salaries and benefits than
men, and lack organizational support in many cases, which impedes
their progress to the top of the management chain.
Kottke and Agars (2005) suggest that another factor, ‘‘threat rigid-
ity’’ (p. 194), represents a strong barrier for women in the corporate
world. Men who have been favored in the past feel threatened by the
idea that competent women will be competing for scarce jobs as they
ascend the corporate ladder. These men have a vested interest in main-
taining the status quo, which always has benefited men in these organ-
izations. The authors also state that research has not been performed to
illustrate concretely and adequately that hiring and promoting women
to top corporate positions will have a positive impact on a company’s
financial future. Although these studies are difficult to conduct, if
advocates simply pressure companies to develop more woman-friendly
(or at least gender-neutral) policies and practices because of past dis-
crimination against women, prejudice and bias against women will
continue to exist. In fact, as the authors indicated, male employees will
see this gender affirmative action policy itself as unfair to men.
Both Oakley (2000) and Kottke and Agars (2005) emphasize the im-
portance of gender issues and sex-role stereotypes in creating addi-
tional glass ceiling barriers for women in the corporate world. If
women speak and act decisively and assertively, they may be seen as
tough enough but unfeminine. This double-bind (Oakley, p. 324) situa-
tion is evident in some attacks against Hillary Clinton and other
women politicians. Oakley also suggests that qualities seen as associ-
ated with femininity have been equated with incompetence by preju-
diced people in the past. According to the author, ‘‘old boy networks’’
represent another major barrier preventing women from being pro-
moted. These networks often operate in informal settings that are not

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


40 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

available to women, such as golf courses and squash courts. Some


companies, including a major accounting firm in New York City, are
attempting to eliminate this problem by teaching, on company time, all
new employees to learn how to play golf. One other negative factor
relates to the issue of tokenism. Being hired as a token is an isolating
experience and puts tremendous pressure on the token to outperform
her associates. In an academic situation, a Black female chair of a psy-
chology department at a southern university complained to one of the
authors (Sigal) that ‘‘everything I say or do is associated with Black
people in general’’ at her university.
Oakley claimed that it will be difficult to change the corporate cli-
mate to make it more welcoming for women. It may be necessary to
address and alter basic gender stereotypes as well as to change corpo-
rate practices before a corporation can become woman-friendly.
Kottke and Agars (2005) expanded on the above recommendation by
suggesting that, instead of making the corporate world more woman-
friendly, the business world should be made more people-friendly by
accommodating employees’ family needs (e.g., family leave policies,
telecommuting, etc.), establishing open communication, providing suc-
cessful mentoring, and empowering men and women to achieve their
highest potential at work.
In conclusion, although women have advanced to middle manage-
ment positions in various corporations, several barriers still exist and
prevent women from achieving high-level executive positions. This sit-
uation seems unlikely to change very quickly unless rigid sex-role ster-
eotypes are altered and lose their impact on individuals’ attitudes and
perceptions. Although many companies may claim that they have
developed woman-friendly practices, unless the organization is sup-
portive of women, and the practical advantage of having women in ex-
ecutive positions is demonstrated, women will continue to be
frustrated by glass ceiling barriers in the corporate world and may opt
out of fighting these barriers to go into other professional fields.

WOMEN LEADERS IN ACADEMIA


In recent years, the number of women who have obtained professio-
nal degrees and occupied positions of leadership in academia has
increased dramatically. However, individuals attempting to advance in
a world that was previously male-dominated have been confronted
with obstacles that are similar in nature and scope to those of the
female blue-collar worker. The following section explores the history of
women in academia, the barriers to leadership for women in academia,
the steps toward strengthening the role of women in academia, and
lastly, the progress that women have made thus far.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Women as Leaders 41

HISTORY OF WOMEN AND EDUCATION


Until the last half of the twentieth century, the majority of women
obtained a formal education through high school. This was a time when
women’s roles were rigidly defined, and the conventional life path
involved marrying and bearing children at a young age. Females began
to question their traditional places as the United States saw an increase
in various societal trends. These trends included expansion of public
school systems, an increased desire for female teachers, the growth of
other employment opportunities, a proliferation of literature for women,
and the development of domestic labor-saving devices that afforded
more leisure time. All of these factors served to further women’s interest
in education and promote realistic opportunities for knowledge acquisi-
tion in secondary institutions (Women’s History in America, n.d.).
The number of individuals who have enrolled in postsecondary insti-
tutions has increased dramatically over the past decades. From 1970 to
2001, women went from being the minority to the majority of the
United States’ undergraduate population, increasing their representa-
tion from 42% to 56%. Female enrollment in degree-granting institutions
is expected to rise to 57% by the year 2014. This increase in enrollment
reflects the number of older women returning to pursue an education
as well as the number of minority women attending degree-granting
institutions (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], n.d.).
Compatible with the rise in female enrollment, women have sur-
passed men in degree attainment over the past several decades.
Among freshman who were enrolled in a college or university in the
1995–1996 school year, a greater percentage of females (66%) than
males (59%) had earned a bachelor’s degree by the spring of 2001
(Freeman, 2004). In 2002 and 2003, women also earned the majority of
master’s degrees, 48% of first-professional degrees, and 47% of doctor-
ate degrees. The NCES (n.d.) projects that, between 2002 and 2014, the
number of women who earn associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s, doctor-
ate’s, and first-professional degrees will increase by 21%, 22%, 39%,
28%, and 35%, respectively.
The number of minority women who have enrolled in institutions of
higher education accounts for a significant portion of the overall
growth. The NCES tracked enrollment of persons by race/ethnicity
from October 1965 to October 1997 and found that the number of
Black, non-Hispanic women entering college had increased by approxi-
mately 5.3% and the number of Hispanic women had increased by
3.0% (NCES, 1998). Furthermore, women comprised 63% of the Afri-
can-American undergraduate population enrolled in college in the
1999–2000 school year.
Examining the undergraduate and gradate degrees awarded to mi-
nority women reveals a similar pattern. By 2001, African-American

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


42 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

women earned two-thirds of the bachelor’s and associate’s degrees


awarded to African-American students. Additionally, 60% of the
degrees awarded to Hispanic and American-Indian individuals and
57% of the degrees conferred on Asian individuals were earned by
women (Peter & Horn, n.d.). The NCES projects that the number of mi-
nority women acquiring first-professional, master’s, and doctorate
degrees will continue to increase substantially (NCES, n.d.).
The growth in the frequency of women obtaining doctorate and pro-
fessional level degrees is important in women’s attempts to gain
ground in academia. These achievements demonstrate that a growing
number of women have the educational tools necessary to hold a high-
powered position at a top-tier university. This, in addition to the
change in national climate toward supporting more gender-equitable
perceptions of women and men, has influenced the opportunities for
women in academia. However, several barriers continue to exist that
have hindered women from obtaining positions of leadership as fre-
quently as their male counterparts.

BARRIERS
Underrepresentation in Academia
Some researchers suggest that women in the professoriate are under-
represented as compared to men because of the fact that they have
only recently gained degrees. With predictions that the number of
women who obtain professional degrees will continue to increase
comes part of the solution that will likely ease the gender disparity
problem. Contrary to this is data from the NCES, which indicates that,
while the percentage of women who have obtained doctorates has
grown significantly, the percentage of women who have achieved ten-
ured status at academic institutions has remained fairly consistent since
the 1970s (Mason & Goulden, 2002).

The Glass Ceiling and/or Leaky Pipeline Theory


The glass ceiling theory emphasizes the notion that inherent pat-
terns of gender discrimination in academia inhibit women from
advancing to top positions. Data continue to show that advancement
in the realm of academia is slower for women than for men, earnings
are lower (except at entry level), there is a noticeable underrepresen-
tation of women in positions at top-tier institutions, and fewer aca-
demically based national awards and prizes are given to women
(Valian, 2005).
Despite the fact that women receive a large proportion of PhDs in a
variety of fields, the number of women in biological science, computer

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Women as Leaders 43

science, engineering, and technology fields continues to increase at a


much slower rate as compared to women whose expertise lies in social
sciences (National Science Foundation, 2000). This phenomenon,
termed the ‘‘leaky pipeline,’’ suggests that the sciences ‘‘selectively leak
women’’—a trend that is likely the result of entrenched beliefs that
women do not have the qualities and/or knowledge necessary to suc-
ceed in a male-dominated field (Valian, 2005, p. 207). Research indi-
cates that men in the sciences are more likely to be tenured than
woman, even after controls are introduced for years working since
obtaining a degree, discipline, and parental status (Long, 2001).

Work and Family Conflict


Another factor that is posited to make advancement in academia diffi-
cult for women is the ‘‘work versus family’’ conflict. This phenomenon
is thought to force women to have to make decisions that influence their
ability to progress in their careers. A woman’s choice to have children is
a factor that can often delay the desire to continue with and/or complete
undergraduate and graduate schooling, both of which are often prereq-
uisites for obtaining a position of leadership at an academic institution.
Those women who acquire professional degrees and subsequently have
children are often more likely to take time off and/or work part-time—
both of which are obstacles that men probably do not have to overcome.
If and when women make the decision to stay at home with their chil-
dren for a predetermined amount of time, this can imply that they are
more willing than men to remove themselves from such a career path at
a potentially pivotal time (Mason & Goulden, 2002).
Research conducted by Mason and Goulden (2002) examined family
formation and its effects on the career lives of both women and men in
academia from the time they received their doctorates until 20 years
later. The study found that timing of babies mattered most, differentiat-
ing between ‘‘early babies’’ (one who joins the household prior to
5 years after his or her parent completes the PhD) and ‘‘late babies’’
(one who joins the household more than 5 years after his or her parent
completes the PhD). Overall, there is a consistent and large gap in ten-
ure achievement between women and men who have early babies. In
the sciences and engineering there is a 24% gap between men’s and
women’s rates of having achieved tenure 12 to 14 years after receiving
a PhD. The same pattern exists in the fields of humanities and social
sciences where researchers found a 20% gap in tenure achievement
between men and women who have early babies. Remarkably, men
across all fields who had early babies achieve tenure at a slightly
higher rate than men and women who do not have early babies.
When comparing women with children and women without, the
study yielded an interesting finding that women who have late babies

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


44 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

and women without children demonstrated similar rates of achieving


tenure—both of which were higher than the rate of women with early
babies. Overall, women who achieve tenure across the various disci-
plines are unlikely to have children in the household. Approximately
62% of tenured women in the humanities and 50% of those in the sci-
ences do not have children in the household. Furthermore, tenured
women are twice as likely to be single as compared to tenured men
(Mason & Goulden, 2002).

Access to Resources
Lack of access to career advice, resources, mentoring, and socializa-
tion of women faculty (i.e., being taught negotiation and self-promotion
skills) is another variable purported to negatively impact the attain-
ment of leadership positions for women. One woman’s experience
working as a faculty member at a top-tier institution follows:

I feel like there’s this system that is more likely to take these men under
their wings. I’ve seen it. They take men under their wings, and they give
them the inside scoop, and they ‘‘mentor them’’—tell them what they
need to or have to do or put you on this paper, and I just don’t see that
happening with the women. (Tracy, Singer, & Singer, n.d., slide 4)
Research also shows evidence of bias in hiring and CV reviews, post-
doctoral fellowship awards, peer reviews, letters of recommendation,
salary determinants, and teaching evaluations (Tracy et al., n.d.). Fur-
thermore, marginalization is more likely to occur as women progress
into better paying and higher level positions (Glazer, 1999).

CAREER DEVELOPMENT OF WOMEN IN ACADEMIA


Research exploring the career development of women who progress to
hold positions of leadership in academia is sparse. The most notable
study conducted by the Chronicle of Higher Education (2005) reported
nearly 84% of female university presidents had doctorates (PhD, EdD,
etc.), 7.2% had obtained professional degrees (JD, MD, PsyD, etc.), and
5.2% held a variety of master’s degrees. Furthermore, the women held
positions such as provost, chief academic officer, non-academic university
vice president, and dean before beginning their presidency. In an effort
to expand upon existent research, Madsen (2007) set out to understand
the backgrounds, experiences, and perceptions of women university pres-
idents via conducting in-depth, qualitative interviews with 10 U.S.
women who served as president at various colleges and/or universities.
Results pertaining to educational history reveal that five women
received bachelor degrees in education, four in math, one in science,
and one in social science. Seven presidents pursued master’s degrees

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Women as Leaders 45

immediately after graduating from university, two started within two


to four years, and one took a longer break as a result of child-rearing
responsibilities. All presidents pursued higher education, with six
receiving their doctorate degrees in education and four in non-educational
areas. Throughout their careers, four women worked as teachers in
a K–12 setting while another four worked in a postsecondary setting.
Positions held just prior to serving as president included provost, vice
chancellor of academic affairs, president of administration and finance,
vice president of university relations, and a government agency leader-
ship position. A primary finding was the fact that these women took
nonlinear career paths and did not intentionally choose positions that
would lead to eventual presidential status. Furthermore, none of the
subjects expressed feelings of regret for taking an indirect path, citing
that the diverse jobs that they held previously allowed them to develop
the knowledge and competency imperative for success (Madsen, 2007).
Overall, the educational backgrounds and career paths of the 10
women presidents illustrate a history of drive for continuous learning
and development as well as an interest in taking on new and challeng-
ing responsibilities. Additionally, ongoing personal and professional
development was reported to be facilitated by the diverse jobs that the
women held previous to their presidency. It becomes clear that achiev-
ing a top position at an institution requires more than just mastery of
one’s subject matter. It necessitates keen self-monitoring, judicious
negotiation skills, the ability to empower oneself and those around her,
and the capacity to support and inspire others (Eagly, 2007).

DECREASING GENDER DISPARITY IN ACADEMIA


The most recent movement emphasizes the importance of maximiz-
ing gender equity in positions of leadership in academia for several
reasons. First, hiring women at a rate equal to that of men encourages
underrepresented groups and minority students to achieve higher lev-
els of education and feel confident that they have a promising future in
a variety of professional fields.
Equity in the realm of academia also ensures diversity in teaching,
scholarship, and research. The varying experiences and interests of
women and men are critical in a field where collaborative work is the
catalyst for innovation and change. Additionally, ‘‘equity creates a stron-
ger and more viable institution via a reputation for fairness. Demonstra-
tions of fairness and concern for fairness build loyalty from within,
attract interest from outside, and increase the attractiveness of the insti-
tution to underrepresented groups’’ (Valian, 2005, p. 209). Overall, gen-
der equity in initial opportunities for higher-level positions at academic
institutions, in the likelihood of promotion, in salary, and in access to
resources, is extremely important.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


46 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

Collins, Chrisler, and Quina (1998) suggest the following principles


for individuals as well as institutions that should guide efforts to
improve the status and experience of women in academia. With regard
to the individual, it is critical to have contextual knowledge of the insti-
tution; develop a master career advancement plan with objectives;
build power through making your actions visible; use mentoring to get
feedback as well as ‘‘unwritten’’ information; and be active through
networking within the academic community.
It is not just the individual who must work toward decreasing gen-
der disparity in the leadership positions at academic institutions. The
university or college itself must put significant effort into creating an
environment that welcomes and supports qualified females. Several
suggested objectives for universities include installing accountability at
all levels and across all employees, irrespective of one’s status, posi-
tion, or gender; establishing a routine in terms of hiring as well as eval-
uative practices (i.e., developing search committees that seek out
qualified women); broadening job descriptions to include nontradi-
tional and/or interdisciplinary work; organizing interviews and orien-
tations that portray the university as a welcoming and unbiased
environment; and establishing faculty development committees for pro-
motion and tenure that are comprised of both men and women.
Female university presidents are on the rise, and it is clear that an
increasing number of academic institutions are creating opportunities
for women to advance to positions of leadership. The following section
relays personal accounts of women who have ascended the ranks to
become well-known fixtures and strong leaders in the academic world.

Judith Rodin
Judith Rodin, former president of University of Pennsylvania, was
the first female president of an Ivy League university and served from
1994 to 2004. She is an alumna of the University of Pennsylvania and
received her PhD from Columbia University in 1970. While president
at Penn, the university rose from 16th place to 4th place in the U.S.
News College Ranking. Furthermore, Dr. Rodin is credited with improv-
ing the atmosphere of the areas that surround the campus. In her final
year as president of the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Rodin’s salary
was $986,915, making her the highest paid university president in the
country (Wikipedia.org, n.d.).

Ruth Simmons
Ruth Simmons is the 18th president of Brown University and the
first African-American president of an Ivy League institution. She grad-
uated from Dillard University in 1967 and received her doctorate in

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Women as Leaders 47

Romance literature from Harvard University. Prior to her period in


office at Brown, Dr. Simmons served as dean at Princeton University
from 1983 to 1990 and president of Smith College from 1995 to 2001. In
2001, she was named by Time as America’s best college president, and
in 2002 Newsweek selected her as Ms. Woman of the Year (Wikipe-
dia.org, n.d.). In the fiscal year of 2005, Dr. Simmons received $684,709
in total compensation (Kelleher, 2006).

Catharine Drew Gilpin Faust


Dr. Faust was named the first female president of Harvard Univer-
sity and began her term on July 1, 2007. She will be the fourth of the
eight Ivy League universities to name a woman as its president. She
graduated from Bryn Mawr College and obtained her PhD in American
civilization at the University of Pennsylvania in 1975. Upon graduation,
she joined the University of Pennsylvania faculty and proceeded to
teach American history there for more than two decades. Prior to
becoming president of Harvard, Dr. Faust was dean of the Radcliffe
Institute for Advanced Study, the smallest of Harvard’s schools, which
emphasizes the study of women, gender, and society (Finder & Rimer,
2007).
A recent survey conducted by the American Council on Education
revealed that the total percentage of female presidents more than
doubled from approximately 10% in 1986 to 21% in 2001. However, the
majority of those women were at 2-year institutions and liberal arts
and women’s colleges. Furthermore, the study indicated that private
and doctoral-granting institutions continue to have the smallest per-
centage of women presidents (9%) (O’Connor, 2004). Although, histori-
cally, men have dominated the leadership positions of academia, the
fact that increasingly more women have been assuming similar, high-
powered roles at top-tier institutions speaks to the radical shift that is
taking place toward gender equality. However, although improvements
have been made, there are still impediments that must be addressed in
the journey toward gender parity in academe.

HEALTH AND HELPING PROFESSIONS


One of the authors (Gibbs) remembers the first day she entered her
PhD program at Harvard in 1963. There were equal numbers of male
and female students, and the chair in addressing the students gave
himself a pat on the back for this decision, because he said that we all
know that most of the women would drop out of the field to have fam-
ilies! In 1970, women made up just 20% of the graduates from PhD
programs in psychology. In 2005, nearly 75% of the entering workforce
in doctoral-level psychology were women (Cnkar, 2007). Women have

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


48 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

come a long way within psychology, but they still have not achieved
leadership positions. Stereotypical roles operate in psychology as in
other fields, and women are less likely to have attained leadership
positions in academia or the professional association, the American
Psychological Association (APA), than men. Although these figures are
increasing, only about 25% of the full professors within U.S. graduate
institutions of psychology are female. Only 11 of APA’s past presidents
have been women, and in 2005 women held fewer than 38% of the edi-
tor and associate editor roles for APA journals (Cnkar, 2007).
A similar pattern exists in the medical field. Women made up
49% of the first-year medical class in 2005, but in U.S. medical
school faculties only one-sixth of the full professorship is female
(Association of American Medical Colleges [AAMC], 2007). This fig-
ure has increased, but not dramatically in the last few years. Yedidia
and Bickel (2001) asked clinical department chairs why there
were not more women leaders in academic medicine. The authors
received a variety of responses in their open-ended interviews with
34 chairs and two division chiefs. The responses tended to center on
the following issues:

. The constraints of traditional gender roles (e.g., women are less likely to
have the time since they have more family responsibilities; it is harder for
them to move to accept job offers; only superstar women can do it all)
. Sexism in the medical environment (e.g., sexual harassment, lack of
respect for women’s opinions, old-boy patterns of promotion)
. Lack of mentoring

Yedidia and Bickel proposed interventions ranging from strategies to


help individual female faculty find a mentor or confront bias to more
institutional change, for example extending the probationary period for
tenure or establishing mentoring networks across the university. The
authors concluded that institutional change is necessary to combat the
problem.
In 2002, the AAMC reviewed the data from past years of faculty sur-
veys and concluded that the waste of talent from not allowing women
to work at their full potential was critical. The report concluded that
the ‘‘long-term success of academic health centers is thus inextricably
linked to the development of women leaders’’ (Bickel et al., 2002,
p. 1043). The authors developed recommendations that are relevant not
only to the health professions but to various other fields. The recom-
mendations to medical schools included the following:

. Start using departmental reviews as a strategy for evaluating the effective-


ness of departmental chairs in developing female faculty. Most advantage
and disadvantage for faculty is created at the departmental level, and the

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Women as Leaders 49

chair plays a critical role. Deans can play a stronger role in training and
monitoring their chairs.
. A program for general faculty development should be created in institu-
tions so that the professional development needs of women are addressed
within this context. For instance, one criterion for evaluating faculty can
be their skill in and experience of mentoring junior faculty, including
women.
. Institutional practices should be assessed to see which policies favor
men’s over women’s professional development. For instance, the defini-
tion of professional success as a number of publications as sole author
ignores contributions to local missions and collaborative research. In gen-
eral, women faculty members’ more collaborative, relational work is less
visible, and criteria may need to change to recognize and reinforce these
activities. In addition, ignoring one’s family’s needs should not be seen as
a sign of commitment to the profession.
. Enhance the effectiveness of search committees in attracting female can-
didates. Committees should assess for unintended gender bias within
their work. In addition, search committees need more than one female
member.
. Provide financial support for programs that monitor the representation of
women at senior ranks.

As noted, these recommendations are practical and resonate posi-


tively with our discussions in other sections of this chapter. These rec-
ommendations focus on institutional change rather than on blaming
the victim or on cultural change that is difficult to attain. The fact that
women have shown gains within the leadership of the corporate world
and academic, blue-collar professions as well as health professions
indicates that there is an active movement to create more change and
bodes well for the future.

LEADERSHIP AND BLUE-COLLAR WOMEN WORKERS


Leadership has many definitions, and there is no clear-cut agree-
ment on a meaning of leadership that covers all circumstances. How-
ever, all leadership theories have one element in common, that is, that
a leader is one who exerts more influence within a group than does
any other member of the group (Denmark, 1977).
Although leadership is important in any subgroup of society, it
plays an especially important role in disenfranchised or underrepre-
sented groups, in that leadership is essential in helping these groups
gain more power. Through active and positive leadership, the group
can work toward empowerment and change. Having a leader is not
only essential in mobilizing a group, making it effective and produc-
tive, but a leader can also inspire individual members and show people
what can be accomplished by example. Martin Luther King Jr. is a

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


50 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

prime example of someone who mobilized not only specific groups,


but the nation, and who also exemplified what can be done, instilling
hope and inspiring others to continue to fight.
The discussion of leadership therefore must be inclusive of women
working in blue-collar professions. Blue-collar positions are those filled
by members of the working class who perform manual labor. Blue-
collar work may be skilled or unskilled, and may involve factory work,
building and construction, law enforcement, mechanical work, mainte-
nance or technical installation, and so on.
Although blue-collar women are not considered to be disenfran-
chised, per se, they do have a different set of concerns as opposed to
women in white-collar positions; namely, pressing salary concerns,
child care, and working conditions are three primary areas of note for
blue-collar working women. Blue-collar positions are paid less than
white-collar positions, and thus these positions are more difficult to
navigate than those reaping a higher market value. These positions
have an inherent lack of flexibility in terms of compensation, days off,
and so on. Therefore, women in blue-collar positions frequently have
more difficulty with child care, difficulty making enough to put food
on the table, and hazardous health conditions on the job. Whereas a
white-collar working woman frequently must pay for child care, this
may not be possible for blue-collar working women; conditions in a
mine are much more hazardous than those in an office. Therefore,
when discussing the topics of leadership and women, it is critical to
examine the lives and roles of the leaders of female blue-collar working
groups.
In 1962, 36% of the workforce were blue-collar ‘‘production work-
ers’’; in 1992, 26% of the labor force fell into the blue-collar category
(DeLong, 1997). Thus, approximately one-fourth of all of the labor force
is considered to be blue-collar. Although women represent approxi-
mately 46% of the working force (Einhart, 2001), only 10% of working
women are employed in blue-collar positions as compared to 43% of
working men (Bond et al., 2002).
Women in these roles who want to assume leadership positions face
a unique set of challenges. First, many of these positions are considered
to be more stereotypically male than are other areas of work. Fire-
fighters, police officers, welders, electricians, plumbers, and so on are
male-dominated fields, and women entering these jobs face an array of
obstacles. Many of these occupations have long constituted an old
boys’ club, and breaking into this inner circle is difficult as is remain-
ing in the job because many men make it uncomfortable to do so. This
is even more difficult in the case of women who want to assume lead-
ership roles and thus have the duty of supervising men.
In traditionally male-dominated fields, blue-collar women workers
do not escape pressure to perform stereotypical women’s roles within

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Women as Leaders 51

the context of their work. Frequently women blue-collar workers are


expected to perform tasks that are related to their duties at home, or
to conduct responsibilities that mimic chores that service and support
men. In this framework, women are still called upon to do house-
work. Tallichet (1995) quotes a female miner who complained that her
job consisted of carrying cinder blocks and rock dust behind the male
miners, ‘‘cleaning up after them.’’ Tallichet points out that women
miners who wished to advance in their field have had to maintain a
strong and consistent work ethic, with little room for failure or mis-
takes.

UNIONS
In March 1974, more than 3,000 blue-collar women gathered in Chi-
cago to form the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) (U.S.
Department of Labor, 2000). The agenda included ways to end sex dis-
crimination in wages and hiring and how to elect more female officials
to the American Federation of Labor–Congress of Industrial Unions
(AFL-CIO). At the time, the CLUW was considered evidence of a new
offshoot of the women’s liberation movement deemed to be ‘‘blue-
collar feminism.’’ Feminism became an integral part of the working
women’s agenda, and in blue-collar positions this took the form of
advocating for day care, maternity benefits, equal pay, and other issues
important to working women.
Despite many obstacles in the past, many women have organized
themselves or joined with men to form unions to fight for equal rights
and benefits on behalf of all workers. One of the earliest unions was
the Collar Laundry Union of Troy, New York. The Knights of Labor, a
national union founded in 1969, is another example. Unions such as
the United Auto Workers have made consistent strides in protecting
their female workers; it has endorsed equal pay, gender-integrated se-
niority lists, day care, and the Equal Rights Amendment. However, in
the United States, only 7 million out of a total of 58 million working
women (11%) belong to unions or professional organizations.
Although union wages have not risen as fast as nonunion wages in
recent years, union workers still earn more, on average, than their non-
union counterparts. Estimates of Employer Costs for Employee Com-
pensation, for example, show that, in March 2001, wages and salaries
for private industry union workers averaged $18.36 per hour, com-
pared with $14.81 for nonunion workers (Bureau of Labor Statistics,
2001). Similarly, data from the Current Population Survey show that, in
2000, median weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers
were $691 for workers represented by unions, compared with $542 for
nonunion workers (U.S. Department of Labor, 2000). Finally, data from
the 1999 National Compensation Survey show that union workers had

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


52 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

average hourly earnings of $18.31, compared with $14.76 for nonunion


workers (U.S. Department of Labor, 1999).

CASE VIGNETTES
Despite barriers to women in blue-collar occupations, more and
more women in the police and fire forces are beginning to take on
leadership positions, which were previously exclusively reserved for
men. By 2004, there were four female police chiefs of major U.S. cities:
Boston, San Francisco, Milwaukee, and Detroit, the first women in each
respective city to hold that position.

Cathy Lanier
In May 2007, Cathy Lanier was appointed the new Washington, DC,
police chief. A high school dropout and a mother at 15 years old, Lanier
has always faced challenging life situations and is someone who has
succeeded and pulled herself up in the face of them. After earning her
high school equivalency degree, she became a police officer in 1990 and
then went on to earn a bachelor’s and then a master’s degree in manage-
ment from Johns Hopkins University. Lanier then completed another
master’s degree in national security from the Naval Postgraduate School.
A hard worker, she was promoted up through the ranks, but this was
not without cost. Lanier reports being sexually harassed several times on
the job, once by her supervisor (CNN, 2007). She stated that during
those times she reminded herself of the other women who suffered from
similar discrimination and continued to persevere.

Joanne Hayes-White
On Monday July 2, 2004, Joanne Hayes-White was sworn in as San
Francisco Fire Department’s new chief; she was the first female chief of
the city. Additionally, Hayes-White will be a female chief of the largest
urban fire department headed by a woman, with Cobb County, Geor-
gia, and the Tacoma, Washington, departments being second and third,
respectively (West, 2004). Hayes-White graduated with a business
degree from the University of Santa Clara and joined the fire depart-
ment in 1990. Impressively, by 1993 she was promoted to lieutenant
and by 1996 was a captain. In 1998, she was promoted to assistant
deputy chief. The San Francisco Fire Department only had its first
female firefighter in 1987, after a U.S. District Court Judge ruled that
the department had to hire more women and minorities. Currently, in
San Francisco approximately 12% of the 230 firefighters are women
(West).

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Women as Leaders 53

In sum, blue-collar industries represent a segment of the population


where women are becoming more vocal and are becoming strong and
credible leaders. This field, like many others before, is experiencing a
transformation where gender stereotypes are being challenged and
women are emerging as qualified and competent as their male counter-
parts. However, there is still much to be done.

RECOMMENDATIONS
Regardless of the progress that women have made in leadership in
various occupations and settings, there is still much to be accomplished
in the future. As Margaret Chesney stated regarding women and lead-
ership: ‘‘The ceiling is breaking—but watch out for falling glass’’
(Chesney, 2007). Unfortunately, despite progress, there is still a vast
amount yet to be achieved and other sets of concerns of which women
must be aware. The following are some general recommendations sug-
gested by Margaret Chesney at the 2007 Committee on Women in Psy-
chology Leadership Institute meeting, which are geared toward
helping women accomplish success in various fields, deal with discrim-
ination, and become strong leaders.

1. Determine what type of leader you want to be: ‘‘Instrumental,’’ i.e., those
dedicating their life to their job, or a ‘‘Balancer,’’ i.e., those who look for
more of a balance in life. Women who seek more balance in their life
must make personal choices about how much they can do, and work
within those boundaries.
2. Identify what is valued at the workplace. Each work setting is different
and a woman should identify not just what is ‘‘said’’ is important, but
what the real messages are.
3. Seek mentors. Finding another female leader who will offer practical
advice, give support, and show other women the ropes is important. This
opens up vast networks and gives much-needed support and encourage-
ment to women who are trying to succeed. Men can be helpful mentors
as well, and may offer a different perspective, which can be valuable.
4. Become educated. Taking some form of leadership training or educa-
tional classes helps women advance. This will add knowledge and mar-
ketability.
5. Support other women. Women should work on keeping the lines of com-
munication open by decreasing a cut-throat atmosphere between women,
often found in the workplace. Helping other deserving women to be pro-
moted is one step that can help increase the numbers and successes of
female leaders. This also can include helping later career women reenter
the workforce.
6. Do not be satisfied with modest gains—expect more. Women should not
be satisfied with what they are given. Rather, they should work, not just
for medium gains, but for all gains they truly deserve.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


54 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

Overall, women should band together and actively participate in


groups that unite women. Whether this be a union or a group of
women within a department, it has been through this action of uniting
and supporting that women have made progress in the past and which
provides a key to progress in the future.

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Eagly, A. H. (2007). Female leadership advantage and disadvantage: Resolving
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Women as Leaders 55

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56 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

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62, 6–16.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Chapter 3

My Life as a Woman Psychologist:


In My Own Voice
Marilyn P. Safir

I began my psychology graduate studies in the 1960s—an exciting time.


I quickly became involved with the budding civil rights movement. A
major impetus resulted from my feelings of being discriminated against
because I was a woman, and from my interest as a young girl in non-
traditional areas. My love of science resulted from encouragement from
my father, who, desiring a son, had train sets and trucks awaiting my
birth. He happily accepted a daughter, and encouraged me to join him
in taking apart and fixing things—including his automobile. He fanned
my interest in how things work and was happy to work on science
projects with me. My early negative experiences in being a girl resulted
from my father’s and my mother’s overprotection, so that I wished I had
a boy’s freedom. I remember that around the age of 10, as an avid
reader, I thought that if I were a boy, I would be a sailor and see the
world. My first experience with actual discrimination occurred in gram-
mar school. I devoted a great deal of time and effort to my science proj-
ects in 7th and 8th grade and received scores of 100 on my work and
tests, but only received a final grade of 98. When I screwed up the cour-
age to ask why a boy who had lower grades than I did was given 100,
my male science teacher informed me that grades (in elementary school!)
were important for boys who would go on to college—but not for girls.
By the time I began college in 1955, I had decided to major in bio-
chemistry and become a physician. It was in college that I experienced
what I now understand was sexual harassment demonstrating that a
woman’s place was not in the lab. My reaction was, Anything they can
do, I can do better! However, I discovered that I was more interested in

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


58 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

interacting with people. Courses in psychology and the social sciences


were far more interesting than my biology and chemistry courses and
lab work, and my interest in medicine found a new focus in psychiatry.
I joined the premed club, only to discover that women were judged by
higher standards both to be accepted into the city colleges and to obtain
references for medical school because of a limiting quota. If a man had
to be in the top 15% of his class to be eligible for a recommendation, a
woman had to be in the top 2% of her class. I also joined the psych
club—where I was informed that it was more difficult for women to be
accepted. Hal Proshansky was the club advisor and he became a mentor.
It also began to seem foolish to me to study medicine in order to
become a psychiatrist. It made much more sense to major in psychology
and continue in graduate studies to become a psychologist. Hal encour-
aged me and wrote letters of recommendations for me. I applied to
graduate schools in the same universities and cities where my premed
fiance was applying to medical school, without examining the pro-
grams—even though I was interested in majoring in personality and
social psychology. Hal didn’t suggest that I pay more attention as I
assume it was ‘‘obvious’’ to him that I would follow my partner to be.
Thus I began my studies at Syracuse University in experimental psy-
chology as there was no program in personality and social psychology.
I discovered that a program that focused on animal learning using
goldfish and rats did not satisfy my interests. Having done well my
first semester, I was invited by Edward J. Murray (a student of Neal
Miller) to become his research assistant and to move into the clinical
psych program. My first-year experimental psychology advisor had
suggested what courses I take and advised me to take the advanced
elective that Murray taught, as this would give me information on
Freud’s approach to personality development. This elective, unknown
to me, was one that second- and third-year clinical students took. He
later told me that he anticipated that I wouldn’t be able to keep up
and so would drop out of grad school sooner. This was yet another
example of sexual harassment. Many psychology programs maintained
(officially or unofficially, according to Hal Proshansky) quotas for
women in psychology grad school in the 1950s and early 1960s, and
women were never more than 10% to 35% of the students during this
period. I was acutely aware of this discrimination, even though it was
not out in the open.
I joined the civil rights movement as a result of my personal experi-
ences of discrimination because I was a woman (and also having heard
of the discrimination my parents experienced as Jews). There were few
students from psychology, as our department was very ivory tower. I
became an resident advisor for a professor, Warren Hagstrom, in SW
who brought a union organizer, Sol Olinsky, to work with us in devel-
oping community organization skills that would help us empower

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


My Life as a Woman Psychologist 59

community people. I considered transferring to SW because of the


more hands-on approach, but decided that these skills could benefit
me in my practice of psychology.
I became more and more disillusioned with the discrimination that
women experienced within the civil rights movement. The proverbial
straw for me was hearing Stochley Carmichael in Canton, Mississippi,
in 1966, blame Black women for emasculating Black men, and state that
the only place in the movement for women was prone. This took place
in a rally attended by Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph Abernathy, and
Jesse Jackson, who overlooked these female discriminatory statements.
At that point Israel beckoned to me—not because I was a Socialist or
a Zionist—but because here was a country where women had obtained
equality with men. They did manual labor—building roads, draining
swamps. They established kibbutzim that destroyed the division of
labor created by the traditional patriarchal family. Women even served
in the army! I arrived in Israel in 1968 with a new PhD in psychology
and the expectation to work in a modern egalitarian society that had
dealt with the ‘‘woman question’’ during the 1920s. My first impres-
sions supported my original beliefs. Israeli women moved and spoke
in a less feminine fashion than American women. They used less
makeup and wore less jewelry. However, in discussions, it became
obvious to me that they were far more traditional in family and social
roles than my compatriots in the United States. When I raised the issue
of equality, both women and men said that I had come 50 years too
late and that women themselves decided to retreat to the traditional
social roles. As a social scientist this explanation seemed very unlikely.
What was most significant was that Israelis believed in the same myths
that had brought me to Israel.
To develop awareness of the inequality within Israeli society, Mar-
cia Freedman and I began two consciousness-raising groups in 1970
at the University of Haifa. Many of those who joined with us came
from abroad and had also believed that Israel was far more advanced
in granting equal rights to women and that both sexes shared power
in Israel in contrast to their former homelands. The contrast between
our expectations and women’s actual situation in Israel resulted in
dissonance that produced, through participation in consciousness-
raising groups, the impetus for the new movement. We were joined at
first by sabres—native Israelis—many of whom were children of ear-
lier ‘‘Anglo Saxon’’ immigrants. (By immigrating to Israel, I became
an ‘‘Anglo Saxon.’’) The first women to call themselves feminists were
university lecturers and students. We decided to work to establish a
new women’s liberation movement. We began to attract media atten-
tion. As a result, Martha Mednick, on sabbatical in Israel in 1972 to
study kibbutz women, read about our group and initiated a meeting.
She told us about the new feminist scholarship taking hold in the

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


60 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

United States. Mednick planted the idea of women’s studies in fertile


ground.
It had never occurred to me that researching women was a legiti-
mate focus for psychological research. Martha spent some time telling
me about her kibbutz research. I decided to study diaries of women
who immigrated at the turn of the century to join communes (Kvutsot
and latter Kibbutzim). My earlier suspicions were confirmed. The
myths began to crumble. I discovered that the earliest communes
grudgingly accepted women, if at all. They often accepted no more
than 10% women members. The women were accepted as employees
of the men. These women were then expected to do the cooking in
huge vats over open fires, bake bread in ovens built of stone, and do
laundry in huge vats using lye and stirring them over these open fires,
putting themselves at great risk, but still confined to traditional roles.
Interestingly, when there were no women in the commune, the men
rotated through these jobs. The work was grueling, exhausting, and
not satisfying for many of the women. Women were further disadvan-
taged. Men had studied the Hebrew language for six or seven years
for Bar Mitzvah and had the basics for communicating in Hebrew.
Also overlooked was the fact that single women were a significant mi-
nority in the early waves of immigration. These women decided to deal
with their dissatisfaction by forming women-only communes. What I
discovered was that women were free to move into traditional male
roles. There was no role sharing. Unisex dressing, in masculine fashion,
became the norm. Since the Zionist Socialistic values of these early set-
tlers became the ideal for the budding new country, the types of
behaviors I noted observing Israeli women, a minimization of external
gender differences in the direction of being less feminine, was a carry-
over from that early time. This situation no longer exists.
Martha Mednick has been an important mentor in my life. She intro-
duced me to Division 35 in the American Psychological Association
(APA), the International Council of Psychologists (ICP), and the Associ-
ation for Women in Psychology. My first experience in a woman-
centered organization was in ICP. I attended my first exciting and heady
international ICP conference in Paris in 1975, where I met Anne Stein-
man. We collaborated on several comparative studies of Israeli and
U.S. students on male/female gender roles and developed a very close
relationship. I had become a part of the newly developing international
network of feminist psychologists.
When I started to receive requests from Israeli colleagues in other
fields about existing feminist research in psychology, it became obvious
that interdisciplinary communication was lacking. I discovered that
feminist scholars worked in isolation and were unaware of each other’s
work because of the absence of a national network. Women’s studies
was nonexistent and unknown in Israeli academia.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


My Life as a Woman Psychologist 61

In discussions with Mednick, it became obvious that lack of interdis-


ciplinary communication was a problem in the United States as well.
We continually discussed the need for an international, interdiscipli-
nary congress that focused on scholarship on women. Finally, in 1979,
we decided to do something about it. We proposed holding such a
congress under the auspices of the APA’s Division 35—Psychology of
Women Council. We also proposed holding this congress in Israel to
create awareness and to create the groundwork to establish women’s
studies programs at the Israeli universities. A congress seemed to be a
way to bring the message of the importance and developing stature of
the new scholarship to this isolated place, as well as to create both
Israeli and international networks.
Division 35 agreed to be a co-sponsor. We were fortunate,
because among the executive committee members were Florence
Denmark, president-elect of APA, Carolyn Sherif as the chairper-
son, and board members Matti Kubrick Gershenfeld, Martha Med-
nick, and Nancy Felipe Russo, who was the president of the
Federation of Organizations of Professional Women, composed of
110 organizations with branches all over the world. Nancy pro-
posed that the Federation become a co-sponsor. Jessie Bernard and
Dafna Izraeli invited Sociologists for Women in Society to be
another co-sponsor.
That first congress was held at the University of Haifa, which
enabled an almost unanimous approval of the opening of the wom-
en’s studies program of which I was a founder and director for the
first 10 years. The Haifa program clearly evolved from the feminist
movement of the 1970s, and it continues to combine activism with
academic pursuits. It was also the largest women’s studies program
through the beginning of the 1990s. Approved in the 1982–1983 aca-
demic year, it opened in 1983 with 13 courses. The 1993–1994 aca-
demic year saw an enrollment in the Introduction to Women’s Studies
of almost 10% of the freshman class. The students included women
and a few men, who came from different backgrounds: Christian and
Moslem Arabs, Druze, Jews from Western and Eastern worlds, each
different, according to her cultural background and experience, and
how this relates to double oppression. Although these issues are
taken for granted in the United States and in many European coun-
tries, multiculturalism and diversity are matters that have only been
considered by Israeli feminists and by women’s studies activists in
the last 10 years or so.
The women’s studies program at Haifa University serves as an effi-
cient bridge between academia and feminist grassroots organizations in
the city. This interaction encourages feminist activists to begin their
studies or to return to academia. It involves students in the different
feminist grassroots organizations.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


62 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

Another unique project at the University of Haifa that I have been


involved in from its inception is named KIDMA, an acronym for The
Project for the Advancement and Involvement of Women in Society.
This project was created in 1984, and the major aim was to bring Wom-
en’s Studies topics to women who would not ordinarily be a part of
the university community by actually bringing them to the university
and by bringing the university into their communities. I served as its
academic advisor from 1984 until 1996 when I became the director.
KIDMA promotes personal advancement and social contribution.
KIDMA aims to provide a supportive environment and to give infor-
mation to women who do not have any other frameworks for personal
and professional advancement. Furthermore, KIDMA is interested in
maintaining this place of knowledge and consciousness as a lever for
women’s involvement and contribution to their communities and for
leading social change. The participants in KIDMA projects get a unique
opportunity to familiarize themselves with the University of Haifa and
to study in an academic environment as well. We have expanded our
projects and provide leadership training courses for women students at
the university and for community leaders and potential community
leaders from the various sectors of Israeli society. We have developed
courses for women employees of the Haifa municipality to teach the
necessary skills in on-the-job advancement.
KIDMA is my commitment to help bring about positive social
change in Israeli society. Haifa, as a mixed city, provides an environ-
ment that enables much of this type of activity. An exciting and suc-
cessful project was developed with the Women’s Army corp as we
developed training courses to help young officers break ‘‘the iron ceil-
ing’’ and develop skills to crack the macho army systems. Unfortu-
nately, because of the deteriorating economic situation, many of our
projects must be put on hold at this time. In Israel in 2007, the situation
for us feminists is very complex. We now see a renewed surge of tradi-
tionalism and nationalism, stemming from the impossible political sit-
uation. The call for unity at times of war has always come at the
expense of women, and now, more than ever, we must stand guard to
protect the achievements that have been made over the past decades
and continue to strive for a better future for us all, men and women. In
conclusion, being a ‘‘pioneer’’ in the battle for the advancement of the
status of women in general, as well as in academia, has been a well-
spring of personal satisfaction, leading to close relationships with femi-
nist colleagues throughout the world and a chance to view the positive
changes that are occurring for women in general and in our field in
particular.
Having lacked mentors during the beginning stages of my career, I
made choices that were not career-savvy. I was fortunate to learn how
important these relationships can be through my close contacts with

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


My Life as a Woman Psychologist 63

Martha Mednick, Florence Denmark, Anne Steinman, Jesse Bernard,


and Nancy Felipe Russo—just to name a few. Thus, being a mentor to
students and early career academics has been very important to me. I
hope that I have been successful in providing the support and knowl-
edge for smoother sailing in the workplace.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Chapter 4

Workplace Incivility, Sexual


Harassment, and Racial Micro-
Aggression: The Interface
of Three Literatures
Eros R. DeSouza

Sexual harassment has dominated the literature on interpersonal mis-


treatment at work. Recently, however, other types of mistreatment have
gained attention by researchers, including mild forms of workplace
mistreatment, such as incivility (e.g., Cortina, Magley, Williams, &
Langhout, 2001) and racial/ethnic micro-aggressions (e.g., Deitch et al.,
2003; Sue et al., 2007). Unfortunately, with a few exceptions (e.g., Ber-
dahl & Moore, 2006; Krieger et al., 2006; Lim & Cortina, 2005), these
behaviors have been investigated in isolation, as if they occurred in a
vacuum. Moreover, research on sexual harassment has focused on the
prototypical case of a superior (usually a man) harassing a subordinate
(usually a woman) and has neglected the plurality of forms that sexual
harassment may take, including same-sex sexual harassment (DeSouza
& Solberg, 2004; DeSouza, Solberg, & Cerqueira, 2007). Therefore, the
purpose of this chapter is to integrate the separate literatures on incivil-
ity, sexual harassment, and racialized incivility and sexual harassment.
Specifically, each of these concepts will be defined. Then, empirical
studies on frequency rates and consequences on employees’ physical
and mental health as well as work-related outcomes will be presented.
Finally, these central concepts will be integrated and implications will
be discussed.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


66 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

CENTRAL CONCEPTS
Incivility
Workplace incivility is a mild form of workplace mistreatment,
which also includes bullying, emotional, physical, and psychological
abuse, tyrannical, deviant, and antisocial behavior. Andersson and
Pearson (1999) defined workplace incivility as ‘‘low-intensity deviant
behavior with ambiguous (italics added) intent to harm the target, in
violation of workplace norms for mutual respect. Uncivil behaviors are
characteristically rude and discourteous, displaying a lack of regard for
others’’ (p. 457). Ambiguity or lack of deliberate intent to do harm is a
key element of incivility that differentiates it from other types of work-
place mistreatment. Because the uncivil behavior is subtle, the perpe-
trator can easily mask his or her intent to do harm on another person,
for example, by suggesting that he or she was just joking around or by
using silence as a form of suppression and censorship; such silence
may exclude or negate an important aspect of an individual’s identity
(Ward & Winstanley, 2003). Because incivility is often linked to an
employee’s ability to do his or her job, it promotes social isolation and
withdrawal from one’s job and work (Pearson, Andersson, & Wegner,
2001).
There are many potential causes or antecedents of workplace incivil-
ity suggested in the literature. According to Andersson and Pearson
(1999), incivility is an interpersonal process dependent on person-
environment factors that create incivility spirals (e.g., a perceived act of
incivility fosters further uncivil acts, forming a spiral of aggression and
counter-aggression that permeates the entire organization). Incivility
spirals may begin with a perception of interpersonal injustice (e.g., a
slight to one’s self-identity or social identity) that causes an employee
to feel aggrieved, which may result in anger and desire for revenge for
the perceived organizational or societal norm that has been violated.
Thus, perceived injustice is an important antecedent of incivility
(Baron, Neuman, & Geddes, 1999).
Andersson and Pearson (1999) argue that personal factors that pre-
dict incivility spirals include propensity to anger, impulsiveness (e.g.,
lack of self-control), reactivity (e.g., sensitivity to negative events), and
rebelliousness (e.g., independence, self-sufficiency, and resistance to
peer pressure). Individuals with these personality traits tend to handle
the daily hassles of work by engaging in disrespectful or condescend-
ing behaviors.
Furthermore, to handle occupational stress, individuals with the
above personality traits may use alcohol and/or drugs while at work
as coping mechanisms, which, in turn, further incites inappropriate
behaviors (Andersson & Pearson, 1999). Although there is empirical
evidence to support a ‘‘hot temperament’’ personality type as a

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Workplace Incivility, Sexual Harassment, and Racial Micro-Aggression 67

predictor of workplace aggression (e.g., Baron et al., 1999; Hepworth &


Towler, 2004), more research on the interaction of personality traits
and environmental influences is necessary, given the fact that there is
also evidence that fails to support a ‘‘hot personality’’ type as a predic-
tor of workplace aggression (e.g., Jennifer, Cowie, & Ananiadou, 2003).
Another antecedent to workplace incivility suggested by Andersson
and Pearson (1999) is an organizational culture that creates a climate of
informality. Such organizational climate adds ambiguity to the bound-
ary of acceptable behavior. Casualness at work may facilitate breaches
of etiquette (e.g., calling someone by a nickname), disrespect, and
thoughtless actions (e.g., hazing), which may create incivility spirals
that spread throughout everyday interpersonal interactions at work
(Pearson, Andersson, & Porath, 2005; Pearson et al., 2001; Pearson &
Porath, 2002).
Another factor that may increase incivility is emerging technologies
(e.g., e-mail, text messaging), creating cyber-incivility spirals (Pearson,
Andersson, & Porath, 2000). Such technologies remove the need for
face-to-face interactions as well as bystanders who might otherwise
intervene when incivilities occur. Furthermore, these new technologies
are often fast-paced and may increase the pressure for more productiv-
ity than traditional methods that require face-to-face interactions, possi-
bly contributing to higher levels of stress and misunderstandings
(Vickers, 2006). Rather than fighting technology, organizations should
use it to personalize communication and lessen stress (e.g., working
from home and communicating with colleagues through video-
conferencing). Organizations also need to generate and disseminate a
new cyber-etiquette, including having clear policies and procedures to
protect complainants and punish perpetrators. Related to emerging
technologies in the workplace, other antecedents to incivility include
an increasingly diverse workforce (e.g., race/ethnicity, culture/
nationality, gender, sexual orientation, age, and ability), economic
changes (e.g., service-oriented economy), and organizational changes
(e.g., down-sizing, outsourcing, and so on) (Hearn & Parkin, 2001;
Neuman & Baron, 1998).

Frequency rates and consequences


Pearson et al. (2000) conducted 700 interviews and collected surveys
from 775 employees throughout the United States. Pearson et al. found
that perpetrators of incivility generally had higher status than their vic-
tims and were typically men. Interestingly, men were more likely to be
uncivil toward subordinates than toward superiors, whereas women
were as likely to behave uncivilly toward their superiors as toward
their subordinates. The consequences of incivility included negative
effects on victims and organizations, including impaired concentration,

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68 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

reduced organizational commitment and productivity, and increased


intentions to quit; in fact, 12% of the sample reported having ultimately
quit their jobs. In addition, 75% of the victims reported being dissatis-
fied with how their organization handled uncivil incidents, suggesting
that the organization was tolerant of incivility.
Pearson et al. (2000) concluded that there was scant attention by
organizations to address incivility spirals. Some managers even
reported that rudeness and disrespect were justified as being beneficial
to their organizations. In fact, it has been recently argued that there
may be positive outcomes associated with incivility; that is, managers
who use a Machiavellian leadership style may use strategic incivility
(e.g., implicit threats) as a negative reinforcer to motivate ‘‘low matu-
rity’’ employees to increase their productivity or to leave the organiza-
tion (Ferris, Zinko, Brouer, Buckley, & Harvey, 2007). In the opinion of
this author, a more appropriate response may be to entice ‘‘low matu-
rity’’ employees to increase their productivity through positive rein-
forcement (e.g., praise).
Cortina, Magley, Williams, and Langhout (2001) investigated the
incidence and impact of incivility in a sample of 1,180 public sector
employees (88% of whom reported to be White). The authors created
the Workplace Incivility Scale (WIS), which has appropriate reliability
and validity properties, to assess how often participants experienced
incivility (e.g., disrespect, rudeness, and condescension) from superiors
or coworkers. Participants also completed several job-related as well as
psychological and health measures. The authors found that 71% of the
sample reported having experienced at least one uncivil behavior dur-
ing the previous 5 years, with women experiencing more uncivil acts
than men. However, both men and women experienced similar nega-
tive effects: Those who experienced more uncivil acts were less satis-
fied with their employment (including their jobs, supervisors,
coworkers, pay and benefits, and promotional opportunities; they also
considered quitting) and had greater psychological distress, especially
men, than those who experienced less incivility.
The above studies indicate that incivility is widespread. Moreover,
incivility has negative outcomes and should not be ignored by organi-
zations, as is frequently the case. Now we turn to another type of inter-
personal mistreatment that is not only common, but also illegal in the
United States and in many other countries as well (see DeSouza &
Solberg, 2003, for a review of international definitions of sexual
harassment).

Sexual Harassment
In the United States, sexual harassment is a type of sex discrimina-
tion that violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Since 1980,

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Workplace Incivility, Sexual Harassment, and Racial Micro-Aggression 69

the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has defined


sexual harassment as follows:

Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal
or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitutes sexual harassment
when (1) submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implic-
itly a term or condition of an individual’s employment, (2) submission to
or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for
employment decisions affecting such individuals, or (3) such conduct has
the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s
work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work
environment. (Code of Federal Regulations, 2000, p. 186)

Parts 1 and 2 refer to quid pro quo sexual harassment in which sex-
ual favors are required to keep a job or receive job-related benefits,
whereas part 3 refers to a hostile work environment. Additionally, the
EEOC (2007a) states the victim and the alleged perpetrator may be of
the same sex. The victim does not have to be the direct target, but
could be anyone affected by the offensive conduct (e.g., a bystander).
Further, the victim of sexual harassment does not have to show that
she or he has suffered economic or psychological harm; however, the
harassment must be unwelcome.
Although men are also victims of sexual harassment, women are
much more likely to be victims than men are. For instance, during 2006
the EEOC (2007a) received 12,025 charges of sexual harassment, of
which 15.4% were filed by men.
Psychologically, sexual harassment is defined as unwanted sexually
offensive behavior that threatens one’s psychological health and well-
being (Fitzgerald, Swan, & Magley, 1997). Fitzgerald et al. (1988) devel-
oped a behavior-based instrument, the Sexual Experiences Question-
naire (SEQ), to assess sexual harassment by asking respondents if they
had experienced a list of unwanted sexual behaviors. The authors
reported that the factor structure of the SEQ revealed a tripartite model
consisting of gender harassment, unwanted sexual attention, and sex-
ual coercion. Gender harassment refers to sexist behaviors that do not
appear to elicit sexual cooperation but rather convey hostile and offen-
sive attitudes toward members of one gender. Unwanted sexual atten-
tion refers to sexual behaviors that are unwanted and unreciprocated.
Sexual coercion refers to explicit or implicit bribes or threats in order
to gain sexual favors. Gender harassment and unwanted sexual atten-
tion seem to parallel the legal definition of hostile work environment,
whereas sexual coercion seems to parallel the legal definition of quid
pro quo. Research indicates that gender harassment is the most com-
mon type of sexual harassment, followed by unwanted sexual atten-
tion, with sexual coercion being the least common (Pryor & Fitzgerald,
2003).

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70 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

Also using a behavioral experiences approach, the U.S. Congress


commissioned three large-scale studies to determine the prevalence of
sexual harassment across representative national samples of federal
workers. The findings showed that 42% to 44% of women and 14% to
19% of men reported having experienced at least one potentially sexu-
ally harassing behavior during the last 24 months (U.S. Merit Systems
Protection Board, 1981, 1988, 1995).
The Department of Defense (DoD) conducted a survey in 1988 to
assess sexual harassment among active-duty military personnel. The
DoD survey was modeled after the U.S. Merit Systems Protection
Board survey. Of the 20,400 participants who completed the survey,
64% of the women and 17% of the men reported having experienced a
potentially sexually harassing experience at least once during the last
12 months (Martindale, 1991).
In 1995, the DoD surveyed active-duty military personnel’s experien-
ces of unwanted sexual behavior based on adaptations of Fitzgerald
et al.’s (1988) SEQ. Of the 28,296 participants who completed the 25-
item SEQ-DoD survey, 76% of the women and 37% of the men
reported having experienced at least one potentially sexually harassing
behavior during the last 12 months (Bastian, Lancaster, & Reyst, 1996).
In 2002, the DoD again surveyed the active-duty military personnel’s
experiences of unwanted sexual behavior during the last 12 months
using a revised 19-item version of the SEQ; however, to be counted as
sexual harassment, respondents had to have experienced a sexually
harassing behavior at least once and had to have indicated that any of
the behaviors experienced constituted sexual harassment (Lipari &
Lancaster, 2003). The 1995 SEQ-DoD data were also re-analyzed
according to this new procedure. Of the 19,960 participants who
returned usable surveys in 2002, there was a significant drop in sexual
harassment between 1995 and 2002 for both women (46% vs. 24%,
respectively) and men (8% vs. 3%, respectively). Overall, the findings
reported by the EEOC (2007a), the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board
(1981, 1988, 1995), and the DoD (Bastian et al., 1996; Lipari & Lancaster,
2003; Martindale, 1991) indicate that women are more likely to be vic-
tims of sexual harassment than men are.

Same-sex Sexual Harassment


Of those federal employees who reported at least one potentially
sexually harassing experience in the 1980 survey (U.S. Merit Systems
Protection Board, 1981), 3% of the women reported having been har-
assed by one or more women, whereas 22% of the men reported hav-
ing been harassed by one or more men. In the 1994 survey (the 1987
survey did not examine the gender of the harasser), the numbers
remained about the same; only 1% of harassed women reported other

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Workplace Incivility, Sexual Harassment, and Racial Micro-Aggression 71

women as the harassers, whereas 21% of the men reported other men
as the harassers (U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, 1995).
Dubois, Knapp, Faley, and Kustis (1998) re-analyzed the 1988 DoD
survey results. Of those military personnel who reported at least one
potentially sexually harassing experience, only 1% of military women
reported having experienced same-sex sexual harassment, whereas 35%
of military men did. Next, the authors compared the impact of same-
and cross-sex sexual harassment on the professional and personal lives
of military men and women. They found that the impact of same-sex
sexual harassment was much more harmful for men than for women.
Dubois et al. concluded that same-sex sexual harassment of men is part
of a masculine culture in which harassment is directed at those who
violate traditional gender norms.
Bastian et al. (1996) examined the 1995 SEQ-DoD survey results
among military personnel who reported at least one potentially sexu-
ally harassing experience. They found that 51% of military men
reported having been harassed exclusively by other men and another
16% reported having been harassed by both male and female perpetra-
tors. However, only 2% of military women reported having been har-
assed by other women and another 6% reported having been harassed
by both men and women.
Furthermore, Stockdale, Visio, and Batra (1999) re-analyzed the 1995
SEQ-DoD survey results among military personnel who reported at
least one potentially sexually harassing experience. The authors found
that among those who completed a section that asked them to describe
‘‘the most distressing experience,’’ 53% of the men, as compared to 2%
of the women, reported that the harasser was of the same sex. Next,
Stockdale et al. compared the impact of same- and cross-sex sexual
harassment. They found that men who had experienced same-sex sex-
ual harassment rated their experience as more annoying, offensive, dis-
turbing, embarrassing, and upsetting than did men who had
experienced cross-sex sexual harassment. Similar to Dubois et al.’s con-
clusion (1998), Stockdale et al. concluded that same-sex sexual harass-
ment induces ‘‘lesser’’ men to conform to hypermasculine gender role
expectations, in which masculinity is related to dominance, whereas
femininity is related to weakness and subservience.
The 2002 SEQ-DoD survey results also showed that 51% of military
men reported having been harassed exclusively by other men and
another 27% reported having been harassed by both men and women
(Lipari & Lancaster, 2003). However, only 1% of military women
reported having been harassed exclusively by other women, and
another 14% reported having been harassed by both men and women.
The above studies suggest that men experience same-sex sexual har-
assment more often than women do. However, the surveys from the
U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (1981, 1988, 1995) and those from

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


72 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

the DoD (Bastian et al., 1996; Lipari & Lancaster, 2003; Martindale,
1991) were originally designed to measure the experiences of women;
hence, these surveys may not adequately account for the experiences of
men, especially experiences that involve same-sex sexual harassment
(Berdahl, Magley, & Waldo, 1996).
Berdahl et al. (1996) suggested that men feel harassed by behavior
that challenges current constructions of masculinity as a domain of
qualities reserved for men (e.g., dominance, privilege, and success in
the workplace), whereas women feel harassed by behavior that reinfor-
ces constructions of femininity as subordination in the workplace. Ber-
dahl et al. discovered behaviors that were perceived to be harassing to
men that were not identified as such for women (e.g., being harassed
for engaging in ‘‘non-masculine behavior’’). These behaviors were then
incorporated into a new instrument called the Sexual Harassment of
Men (SHOM) (Waldo, Berdahl, & Fitzgerald, 1998).
Like the SEQ, the SHOM (Waldo et al., 1998) uses a behavioral expe-
riences approach to assess men’s experiences with sexual harassment.
The SHOM has five subscales: three for gender harassment (lewd com-
ments, enforcement of the traditional masculine gender role, and nega-
tive remarks about men), one for unwanted sexual attention, and one
for sexual coercion. The SHOM has good internal reliability coefficients
across three diverse samples of men (378 men from a large public util-
ity company in the northwest, 209 male faculty and staff from a large
midwestern university, and about 420 men from western agribusiness
food processing plants).
Waldo et al. (1998) found that, during the past 24 months, between
40% and 53% of these men identified men or mostly men as the perpe-
trators of sexually harassing behavior, and these same-sex experiences
consisted mostly of lewd comments and endorsement of masculine
gender-role behavior. The authors concluded that ‘‘male–male sexual
harassment is far more common than typically assumed by researchers,
popular media, or the general public’’ (p. 72).

Gender differences in perceptions of sexual harassment


Two meta-analytic studies of gender differences in perceptions of
sexual harassment found that the overall mean differences were
between .30 and .35, which suggests that women perceive a broader
spectrum of behaviors as sexual harassment than do men (Blumenthal,
1998; Rotundo, Nguyen, & Sackett, 2001). Furthermore, two recent
studies on perceptions of same-sex sexual harassment indicated that
U.S. college women consistently judged hypothetical sexual harassment
cases between two women or between two men as being significantly
more sexually harassing, needing an investigation, and being punish-
able than did U.S. college men (DeSouza & Solberg, 2004; DeSouza

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Workplace Incivility, Sexual Harassment, and Racial Micro-Aggression 73

et al., 2007). College women were also significantly more likely to endorse
unwanted sexual behaviors between individuals of the same sex as
constituting sexual harassment at work or in educational settings than
did college men. The authors suggested that women are more likely to
empathize with the victim, regardless of the victim’s sex or sexual ori-
entation, because of women’s inferior position in society and of their
greater personal experience with, and therefore greater knowledge of,
the negative consequences of sexual harassment.

Consequences
A recent meta-analysis of 41 empirical studies with a total sample
size of almost 70,000 employees, of which 59% completed the SEQ,
examined three types of consequences of sexual harassment experien-
ces: job-related, psychological, and health-related (Willness, Steel, &
Lee, 2007). The findings showed that sexually harassing experiences
had several negative outcomes, including decreased job satisfaction
(especially with interpersonal aspects of work, such as with co-
workers), lower organizational commitment, work withdrawal (e.g.,
missing work, neglecting tasks), ill physical and mental health, and
symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, which suggests that some
types of sexual harassment may be considered traumatic events.
The above findings indicate that sexual harassment is a work stres-
sor to employees, which is costly to organizations. Willness et al. (2007)
estimated that sexual harassment is costing organizations an average of
$22,500 per employee in terms of lost productivity alone. In addition,
unlike incivility, sexual harassment is illegal behavior that can cost
organizations millions of dollars in litigation and monetary awards; for
instance, during 2006, the EEOC (2007b) reported $59.8 million paid in
monetary benefits over and above litigation.
Lapierre, Spector, and Leck (2005) conducted a meta-analytic study
to compare the effects of sexual versus nonsexual workplace aggression
(including incivility) on employees’ overall job satisfaction, which is
one of the best indicators of employees’ attitude toward the quality of
their overall work experience. The authors included in their analyses
25 studies on incivility and related constructs, representing a total of 28
independent samples (three of which completed the WIS), and 19 stud-
ies on sexual harassment, representing a total of 22 independent sam-
ples (12 of which completed the SEQ). Concerning sexual aggression,
because there were only two samples that included women as well as
men, the authors compared sexual to nonsexual aggression only among
women in order to hold victims’ gender constant. Hence, gender com-
parisons were conducted only on nonsexual aggression. The findings
showed that both types of workplace aggression negatively affected
victims’ overall job satisfaction. When the authors compared the two

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


74 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

types of workplace aggression (among women only), they found that


nonsexual aggression had a stronger negative relationship with overall
job satisfaction than did sexual aggression. Further, nonsexual aggres-
sion had a stronger negative relationship with overall job satisfaction
among women than among men. Such a finding is not in keeping with
Cortina et al.’s (2001) study, possibly because Lapierre et al. (2005)
used only a single outcome (i.e., job satisfaction), whereas Cortina et al.
used several job-related measures, including other measures to assess
psychological and health-related outcomes.
The negative consequences of workplace mistreatment (e.g., incivil-
ity and sexual harassment) go beyond the direct targets, affecting
bystanders’ professional, psychological, and physical well-being (e.g.,
Hoel, Faragher, & Cooper, 2004; Glomb et al., 1997; Miner-Rubino &
Cortina, 2004, 2007). Hoel et al. (2004) and Miner-Rubino and Cortina
(2007) suggested that the negative consequences on bystanders might
be due to a perception that the organization is unjust by being tolerant
of workplace mistreatment, fear of becoming the next target of mis-
treatment, empathy (they vicariously experience what the target is
going through), and guilt for not intervening, supporting the victim, or
reporting the perpetrator.
Furthermore, ambient (indirect) sexual harassment negatively affects
team- and organizational-level outcomes (Raver & Gelfand, 2005).
Raver and Gelfand found that team ambient sexual harassment was
associated with intragroup conflict, decreased group cohesion, and
decreased team productivity, as mediated by group conflict and group
cohesion, after controlling for general levels of stress, racial diversity,
team size, and team gender ratio. Thus, workplace mistreatment is not
just an individual problem, but is related to teams and ultimately orga-
nization productivity.

The Escalation: From Incivility to Sexual Harassment


Bernstein (1997) suggested that sexual harassment, especially gender
harassment, ‘‘is a type of incivility or . . . disrespect’’ (p. 449). However,
until recently, the literature on sexual harassment and incivility have
not interfaced. In addition, organizations have typically focused on sex-
ual harassment rather than incivility, because the former is illegal but
not the latter. This is unfortunate because incivility is an interpersonal
process that often facilitates other forms of workplace mistreatment,
such as sexual harassment (Andersson & Pearson, 1999). One way to
link the two literatures is to examine empirical studies that measured
both workplace incivility and sexual harassment.
Richman et al. (1999) conducted a study with 2,492 university
employees. There were significant gender differences for overall incivil-
ity only among faculty members, with female faculty members (68%)

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Workplace Incivility, Sexual Harassment, and Racial Micro-Aggression 75

reporting having experienced more uncivil acts than their male coun-
terparts (52%). Concerning sexual harassment, there were significant
gender differences. Among the faculty, more women (40%) than men
(29%) reported having experienced overall sexual harassment. How-
ever, more service men (46%) than service women (27%), as well as
more clerical men (46%) than clerical women (31%), reported having
experienced overall sexual harassment. There were no gender differen-
ces among student workers. When consequences of overall incivility
and sexual harassment were examined separately, after controlling for
race, age, and occupation, both men and women who experienced
overall incivility and sexual harassment had worse mental health (i.e.,
depression, anxiety, and hostility) than those who did not experience
incivility or sexual harassment. The association with drinking outcomes
and prescription drug use was mixed. For women, both incivility and
sexual harassment were related to drinking, but only sexual harass-
ment was related to prescription drug use. For men, both incivility and
sexual harassment were related to heavy episodic drinking and pre-
scription drug use.
Lim and Cortina (2005) investigated the relationships and outcomes
of incivility and sexual harassment in two samples of women (Ns ¼ 833
and 1,425; 88% and 93% of whom reported to be White, respectively)
employed within a large public sector organization. The authors used
the WIS and SEQ to measure the frequency of incivility and sexual har-
assment during the past 5 years, respectively. They combined unwanted
sexual attention and sexual coercion items into a sexualized harassment
composite. The findings showed that incivility and sexual harassment
co-occurred. That is, in both samples, gender harassment was strongly
related to both incivility and sexualized harassment. There was also a
moderate relationship between incivility and sexualized harassment,
even after controlling for the correlation between incivility and gender
harassment. Almost all women who experienced gender or sexualized
harassment also experienced incivility, but not vice versa. In fact,
women rarely experienced sexual harassment in isolation (only 1%–3%
did). In addition, confirmatory factor analyses indicated that gender har-
assment linked incivility to sexualized harassment.
Moreover, Lim and Cortina (2005) found an incremental worsening
of both job outcomes and psychological/health outcomes even after
controlling for behavior frequency, with women who experienced inci-
vility, gender harassment, and sexualized harassment having the worst
outcomes, followed by women who experienced both incivility and
gender harassment. Even women who experienced incivility alone had
significantly worse outcomes than women who never experienced inci-
vility, gender harassment, or sexualized harassment.
Incivility spirals are often associated with sexual harassment. Such
spirals may also trigger further victimization when victims complain

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


76 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

about workplace mistreatment. Cortina and Magley (2003) examined


retaliation in the context of interpersonal mistreatment at work that
occurred during the past 5 years by using the WIS and SEQ to measure
the frequency of both workplace incivility and sexual harassment in a
sample of 1,167 public sector employees (88% of whom reported to be
White). Of these, 71% experienced some type of interpersonal mistreat-
ment. Among mistreated employees, 27% spoke out about the mistreat-
ment. The authors found that different coping mechanisms triggered
different forms of retaliation (i.e., social or work-related), depending on
the status (power) of the perpetrator over the victim. As expected, vic-
tims of work mistreatment had worse professional, psychological, and
physical well-being compared to non-mistreated employees. Interest-
ingly, those who coped with workplace mistreatment by having a
‘‘voice,’’ for example, by directly addressing the mistreatment (e.g.,
confronting the abuser or complaining to a supervisor) or indirectly by
seeking social support, generally experienced more social retaliation
victimization (e.g., antisocial behaviors like social ostracism and
blame), especially when the perpetrators had more power than the vic-
tims, than did those who remained silent. This pattern was stronger
when the victim sought social support from colleagues. Compared with
silent victims, those who directly confronted the perpetrator also expe-
rienced more tangible work-related retaliation victimization (e.g., invol-
untary transfer, demotion, and so on), especially when the perpetrators
had more power than the victims.
Cortina and Magley (2003) also found health-related costs associated
with enduring mistreatment in silence. That is, those who were fre-
quently mistreated but remained silent had the worst psychological
and physical well-being. Conversely, individuals who expressed
‘‘voice’’ and did not experience retaliation had the best psychological
and physical well-being. Overall, these findings suggest that re-
victimization in the form of retaliation provides additional costs to
organizations in terms of decreased employee performance, absentee-
ism, and turnover.

Racialized Incivility and Sexual Harassment


Uncivil acts may reach a tipping point that spirals into micro-
inequalities that comprise the principal component for workplace dis-
crimination by focusing the incivility on someone’s gender or race/eth-
nicity (Rowe, 1990). Thus, the uncivil act may become gendered by
being aimed at some aspect of one’s masculinity or femininity, or it
may become racialized by being aimed at some aspect of one’s race/
ethnicity, or it may combine both gender and race/ethnicity by becom-
ing racialized gender micro-inequalities. For instance, Haslett and Lip-
man (1997) reported findings on everyday gender micro-aggressions in

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Workplace Incivility, Sexual Harassment, and Racial Micro-Aggression 77

a sample of 31 women lawyers, 84% of whom were White. The results


showed that 71% of the respondents reported having experienced some
form of micro-inequality. Their most disturbing micro-inequalities
included exclusion, isolation, and being ignored. Women who experi-
enced micro-inequalities reacted with frustration (35%), stress (23%),
anger (17%), withdrawal (12%), avoidance (6%), depression (4%), and
open hostility (3%). For women of color, the authors described a dou-
ble jeopardy that included micro-inequalities based on both their
racial/ethnic and gender identities, e.g., ‘‘joking around about my
Spanish clients and their ‘relationship’ to me (or we all look alike)’’
(p. 46).
Deitch et al. (2003) and Sue et al. (2007) define racial micro-
aggressions as subtle and ambiguous verbal, behavioral, or environ-
mental indignities directed at people of color. For instance, Deitch et al.
reported more everyday racial micro-aggressions (e.g., being ignored
or treated as if one did not exist) directed significantly more often
against African-American workers than against White workers in a
sample of 314 first-line workers (study 1). In addition, African-
American workers reported more negative job-specific well-being out-
comes than did their White counterparts. Deitch et al. also reported
findings from 5,483 Navy personnel (study 2) and from 8,311 Army
personnel (study 3) based on re-analyses of the 1995 SEQ-DoD survey
dataset. The authors selected survey items that focused on everyday
mistreatment (e.g., not being given the right information to do one’s
job). The findings reflected the same patterns as those evidenced with
civilians. Specifically, being African American was associated with mis-
treatment. In addition, being African American was associated with
negative job-specific well-being, negative emotional well-being, as well
as negative perceived physical well-being outcomes.
Krieger et al. (2006) found widespread incivility, sexual harassment,
and racial discrimination in a sample of 1,202 low-income women and
men union workers (24% of whom reported to be White) in the greater
Boston area. Specifically, 52% of the workers reported having experi-
enced incivility during the past 12 months, 24% reported having expe-
rienced at least one potentially sexually harassing behavior, and 53%
reported having experienced racial/ethnic discrimination, with 12% of
the sample reporting having experienced all three types of workplace
mistreatment. On the one hand, the results showed that White workers
were significantly more likely to experience uncivil behavior than
workers of color, which is not in keeping with Deitch et al.’s (2003)
findings, and gender was not a significant predictor. On the other
hand, Krieger et al. found that workers of color significantly experi-
enced more sexual harassment than White workers. Again, gender was
not a significant predictor—both women (26%) and men (22%) experi-
enced similar numbers of sexually harassing experiences. However,

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


78 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

sexual orientation was a significant predictor. Lesbian, gay, bisexual,


and transgendered workers reported having experienced more sexual
harassment than heterosexual workers did. In addition, workers of
color (58%) experienced significantly more racial discrimination than
White workers (37%). Interestingly, compared to men, women were
significantly less likely to report having experienced racial discrimina-
tion.
The argument that women of color often experience both gender
and racial harassment in the workplace, since sexism and racism have
been historically and experientially intertwined (Murrell, 1996), is
known as the double jeopardy hypothesis. In fact, some researchers
suggest that racialized sexual harassment is a central factor in the har-
assment experience of women of color (e.g., Buchanan, 2005; Welsh,
Carr, MacQuarrie, & Huntley, 2006).
Although some studies failed to support the double jeopardy hy-
pothesis (e.g., Krieger et al., 2006), others showed support for racialized
sexual harassment in the workplace (e.g., Buchanan & Ormerod, 2002;
Cortina, Fitzgerald, & Drasgow, 2002; Mansfield, Koch, Henderson, &
Vicary, 1991; Schneider, Hitlan, & Radhakrishnan, 2000; Texeira, 2002;
Yoder & Aniakudo, 1995).
Recently, two models of the double jeopardy hypothesis were empir-
ically tested: The additive (main-effect) model was compared with the
multiplicative (interaction) model on the incidence of both sexual and
racial/ethnic harassment (Berdahl & Moore, 2006). The sample con-
sisted of 238 employees (48% of whom reported to be White) who were
recruited from five organizations. Sexual harassment was measured
with 19 items that were worded to apply to both men and women,
with 14 items measuring traditional sexual harassment on the basis of
Fitzgerald et al.’s (1988) typology (gender harassment, unwanted sexual
attention, and sexual coercion) and five additional items measuring
‘‘not-man-enough harassment,’’ which were previously identified by
Berdahl et al. (1996) and Waldo et al. (1998). Ethnic harassment was
measured using seven items from the Ethnic Harassment Experiences
scale (Schneider et al., 2000). The procedure used to measure both sex-
ual and ethnic harassment consisted of multiplying frequency of har-
assment (0–4) by negative evaluation of the experience (1–2). Thus, the
amount of harassment ranged from 0 (never experienced or experi-
enced such harassment in a neutral or positive way) to 8 (experienced
such harassment most of the time and evaluated it very negatively).
Berdahl and Moore (2006) found that when racial/ethnic harassment
and sexual harassment were combined to form an overall measure of
harassment, women of color experienced significantly more overall har-
assment compared to men of color, White women, and White men,
supporting the double jeopardy hypothesis. When the two models
were tested, the findings showed that women experienced significantly

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Workplace Incivility, Sexual Harassment, and Racial Micro-Aggression 79

more sexual harassment than men, race/ethnicity was not significant,


and there was no interaction between sex and race/ethnicity. In addi-
tion, people of color experienced significantly more racial/ethnic har-
assment than did Whites, but women did not experience it more so
than men did, and there was no significant interaction between sex
and race/ethnicity. Lastly, women experienced more overall harass-
ment than men, and people of color also experienced more overall har-
assment than did Whites, but there was no interaction between sex and
race/ethnicity. These findings support the additive model, suggesting
that race/ethnicity does not affect sexual harassment and that sex does
not affect racial/ethnic harassment.

CONCLUSIONS
The existing literature reviewed in this chapter suggests that per-
sonal slights lead to incivility spirals. Moreover, incivility is a type of
interpersonal discrimination (Hebl, Foster, Mannix, & Dovidio, 2002),
because it is subtle and easily masked (covert) and is often targeted at
women and racial/ethnic minorities. Unfortunately, incivility becomes
a systemic organization problem that is often ignored and unpunished
by organizations compared to formal (overt) discrimination of the past
that is protected by law (Code of Federal Regulations, 2000). According
to Dipboye and Coletta (2005), ‘‘the subtlety and complexity of [inter-
personal] discrimination in today’s workplace makes it even more per-
nicious in some respects than the simple and easily identifiable
discrimination of the past’’ (p. 427). Moreover, a growing body of em-
pirical evidence shows that incivility has negative consequences on
individuals and organizations. Thus, incivility should be subject to the
same regulations and policies as formal types of discrimination. In
addition, incivility co-occurs with sexual and racial/ethnic harassment.
Hence, multiple forms of interpersonal mistreatment need to be
addressed simultaneously rather than in isolation, as is typically the
case. As Lim and Cortina (2005) put it, ‘‘a concerted effort at eliminat-
ing all elements of a hostile work environment might be more effective
and efficient’’ (p. 494).
Gender harassment has been identified as an important link between
general incivility and sexualized harassment (i.e., unwanted sexual
attention and sexual coercion; Lim & Cortina, 2005). Thus, gender
should be actively investigated when assessing generalized incivility in
order to detect gendered incivility, gendered bullying, and the interface
between gender with other systems of inequality, such as race/ethnic-
ity and sexual orientation. In addition, same-sex sexual harassment is a
common occurrence, suggesting a need to focus on gender stereotyping
rather than on sexualized harassment, which is more symptomatic of
heterosexual sexual conflict between men and women. In fact, legal

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


80 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

scholars have suggested that the term sexual harassment should be re-
conceptualized as gender-norm harassment to accommodate the plural-
ity of forms that sexual harassment now takes (Epstein, 1998; Franke,
1997; Schultz, 1998). Additional research and legal scholarship describ-
ing the link between gender stereotyping and discrimination are
needed in order to make clear to policy makers the need to make
gender-norm harassment, both overt and covert, illegal.

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© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Chapter 5

Sexual Harassment and Male


Dominance: Toward an Ecological
Approach
Phoebe Morgan
James Gruber

The last quarter century has witnessed aggressive efforts at gender


integration and gender equity by women’s groups, government agen-
cies, and policy advocates. Because wages and occupational status have
historically been disproportionately higher among men, economic and
labor parity has played a key role in efforts to desegregate male-domi-
nated domains.1 As a result, today unprecedented numbers of women
are now doing work previously done by men, and an increasing num-
ber of high-paying, high-status occupations previously dominated by
men have achieved or are close to achieving gender equity.2 Yet, in the
United States, men’s wages are 25% higher than women’s, over 90% of
Fortune 500’s CEOs are White men (Business Wire, 2000), and the labor
market remains highly segregated (Kelly, 1991).
Research has consistently linked the problems of male dominance
with sexual harassment (for an overview, see Morgan 2001). Despite laws
and policies prohibiting it, sexual harassment continues to be a problem
across all domains and is endemic where men predominate (Gruber &
Morgan, 2005). In male-dominated domains, disproportionately more
women (and men) experience sexual harassment and they report more
severe forms of it. In domains of high dominance (where 85% or more of
occupants are male), sexual harassment is especially prevalent. For exam-
ple, while less than half (42%) of female U.S. government employees

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86 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

have been sexually harassed (U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board


[USMSPB], 1995), two-thirds or more of the women working in the mili-
tary sector report experiencing it (Bastian, Lancaster, & Reyst, 1996). Sim-
ilarly, women working in paramilitary occupations like policing and
firefighting have significantly higher rates of harassment than their civil-
ian counterparts (Commission on Women, 1992; Brown, Campbell, &
Fife-Schaw, 1995). In fact, the rate of harassment among women police
officers may be as high as 80% (Martin & Jurik, 2006).
In male-dominated domains, sexual harassment is not only common,
but pernicious. In addition to high victimization rates, the types of har-
assment and the consequences of it are more severe. Sexual bribery
and sexual assault, for example, are experienced by a significantly
higher portion of military and paramilitary women (Bastian et al., 1996;
Embser-Herbert, 2005; Texteira, 2002; Yoder & Aniakudo, 1997) than in
the general population. Reports of especially demeaning and violent
harassment across a wide range of male-dominated occupations—from
coal miners (Yount, 1991) to oil riggers (Holcombe, 1992) and even
stock brokers (Smith, 2002)—add more evidence about the unique
problems women face in male-dominated domains.
Historians have found ample evidence that, at least since the 19th
century, the problems of male dominance and workplace sexual harass-
ment have been inextricably linked (Baker, 2005; Bularzik, 1978). Since
the 1970s feminists have conceptualized sexual harassment as a political
problem (Farley, 1978; MacKinnon, 1979), an occupational hazard (Crull,
1981), and even a public health risk (Charney & Russell, 1994). Regard-
less of the type of problem sexual harassment is conceived to be, from a
feminist perspective male dominance is a key, if not the central, factor
affecting it. Sociologist Lin Farley (1978) broke theoretical ground by
linking unwanted sexual attention to the dominance of patriarchal ideol-
ogy. Specifically, Farley argued that the normalization of unwanted sex-
ual attention is the outcome of a patriarchal system in which men’s
wants and needs are privileged over those of women’s. Legal scholar
Catherine MacKinnon (1987) concurred, but extended the theory further
by envisioning male dominance as the primary marker of patriarchy
and sexual harassment as both an outcome of and a contributor to male
domination. In other words sexual harassment is not simply a product
of male dominance; it also reproduces it. Social research of the last quarter
century has consistently validated this feminist view.
But more recently the focus of sexual harassment research has
drifted away from the study of institutionalized male dominance to
psychological and organizational factors. This shift to micro-level anal-
yses (for an in-depth critique, see Mueller, DeCoster, & Estes, 2001)
has, among other things, led to an exploration of the psychological fac-
tors associated with research participants’ definitions of and responses
to ‘‘sexual harassment.’’

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Sexual Harassment and Male Dominance 87

This tilt toward the psychological study of sexual harassment has


been fueled in large part by the Sexual Experiences Questionnaire
(SEQ) developed in the late 1980s by Louise Fitzgerald and her col-
leagues, which has become the most widely used measure of sexual
harassment experiences in the world. Only recently has the widespread
use of the SEQ been challenged (see Gutek, Murphy, & Douma, 2004).
In particular, Gutek and her colleagues state that, at best, the SEQ is a
measure of psychological sexual harassment. That is, Fitzgerald and her
colleagues, as well as other researchers during the first decade of sex-
ual harassment research, ‘‘tried to find out what kinds of experiences
people had that might be considered sexual harassment and then wrote
questions to try to capture these experiences’’ (p. 467). In addition to
the SEQ, Fitzgerald’s measure of ‘‘organizational tolerance’’ (i.e.,
whether leadership has a lax attitude toward enforcing sexual harass-
ment policies) is assessed by asking employees about the likely
responses of their supervisors or managers to hypothetical situations that
involve unwanted sexual attention.
Our primary critique of recent trends in sexual harassment literature
is that the problem of male dominance as a theoretical force and a stim-
ulus for research models is ‘‘missing in action.’’ In particular, we believe
that sexual harassment theory and research has lost much of its feminist
edge during the last two decades because of the prominence of organi-
zational psychology paradigms over alternative critical feminist perspec-
tives that link work to cultural production and reproduction of racial,
social class, and gender inequality. Through an in-depth review and re-
analysis of the existing research, the following pages make several theo-
retical propositions that, when viewed together, present an ecological
model of the relationship between male dominance and sexual harass-
ment. By ‘‘ecological’’ we mean that male domination occurs as the
result of situated performances of masculinity that are influenced by a
host of ‘‘external’’ or extra-situational factors, such as sex ratios, the
dominance of cultural norms in the work domain (e.g., ‘‘sex-role spill-
over’’), physical and social boundaries that demarcate work domains,
collective identities of participants, and individual attitudes.
Recent innovations in men’s studies have allowed us to understand
male dominance as a far more complicated phenomenon than sexual
harassment research has conceived it to be (for a thorough overview
and critique of the masculinity literature, see Connell, 2000). This body
of work places masculinity construction at the center of its analyses
and critically examines the normalization of manhood and the social
functions of manliness. Masculinity research sheds considerable light
on how gender segregation and the subordination of women is socially
justified and perpetuated. However, the subject of sexual harassment
has been tangential at best in this body of work (for an exception, see
Messerschmitt, 1993).

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88 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

For ease of discussion, we present our analysis in three parts. Part


one critiques the ways in which male dominance has been conceptual-
ized in numerical terms. Part two draws upon recent masculinity
theory to conceptualize male dominance in normative terms (e.g.,
domains where work roles or identities center around stereotypic
masculine behaviors or images such as risk-taking, aggressiveness,
sex talk, etc.) and highlights the variety of ways these stereotypes
affect sexual harassment. In the third part we discuss the implications
this multidimensional view of male dominance has for future sexual
harassment research and policies. The outcome is a set of proposals
based upon our ecological model that may serve as a basis for future
research.

NUMERICAL DOMINANCE
Survey research consistently confirms a positive correlation
between numerical dominance and sexual harassment. In domains
where the sex ratio is skewed (i.e., the proportion of men greatly
exceeds that of women), sexual harassment is likely to be prevalent
(Gruber, 1998; Gutek, 1985; Gutek & Morasch, 1982). In fact, compara-
tive analyses show that male predominance and sexual harassment
correlate across domains as well as within them. A complication
arises, however, because numerical dominance does not always (or
necessarily) predict the existence of a work domain male culture.
Nevertheless, numerical dominance has often been used as a proxy
for normative dominance.

Proportionality
Drawing upon social role theory, Gutek and Morasch (1982) were
the first to theorize the connection between sex ratio skew and sexual
harassment prevalence. They argued that in environments where the
sex ratio is skewed, cultural gender roles ‘‘spill over’’ into the work-
place. While this occurs regardless of which sex predominates, sexual
harassment is especially problematic when men are a significant major-
ity. In domains where sex role spillover occurs, the climate becomes
sexually charged and the treatment of women as daughters, wives,
girlfriends, and mothers rather than as coworkers and supervisors is
normalized. In coal mining, for example, where less than 7% of the
workers are female, women are often typecast as flirts, tomboys, or
ladies and then treated as such by their male coworkers (Yount, 1991).
Similarly, in corporate offices, executive secretaries are hired and pro-
moted on the basis of their abilities to perform as surrogate wives
(Pringle, 1989) and are often conspicuously objectified as status-bearing
possessions (Messerschmidt, 1993). Bond and her colleagues (2004)

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Sexual Harassment and Male Dominance 89

argued that job satisfaction for both women and men varied substan-
tially between female- and male-dominated occupations because of cul-
tural gender differences. Specifically, they hypothesized that workers’
higher satisfaction in female-dominated jobs was the product of work-
place norms that encouraged supportive and nurturing relationships,
which contrasted with male-dominated jobs where emotional distance
was typical.

Degree of Sexualization and Amount of Contact


In addition to conflating gender roles with work roles, men tend to
sexualize interaction with the opposite sex more than women do
(Gutek, Cohen, & Konrad, 1990; Stockdale, 2005). The ‘‘contact theory’’
of Gutek and her colleagues argues that routine contact with members
of the other sex increases sociosexual behavior and workplace sexuali-
zation, especially in male-majority workplaces because men tend to
sexualize interactions, irrespective of specific occupational or situa-
tional norms. In highly sexualized environments, for example, girl
watching is accepted as innocent fun, as is the highly visible display of
scantily clad ‘‘calendar girls’’ on walls or computer screens (Quinn,
2000).
An analysis of a random survey of Canadian women found that the
amount of contact with men within a domain was a more significant
predictor of sexual harassment than the number of men who work
there (Gruber, 1998). Expectedly, in domains where the rate of contact
with men is high, the atmosphere is sexually charged and sex and
work roles are conflated; unwanted sexual attention such as flirting,
requests for dates, sexual jokes, and proposals for sex is common. In
addition, quid pro quo harassment is likely to be tolerated. By ‘‘quid
pro quo’’ we refer to an often unspoken expectation that sexual favors
can be traded for work-related rewards. Women who flirt or accept
requests for dates or sex are rewarded by being hired, promoted, or
given favorable assignments; those who refuse sexual offers risk being
demoted or fired (MacKinnon, 1979). Labeled ‘‘the casting couch’’ by
theatrical performers, quid pro quo harassment has frequently occurred
at auditions (Farley, 1978).
While the problems of skewed sex ratio and high contact implicate
the need for more aggressive efforts at integration, sex role spillover
and the sexualization of the attitudinal climate suggest the need for
greater efforts at promoting professional behavior. Consensual relations
policies and mandated sexual harassment workshops are examples of
the latter (Wonders, 1997). However, the fact that the problem of sexual
harassment persists in light of increased integration and professional-
ism suggests the relationship between male predominance and sexual
harassment is multifaceted.

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90 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

Degree of Women’s Visibility


Kanter’s (1977) ethnographic study of corporate gender relations
suggests the correspondence between sex ratio and sexual harassment
may actually be curvilinear. She found that in departments where the
numbers of women were especially small—one or two—men granted
them token status and treated them affectionately. The tokens were
infantilized and treated as little sisters, workgroup pets, or department
mascots. However, as the number of women increased, they lost token
status and, with that, the affection of their patronizing male coworkers.
As the visibility of women increased, gender relations grew hostile.
As Cockburn (1991) explains, visibility affects gender relations in
two ways. First, greater numbers foster a heightened sense of solidarity
among women; as a result, they may feel more empowered to assert
their work roles over their sex roles and therefore resist male sexual
advances. Those who follow this path are likely to experience retalia-
tion. Spurned judges, for example, have punished female attorneys by
berating them in court (Angel, 1991). Thus, the visibility theory sug-
gests retaliation-based sexual harassment will rise as women’s profile
increases.
Second, growing visibility creates the impression that a critical mass
of women is taking over the domain. Such a perception produces back-
lash. Sexual harassment, then, becomes both an expression of anger
and a tool of intimidation. Rather than infantilizing or objectifying, sex-
ualized behavior becomes demeaning and humiliating. It creates an
environment inhospitable to women that signals ‘‘you are not wanted
here.’’ For example, despite the fact that the U.S. Armed Forces have
some of the most progressive gender integration policies in America,
which resulted in the doubling of the number of women recruits in a
decade (Titunik, 2000), in 2001 nearly 80% of female veterans claimed
they experienced sexual violence while serving their country (USA
Today, 2001). In short, the critical mass theory suggests that when men
perceive their dominance is at risk, the rate of hostile environment har-
assment will increase.
Within a sexually charged environment, backlash will manifest in
forms of more severe physical aggression. They may haze rather than
initiate female newcomers. For example, in the Arizona Department of
Corrections, new female corrections officers were required to practice
body and cavity searches more frequently than their male counterparts
(Morgan, 1999). In coal mining, the stripping and greasing down of
newcomers initiates them to the culture and solidifies bonds between
those who share it (Yount, 2005). Yet, when a small number of women
are stripped and greased by a large number of men, for them an initia-
tion ritual becomes an alienating experience. Likewise, in military aca-
demies, a site of rapid integration, upperclassmen traditionally initiate

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Sexual Harassment and Male Dominance 91

freshmen through demands for submission. A Pentagon survey found


that within their first year of service 12% to 17% of all female cadets
had been sexually assaulted (Lipka, 2005).
While numerical dominance and the prevalence of sexual harassment
are related, these examples show that the relationship is neither necessar-
ily linear nor positive. It is not simply that the more men that populate a
domain, the more women will be sexually harassed. Among U.S. auto-
workers, for example, the women who experienced the most sexual har-
assment were not tokens, but working in groups where their numbers
(approximately a third of the group) made them a ‘‘threatening minor-
ity’’ (Gruber & Bjorn, 1982). Recent findings from a Dutch survey show
that women are at the highest risk of sexual harassment in domains that
are somewhat dominated by men. While approximately half of the female
respondents working in either non-dominated or highly male-dominated
workplaces experienced unwanted sexual behavior, a whopping 81% of
those in somewhat male-dominant domains experienced it (Timmerman,
1990). So, numerical dominance is related to sexual harassment, but the
nature of that relationship is contingent upon context.
In conclusion, numbers do matter, but in at least two different ways.
First, in highly male-dominated settings where the majority of men
hold traditional gender values, sex spillover is likely, as is the sexuali-
zation of social interaction. In these situations, unwanted flirting,
touching, ‘‘ogling,’’ and requests for dates or sex will seem normative
and the exchange of sexual favors for work-related reward will be
common. But, with the successful integration of more women, the more
visible they become. With their higher profile comes women’s resist-
ance to quid pro quo harassment and an escalation of men’s hostility.
Once the character of a domain shifts from highly dominated to some-
what dominated, there arises the possibility that a critical mass of
women is emerging. Men unwilling to relinquish their majority status
(and the perks that come with it) respond with demeaning and humil-
iating forms of sexual harassment as a means to express outrage and to
make the environment as inhospitable as possible for women.

NORMATIVE DOMINANCE
Applications of sex ratio, spillover, sexualization, contact, and criti-
cal mass theories make the connection between male predominance
and sexual harassment prevalence clear but not complete. There are at
least two common situations that illustrate the limitations of these theo-
ries. First is the sexual harassment of women by men in domains
where men do not predominate. Second is the sexual harassment of
men by other men.
With regard to the first situation, survey results indicate that even
when the sex ratio is fairly even the sexual harassment of women is

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92 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

common. Timmerman’s (1990) study of Dutch employees, for example,


found that while sexual harassment rates in non-male-predominant
domains was lower than where men are the majority, nearly half (48%)
of the women in them experienced sexual harassment. In a Canadian
survey of working women, those in gender-balanced work domains
experienced levels of harassment similar to their peers in male-
dominant settings (Gruber, 1998). In fact, even in situations where a
minority of women have greater job status and authority over their
male subordinates, they are harassed (Rospenda, Richman, & Nawyn,
1998). About half of college faculty professors are sexually harassed by
their students (DeSouza & Fansler, 2003), as are attorneys by their cli-
ents (Laband & Lentz, 1998), and nurses by their patients (Hanrahan,
1997). Likewise, female executives, managers, and supervisors are sexu-
ally harassed by their subordinates at least as often as women without
supervisory status.
As for the second situation, surveys show that 14% to 19% of men
are sexually harassed at work, and they experience significantly more
same-sex harassment than women do (USMSPB, 1981, 1988, 1995). Men
harass women primarily through sexual comments or requests for rela-
tionships or sex; but they harass other men physically, mostly by inap-
propriate touching or body language (Stockdale, Wood, & Batra, 1999).
So, while these two situations highlight the limits of predominance
theory, they do not necessarily call for a discarding of it. In fact, they
suggest that male dominance is at least two-dimensional: There is a
normative component as well as a numerical one. By normative we
refer to those psychological and sociological processes that construct
male dominance as natural and sexual attention as inevitable and
therefore tolerable.

Traditionality
Attitudinal and perceptional studies of psychologists have made sig-
nificant progress toward linking normative male dominance to sexual
harassment prevalence. In general terms, traditionality (i.e., the degree
to which one believes that gender differences are ‘‘natural’’) normalizes
the sexual, social, and economic subordination of women. Pryor and
colleagues, for example, have found a relationship between men’s pro-
pensity to sexually harass women and their attitudes. In particular,
high LSH (likelihood to sexually harass) men hold adversarial sexual
beliefs, find it difficult to assume the perspectives of others, and
endorse traditional sex-role stereotypes (Pryor & Stoller, 1994; Pryor,
Giedd, & Williams, 1995). Also, these men score high on scales of anti-
femininity, toughness, dominance, and authoritarianism. Fitzgerald and
Shullman (1985) note a similar link between traditional attitudes about
gender roles among women and their resistance in labeling unwanted

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Sexual Harassment and Male Dominance 93

sexual attention as ‘‘sexual harassment.’’ In contrast, Brooks and Perot


(1991) found feminist ideology to be a significant predictor of the likeli-
hood of defining situations as sexually harassing. Specifically, the more
respondents embrace gender equality, the more likely they were to
define unwanted sexual attention as harassing.
Thus, regardless of the number of men populating a domain, the
men and women who rate high on the traditionality scale will more
likely view unwanted sexual attention as just the price women must
pay to participate in the paid labor force while those with feminist ori-
entations are more apt to find unwanted sexual attention hostile and
offensive. Traditionality theory, then, can account for the sexual harass-
ment of women in domains where men do not predominate. Where
the majority of those who populate the domain hold traditional values,
most likely there will be a gendered division of labor and a disparate
disbursement of power. In a highly traditional domain, it is normal for
a minority of elite men to hold a disproportionate amount of power
over a majority of subordinate women.
Hospitals are a case in point. In this domain, a high degree of tradi-
tionality is evidenced by a gendered division of labor such that medicine
is predominately practiced by men and patient care is performed pri-
marily by women. Despite the fact that the work and training of nurse
practitioners is in many ways comparable to physicians, their status and
pay is significantly less than physicians (About Women and Marketing,
1998). Furthermore female nurses are more likely than female physicians
to be sexually harassed by male patients. Thus, in hospital rooms where
nurses have the greatest authority, unwanted sexual harassment from
male patients is common, but complaints about it are not (Hanrahan,
1997). Even though they didn’t like it, nurses told Hanrahan sexual har-
assment was for them an unavoidable occupational risk.
In sum, in work domains where the majority of women and men
hold traditional beliefs about gender, the prevalence of interactions that
meet the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s definition of
sexual harassment will be high, but reports of sexual harassment low
(Stambaugh, 1997; Morgan, 1999). But, as the number of women with
feminist ideology grow, so will the number of reports and complaints
about sexual harassment. Also, a feminist ideology can help buffer the
negative impact of harassment on women’s mental health and well-
being (Rederstorff, Buchanan, & Settles, 2007).

Gender Regime
Traditionality theory cannot account for the harassment of men by
other men, especially when the perpetrator and his target are both het-
erosexual. Gender performance theory, more commonly referred to as
‘‘doing gender’’ theory, offers an explanation. Ethnomethodologists

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94 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

West and Zimmerman (1987) conceptualized gender as an interactive


accomplishment. Most simply, what it means to be feminine or mascu-
line is produced through social interaction. What is defined as
‘‘normal’’ for a man or a woman is the outcome of negotiations that
extend over a period of time. When gender performance does not meet
expectations, the actor is stigmatized and subject to social control. Gen-
der is produced at every level of interaction, from interpersonal to
organizational (Martin & Jurik, 2006). Gender norms change with ideo-
logical shifts and vary across types of interactions and within domains.
Gender hegemony—the privileging of the roles, values, and beliefs of
one group over another—is institutionalized by the state, media, reli-
gion, at home and at work, and structured by race, class, sexuality, and
ability (Messerschmidt, 1993). Connell (2000) refers to this system of
gender management as the ‘‘gender regime.’’
As a learned performance, there are variations in the degree to which
men accomplish the hegemonic ideal (Connell, 1995). In fact, only a few
rigorously practice it, and this group of ‘‘hyper-masculine’’ men is
accorded elite status. Thus, the gender regime produces a hierarchy of
men in which only a few men dominate the remaining majority. Some-
times men of privilege use intimidation and violence to sustain domi-
nance, and men of lesser status use the same to resist subordination and
increase their status (Collinson, 1992; Kaufman, 1987; Hearn, 1985). Sex-
ual harassment, then, is a common tactic used by subordinate men to
challenge the power of elite males. Conversely, sexual harassment is also
a weapon used by elite men to defend against insubordination.

Organized Sexual Harassment


In a patriarchal society, one of the most unambiguous ways to dem-
onstrate masculinity is to assert sexual, economic, or social dominance
over women (MacKinnon, 1987). Thus, there is no place for women in
a power pyramid based upon masculinity (Cockburn, 1991) and
attempts to insert women into it destabilize the regime (Hatty, 2000).
The need to preserve the dominance of men over women bonds men
of all statuses—the elite hyper-masculine as well as the men they dom-
inate. In fact, it is at the very sites of successful integration of women
where cults of masculinity flourish (Connell, 1995).
At these sites, sexual harassment is an organized male-bonding rit-
ual. Quinn’s (2000) ethnography of girl watching, for example, reveals
that the primary motivation of group ogling is not inherently hostile
but more for sport. As with team sports like football, the sexual objecti-
fication of women becomes a game in which knowledge of the rules
and willingness to play it establish insider status. From the girl
watcher’s point of view, ogling is harmless fun. It is, then, domination
of women that bonds together all those within the masculine hierarchy.

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Sexual Harassment and Male Dominance 95

Those who are uninitiated to the masculine order are inducted through
group performances of ritualized sexual aggression. In military aca-
demies, the sexualized hazing of cadets is a long-standing tradition. A
prerequisite for induction into a college fraternity is the ability to rise
above the humiliation of being demeaned as homosexuals or subordi-
nated as women.
It is not just the integration of women that destabilizes the hierarchy
of men. Men who stand against the gender regime also threaten the
stability of the masculine hierarchy. Men who choose cooperation over
competition, treat women as equals, or who refuse to use force are gen-
der rebels who risk becoming targets of what Stockdale (2005) terms
‘‘rejection-based’’ sexual harassment. In much the same way as women
who ‘‘invade’’ male turf become targets of hostility and derision, so
too nonconforming men are subject to verbal and physical aggression
and excluded from routine male-bonding experiences.
Given the fact that only a few men have what it takes to achieve
elite status and the vast majority are either working to prove their mas-
culinity or resisting pressure to do so, it makes sense that the majority
of men targeted for sexual harassment are harassed by heterosexual
men and that the most common types of harassment they experience
are sexualized acts of hostility and intimidation. Ironically, then,
while the masculine regime is stabilized by homosocial rituals, it is de-
stabilized by homosexuality. As a result, highly normative domains
strongly prohibit homosexuality. For example, in the U.S. Armed
Forces, homosexual behavior is a crime subject to court martial. When
gays and lesbians challenged that policy by publicly owning their sex-
ual orientations, the Clinton Administration attempted to restore order
with the institution of ‘‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’’ policies. Yet, sexual har-
assment has become a common method for the informal sanction of
homosexual behavior. Interestingly, false ‘‘outing,’’ or just the threat
of it is a common retaliation against heterosexual women who resist or
complain about unwanted sexual attention, as doing so triggers formal
mechanisms of social control (Embser-Herbert, 2005).

TOWARD AN ECOLOGICAL MODEL OF MASCULINITY


IN ORGANIZATIONS
To this point we have examined how two different facets of male
dominance—numerical and normative—affect sexual harassment prev-
alence and severity. For ease of discussion, we have explored each one
independently; but, as our examples illustrate, these two types of dom-
inance operate simultaneously. We have established that there are
degrees to both dimensions. The sex ratio, for example, can be slightly,
somewhat, or heavily skewed toward men. Similarly, attitudes about
gender and feminist ideology can slide along a scale from very

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96 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

traditional to not traditional at all. The masculine regime—the habits,


practices, and rituals that sustain male dominance—can be formal or
informal, and the rules can be rigid, plastic, or somewhere in between.
In light of our review and critique, the following sets forth a series of
proposals for future research and policy making. For ease of discus-
sion, they are summarized in this chapter’s appendix.

Proposal 1
The fact that sex ratios occur within both social and psychological
contexts needs greater consideration. In operationalizing this variable,
there are three dimensions that researchers should include: the objective
count of women and men (the number of employees, participants, or
members listed in formal documents); the perception that work domain
members have of the numbers (the degree to which those populating a
domain sense men or women predominate); and changes in both the
actual number of men and the perceptions of the numbers. With regard
to the second aspect, research suggests that in situations of stress major-
ity group members are apt to inflate their estimates of the number of mi-
nority-status members who have entered their domains. Also, as we
discussed earlier, a notable shift in numbers of women, even when they
already constitute a sizable minority, may create an outbreak of
misogyny. Therefore, an evaluation of male dominance should include a
sex ratio history of the domain under investigation.

Proposal 2
The extent to which leadership can control male dominance impacts
the effectiveness of policies preventing sexual harassment. This is likely
to be problematic when employees work in domains that are physically
isolated from those where leadership resides. A fire station, a police
station, and a military barracks are prime examples of this type of sep-
aration. For example, firefighters may perceive the city government,
chief’s office, or even the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
director as far removed from their daily work lives and therefore igno-
rant of their reality (Baignet, 2005). They may resent and therefore
ignore policies that mandate attitudinal or behavioral change.
In isolated settings such as these, a physical structure encompasses a
social setting and blurs the distinctions between occupation and organi-
zation. In some areas within an organization there are distinct occupa-
tional niches where employees with similar job titles are functionally
and spatially segregated from the rest of the organization. These simi-
larities promote group identification and solidarity that may be
enhanced further by similarity in ascribed characteristics (e.g., gender,
race, age). The physical separation heightens the symbolic separateness

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Sexual Harassment and Male Dominance 97

of the work group. For example, Corroto’s (2005) field study shows
that a masculinist enclave can exist within an otherwise gender-diverse
setting (a university) where men in a traditionally male occupation
(architecture) claim physical space (studios) as male territory and use
these areas to enact normatively male ritual activities (e.g., displaying
sexual graffiti). From our experiences as sexual harassment consultants,
a map of the work domain that includes the flow or patterns of move-
ment of women and men within it not only creates a more vivid por-
trayal of social contact between the sexes but also delineates the
boundaries (physical and/or symbolic) that may heighten sexual har-
assment targets’ sense of entrapment.

Proposal 3
When male dominance is normalized through organized rather than
individual processes, the impact of masculine norms on work domains
is increased substantially. The spillover effect may be heightened con-
siderably when hiring or promotion criteria or membership require-
ments to professional associations or unions codify the conflation of
gender and occupational roles. For example, military and paramilitary
physical fitness requirements that emphasize upper body strength nor-
malize masculinity as an occupational requirement. Similarly, uniform
requirements like those of the Hooter’s restaurant (i.e., tight, low-cut
T-shirts and miniskirts) institutionalize a sexually charged restaurant
climate and thereby normalize unwanted sexual attention as an accept-
able occupational hazard.
A key feature of the role of extra-organizational norms among
groups of people is an occupational culture. What has not received
research attention is an analysis of the factors that heighten tensions
between organizational and occupational loyalty and identity. For
male-dominated occupations this may be a primary source of male re-
sistance to organizational policies and directives against sexual harass-
ment as men begin their careers. For a number of jobs there is an
extended socialization process that controls entry into an occupation
and guides behavior during employment. There may be a formal train-
ing process wherein a candidate spends an extended period of time as
a student or trainee. The training or socialization may occur in a setting
that is physically, psychologically, and gender separate. Police academ-
ies and military boot camps are notable examples. The spillover of this
socialization into formal work domains is accentuated by unique global
occupational identities that link workers to groups or associations outside
the work site. Professional associations, fraternal organizations, and
unions not only help to sustain occupational identities at work but they
also create global allegiances that extend far beyond the work site. Group
solidarity is further enhanced through informal rituals and practices that

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98 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

bond members of an occupation at a work site (e.g., coal miner greasing,


girl watching, after-work get-togethers at strip bars) that often contradict
or attempt to undermine formal processes of an organization. These rit-
uals may serve, among other functions, to heighten group boundaries.
So, as we try to understand why women police officers or members
of military units experience higher levels of sexual harassment than
women in the general working population, we need to move beyond
their small numbers and the masculinist character of these occupations
to a fuller understanding of the socialization processes that reinforce
homosociality and male bonding.

Proposal 4
Collective occupational identities and personality characteristics and
attitudes coincide. In other words, the behavior and attitudes men have
about gender and sexuality are shaped not only by their training, ini-
tiations, and interpersonal experiences at work, but also by the social-
ization experiences that determine the kinds of work they do and how
they do it. There is a self-selection process whereby men with certain
attitudinal or personality characteristics are apt to choose some types
of work over others, the kinds of people they choose to work with, and
their interpersonal relations with coworkers and supervisors.
A key socialization variable is sexual orientation, specifically
homophobia—one of the most popular measures of a tendency to sexu-
ally harass, according to John Pryor’s LSH scale, which correlates sig-
nificantly with a number of negative personality characteristics. To
advance the research on personal characteristics and work roles we
need research on personality types, attitudes, and proclivities that is
group-based, specifically occupation-based. Research on personality types
or attitudes of men in occupations that are numerically male-dominant
would clarify the elements of and extend the meaning of normative
dominance. The problem of male dominance isn’t simply the number
of men; it’s the attitudes and orientations that are shaped and rein-
forced by homophobic and misogynist occupational cultures. For exam-
ple, Kurpius and Lucart (2000) found that undergraduate members of
military groups (e.g., Reserve Officers’ Training Corp) had higher
scores on authoritarianism than their peers.
One approach to accomplishing this might be to derive a mean score
for all persons (or a sample of persons) within an occupation using
measures such as the LSH, authoritarianism, anti-femininity, traditional
masculinity, or other scales of this sort. A more ambitious project
would involve charting change or continuity in personality and atti-
tudes of trainees, cadets, students, and the like as they move into the
formal occupational world. Such longitudinal research would provide
a basis for understanding the impact of organizational variables on

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Sexual Harassment and Male Dominance 99

either reinforcing or challenging gender stereotyping and discrimina-


tory behavior socialized through occupational cultures.

Proposal 5
A ‘‘trickle down’’ theory about sexual harassment predominates in
both research and policy. By ‘‘trickle down’’ we mean that within any
hierarchy—social, economic, or organizational—it is assumed that
beliefs and practices among the elites trickle downward, influencing
the thoughts and actions of subordinates (Hulin, Fitzgerald, & Dras-
gow, 1996). Within employment and educational organizations, policy
implementations that embrace this view emphasize the importance of
formal prohibition statements made by leadership. Legally, liability
rests not so much on the type of harassment reported but on an organi-
zation’s administration to respond effectively. The rationale is straight-
forward: If the administration does not take harassment seriously,
neither will its employees. The trickle down model predicts that organ-
izations with male-dominated leadership and/or leadership that toler-
ates sexual harassment and discrimination are more likely to have
sexual harassment problems within the ranks.
However, the trickle down theory cannot easily account for ‘‘contra-
harassment,’’ the harassment of superiors by those of lesser status
(Rospenda et al., 1998). Yet, in reality harassment of teachers by their
students and supervisors by their subordinates is common. As Connell
(2000) notes, within the hierarchy of men harassment is used both to
maintain power and to usurp it. Men at the top harass those at the bot-
tom as a means to exercise their superiority and maintain their elite sta-
tus. In their quest for upward mobility, men of lesser status may harass
their competitors (i.e., men with equal status) as well as those above
them. As Acker (1990) concurs, in the hierarchy of men, women are not
even at the bottom—they are outside it completely. Their attempts to
‘‘break in’’ can precipitate a hostile comradeship among all men.
One of most neglected aspects of sexual harassment research—most
specifically in survey research—is collective resistance by men against
formal policies and programs aimed at reducing harassment. Certainly,
resistance to ‘‘authority’’ is a well-worn feature of masculinity in
American popular culture. From Marlon Brando and James Dean of
the postwar era to Clint Eastwood (Dirty Harry) and Sylvester Stallone
(Rambo) of the 1980s to the rappers of hip-hop today, the image of a
‘‘real man’’ is one who resists the ‘‘system’’ and the incompetence and
weakness (i.e., stereotypic feminine characteristics) it perpetuates. Per-
haps the most glaring problem with the trickle down model of leader-
ship is the fact that policies and programs developed to reduce sexual
harassment may in fact encourage it! This was demonstrated aptly by
Miller’s (1997) field study of male active-duty Army soldiers. Rather

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100 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

than risking formal punishment by directly attacking the military’s


gender equity policies and practices, the men chose subversive tactics,
or ‘‘weapons of the weak’’ (e.g., foot dragging, rumor mongering) to
convey their displeasure in ways that were hidden from official scru-
tiny. In these types of situations the impact of sexual harassment on its
targets stems not only from the severity but the pervasiveness of the
behavior as well. The pervasiveness results from both instances of
overt, active resistance to official policy, as well as a continuous stream
of hostile and demeaning behavior under the radar of official scrutiny.
Quinn (2000) describes the ‘‘paradox of complaining’’ wherein targets
of harassment are silenced by the ‘‘humorous’’ thrust of public jokes or
innuendos (‘‘chain yanking’’), which, though guised as ‘‘not personal,’’
are insulting and humiliating. This resistance may become emboldened
when its targets are intimidated or silenced into inaction, as is the case
when the harassment experiences occur in relatively isolated settings.
We propose, then, that women and men will interact differently
depending on where they are located in the organizational structure, and
how this location is perceived. Researchers have conceptualized work
domains as interchangeable on the rungs of an organization, and conse-
quently we have missed the dynamics of power and powerlessness—in
particular, women’s roles as scapegoats among men who perceive them-
selves as powerless.

Proposal 6
In addition to the previous factors we’ve discussed, one could pre-
dict the rates at which men sexually harassed their female and male
colleagues not only by these previous factors (physical isolation, mas-
culinist occupational identity, etc.) but also by attitudes toward work
and work processes. Simply put, nasty, alienating work environments
create nasty interpersonal relationships. Of particular interest to us is
how the reaction to alienation by men is along the lines of reaffirming
traditional masculinity, including aggression, substance abuse, and
homophobia. Gender regimes normalize aggression as appropriate for
men and unacceptable among women.
In one of the first cross-national comparisons of sexual harassment
experiences among blue- and white-collar women, Kauppinen and
Gruber (1993) found that American autoworkers had significantly
higher levels of harassment than all other workers. Part of the reason
for this was their significantly higher levels of work alienation or
bureaucratization. Specifically, autoworkers had higher workloads and
less autonomy than American professionals or European workers, and
these were strongly related to poorer social relationships. The impact
of work structure and processes on job-related, psychological, and
health outcomes is a well-studied area within sociology and

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Sexual Harassment and Male Dominance 101

psychology (see Blauner, 1964; Miller, 1980; Kohn, Naoi, Schoenbach,


Schooler, & Slomczynski, 1990). Jobs that are routine, regimented,
inflexible, highly monitored, or offer little mobility or opportunity
result not only in low job satisfaction and high turnover but also in
poor physical and mental health and a negative work climate. Unfortu-
nately, the role of work structure or processes on sexual harassment
has received considerably less attention than organizational ‘‘climate.’’
For example, Fitzgerald, Drasgow, Hulin, Gelfand, and Magley (1997)
do not include work bureaucratization variables at all in their analyses
of the antecedents of sexual harassment. This is unfortunate because
research that uses bureaucratization variables show that they have
unique, independent contributions in predicting sexual harassment.
Sexual harassment is frequently found in a nexus of variable relation-
ships that include bureaucratization, organizational climate, and work-
related and psychological outcomes. Mansfield, Koch, Henderson, and
Vicary (1991) found that women workers who held jobs that were char-
acterized by monotony, isolation, and fatigue experienced more sexual
harassment than women in other jobs. Perhaps the clearest distinction
between the impact of work structure and work climate variables was
demonstrated recently by Mueller et al. (2001). They found that central-
ized decision making, a lack of formal policies that protect employee
rights, and rigid organizational structures with little job mobility pre-
dicted sexual harassment above and beyond job–gender context or
organizational climate variables. They also raised provocative questions
about the oft-cited relationships among sexual harassment and various
outcomes such as job dissatisfaction, burnout, or turnover (Laband &
Lentz, 1998), psychological well-being (Schneider, Swan, & Fitzgerald,
1997) and drinking (Richman, Rospenda, Nawyn, & Flaherty, 1997).
When work structure variables were controlled, they found no signifi-
cant relationships between sexual harassment and job dissatisfaction, job
stress, or intentions to quit because ‘‘sexual harassment and negative
work outcomes are related because they are [all] products of similar
organizational contexts’’ (p. 13).
One of the significant ways in which work structure affects job out-
comes and experiences at work is by its impact on organizational cli-
mate. As Kauppinen and Patoluoto (2005) note, conflict among workers
in the form of bullying, intimidation, or violence is frequently found in
workplaces where the pace of work has increased, concerns about
retrenchment are widespread, or workloads have increased. Gutek
(1985) argues that inappropriate or unprofessional behavior—drinking,
sabotage, petty bickering—and sexual harassment or sociosexual
behavior are correlated. In work environments where tension and con-
flict exist, erotic warfare often erupts as sex and sexuality become
vehicles for expressing rivalry and dissatisfaction (Haavio-Mannila,
1992). Two studies (Kauppinen & Gruber, 1993; DeCoster, Estes, &

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102 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

Mueller, 1999) that used regression analyses found that low solidarity
or poor congeniality among coworkers was a strong predictor of sexual
harassment. Richman and her colleagues (Richman, Rospenda, Nawyn, &
Flaherty, 1997) found that environments with high levels of generalized
workplace abuse had significant problems with sexual harassment, and
these (in particular, generalized workplace abuse) in turn were signifi-
cant predictors of depression, anxiety, and hostility for both male and
female employees of a university.
There are some important implications of the research on work
structure and organizational climate to male dominance. An impor-
tant reason why male-dominated jobs are dangerous environments
for women is because many of these jobs are highly bureaucratic
(e.g., regimented, routinized, hierarchical) such as factory work or
military or paramilitary jobs. Women who enter these jobs are apt to
be sexually harassed as a result of two tensions: a direct threat to
male power and privilege, or an already existing poor work climate
brought about by alienating work. While the first tension has received
considerable attention, the second needs further development. Specifi-
cally, while bureaucratic structures and processes produce similar
outcomes on job (dissatisfaction, turnover) and psychological out-
comes, the reactions to alienation seem to differ insofar as men seem
more inclined to express their discontent through hostility and stereo-
typing.

CONCLUSION
It is our contention that a fuller understanding of sexual harassment
can be found by a deeper consideration of the various ways that mas-
culinity impacts work domains. To be sure, ‘‘male dominance’’ is multi-
faceted. A central focus of this study is the complex interrelationships
between gendered numbers and norms, or ‘‘double dominance.’’ The
impact of male dominance in this regard has been lost in the shuffle of
‘‘organizational climate’’ theory and research.
Our critique of the literature and our proposals for further study are
fueled by an ecological approach to human interactions. We begin with
two assumptions: Work domains provide rich settings for ‘‘doing gen-
der’’; and the content of these gender performances are highly situa-
tional and impacted by the work context and by a variety of factors
outside the domain. If a work domain is the ‘‘stage’’ for gendered per-
formances, then we need to understand its unique structural and phys-
ical aspects because it matters whether the stage is in the middle of the
organization or at its bottom (Proposal 5) or whether or not it is sepa-
rate or unified (Proposal 2). It has long been understood that numbers,
in particular ratios of women and men, shape interactions in work
domains. What we have tried to do is provide a normative context to

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Sexual Harassment and Male Dominance 103

the numbers by focusing on factors that facilitate (or inhabit) the influ-
ence of traditional masculinity on work roles.

APPENDIX: PROPOSALS

1 Actual numbers, perceived numbers, and changes in numbers are


intricately linked and provide a comprehensive view of a work domain.
2 The impact and subjective interpretation of numbers is related to social
and physical space.
3 Numerical dominance is strengthened by normative dominance when it
is mediated through socialization processes.
4 Normative male dominance is enhanced when personal characteristics
intersect with workplace variables.
5 Male dominance is about power and leadership as well as
powerlessness and resistance.
6 Male dominance, bureaucratization, and alienation are interrelated.

NOTES
1. Male dominance varies across social institutions, employment sectors,
organizations, and work groups; thus, for ease of presentation, the term ‘‘do-
main’’ will be used to reference all of these.
2. By ‘‘gender equity’’ we mean that the proportions of women employed in
these settings are 40% to 60%. However, because pay inequities and differences
in status persist, gender parity remains an elusive goal.

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Chapter 6

Challenges for Women of Color


Darlene C. DeFour

When people say that they want to focus only on gender, I wonder which
aspect of myself I should leave at home when I go in to work. Should I leave
home race today? Or should I leave home my gender?
(Told to the author)
Demographers predict that by 2050 half or nearly half of the popula-
tion will be of color (Armas, 2007). In some states people of color are
already the majority or near majority of the population. This boost in
diversity is the result of a few factors, including: the predicted small
decline in the non-Hispanic white population, continued large
increases in the Hispanic and Asian populations, and the continued
growth of the Black population. Add to these factors the increases in
populations of immigrant of color and one can predict the characteris-
tics of the labor force in the future. The enlargement of a multicultural
population will mean a workforce that is more culturally diversified.
The workplace has continued to become more diverse in terms of
gender over the years. There have been steady increases in women
in the United States who are employed outside of the home. Over 60%
of women who are 16 and older are members of the workforce (Bureau
of Statistics, 2004).
Race and ethnicity are not current predictors of whether or not
women are working outside of the home. According to the Bureau of
Statistics (2004), 62% of Black women, 59% of Asian women, 59% of
European-American women, and 58% of Latina women are in the
workforce. While race/ethnicity may not strongly predict whether or
not a woman is employed outside of the home, it can shape what she
encounters while there. Race/ethnicity can influence the type of

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110 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

employment (Essed, 1991), stereotypes held about her abilities (St. Jean &
Feagin, 1998), and her salary (Bureau of Statistics, 2004). Collins (2000)
contends that the experiences of women cannot be investigated in
terms of gender only. Collins’s point is well taken in terms of salaries.
Although women typically make less money than men, the amount
varies across ethnicities. Thus a complete analysis of working women’s
experiences must consider identities in addition to gender. Looking at
gender only when considering salaries would not take into account the
milieu in which women operate. Feminists of color assert that all expe-
riences should be analyzed using a framework that considers interlock-
ing systems of oppression. This would include considering gender,
race, class, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. Although the exploration
of how the intersection between gender and all identities is important
to consider, the focus of this chapter will be on the gender–race/
ethnicity intersection. Collins’s analysis suggests that it is important to
look at the unique experiences of women of color.
Although great strides have been made, women continue to experi-
ence barriers to their success based on their sex. These obstacles are
exhibited in terms of prejudice (negative attitudes about women’s abil-
ities); discrimination (treating women differently because of their sex);
and stereotyping (beliefs about women’s talents and abilities). The
experiences of men and women of color with work and the workplace
can be affected by race and ethnicity (St. Jean & Feagin, 1998). The
obstacles based on sex can take unique forms for women of color (e.g.,
racialized sexual harassment) (Buchanan, 2005). It is important that we
examine how the confluence of race and gender can influence the work
lives of women of color.
In this chapter we will first look at definitions of sexism and racism
and new definitions that incorporate simultaneously experienced gen-
der and race discrimination. We will then look at specific ways women
of color experience workplace discrimination. Finally, we will discuss
frameworks for combating gender racism in the workplace.

CONCEPTUALIZING DISCRIMINATION: GENDER AND RACE


Gender discrimination and race discrimination have been concep-
tualized in a variety of ways (e.g., Glick & Fiske, 1996, 2001; Dovidio,
2001; Jones, 1997). These varying conceptualizations are relevant here
in that they reflect the ways that unfair treatment may manifest in the
workplace. Trends in conceptualizations of gender and race discrimina-
tion have followed similar paths. Initial research focused on blatant
forms of the behaviors and took the perspective of the perpetrator.
Current research examines hidden forms of discrimination and
includes perspectives of the target (e.g., Essed, 1991; Swim & Stangor,
1998). How have gender and race discrimination been conceptualized?

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Challenges for Women of Color 111

SEX DISCRIMINATION
Glick and Fiske (1996, 2001) have delineated the contours of sexism
in their work on ambivalent sexism. According to their work, attitudes
toward women are not necessarily hostile; however, these attitudes still
serve to undermine women and maintain subservient roles. They
describe two forms of sexism: hostile sexism and benevolent sexism.
Hostile sexism is based on a dislike of or an antagonism toward
women. Women are viewed as trying to control men. Women may be
seen as using their sex and/or sexuality to get ahead. This is the form
of sexism that most people would define as sexism. Conversely, with
benevolent sexism there is no overt hatred of women. In fact, women
may be revered. They are perceived as being in need of help and pro-
tection. Women are seen as having a particular ‘‘place’’ in society.
Benevolent sexism is defined as a set of interrelated attitudes toward
women that are sexist in terms of viewing women stereotypically and
in restricted roles but are subjectively positive in feeling and tone (for
the perceiver) and tend to elicit behaviors typically categorized as pro-
social (i.e., helping) or intimacy-seeking (i.e., self-disclosure) (Glick and
Fiske, 1996, p. 491).
The work of Glick and Fiske (1996, 2001) is important in that it
makes clear critical features of sexism. First, their work has shown the
multidimensional nature of sexist thought. Second, sexism may not
appear as blatant hostility, in some cases it is behavior that may appear
to be supportive of women. Third, sexist beliefs are not harmless in
that they are associated with unequal treatment.
Benokaraitis (1997) also conceptualizes sexism as a multidimensional
construct. Sex discrimination is defined as ‘‘unequal and harmful treat-
ment of people because of their sex (i.e., biological differences between
males and females, which include hormones, chromosomes, and ana-
tomical characteristics)’’ (p. 7). She further posits that sex discrimina-
tion comes in three general manifestations: blatant sex discrimination,
subtle sex discrimination, and covert sex discrimination. Blatant sex
discrimination is defined as ‘‘unequal and harmful treatment of women
that is intentional, quite visible, and can be easily documented’’ (p. 7).
Some examples of blatant sexism cited are sexual harassment, sexist
language and jokes, gendered physical violence (including rape and
wife abuse), and unfair treatment in societal institutions (e.g., the fam-
ily, employment, education, politics) (Benokaraitis). Subtle sex discrimi-
nation is defined as ‘‘unequal and harmful treatment of women that is
typically less visible and obvious than blatant sex discrimination.’’ It
is behavior that is frequently not seen as sexism or perceived at all. This
behavior is frequently not seen because it has become part of the soci-
etal norm. It has been normalized; thus it is not viewed as damaging.
When women complain about this form of sexism they are frequently

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112 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

accused of being too sensitive. Benokaraitis outlines nine forms of subtle


discrimination. They include condescending chivalry, supportive dis-
couragement, friendly harassment, subjective objectification, radiant
devaluation, liberated sexism, benevolent exploitation, considerate domi-
nation, and collegial exclusion. Covert sex discrimination was defined as
‘‘the unequal and harmful treatment of women that is hidden, purpose-
ful, and often, maliciously motivated’’ (p. 12). An essential feature of this
form of sexism is that it is intentional. Males deliberately strive to guar-
antee that women do not succeed. Two common forms of covert
discrimination are manipulation and sabotage. This form of sexism fre-
quently occurs in educational and employment settings.
Benokaraitis’s (1997) subtle sex discrimination construct shares much
with Glick and Fiske’s (1996, 2001) benevolent sexism construct. They
both point to an ideology that makes particular discriminatory behav-
iors toward women part of the fabric of life.

RACE DISCRIMINATION
There is a long history of research on racism and prejudice (e.g., All-
port, 1958; Brewer, 1979; McConahay, 1986; Jones, 1997; Dovidio, 2001;
Swim & Stangor, 1998). Current research findings point to the multidi-
mensional nature of racial discrimination. As the societal context has
changed, the nature of racial prejudice and discrimination has changed
with it. As with sexism, the forms that race discrimination takes can be
overt and hostile or subtle and seemingly not related to the social cate-
gory (in this case, race). These concepts of racism were initially focused
on attitudes and behaviors toward Black Americans but have now been
broadened to include other groups of color.
Early research on race discrimination concentrated on what is now
called ‘‘old-fashioned racism.’’ Old-fashioned racism is a form of rac-
ism where people support derogatory statements about the abilities or
intelligence of Blacks and other people of color or support obviously
racist social policies (e.g., racially segregated schools). Symbolic rac-
ism/modern racism is a less overt form of race discrimination. Racism
is not expressed as overt hostility toward Blacks and other groups of
color. In this form of racism individuals are not ‘‘anti-Black.’’ They do
not say that Black people should be denied opportunities because they
are Black and innately inferior. Instead Black people and other under-
represented groups are seen as not adhering to important social Ameri-
can values such as hard work, being promoted on the basis of merit,
and so on. They (Black people) want special treatment. This form of
discrimination and prejudice is expressed in terms of endorsing state-
ments like ‘‘Blacks are pushing too hard’’ and ‘‘Over the years blacks
have gotten more than they deserve’’ (McConahay, 1986). It is

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Challenges for Women of Color 113

associated with being against public policies like busing for school inte-
gration.
Analyses of discrimination have continued to evolve to explain
seeming inconsistencies between attitudes and behavior. Dovidio
(2001) and Dovidio and Gaertner (2000) posit aversive racism as a form
of racism that they view as most typical of well-educated liberal Whites
in the United States. (It is important to note that these are people who
women of color are likely to encounter in the workforce as colleagues
and employers.) They characterize aversive racism as a phenomenon
that explains how many Whites who consciously, explicitly, and sin-
cerely support egalitarian principles and perceive themselves to be
nonprejudiced also harbor negative feelings and beliefs about Blacks
and other historically disadvantaged groups. These unconscious nega-
tive feelings and beliefs develop as a consequence of normal, almost
unavoidable and frequently functional, cognitive, motivational, and
social cultural processes (Dovidio & Gaertner, p. 618).
The processes that are a part of this conceptualization of discrimina-
tion are general social psychological processes. The processes include
cognitive (the seemingly natural process of placing people in categories
that also activates racial bias and stereotypes), motivational (the need
for individual and group power, status and control), and sociocultural
(viewing these behaviors and thoughts as normal and natural and as a
result adopting behaviors that perpetuate cultural stereotypes and
social structures that maintain the status quo). Context affects whether
or not discriminatory behaviors will be expressed. Discriminatory
behavior will only be expressed in situations where ‘‘bias is not
obvious or can be rationalized on the basis of some factor other than
race’’ (Dovidio & Gaertner, 2000, p. 315).

GENDERED RACISM: THE INTERSECTION OF RACISM


AND SEXISM
Although the literature on race and gender discrimination has
become more complex, there is still a major gap in the literature. Con-
ceptualizations of racism and sexism treat them as separate forms of
bias. What then of people who exist in a space that crosses two deval-
ued social categories? What then of people who are or can be discrimi-
nated against on the basis of both their sex and their race? Theorists
have attempted to fill this omission in the literature with the concept of
‘‘gendered racism’’ (Essed, 1991; St. Jean & Feagin, 1998). The concept
is based on the idea that for women of color the experiences of racism
and sexism are interconnected. It is not possible to pull one apart from
another. ‘‘These two concepts narrowly intertwine and combine under
certain conditions into one, hybrid phenomenon’’ (Essed, p. 31).
Gender roles of women of color are perceived through a lens of racial

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114 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

oppression. Viewing women of color in this way lends itself to particu-


lar negative images about their nature, talents, beliefs, and capabilities.

WORKPLACE EXPERIENCES OF WOMEN OF COLOR


Matlin (2008) describes two forms of discrimination that specifically
relate to the workplace. They are access and treatment discrimination.
Access discrimination refers to bias that is involved in the process of
hiring. Treatment discrimination involves what happens after the per-
son has been hired.
Women of color are frequently invisible in workforce statistics. Sta-
tistics are often reported in terms of gender or ethnicity but not both.
Data are broken down in terms of ‘‘women’’ and ‘‘minorities.’’ Some
researchers have suggested that in some white-collar jobs we should be
less concerned about access in terms of recruitment at entry-level posi-
tions (e.g., corporate management) because women of color are repre-
sented there. The greater concern is higher level advancement (e.g.,
Giscombe & Mattis, 2002). This is probably not the case in all forms of
work. We do know that women of color are concentrated in certain
fields and in low-paying jobs. Lack of access to higher paying jobs can
be attributed to a number of factors including restricted access to edu-
cational opportunities and stereotyped ideas about skills and abilities.
In some instances qualified women of color are not hired because the
person does not fit the employer’s preconceived notion of a successful
applicant (St. Jean & Feagin, 1998).

EMPLOYMENT AND SALARIES


Clearly gender plays a role in women’s work experiences. Women
are likely to make less than men who work in a similar position. A
recent report by the AAUW (2007) indicates that by the first year out
of college women working full-time make less money than men. The
discrepancy in salary increases over time. After the first year women
earn 80% of what men make; after 10 years they earn 69% of what men
receive. This difference is attributed to sex discrimination in that one-
fourth of the discrepancy remains unaccounted for after factors that
influence salary level are held constant. Workplace sex discrimination
comes in multiple forms, including hiring rates, promotion, salaries,
sexual harassment, occupational segregation, being mommy-tracked,
and undervaluing women workers (WAGE, retrieved October 22,
2007). In addition, over the life of a career the unexplained portion of
the salary gap increases. Thus we know that gender influences how
much a person makes. However, both gender and race/ethnicity com-
bined have an impact on how much money a women earns. Race and
gender interact to influence salaries. The wage gap is not the same for

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Challenges for Women of Color 115

all women. In 2004 median incomes by race and group were as fol-
lows: White men $45,542; White women $32,486; Black men $31,305;
Black women $27,730; Hispanic men $26,679; Hispanic women $23,444;
Asian men $45,870; and Asian women $35,975. The median income for
Asian women was more than that for all women and more than the
income of Black and Hispanic men. Thus all women are not equally
affected by the wage gap.

MENTORING
Having a mentor is an important part of career development. Women
of color frequently report not having mentors and being excluded from
formal and informal networks at work. This appears to be the case in
different fields. ABA Commission on Women (2006) conducted a study
in an attempt to understand the high attrition rate of women of color
lawyers in private law firms. Women of color lawyers in private firms
report having mentors; however, although they had mentors, having a
mentor did not appear to work for them as it did for White men. Tradi-
tionally, having a mentor increases access to important assignments,
opportunities for advancement, and incorporation into the life of the or-
ganization. Even with mentors the women of color were still excluded
from the internal networks within the firm. Having a mentor also did
not increase the likelihood that they would have more contact with cli-
ents or get work assignments that would allow them to earn more bill-
able hours. Numbers of billable hours is important because they
determine who becomes a partner in a law firm. Women of color associ-
ates reported that the types of assignments that they had appeared to be
tied their race and gender. They reported that contact with clients
occurred only when their race or gender was beneficial to the firm. Dur-
ing these meetings their presence was more like ‘‘window dressing’’ to
put the client at ease, and they did not play a substantive role.
In a study of resilience and resistance strategies of women of color
faculty, Thomas and Hollenshead (2001) found that women of color at
their academic institution were less likely to have mentors than were
White women, White men, and men of color. Women of color’s men-
tors were more frequently individuals who were not located in their
campus units or departments or their academic institutions. They were
more likely to use nontraditional forms of mentoring structures.
Instead of having one individual who was older and more experienced,
women of color used groups of peers. Women of color also used the
ethnic minority sections of their professional organizations to find indi-
viduals who could assist them with a specific issue.
Although not focusing on the experiences of women of color, Kami-
niski (2004) describes how mentoring and social networks can work to
promote career development in academia. The mentor of a junior male

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116 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

faculty member who came to her campus the same year that she did
received protection from his mentor. His mentor interceded to prevent
him from having to work on campus and departmental committees. If
the faculty member was asked, his mentor told the department head
that the person needed time to work on his research so he should be
excused. In contrast, Kaminiski was assigned to work on the executive
committee, which is the departmental committee that required the
most work. In addition to this, the junior faculty’s mentor taught one
of his courses for him. These things gave him more time to do his
work and focus on receiving tenure. In academia receiving tenure and
getting promoted are essential parts of career development.
Kaminiski (2004) also describes another exclusionary practice. Male
faculty members went to lunch together; women were never invited to
attend. This is another example of exclusion from internal networks.
When asked about this faculty would say that they are friends or that
they were discussing things that women would not be interested in.
This is an example of rationalizing the practice by using reasons other
than race and gender. It should be noted that these networks and infor-
mal gatherings serve multiple functions. First, they make a person feel
like they are part of the fabric of the work group. Women of color in
academia and other predominately White workplaces frequently
describe feelings of alienation and isolation (Myers, 2002; St. Jean &
Feagin, 1998). These informal gatherings set up relationships that can
lead to working on projects. In addition, during informal meetings in-
formation about work is passed on (e.g., unwritten rules).
All of these point to subtle forms of sexism, benevolent sexism,
and gendered racism. These examples of practices that appear not
to be linked to race or gender nevertheless affect women’s career
trajectories.

OTHER FORMS OF GENDERED RACISM


Results of research suggest that women of color frequently feel that
their work is judged through a lens of gendered racism. Themes that
have arisen in numerous studies include:

1. Feeling that their work is viewed as unimportant. In academia it is espe-


cially not valued if the person is studying race and gender. This leads
them to being asked to perform more service functions (Myers, 2004;
Thomas & Hollenshead, 2001).
2. Feeling a lack of respect from colleagues for their work and research
agendas.
3. Feeling of being used by their organizations or in academia their depart-
ments. They are asked to participate if the issue pertains to race or gen-
der but not for other issues.

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Challenges for Women of Color 117

4. Feeling that they are judged by different standards and having to prove
oneself over and over again (Myers, 2004; St. Jean & Feagin, 1998).
5. Feeling that they are under constant observation.
6. Not being made aware of the unwritten rules in their organization
(Thomas & Hollenshead, 2001).

Women of color also reported that competent behavior such as using


Standard English or writing well was viewed with surprise as an
anomaly and meriting special praise (St. Jean & Feagin, 1998). Speaking
Standard English was viewed as going against unconscious views of
women of color’s abilities. In addition, women still faced occupational
ceilings. Women of color are only allowed to rise to a certain level.
Employers continue to have stereotypes of Black women and other
women of color, which include believing they are not particularly com-
petent. Women of color are viewed as affirmative-action hires. A per-
son who is hired via affirmative action is seen as not being competent
(St. Jean & Feagin). The person is seen as being a part of the organiza-
tion only because of the policy. They are viewed as covering two af-
firmative action categories—gender and race. In addition, women
discuss being referred to in ways that reflect stereotypes about women
of color (e.g., subtly suggesting that their form of dress makes them
look like a prostitute) (Buchanan, 2005). Employers and others feel
comfortable making comments about natural hairstyles. An example of
this is a recent comment made during a presentation by an editor from
Glamour magazine to members of a law firm where she indicated that
wearing natural hairstyles was inappropriate for the practice of law.

WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT GENDERED RACISM


IN THE WORKPLACE?
In combating racism and sexism in the workplace, multiple strat-
egies must be used that deal with the multidimensional nature of the
problem. The key is that workplaces must pay active attention to this
issue. Creating workplace conditions that will allow women of color to
flourish will not happen by chance. Giscombe & Mattis (2002) maintain
that attempting to achieve diversity based on the business model (i.e.,
Do it because diversity is good business—it will lead to increases in
profits.) is not really effective. Using this model does not promote
social change. They believe that diversity programs should have a
social justice agenda underlying its programs. Triandis (2006) suggests
that, to combat these issues, organizations must develop a cultural
intelligence. Cultural intelligence means ‘‘the capability of being effec-
tive across cultural settings’’ (Ng & Earley, 2006). In this context it
would mean taking into consideration gender and race when thinking
about how behaviors will be perceived. Triandis believes that there are

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118 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

a few practices that lend themselves to being culturally intelligent.


These include not forming judgments until information about the per-
son is gathered, and paying attention to the situation. As pointed out
earlier in the chapter, unfair treatment of women of color is often the
result of making judgments based on stereotypes.
Kaminiski (2004, p. 106–107) outlines strategies that can be used at,
in, or by departments in academic settings. These include:

1. Transparency in decision making—making both the process and outcome


public to everyone.
2. Fairness in performance evaluation—making sure that everyone has the
same information about what evaluations will be based on.
3. Tracking resources distributions—providing the same level of support
for all, men and women; this case it should be true across racial lines as
well.
4. Inclusivity—finding a way for members of the department to perceive
themselves as belonging to a common group.
5. Labor unions—using them to promote diversity and to fight back if eq-
uity is violated.

Research on the experiences of women of color in the workforce has


evolved; however, there is still a need to continue to uncover how
other aspects of their identities simultaneously impact their work expe-
rience. How do race, gender, class, sex, and sexual orientation intersect
and interact? By looking at these intersections we will get more insight
into the work lives of all women.

REFERENCES
AAUW (2007). Behind the Pay Gap.
ABA Commission on Women in the Profession (2006). Visible invisibility:
Women of color in law firms. Retrieved on October 1, 2007.
Allport, G. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Armas, G. C. (2007). Census bureau predicts diverse U.S. future. In P. S. Roth-
enberg (Ed.), Race, class and gender in the United States (pp. 203–205). New
York: Worth.
Benokaraitis, N. V. (1997). Sex discrimination in the 21st century. In N. V.
Benokaraitis (Ed.), Subtle sexism (pp. 5–33). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Brewer, M. B. (1979). Ingroup bias in the minimal intergroup situation: A cog-
nitive motivational analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 86, 307–324.
Buchanan, N. T. (2005). The nexus of race and gender domination racialized
sexual harassment of African American women. In J. E. Gruber and P.
Morgen (Ed.), In the company of men: Male dominance and sexual harassment
(pp. 294–320). Boston, MA: Northeastern University.
Collins, P. H. (2000). Gender, black feminism and black political economy.
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 568, 41–43.

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Dovidio, J. F. (2001). On the nature of contemporary prejudice: The third wave.


Journal of Social Issues, 57, 829–849.
Dovidio, J. F., & Gaertner, S. L. (2000). Aversive racism and selection decisions:
1989 and 1999. Psychological Science, 11, 315–319.
Essed, P. (1991). Understanding everyday racism. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Giscombe, K., & Mattis, M. C. (2002). Leveling the playing field for women of
color in corporate management: Is the business case enough? Journal of
Business Ethics, 37, 103–119.
Glick, P., & Fiske, S. T. (1996). The Ambivalent Sexism Inventory: Differentiat-
ing hostile and benevolent sexism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychol-
ogy, 70, 491–512.
Glick, P., & Fiske, S. T. (2001). An ambivalent alliance. Hostile and benevolent
sexism as complementary justifications for gender inequality. American
Psychologist, 56, 109–119.
Higginbotham, E. (2004). Invited reaction: Black and white women managers:
Access to opportunity. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 15, 147–152.
Hite, L. M. (2004). Black and white women managers: Access to opportunity.
Human Resource Development Quarterly, 15, 131–146.
Jones, J. M. (1997). Prejudice and racism (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Kaminiski, M. (2004). Running into the wind: The experience of discrimination
in an academic workplace. In J. L. Chin (Ed.), The psychology of prejudice
and discrimination—Bias based on gender and sexual orientation, Volume 3
(pp. 93–111). Westport, CT: Praeger.
Matlin, M. W. (2008). The psychology of women (6th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson
Wadsworth.
McConahay, J. B. (1986). Modern racism, ambivalence, and the modern racism
scale. In J. F. Dovidio & S. L. Gaerner (Eds.). Prejudice, discrimination and
racism (pp. 91–125). Orlando, FL: Academic.
Myers, L. W. (2002). A broken silence: Voices of African American women in the
academy. Westport, CT: Greenwood.
Myers, L. W. (2004). Black women coping with stress in academia. In J. L. Chin
(Ed.), The psychology of prejudice and discrimination. Bias based on gender and
sexual orientation, Volume 3 (pp. 134–149). Westport, CT: Praeger.
Ng, K., & Earley, P. (2006). Culture and intelligence. Group and Organization
Management, 31, 4–19.
St. Jean, & Feagin, J. R. (1998). Double burden: Black women and everyday racism.
Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.
Swim, J. K., & Stangor, C. (Eds.). (1998). Prejudice: The target’s perspective. San
Diego, CA: Academic.
Thomas, G. D., & Hollenshead, C. (2001). Resisting from the margins: The cop-
ing strategies of Black women and other women of color faculty members
at a research university. Journal of Negro Education, 70, 166–176.
Triandis, H. C. (2006). Cultural intelligence in organizations. Group and organi-
zational management, 31(1), 20–26.
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U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2004). Quarterly Census of
Employment and Wages. Washington, DC: Author.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Chapter 7

On Being a Woman Chiropractor:


In My Own Voice
Patricia Campbell

‘‘God, you’re beautiful.’’


‘‘I want you so bad.’’
‘‘What a honey-mummy you are.’’
These are all comments I have received from male patients of all
ages, from 20 to 70þ, from first meeting to having treated them for
many years. I was stunned—I’m your doctor not your girlfriend—then I
was angry—How dare you treat me that way. Mostly, I blamed myself. I
looked at what I wore, how I treated people, how I looked—it had to
be me. I changed how I dressed, what I looked like. I cut my hair
short, wore jackets and layers to hide myself, restricted my time with
patients, especially men, and stayed with office hours not seeing
patients after hours as emergencies. I did not go out in public alone, I
tried to have my children, husband, or friend with me, I put in a swim-
ming pool instead of going to the beach—two blocks away. I hid the
vehicle so people would not know I was at home, even though I live in
a small town where everyone knows everyone else—the people you
work with are the parents at your child’s school and their children are
friends with your children and you see the same people at the arena,
fitness club, and grocery store. I still believed it was something I was
doing, it was my fault.
Then at a seminar 4 years into practice, I went to lunch with seven
other women, and as the stories began to pour from them I realized I
was not alone and patients behaving badly was a very large, silent
problem. The solutions were as varied as the women at the table. One
confronted a patient head-on and even banned him from the office.

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122 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

Others like myself took personal responsibility and changed ourselves;


others ignored it and thought we were over-reacting.
All the changes I made did little to improve the situation. The com-
ments continued and even increased as people commented on the new
look and gave their own opinion—‘‘Grow your hair; I so like long
blond hair.’’
Chiropractic college was an idyllic setting, intimate with only 800
staff and students, sheltered from the real world with support and
guidance at every step, an atmosphere of respect, equality, and gender
neutrality. Discussions about sexual harassment and abuse focused on
the actions of male doctors who misused their authority. The doctor
was responsible for the doctor–patient relationship. No mention was
made about patients misbehaving or having anything other than the
utmost respect for doctors.
With this sheltered and na€ıve attitude, I opened my own office at 26
years of age. A bubbly and vivacious young woman with a ready smile
and warm approach, I welcomed everyone into the office and into care.
As time went on, I began to wonder about comments certain patients
made, their over-interest in my personal life, attention to me which
was not in line with their care. I put it off to small-town life, a ‘‘high’’
profile of a doctor in the community, concern from the patients. I am a
doctor, I was to be respected and appreciated, revered for my concern
and knowledge—not hit on like I was at the bar.
Like any good doctor when faced with a problem, I began to research
sexual harassment in the medical community. The lack of research was
shocking and what I did find was strangely comforting. My excuses and
self-blame were normal responses, and it was very common for females
to be treated as women first and professionals second.
Because chiropractic and medicine are male-dominated fields, my
mentors and older male colleagues had no experience with harassment
and really didn’t think it existed. The regulatory college and the rules
and guidelines that govern the profession reflected a similar stand-
point. The doctor is responsible for the patient–doctor relationship, and
the doctor is held accountable for it.
One story shared with me and shared now with permission high-
lights how complicated and stressful harassment can be and how diffi-
cult dealing with it is.

It was a routine request, ‘‘May I see you after work for an adjustment?’’
Sure, this was a patient she had treated for 6 years and also treated his
family and several friends—a great patient and an excellent ambassador
for the office.
After the adjustment, they walked out of the treating room into the
reception area. He stood in front of the exit door and she sat on the sec-
ond step of the stairs a few feet away. Suddenly, he began to move

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On Being a Woman Chiropractor 123

toward her, she extended her hands to stop him. He grabbed her hands.
In an instant, her world was upside down, laid out on the stairs with
him straddling her hips, hands pinned above her head. She had to listen
while he told her how much he wanted her and how long he had
wanted her. Calmly, she tried to explain to him how such an affair was
against her moral, professional, and social standards, as well as the trou-
ble she would get into. He would hear none of it as he replied, ‘‘Trust
me, I won’t tell.’’

This situation was complicated by several factors:

1. She lived in a small town and these were her patients, friends, and
colleagues—socially and professionally;
2. His mother taught at her children’s school;
3. He was 20 years old and she was in her thirties;
4. The regulatory college has a zero tolerance policy against sexual abuse
and does not care about the situation, only the letter of the law;
5. She is the doctor, with the power and authority, how could she let this
happen;
6. Her reputation could be ruined and livelihood destroyed.

He left that night, understanding her point of view; yet, terrified, embar-
rassed, and scared, she said nothing for years. As a result of stress and
panic attacks brought on by this encounter, she has left practice.
From my research, I have found sexual harassment of female doctors
is the norm not the exception. Harassment will continue and even esca-
late if ignored. Certain men will treat a professional as a woman first
and a doctor second. The regulatory bodies and professional associa-
tions believe this to be the doctor’s responsibility and fault. Social
standards and perceptions of health care professionals are changing
and the respect and awe once experienced for doctors has diminished
to the point of a hired consultant.
With more women entering the male-dominated health care fields,
rules, regulations, and attitudes must change and support systems be
developed and instituted to deal with this silent epidemic.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Chapter 8

Relationships with Men


Donna Casta~neda
Breena E. Coates

Two-thirds of women in the United States over age 20 are in the paid
workforce—when women in the armed forces are included, the propor-
tion of women who work reaches 70% (U.S. Census Bureau, 2003).
Thus, a large number of women spend a significant amount of their
waking hours at work (Sayer, 2005) and, not surprisingly, the work-
place is where many women encounter persons with whom they de-
velop important relationships. Researchers increasingly understand
that relationships are at the center of organizational life and it is
through them that much of the work gets done (Blatt & Camden, 2007;
Ragins & Dutton, 2007; Wilson & Ferch, 2005). Positive relationships
with co-workers, subordinates, and superiors are critical to a woman’s
job satisfaction, motivation, and career advancement, and just as
importantly, contribute favorably to the core competencies and end
products of a particular organization. Even conceptions of effective
leadership are changing to reflect the importance of relational interac-
tions and the skills that are most useful in these, such as empathy, au-
thenticity, and humility (Badarraco, 2002; Collins, 2001; see Fletcher,
2007 for a discussion).
Relationships that women develop with other women are important
and may provide them with social support (Andrew & Montegue,
1998; Aronson, 1998; Lu & Argyle, 1992; Mays, 1985; Nyamathi, Ben-
nett, Leake, & Chen, 1995; Severance, 2005), opportunities for compan-
ionship and enjoyable social interaction (Fehr, 1996; Severance, 2005),
intimacy (Fehr, 2004; Parks & Floyd, 1996a; Sapadin, 1988), instrumen-
tal assistance (Nyamathi et al., 1995; Patterson & Bettini, 1993; Walker,

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126 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

1995), and they contribute to their social and personal identities


(Johnson & Aries, 1983). This chapter, however, focuses on women’s
relationships with men in the workplace and examines the nature of
these relationships, why they may be important, and the consequences,
both positive and negative, they may have for women. Although many
categories of workplace relationships with men could be addressed,
this chapter will focus on two of these—women’s workplace friend-
ships and romantic relationships with men.
Women’s relationships with men at work are varied and they often
develop out of the particular roles that women take in the workplace—
men may be colleagues, coworkers, supervisors, staff that women
supervise, managers, mentors, teammates, leaders, or team members
that women lead. Just as in relationships outside the workplace, wom-
en’s relationships with men at work can include instrumental or ex-
pressive qualities, or a combination of these elements, and their
relationships with men can range from being close and intimate to su-
perficial in quality (Lobel, Quinn, Warfield, & St. Clair, 1994). Women
may also view and possibly label some of these relationships as friend-
ships or romantic relationships. Nevertheless, the workplace is unique
in that it is an arena where connection with others occurs along with
demands for individual achievement and productivity (Quick, Gavin,
Cooper, & Quick, 2004; Wilson & Ferch, 2005). Despite being a location
where people sometimes meet others with whom they develop close
and long-lasting relationships (Kalmijn & Flap, 2001), work require-
ments may necessitate, even motivate, intense competition and acri-
mony. This duality can create conflicts, contradictions, and stress for
women. Despite more women being integrated into higher levels of
organizational structures today, the implicit and sometimes explicit
gender, class, sexual orientation, and ethnic/racial hierarchies and
power relations that permeate and organize the workplace (Acker,
1990; Hurtado, 1996; Stobbe, 2006) may make women particularly vul-
nerable to negative consequences of relationships with men in the
workplace, such as discrimination and sexual harassment. This reality
of the workplace is always present and plays an important role in how
women experience relationships with men.

FRIENDSHIPS WITH MEN IN THE WORKPLACE


Definitions of friendship abound, but they share common features
such as notions of intimacy, trust, loyalty, liking, and shared interests
(see Fehr, 1996: Berman, West, & Richter, 2002; Sapadin, 1988). Implic-
itly, or sometimes explicitly, definitions of friendship include the
notion that they are entered into and maintained voluntarily and that,
unlike other significant relationships, friendships in Western cultures
are not formalized through familial or societal structures or obligations

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Relationships with Men 127

(Fehr, 1996; Stein, 1993). In fact, the imposition of rigid role structures
may be viewed as antithetical to formation of true friendship bonds
(Bell & Coleman, 1999).
On the other hand, women’s friendships with men in the workplace
differ from those that occur outside of work, in that those within the
workplace are, to a large extent, non-voluntary (Duck, 2007). In reality,
choices of friends outside the workplace are not totally voluntarily
made either. We are most likely to become friends with those who are
of the same gender, similar in age, social class, sexual orientation,
race/ethnicity, and who live in the same geographic area (Casta~ neda &
Burns-Glover, in press; Cook, Bruin, & Crull, 2000; O’Boyle & Thomas,
1996; Rose, 1995; Serafica, Weng, & Kim, 2000; Way & Chen, 2000). To
some extent, women choose their friends at work, certainly, but they
may not realize the extent to which these choices are curtailed,
bounded, or influenced by the specific work context. This may seem
unimportant, but in a friendship outside work for example, the affec-
tive and relationship processes such as caring, trust, fairness, intimacy,
and so on are developed and negotiated with the implicit understand-
ing that if the relationship proves unrewarding, it may be exited. In
the workplace, however, women must often continue to interact, work,
and complete tasks with men even after a friendship has waned or
even failed. The implications this may have for women’s work life,
both for its day-to-day quality and its influence on their success or
advancement in the workplace, may be quite serious in comparison to
friendships outside the workplace.
The social and relational nature of work plays a primary role in
organizational life (Ragins & Dutton, 2007) and, although organizations
are not bound to do so, more and more of them recognize the need to
provide employees with not only a job and salary but also a pleasant
and positive work environment. Organizations may therefore use strat-
egies that promote workplace friendships, such as development of an
atmosphere of openness, encouraging employees to act in a friendly
manner with each other, training of supervisors and staff in how to de-
velop positive relations at work, providing opportunities for workers
to socialize with one another, and so on (Berman, West, & Richter,
2002). Nevertheless, the desire to create a positive and socially enjoy-
able workplace is not the only motivation for organizational managers.
Organizations also understand that workplace friendships, or at least
the opportunity for them in the organization, are linked to important
work-related outcomes, such as job satisfaction, decreased employee
turnover intentions, greater work involvement, greater readiness for
organizational change, and greater commitment to the organization
(Madsen, Miller, & John, 2005; Morrison, 2004; Nielsen, Jex, &
Adams, 2000; Riordan & Griffeth, 1995). Workplace friends usually
spend time together that goes beyond the needs of their job

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128 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

specifications, and they are able to communicate about and interact


around both personal and work-related topics (Sias & Cahill, 1998). In
fact, communication about work-related topics with workplace friends
tends to be more in-depth, efficient, and useful than with nonwork
friends (Ray, 1987). The ability to be sociable and get along with co-
workers may be essential to movement from lower- to higher-level
positions in the organization and in determining the ‘‘fit’’ of an individ-
ual for a job promotion (citation). Friendships at work help provide a
pleasant work experience, help workers ‘‘get through the day,’’ and
may even spill over into and contribute to socializing activity outside
work (Pettinger, 2005). Through creation of positive relationships and
reduction of conflict, the effects of a workplace that facilitates friend-
ships may extend and promote an organization’s effectiveness even
into the future (Massey, 2005).
For women, workplace friendships with men may be especially im-
portant. Men continue to be most likely to hold positions of power in
organizations, and the informal relationships women have with men
can affect their advancement in the organization, their ability to effec-
tively navigate the social and political work hierarchy, and their access
to support and patronage. For example, mentor/protegee relationships
can be formal in nature, where a mentor and protegee are assigned to
each other by the organization, or they can be informal, where they
grow out of mutual identification of needs, interpersonal comfort with
and attraction to each other, and perceptions of competence in each
other (Ragins & Cotton, 1999). In other words, informal mentor rela-
tionships have many of the qualities of friendship and, compared to
formal mentoring relationships, different consequences for work out-
comes. First, informal mentors are related to greater pay compensation
for both women and men than formal or no mentors. Furthermore,
women report greater coaching, counseling, role modeling, social, and
friendship functions with informal mentors than with formal mentors,
whereas men find formal and informal mentors equally helpful in
these areas. Finally, women with a history of informal and formal rela-
tionships with male mentors, compared to such relationships with
female mentors, tend to receive greater pay compensation (Ragins &
Cotton, 1999).
Despite the usefulness to women of informal mentors, they tend to
rely more heavily than men on formal relationships and organizational
structures to promote their careers (De Vries, Webb, & Eveline, 2006;
Pazy, 1987). These formal programs have been useful for women, and
they have helped recreate, to some extent, the informal relationships or
networks from which women may be excluded. However, a range of
formal and informal workplace relationships with men are needed by
women, including those that they consider to be friendships (Gibson,
2005). Not all women have access to a one-on-one developmental

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Relationships with Men 129

relationship with a powerful mentor, and, in fact, such a model may


not be needed for women to be successful in their work lives. Informal
networks and friendships with peers may be quite helpful to women
and provide them with helpful role models, social support, instrumental
advice, and career-development information. Furthermore, when women
are in a mixed-gender employment situation, their informal relationships
with men are related to their greater influence and centrality in the orga-
nization. Nonetheless, women often have difficulty developing the infor-
mal relationships with men that are beneficial to their careers, and their
informal relationships at work tend to be more restricted and with less
powerful employees (Brass, 1985; Cannings & Montmarquette, 1991). Of
course, many other factors play a role in this finding, such as job level,
gender composition of the workplace, access to high-level employees,
and aspects of the job such as location, hours, full- or part-time status,
and so on, but clearly friendships with men are important for women to
develop in the workplace.
The development of friendships by women is influenced by many
variables that can range from the individual and interpersonal to con-
textual variables at larger levels of analyses, such as the social network,
community, and national cultural level (Adams & Allan, 1998), but the
workplace in particular contains the situational elements that facilitate
friendship, such as proximity (Festinger, Schacter, & Back, 1950),
shared tasks and activities, and repeated exposure (Saegert, Swapp, &
Zajonc, 1973) that lead to familiarity and liking. However, workplace
friendships are especially influenced by the specific aspects of the work
context (Sias & Cahill, 1998). For example, workers are more likely to
develop intimate relationships when a supervisor’s behavior is per-
ceived to be unfair, unsupportive, or she/he appears unwilling to rec-
ognize employee accomplishments or contributions (Odden & Sias,
1997; Sias & Jablin, 1995). Friendships may also move from superficial
to deeper levels as a result of workplace factors. In one study of friend-
ship development in the workplace, for instance, progression from ac-
quaintance to friend was most frequently related to physical proximity.
On the other hand, progression from friend to close friend and from
close friend to almost best friend was most frequently related to work
problems, such as a difficult supervisor or coworker, or problematic
organizational changes, as well as personal life events or problems
(Sias & Cahill, 1998). In these cases, workplace friends can provide
support, advice, and guidance that strengthen bonds between individu-
als. This study highlights workplace factors as an influence on friend-
ship development, but it also demonstrates how the line between work
and personal lives is much less distinct than is generally thought.
In general, women tend to have a greater desire for social ties in the
workplace than do men (Konrad, Richie, Lieb, & Corrigall, 2000), but
women are more likely to become friends with female than male

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130 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

coworkers (Elesser & Peplau, 2006; Markiewicz, Devine, & Kausilas,


2000). Men are also more likely to become friends with male rather
than female coworkers, and this same-gender preference is indicative
of the greater shared interests and comfort women and men may have
with same-gender friends (Ibarra, 1992). Just as in relationships outside
the workplace, women tend to show greater orientation to interpersonal
relationships within the workplace than men. For example, women are
more likely to engage in electronic and face-to-face relationship-oriented
communication with other employees than are men, and they are more
likely than men to report communication about nonwork topics with
coworker friends (Harper, 2005; Lobel et al., 1994). These patterns imply
that traditional constructions of gender surrounding friendships outside
the workplace (i.e., that women are more relational than men and are
more satisfied with same-gender friendships than cross-gender friend-
ships), continue to operate in the workplace. However, other research
suggests a more complex picture of friendship in organizations. For
instance, in contrast to friendships outside the workplace where friend-
ships with women are routinely rated as more satisfying by both women
and men (Adams, Blieszner, & De Vries, 2000; Cheng, Chan, & Tong,
2006; Hays, 1985; Parks and Floyd, 1996), one study found that across
varying job categories (lawyers, information technology workers, and
managers in mid- to large-size organizations), friendships with women
were not consistently rated as more satisfying than those with men
(Markiewicz et al., 2000). This study also found that higher evaluation of
the quality of a relationship with a male friend was related to greater
salary, whereas greater efforts to spend time interacting with female
friends was related to lower salary. Furthermore, tensions and strains in
relationships with male friends at work resulted in lower job satisfaction
for women.
Taken together, these results suggest that friendships with men are
more highly linked to career success than those with women. As men-
tioned previously, in many job settings men tend to occupy the high
power positions, thus, they may be more able to contribute to women’s
career success. Conversely, because they hold more positions of power
in organizations, conflicts with male friends may be particularly dis-
tressing for women.
Women may have a greater desire than men for social ties in the
workplace, but this should not obscure the fact that women’s motiva-
tions for workplace friendships may also be related to their desire to
facilitate their work and advance their careers (Markiewicz et al., 2000;
Randal & Ranft, 2007). Contrary to common assumptions, women can
be just as ambitious and concerned about achievement as men (Paludi,
1990), and the networking activities and informal relationship building
that women engage in at work may be part of their effort at career
development. In fact, when women’s motivations for coworker

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Relationships with Men 131

relationships are primarily based upon their desire to facilitate or


advance their work, rather than primarily related to development of
social ties, they engage in greater information exchange outside their
organizations, which provides them greater opportunities to find other
jobs (Randal & Ranft, 2007).
The gender composition of an organization and a woman’s position
in the organizational hierarchy can also influence women’s development
of friendships with men. Both women and men at lower levels in the
organizational hierarchy are more likely to develop workplace friend-
ships than those at higher organizational levels (Mao, 2006). This pattern
may differ depending on organizational culture—for example, some
organizations emphasize collegiality or egalitarian structures, others
emphasize these to a lesser extent. It may also vary on the basis of the
advancement and promotion rules within an organization. Where these
rules are explicit and clear, friendships may benefit, as opposed to work
situations where they are vague or arbitrary. In such organizations,
friendship development may suffer because of competition between
workers and perceived unfairness in the evaluation process.
Being in the minority in the workplace or in a specific work team is
associated with greater visibility, but also with greater stereotyping
and social isolation (Kanter, 1977). Thus, women in largely male work
situations have even greater difficulty in establishing the friendships
with men that are crucial to career advancement. Greater status may
not alleviate these difficulties—women in the minority who have a
higher status than their male team members tend to be especially iso-
lated (Goldner & Strong, 1987). Not only are these women excluded
from male friendship networks in the workplace, but they themselves
may be reluctant to develop friendships with other women in the
workplace because of differences in status and power.
Despite this, the workplace may be a context where differences, par-
ticularly in demographic characteristics such as age, ethnicity, social
class background, and even gender, may be more easily transcended
than in nonwork contexts. Commonality in work requirements and
environment may facilitate friendships, and this may be increasingly
true as organizations become more diverse. A factor that may be criti-
cal in this process is the passage of time. The longer people are to-
gether, the less important become visible differences, whereas less
visible differences, such as attitudes, values, and personalities, increase
in their importance over time (Cable & Judge, 1996; Elfinbein &
O’Reilly, 2007; Harrison et al., 2002; Ostroff & Rothausen, 1997).

BARRIERS TO WORKPLACE FRIENDSHIPS WITH MEN


As stated earlier, friendships with men in the workplace can have
positive effects on women’s work lives, but a number of barriers exist

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


132 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

that make development of such relationships difficult. For instance, in


interviews with professional-level women and men, Elesser and Peplau
(2006) found that, with regard to cross-gender friendships, these work-
ers were concerned that coworkers might perceive a cross-gender
friendship as sexual or romantic in nature and organizations may have
explicit policies against such relationships. Men were also concerned
that their friendly behavior would be misinterpreted by female co-
workers as sexual harassment. For their part, women were concerned
that male coworkers felt uncomfortable in their presence and therefore
men avoided interacting with them. Elesser and Peplau found that
men did change their behavior when interacting with women—men
joked less with women than with men and were less likely to engage
in behaviors that could be interpreted as sexual harassment, such as
meeting in an office alone with a woman.
Elesser and Peplau (2006) have referred to these barriers to cross-
gender friendships as the ‘‘glass partition.’’ Many work arenas are
male-dominated, and women in these situations are at a greater disad-
vantage than their male counterparts in developing the friendships that
facilitate and advance their careers. In particular, women may be less
able than their male coworkers to develop friendships with male supe-
riors in the workplace. Cross-sex superior–subordinate friendships are
especially fraught with perceived sexual harassment content (Powell,
2001); thus, they may be avoided by male superiors. Even when
women do establish friendly relationships with supportive male superi-
ors, these men may overstep their bounds to subordinate women work-
ers, thus leading to sexual harassment claims (Bryson v. Chicago State
University 96 F3d 912, 1996). Nonetheless, relationships with superiors
can be key to women’s vocational development. Superiors are crucial
role models and they may even take on mentor roles with subordi-
nates, but with fewer opportunities to interact and develop relation-
ships with male superiors, women have less access to the mentor
process (Dreher & Cox, 1996; Paludi, 1990; Ragins & Cotton, 1999).
Other factors unrelated to sexual harassment concerns can influence
women’s friendship development with men in the workplace. The
tokenism theory, posited by Kanter (1977a), argues that many organiza-
tions fill a perceived gap in gender equality with ‘‘token’’ women,
particularly in the upper echelons of the enterprise. However, being in
the minority in a workplace or in a specific work team is associated
with greater visibility and resultant stereotyping and isolation (Kanter,
1977a, 1977b). Thus, women in largely male work situations have even
greater difficulty establishing the friendships with men that are crucial
to career advancement. They are excluded from informal networks
where important information is exchanged along with friendship and
camaraderie. These traditional male alliances, sometimes called the
‘‘old boy-ocracy,’’ continue to present barriers to career effectiveness

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Relationships with Men 133

for senior-level professional women (Swiss, 1996). Even when women


are allowed into the relationship, they have reported the feeling of
‘‘not fitting in’’ and experienced a constant uneasy need to change their
behavior to match the behavior of male colleagues (Cox, 1994; Kanter,
1977). Greater status may not alleviate these difficulties—women in the
minority who have a higher status than their male team members tend
to be especially isolated. Such isolation of executive women spills over
into relationships with female subordinates—women themselves may
be reluctant to develop friendships with other women in the workplace
because of differences in status and power (Goldner & Strong, 1987).
Other factors influence women’s friendships with men. First, while
women may desire friendships with men in the workplace, they may
simply not have enough time to devote to friendship development.
While both women and men work, women with children are responsi-
ble for a greater share of the work surrounding family matters, such as
taking children to medical appointments, grocery shopping, school vis-
its, etc., and these may cut into their lunch and break times during the
work day. Also, while men have increased the amount of time they
devote to family matters (although it is still less than that of women), a
gap in the amount of free time for leisure activities has emerged with
women’s free time decreasing compared with that of men (Sayer,
2005). Thus, women’s friendships at work, as well as out of work, must
compete for time with other demands, particularly those related to
family matters.
Another factor that can influence women’s friendships with men is
sexism. Women report encounters with sexism at a rate of one or two
sexist incidents weekly (Swim, Hyers, Cohen, & Ferguson, 2003) and
these occur across women’s daily activity domains, including work.
These encounters are common, even mundane, but they still negatively
impact women’s psychological mood and self-esteem. In workplace
friendships with men, women may increase the possibility of these
experiences, relative to their friendships with women, and this may be
another element that influences women’s experience of and desire for
friendships with men. Women in nontraditional occupations such as
construction, mining, law enforcement, etc., may be especially subject
to sexist incidents, and development of friendships with men in these
occupations may be particularly difficult (Harrington & Lonsway, 2007;
Ilies, Hauserman, Schwochau, & Stibal, 2003; Lafontaine & Tredeau,
1986).
For lesbians, bisexual women, women of color, and other women
from diverse backgrounds, friendships with men in the workplace take
on other dimensions. Biases against them may stem not only from their
gender, but also from their ethnicity, race, or sexual orientation (Hur-
tado, 1996; Martin, 1994). Like sexism, the experience of everyday rac-
ism is a frequent and common occurrence for women of color (Martin,

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


134 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

1994; Swim, Hyers, Cohen, Fitzgerald, & Bylsma, 2003), and this can
influence how women approach friendships with men in the work-
place. They themselves may curtail or carefully monitor their behaviors
in relationships with men (and European-American women) to avoid
stereotypes, to ‘‘fit in,’’ or to succeed at work. For example, a study of
Latina managers found that regardless of their generation level, aware-
ness of prejudice and discrimination influenced how open they were
with non-Latina/o coworkers and the extent that they revealed aspects
of their family lives to them (Hite, 2007). Lesbian women’s friendships
with men are influenced by the heteronormativity of organizational
practices; that is, the notion that heterosexuality is ubiquitous, normal,
and unquestioned in the workplace (Bruni, 2006; McDermott, 2006).
Although it may vary depending on the particular organization, its pol-
icies, and the history and personality of individual women, perform-
ance of lesbian, bisexual, or transgender identities in the workplace
always entails a calculation/risk assessment process that can be psy-
chologically costly for women (McDermott, 2006). Part of this calcula-
tion/risk assessment process may include greater wariness of
friendships with men in the workplace on the part of women, particu-
larly in employment settings where hostility toward differing sexual
identities is present. Openly lesbian or bisexual women have reason to
be fearful as, with openness about their sexual orientation, they may
become targets of intimidation, harassment, or discrimination (Ragins,
Cornwell, & Miller, 2003; Ragins, Singh, & Cornwell, 2007; Taylor &
Raeburn, 1995). Lesbian and other sexual minority women may rightly
understand that knowledge of their sexual orientation can influence
actual job outcomes, such as promotions (Ragins & Cornwell, 2001).
On the other hand, even if they are willing to develop friendships with
heterosexual men in the workplace, social segregation or even ostra-
cism of lesbian women in organizations, particularly when they take
an openly activist stance, may affect their ability to initiate, develop,
and maintain these friendships (Taylor & Raeburn). This social exclu-
sion may not even be particularly apparent to those affected by it—one
woman employed in an academic setting explained that ‘‘I suffered
horrible ridicule and discrimination in the department but usually
didn’t know about it until after it occurred. You see, I was so far out-
side the networks that no one even told me about all of the events I
was missing’’ (Taylor & Raeburn, p. 265).
A more subtle concern for women surrounding friendships with
men in the workplace, and one they themselves may not be aware of,
is that relationality, and the responsibility for developing connections
with others, is not a gender-neutral process in organizations nor the
larger society (Abrams, 1998; Cancian, 1987; Miller, 1976). While organ-
izations are beginning to appreciate the importance of positive relation-
ships, women are more likely than men to be expected, even assigned,

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Relationships with Men 135

to create the conditions for these relationships (Fletcher, 2007). How-


ever, because relationality is consistent with femininity, and femininity
is associated with powerlessness and dependence, the skills needed to
facilitate and enhance positive relationships in the workplace may be
ones that are not taken seriously, rewarded, or recognized (Fletcher,
2007). Competence at work is many times associated with displays of
masculine behavior for both women and men and displays of relational
skills and behavior by women, while they may be viewed as ‘‘nice,’’
may not contribute to perceptions of job competence or expertise
(Fletcher, 1999; 2007). Enacting relationality in the workplace is cer-
tainly positive and may be helpful for women, but unlike for men, it
contains a greater potential for detracting from their evaluation as com-
petent and valued workers. Greater attention and research must be
done to more fully explicate these gender dynamics and processes and
implications for them for women in the workplace.

ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS WITH MEN IN THE WORKPLACE


In addition to friendships, women may also develop romantic rela-
tionships with men at work. These relationships are typically referred
to in the literature as ‘‘workplace romances’’ and indicate a relation-
ship between two individuals in the same organization that includes
mutual sexual attraction that is consensually and autonomously acted
upon by both participants in some form of intimate behavior, such as
dating and or sexual activity (Mainiero, 1993; Pierce, Byrne, & Aguinis,
1996). The setting for workplace romances is often perceived to be an
office. In fact, the term ‘‘office romance’’ is sometimes colloquially used
to refer to these relationships, and workplace romance research has
focused primarily on those that take place in white-collar settings.
However, the organizational setting of these relationships can vary and
can include factories, hospitals, retail businesses, construction sites, res-
taurants, and shop floors. The individuals’ connection to the workplace
can be varied as well and can include coworkers, vendors, team mem-
bers, clients, and contractors. They may work side by side, in different
offices, different divisions, or even in different geographic locations,
such as different neighborhoods, cities, states, or countries.
For the most part, the prevailing image of workplace romantic part-
ners is that they are heterosexual and European-American, although,
clearly, this does not have to be the case. Nevertheless, researchers are
only recently beginning to recognize the importance of studying same-
sex workplace romances and the role of culture, social class, and eth-
nicity in them. Indeed, same-sex workplace romances may be subject
to greater implications for participants because they tend to receive
more negative responses from society in general (see Riach & Wilson,
2007). Furthermore, at least in some workplaces, those from already

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


136 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

marginalized groups (the working class, certain ethnic or cultural


groups) who engage in workplace romance behavior may be more
likely to be targeted for enforcement of existing workplace sexual har-
assment policies than those from socially dominant groups (Williams
et al., 1999).
The existing literature on workplace romance tends to emphasize
the legal, emotional, and work performance pitfalls of these relation-
ships (Powell & Foley, 1998; Williams et al., 1999). In fact, much of the
advice to organizations focuses on how to manage or restrict such rela-
tionships, and they are exhorted to develop written company policies
surrounding them. Part of the difficulty for employers, however, is that
while a plethora of advice on how to manage workplace romance is
available, little of it stems from empirical research. For example, of key
interest to employers are the potential effects of workplace romances
on job performance, but that message is mixed. Some studies show that
involvement in a workplace romance does not result in decrements in
work performance, and in some cases it is related to improvement in
various aspects of work performance (Dillard, 1987; Pierce, 1998). In
fact, involvement in a romantic relationship, whether in or out of the
workplace, has been positively linked to one’s own work motivation,
job involvement, and satisfaction with type of work (Pierce, 1998). In at
least one study, motives for engaging in a workplace romance affected
work performance. In this case, women, and to a lesser extent men,
who engaged in workplace romance out of love motives were more
likely to increase their work performance and job involvement than
those who engaged in a workplace romance out of job-related or ego
motives (Dillard, 1987).
The definitive study of the prevalence of workplace romance has yet
to be done, but available research suggests the workplace is an arena
in which intimate romantic and sexual relationships are frequently
formed. According to an American Management Association survey
conducted among its members and customers, 26% of men and 36% of
women report having dated a workplace colleague. The proportion
was higher among workers under 49 years of age (37%) compared with
workers 50 years of age and above (22%). More men had dated a sub-
ordinate (20%) compared with 2% for women, while more women had
dated a superior (18%) compared with 5% for men. In another survey
of 610 employees representing a variety of industries across the United
States, 58% reported engaging in an office romance, up from 46% in
the same survey two years prior (Vault, 2005, September). The results
in this survey were not broken down by gender, but 14% reported dat-
ing a superior and 19% reported dating a subordinate.
Not only is the prevalence high for those who report engaging in a
workplace romance, but many workers report having been exposed to
a workplace romance on the part of their coworkers. In one of the first

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Relationships with Men 137

studies of the extent of workplace romance, Quinn (1977) found that


62% of respondents said they knew of at least one of these relationships.
Later, Anderson and Hunsaker (1985) found that 86% of respondents
had been exposed to one or more workplace romantic relationships.
Most recently, the Vault survey found that 43% of respondents knew of
a currently occurring romantic relationship in their organization.
Of special note is that, while organized settings such as family and
neighborhood networks continue to influence choice of marriage part-
ner, social network research has found that, since 1945, the workplace
(along with schools) has increased in its importance as a site from
which marriage partners are selected (Kalmijn & Flap, 2001). For exam-
ple, 22% of respondents in one survey reported meeting their spouse
or long-term significant other in the workplace (Vault, 2005); in another
survey, 45% of women and 43% of men who engaged in a workplace
romance reported that the relationship had ended in marriage (Amer-
ican Management Association, 2003).
Internet relationships notwithstanding, who we end up with in a
close relationship is limited to those we are actually able to meet and
interact with, and the workplace provides a pool of persons to choose
from and an organized setting for social interaction.
Not only are romantic relationships common at work, but the work-
place is also a location in which a fair amount of sexual activity occurs
(for a discussion, see Casta~neda, 2006). Sexual behavior includes kiss-
ing, hugging, fondling, sexual intercourse, and other physical, sexually
stimulating behavior, but it may be more broadly conceived to include
flirtation behavior, requests for dates, sexual comments or jokes, and
sexual language. This behavior may be considered by participants as
consensual and nonharrassing or as offensive, coercive, and sexually
harassing (Gutek, Cohen, & Konrad, 1990). In an investigation of the
predictors of this broad spectrum or sexual behavior in the workplace,
Gutek and her colleagues found that a greater amount of contact with
the other gender in the workplace predicted, first, a more sexualized
work environment, and this in turn was predictive of greater sexual
behavior in the workplace. Overall, women reported greater sexually
harassing behavior than men, but women and men were equally likely
to report nonharrassing sexual behavior in the workplace, and this
behavior was much more commonly experienced than sexual harass-
ment (Gutek et al., 1990). However, while the two types of sexual
behavior exist in the workplace, sexual harassment behavior also
increased. This result points to the role of social and cultural power
differentials between women and men—because we live in a world
where women are secondary to men and where heterosexuality is the
expected norm and guides gender relations in organizations, for
women sexuality at work always holds the potential for an acting out
of these power relations (Mills, 1989; Riach & Wilson, 2007).

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138 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

The only study by Gutek and her colleagues highlights that the
phenomenon of sexuality at work is not always coercive and contains
multiple facets and interpretations by workers. For instance, the
contradictory nature of sexuality in the workplace (i.e., that it can be
an act of resistance to managerial control and regulation, as well as an
expression of hierarchies of oppressive power) is obscured by the more
pronounced focus on its potential coercive effects on workers, particu-
larly women. More nuanced thinking on organizational sexuality refers,
instead, to ‘‘. . . a multileveled understanding of power and resistance in
which struggles around sexuality have manifold consequences’’
(Fleming, 2007, pg. 240). Sexuality, gender, power, resistance, control—
all of these processes in the workplace intersect in complex ways that
are not always easily mapped out in an unambiguous manner and how
they are expressed, evaluated, interpreted, and experienced by women
very much depends on the political context of a particular work setting
(Fleming). This more subtle point is often overlooked, but once brought
to the forefront it suggests a much wider spectrum of women’s experi-
ences with sexuality and romantic relationships with men in the work-
place that may be missing from organizational theory and research.
That said, however, one of the predominant organizational concerns
surrounding workplace romance is the potential for sexual harassment
claims that may result when the relationship fails. Some data indicate a
link between the two. In a survey conducted by the Society for Human
Resource Management, a quarter of the respondents indicated that sex-
ual harassment claims in their organizations were caused by workplace
romances. Of particular concern are dissolved hierarchical relation-
ships, especially direct reporting ones, because they are thought to con-
tain greater potential for sexual harassment claims for a number of
reasons. First, even though negative feelings may exist on the part of
one partner or both partners, they must continue to work with one
another after the relationship is over. In addition, the lower-level part-
ner in such relationships may have had job-related motives for entering
the relationship that have now been thwarted, and this could lead to
resentment. Finally, a power differential between the two exists that
could lead to sexual coercion or discriminatory managerial decision
making (Pierce & Aguinis, 1997).
Sexual harassment is a serious legal and ethical event and should be
dealt with accordingly; however, with respect to a dissolved workplace
romance, judgments of responsibility for the sexual harassment and
decisions about subsequent managerial intervention do not stem solely
from the objective behaviors of the former relationship partners. The
characteristics of observers and aspects of the former workplace
romance play a role in perceptions of responsibility and intervention
decisions. For example, Pierce, Broberg, McClure, and Aguinis (2004)
found that assessment of the immorality of the sexually harassing

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Relationships with Men 139

behavior mediated decisions about whether the accused or complainant


had greater responsibility for the behavior. Assessment of responsibil-
ity, in turn, influenced disciplinary action decisions that ranged from
no response to punitive responses. However, assessment of the immor-
ality of the behavior was influenced by factors unrelated to the specific
harassing behavior. If the prior workplace romance had been hierarchi-
cal, the company had a workplace romance policy in place, and the
sexually harassing behavior was quid pro quo rather than hostile envi-
ronment harassment, assessment of the immorality of the sexually har-
assing behavior occurred.
Motives for engaging in a workplace romance, as well as gender of
the relationship partner, play a key role in perceptions of judgments of
responsibility for sexual harassment behavior. In one study where a
woman was the sexual harassment complainant and a man was the
accused, perceptions of job motives of the accuser and complainant
affected judgments of responsibility for the sexual harassing behavior.
In this case, the accused was considered most responsible when he had
an ego motive and the complainant had a love motive, and least re-
sponsible when he had a love motive and the complainant had a job-
related motive for participation in the relationship. Conversely, the
complainant was judged as most responsible for the harassment when
she had a job-related or ego motive compared to a love motive and the
accused had a love, not ego, motive for participation in the relation-
ship. This study also found that observers considered disciplining the
accused as an appropriate action when the romance had been a hier-
archical one, but if the complainant in a hierarchical workplace
romance was perceived to have a job-related motive, male but not
female observers did not consider company-funded counseling as an
appropriate intervention (Pierce, Aguinis, & Adams, 2000).
This research provides insight into the complex cognitive processes
that contribute to coworker responses to sexual harassment claims by
those who have participated in a workplace romance. They demon-
strate, once again, the importance of perceived motives for the romance
on the part of observers and that, even if erroneous, these perceived
motives cannot be taken lightly. However, a more fundamental and
crucial issue surrounding workplace romances and sexual harassment
remains unexamined. While women are acknowledged to more likely
be the victim of sexual harassment, the reasons for this are not ques-
tioned. Therefore, the deeper causes for sexual harassment behavior
are not addressed. The rationale for organizational attempts to prevent
it is usually based upon its threats to the organization (e.g., low staff
morale, high turnover, and lowered productivity), and less upon its
harmful impact on women (Bennett-Alexander & Hartman, 2004; see
Robinson v. Jackson Shipyards, Inc., 760 F. Supp. 1486 (M.D. Fla Jack-
sonville Div., 1991); Samuels, 2003). The view implicit in advice to

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140 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

organizations is that sexual harassment is the result of individual, aber-


rant behavior and is containable and readily resolved by following a
checklist of managerial actions. What this traditional approach to sex-
ual harassment obscures is the highly gendered power relations in
organizations that structure and perpetuate women’s inequality in the
workplace (Acker, 1990; Hurtado, 1996). One expression of this work-
place inequality is sexual harassment.
This may be one reason women tend to have more negative atti-
tudes toward workplace romantic relationships than men (Pierce, et al.,
1996), especially hierarchical romances (Jones, 1999). They may cor-
rectly understand that women in these relationships will be evaluated
more negatively and therefore have more to lose (Anderson & Fisher,
1991; Powell, 2001). Furthermore, they may better understand and pos-
sibly fear that their claims of sexual harassment after a workplace
romance has ended will be taken less seriously because of their
involvement in the relationship (Pierce et al., 2004).
Social ties at work, including women’s friendship and romantic rela-
tionships with men, are inevitable. When women experience these as
positive, they add immeasurably to the quality of their work and
personal lives. Instead of existing solely outside of work and as part of
the private sphere, sexuality, romance, intimacy, close relationships,
and affectionate bonds are part of the public world—they make up the
fabric of work, operate at every level of organizations, and can affect
work outcomes in myriad ways. However, the workplace does not
operate in isolation from the gender, class, racial/ethnic, and heterosex-
ual hierarchies that exist within the larger culture (Kanter, 1977;
Maddock & Parkin, 1994; Salzinger, 2003; Schein, 1994; Williams, 1989).
These social and cultural structures and processes make up the context
in which women’s relationships with men in the workplace occur; thus,
more so for women than men, the potential for negative consequences
of these relationships is always present. An important first step in
changing this social reality is greater research and theory on relational
issues in organizations that goes beyond the prevailing, albeit impor-
tant, emphasis on the standard sexual harassment paradigm, to one
that can more fully encompass the contradictory, emergent, and multi-
faceted reality that these relationships contain for women at work.

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Vault. (2005). Cupid in the cubicle, says new vault survey. Available from http://
www.thevault.com/nr/printable.jsp?ch[lowem]id=420&article[lowem]id=235.
Walker, K. (1995). ‘‘Always there for me’’: Friendship patterns and expectations
among middle- and working-class men and women. Sociological Forum, 10,
273–296.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Relationships with Men 147

Williams, C. (1989). Feminity in the marine corp. In C. Williams (Ed.), Gender


differences at work: Women and men in nontraditional work (pp. 45–87). Berke-
ley, CA: University of California Press.
Williams, C., Giuffre, P., & Dellinger, K. (1999). Sexuality in the workplace:
Organizational control, sexual harassment, and the pursuit of pleasure. An-
nual Review of Sociology, 25, 73–93.
Wilson, S. M., & Ferch, S. R. (2005). Enhancing resilience in the workplace
through the practice of caring relationships. Organization Development Jour-
nal, 23, 45–60.
U.S. Census Bureau (2003, August). Table 1. Selected characteristics of the pop-
ulation 20-64 by employment status: 2000. Census 2000 Brief: Employment
status 2000. Retrieved on July 8, 2007, from http://www.census.gov/
prod/2003pubs/c2kbr-18.pdf.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Chapter 9

What I See Is What Matters:


In My Own Voice
Sharon Butler

What I know means nothing; it is what I see that matters.


As a woman coming of age in the mid-1980s, I have surfed the wave
of the ‘‘women’s movement’’ at the most exciting time. The women’s
movement has been a huge public relations success. I know so much
about what has kept women from being all that they know and believe
they can be. I know of all the conditioning and behaviors that have
prevented women from rising above the glass ceilings and taking over
the world.
Every man I have encountered both personally and professionally
appears to be equally informed. I would say that ‘‘knowing’’ the issues
has made little impact. By defining our challenges, women have polar-
ized our differences between women and men. I know we have come
far in identifying the value of women in business, yet . . .
I still see discrimination of women across a number of industries.
Earlier in my career it was as simple as being asked to fetch coffee, or
worse yet bona fide sexual harassment. But now, often what I see is
not men but women keeping women down in the workplace. I have
seen women who have established a place for themselves but let other
women struggle. It is as if they believe the only reason they have
achieved a place of respect among men was solely their gender—any
woman would do, therefore all other women are the competition. We
are by nature a nurturing gender, yet when defining moments occur,
we pretend we are not.
When I reflect on the mentors who have guided me along in my
journey as an educated and accomplished woman, I am saddened by the

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


150 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

number of women who added baggage to the journeys of other


women, all the while claiming that they prefer to work with men. At
that moment when mentoring, sharing, and collaborating could occur,
power overcomes them and they stand tall among their male colleagues,
displaying like armor all of their unwomanly qualities. This phenom-
enon is one that I have not only witnessed, but experienced firsthand,
not once but on three different occasions throughout my career. In all
instances, I witnessed women discriminating against women. In inter-
viewing these women that were so significant in my observation, they
each defined that the people who gave them opportunity, showed them
career paths, or otherwise mentored them were men.
There are so many books, articles, and periodicals about the sister-
hood built by women’s rights, and I know we have all learned so much
from reading them and understanding them. The reality is, however,
that as women have made a share for themselves in the big offering of
business leadership, they have showed that, often, women don’t play
nicely. That is what I see, and it is in direct conflict with what I know.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Chapter 10

Women in Ethiopia: The Sound of


Hope: In My Own Voice
Haimanot Kelbessa

For many years Ethiopians have been praying and struggling against
injustice, hoping for a new day to come. The Ethiopian Women Law-
yers Association (EWLA) is one of the many positive results of the
struggles and prayers that took place in the past. Recently many non-
governmental organizations (NGOs) that are managed by women have
been formed, and they are doing an excellent job. Such organizations
are mushrooming everywhere in the rural areas as well as in the cities.
Their efforts are making a difference, one woman at a time.
In 1996, with her few female colleagues, Meaza Ashenafi, executive
director of EWLA, started a legal advocacy group. The main purpose
of the organization was to put an end to various discriminatory laws
against women in Ethiopia and to bring awareness regarding women’s
rights. With the help the organization receives from the United Nations
Development Fund for Women, the association is able to circulate in-
formation about gender equality by teaching women about the law
through the paralegal training that they provide, as well as by the
counseling services and the media outreach effort they undertake.
Ashenafi was a legal advisor to the Ethiopian Transitional Govern-
ment Constitution Commission human rights panel. The experience
that Ashenafi acquired at the commission while writing position papers
regarding women and children was rewarding to her. This experience
encouraged Ashenafi to start her own organization, EWLA.
Ashenafi was born in Asossa, a small village in western Ethiopia,
near the Sudanese border. She gives a lot of credit to her parents, who
instilled in her the importance of education. She appreciates what her

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


152 Obstacles and the Identity Juggle

mom did for her. Even though her mom was illiterate, she had the
insight to raise her five children so that they could go to college. Ashe-
nafi says her mom had a lot of unused potential. In school, Ashenafi
was always a hardworking student. Despite the remark that was made
by one of her teachers regarding her potential, ‘‘you are so smart and
have so much potential, it’s too bad you are not a boy’’ (Fidali, 2003,
p. 2), she continued her hard work and it paid off. She went on to
receive her law degree, from Addis Ababa University.
Her association, EWLA, advances the issue of women’s rights in
Ethiopia. According to Ashenafi, the fact that women in Ethiopia do
not have access to justice is the result of the shortage of women’s
groups that stand in an organized fashion against unjust laws and
practices. Ashenafi explains that several laws affect women directly or
indirectly, including family and penal law. She explained that family
law gives a right for the husband to discipline his wife. This allows
women to be treated as if they were children. The penal law on the
other hand gives the right for the criminals who abduct and rape girls
to be their husbands.
The EWLA provides women 15 days of basic Ethiopian law training.
This provides women the information to know what their rights are
under the law and how to assert them. This empowering mechanism
has a domino effect that passes from woman to woman by which
EWLA hopes to guarantee progress.
With the tireless efforts of the EWLA, the penal law of 1957, which
disregarded women’s rights, was reformed in July 2004 and enforced
in May 2005. The association is not fully content with the law, which
still excludes sexual harassment and marital rape. This issue of marital
rape is very significant in light of the transmission of HIV/AIDS in
African society, where women are mostly voiceless. As a consequence,
this disease is killing thousands of women. It is one of the major rea-
sons for so many orphaned children in the country.
One of the cases EWLA fought that attracted worldwide attention
involved Aberash Bekele, a 14-year-old girl who was abducted and
raped and forced to marry her abductor, like many other young girls
in rural Ethiopia. However, Aberash retaliated by killing her abductor,
becoming the first woman known in court to stand up against this
gender-based violence. The association represented the girl to be not
guilty on grounds of self-defense. This exposed the unfair law to Ethio-
pians and to the outside world.
In another case, EWLA stood in support of an Ethiopian migrant
worker in Bahrain for alleged murder of her employer due to abuse.
The association initiated a task force to raise money for her legal sup-
port and asked for government intervention. This helped the migrant
worker obtain a defense lawyer from the Ethiopian government for her
appeal. This led to the exposure of the physical and mental abuse,

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Women in Ethiopia 153

wage denial, and other mistreatment of Ethiopian women working in


various Arab countries, because of the lack of legal protection.
One major case that almost resulted in risking EWLA’s existence
was that of Hermela Wosenyeleh. This woman was harassed and shot
by a male perpetrator. The court punished him by sentencing him to
only a few months in jail. The association helped this woman to put
her story on television, after unsuccessfully attempting to get any
results with the law enforcement officials in Ethiopia. Meaza Ashenafi
gave the issue even more publicity through an interview she gave with
a newspaper.
As a result, EWLA was accused of acting beyond its mandate and
its activity was suspended by the Ministry of Justice. With the inter-
vention and lobby of local and international NGOs, the suspension was
lifted. The perpetrator was sentenced for 18 years, and the Minister of
Justice was removed from his position.
Ethiopian women are hopeful that the new millennium will bring
equality, justice, and freedom to all.
Ethiopia celebrated its millennium on September 12, 2007, based on
the Coptic Orthodox calendar. This holiday started in the morning with
the sound of young girls’ voices singing the New Year’s celebration
song ‘‘Abeba-ye-hoy.’’ The girls went from home to home, giving the
yellow flowers they collected from the meadow, which marks the sea-
son of hope. They looked happy and hopeful.

REFERENCES
Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association: About EWLA. Retrieved on October 9,
2007, from http://www.etwla.org.
Fidali, T. (2003). Ethiopian women of substance: Africa Prize laureate Meaza
Ashenafi & EWLA. Retrieved on October 10, 2007, from http://www.
tadias.com/v1n5/GRS_2_2003-1.html.
United Nations Development Fund for Women (2000). Ending discriminatory
laws against women in Ethiopia. Retrieved on October 9, 2007, from http://
www.unifemorg/gender issues/voices from the field/story.php?StoryID¼230.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Index

ABA Commission on Women, 115 Career development: friendships with


Academia: access to resources, 44; men, 129–30; women in academia,
career development, 44–45; 44–45
decreasing gender disparity, 45–47; Center for Worklife Policy, Manhat-
underrepresentation of women, 42; tan, 4
women leaders in, 40; work versus Changes in number of women: model
family conflict, 43–44 of masculinity and, 96
Access discrimination: workplace Chiropractor: in my own voice,
experiences of women of color, 121–23
114 Chronicle of Higher Education (2005), 44
Access to resources: women in aca- Citation frequency, 22
demia, 44 Civil Rights Act of 1964: Title VII,
Advocacy groups: barriers gone 68–69
underground, 12 Cluster or cohort hiring, 12
Affirmative action: in gendered rac- Coalition of Labor Union Women
ism, 117 (CLWU), 51–52
Ambiguity (lack of deliberate intent): Cognitive processes: conceptualization
in incivility, 66 of discrimination, 113
Ashenafi, Meaza: EWLA, 151–53 Collegiality: STEM academic women,
Aversive racism, 113 10–11
Committee on Maximizing the Poten-
tial of Women in Academic Science
Bekele, Aberash: EWLA case, 152
and Engineering, 2
Blue-collar women workers: leader-
Committee on Women in Psychology
ship, 49–51
Leadership Institute: recommenda-
Bryson v. Chicago University, 132
tions, 53–54
Bureaucratization: sexual harassment
Communitarian environment, 8–9
and, 101
Competent behavior: in gendered
racism, 117
Career choices, 4–6 Conceptualizations: gender and race,
Career construction theory, 4 110

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


156 Index

Constant surveillance: in gendered Gatekeepers: recognition of productiv-


racism, 117 ity, 7
Constructions: careers as, 4–6 Gender discrimination: conceptualiz-
Construct of possible selves, 5–6 ing, 110; injustice, 15; racial,
Contact theory: degree of sexualiza- 113–14; sexism, 111–12
tion and, 89–90 Gender disparity: academia, 45–47;
Contingency approach to leadership, perceptions of sexual harassment,
35–36 72–73
Control theory, 5 Gendered racism, 113–14, 116–17;
Corporate world: female leadership what can be done, 117–18
in, 38–40; informal culture and Gender ratio: effects on sexual harass-
incivility, 67 ment, 91–93; sex ratio history, 96
Cyber-incivility, 67 Gender regime, 94
Glass ceiling concept, 35; women in
Degree attainment, 41; minority academia, 42–43
women, 41–42 Glass partition: workplace friend-
Denial of personal disadvantage, 15 ships, 132
Department of Defense (DoD): sexual
harassment survey, 70–72 Hayes-White, Joanne, 52
Discriminatory actions in hiring, 12 Health and helping professions,
Doing gender theory, 94 47–49
Health-related consequences: sexual
Education: barriers to women, 42–44; harassment, 73–74
women and, 41–42 Higher education, 41
Elite environment, 8–9 History of women in education, 41–42
Employment and salaries: challenges HIV/AIDS: women in Ethiopia, 152
for women of color, 114–15 Homophobia, 98
Equal Opportunity Commission
(EEOC): definition of sexual har- Identity threat, 16
assment, 69 Improvisational career path, 4–5
Equal opportunity laws, 12 Incivility: causes or antecedents, 66;
Erotic warfare, 102 compared to sexual harassment,
Ethiopia: women in, 151–53 73–74; definition, 66; escalation to
Ethiopian Women Lawyers Associa- sexual harassment, 74–76; fre-
tion (EWLA), 151–53 quency rates and consequences,
Ethnicity: challenges for women of 67–68; racialized, 76–79
color, 109–19; friendship in the Inclusive work environments: STEM
workplace, 133–34 academic women, 10–11
Exclusionary practices, 116 Inclusivity for department members:
Extra-organizational norms: male to combat gendered racism, 118
dominance and, 97 Informal corporate culture: incivility
Extreme working, 17 and, 67
Integrative theories of leadership,
Faust, Catharine Drew Gilpin, 47 36
Flexible work schedules, 20 Isolation and exclusion, 11–12
Friendship: men in the workplace,
126–31 Job-related consequences: sexual
Future-oriented notions of self, 5 harassment, 73–74

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Index 157

Job satisfaction: effects of incivility Motivational process: conceptualiza-


and sexual harassment, 73–74; tion of discrimination, 113
STEM academic women, 10–12 My life as a woman psychologist:
Judged by different standards: in gen- Safir, Marilyn P., 57–63
dered racism, 117
Normative dominance, 91–95
Labor unions: to combat gendered
Numerical dominance, 88–91
racism, 118
Lack of line experience, 39
Lack of respect: in gendered racism, Objective count of women: model of
116–17 masculinity and, 96
Laissez-faire style, 36–37 Occupational identities: behavior and
Lanier, Cathy, 52 attitudes of men, 98–99
Law firms: women of color, 115 Occupational niches: sexual harass-
Leadership: in academia, 40; barriers ment and, 97
for women, 37–38; blue-collar Occupation-based research: sexual
women workers, 49–51; congenial harassment, 98
setting, 33; control of male domi- Old-fashioned racism, 112
nance, 96–97; in the corporate Organizational catalysts, 12
world, 38–40; health and helping Organizational climate: incivility and,
professions, 47–49; recommenda- 67
tions, 53–54; unions, 51–52 Organizational hierarchy: friendship
Leadership styles, 36–37 formation, 131
Leaky pipeline theory: women in
academia, 42–43
Paradox of complaining, 100
Likelihood to Sexually Harass (LSH)
Participation only in race/gender
scale, 98
issues: in gendered racism, 116–17
Linear career path, 5
Perception of numbers of women:
model of masculinity and, 96
Male dominance: degree of sexualiza-
Performance evaluation fairness: to
tion, 89–90; extra-organizational
combat gendered racism, 118
norms, 97; numerical, 88–91; sexual
Performance-related feedback, 39
harassment and, 85–107; women’s
Personality traits: incivility and, 66–67
visibility, 90–91
Physics departments: three types, 8–9
Management training: bias and
Pluralist environment, 8–9
equity, 20
Police and fire force: case vignettes,
Marginalization and discouragement, 13
52–53
Masculine hierarchy, 94–95
Postsecondary education, 41
Masculinity: ecological model, 95–102
Proportionality: sexual harassment
Mentoring, 20; informal, 128–29;
and, 88–89
women of color, 115–16; workplace
Psychological consequences: sexual
friendships, 128
harassment, 73–74
Mentors and role models: STEM
Psychologist: in my own voice, 57–63
field, 3
Microaggressions: racial, 76–79
Middle-management: corporate Racial discrimination: challenges for
world, 38–40 women of color, 109–19; conceptu-
Military personnel: DoD sexual har- alizing, 110; employment and
assment survey, 70–72 salaries, 114; gendered, 113–14;

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


158 Index

incivility and sexual harassment, Sexual orientation: friendship in the


76–79; mentoring for women of workplace, 133–34
color, 115–16; microaggressions, Simmons, Ruth: 46–47
76–79; research, 112–13; workplace Situational approach to leadership, 35
experiences of women of color, 114 Socio-cultural process: conceptualiza-
Racialized incivility and sexual har- tion of discrimination, 113
assment, 76–79 STEM careers: barriers gone under-
Relational departments, 21 ground, 12–13; male-dominated
Relationality: friendship in the work- departments, 2–3; recruitment and
place, 134–35 hiring, 2; research productivity,
Relationships with men, 125–43 7–9; satisfaction among academic
Research collaborations, 20–21 women, 10–12; undergraduate
Research productivity, 7–8; activities degrees among women, 2; underre-
necessary for, 8 presentation of women, 1–33
Resistance to authority: men, 99–100 Stereotypy: benevolent, 14; impercepti-
Resource distribution tracking: to ble types, 13; leadership barriers for
combat gendered racism, 118 women, 37–38; motherhood, 18–19;
Rodin, Judith, 46 STEM careers, 1
Romantic relationships: attitudes, 140;
legal, emotional, and performance Technology: cyber-incivility, 67
pitfalls, 136; perceived motives, Threat rigidity: women in the corpo-
139; in the workplace, 135–40 rate world, 39
Tokenism, 11, 40, 90; friendships and,
Same-sex workplace romances, 135–36 132
Science, technology, engineering and Traditionality scale, 92–93
mathematics. See STEM careers Trait approach to leadership, 35
Sexism, 111–12; friendships and, 133 Transactional style, 36–37
Sexual activity: workplace, 137–38 Transformational style, 36–37
Sexual Experience Questionnaire Transparency in decision making: to
(SEQ), 69; psychological sexual combat gendered racism, 118
harassment, 87 Treatment discrimination: workplace
Sexual harassment, 65–84; compared experiences of women of color, 114
to incivility, 73–74; consequences, Trickle down theory: sexual harass-
73–74; definitions, 68–69; escalation ment, 99–100
from incivility, 74–76; gender
differences in perceptions, 72–73;
male dominance and, 85–107; men’s Undergraduate degrees: STEM fields, 2
resistance to authority, 99–100; Underrepresentation: women in aca-
numerical dominance, 88–91; demia, 42
occupational-based research, 98; Under-the-radar discrimination, 13
occupational niches, 97; organized, Unions: female leaders, 51–52
94–95; quid pro quo, 69; racialized, United Nations Development Fund
76–79; rejection-based, 95; same sex, for Women, 151
70–72; same-sex, 92; trickle down University presidents, female, 46–47
theory, 99–100; workplace romantic Unwritten rules: use in gendered
relationships, 138–39 racism, 117
Sexual Harassment of Men (SHOM), 72
Sexualization: degree in male domi- Woman chiropractor: in my own
nance, 89–90 voice, 121–23

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Index 159

Women of color. See Ethnicity; Racial Workplace friendships, 126–31; bar-


discrimination riers to, 131–32; desire for social
Women’s movement, 149–150 ties, 129–30; perception as romantic
Women’s rights: Ethiopia, 151–153 relationships, 132; perception as
Women’s visibility: in sexual harass- sexual harassment, 132; romantic
ment, 90–91 relationships, 135–40; sexual
Work and productivity, 6–10 harassment and, 138–39
Work judged unimportant: in gen- Workplace Incivility Scale (WIS), 68
dered racism, 116–17 Work structure: sexual harassment
Work/life balance: for both genders, and, 101–2
16–18 Work versus family conflict: in
Workplace discrimination: STEM academia, 43–44
careers, 1 Wosenyeleh, Hermela: EWLA case, 153

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


About the Editor and Contributors

Michele A. Paludi, PhD, is the author/editor of 27 college textbooks, and


more than 140 scholarly articles and conference presentations on sexual
harassment, psychology of women, gender, and sexual harassment and
victimization. Her book Ivory Power: Sexual Harassment on Campus (1990,
SUNY Press) received the 1992 Myers Center Award for Outstanding
Book on Human Rights in the United States. Dr. Paludi served as chair of
the U.S. Department of Education’s Subpanel on the Prevention of Vio-
lence, Sexual Harassment, and Alcohol and Other Drug Problems in
Higher Education. She was one of six scholars in the United States to be
selected for this subpanel. She also was a consultant to and a member of
former New York State Governor Mario Cuomo’s Task Force on Sexual
Harassment. She is the series editor for Praeger’s Women’s Psychology
Series.
Dr. Paludi serves as an expert witness for court proceedings and
administrative hearings on sexual harassment. She has had extensive ex-
perience in conducting training programs and investigations of sexual
harassment and other equal employment opportunity issues for busi-
nesses and educational institutions. In addition, Dr. Paludi has held fac-
ulty positions at Franklin & Marshall College, Kent State University,
Hunter College, Union College, and Union Graduate College, where she
directs the human resource management certificate program. She teaches
courses in the school of management, such as ‘‘Foundations of Human
Resource Management,’’ ‘‘Managing Human Resources,’’ and ‘‘Interna-
tional Human Resource Management.’’

Erika M. Baron received her BA in psychology from the University of


Michigan. She is pursuing her PsyD in school-clinical child psychology at
Pace University in New York City. Her research interests include the

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


162 About the Editor and Contributors

effects of body image on female adolescent personality development as


well as gender issues in a cross-cultural perspective.

Bianca L. Bernstein, PhD, is a professor of counseling psychology, educa-


tional leadership & policy studies, and women and gender studies at Ari-
zona State University in Tempe, Arizona. She recently completed a term
as director of the Division of Graduate Education at the National Science
Foundation, after 8 years as dean of the Graduate College at Arizona State
University. Dr. Bernstein specializes in counseling research on stress and
cognitive mediation, gender and ethnic issues, and clinical supervision,
and in higher education on broadening participation of women and
minorities in science and engineering careers, preparing future faculty,
and reforming graduate education. Her work has been disseminated
through publications in major journals and over 200 presentations at
national meetings of scholarly and professional organizations. Dr. Bern-
stein is the principal investigator of a major research grant from the
National Science Foundation to build personal resilience and improve
persistence among women in science and engineering PhD programs.

Sharon Butler defines herself as a continuous learner, who is always look-


ing for the next opportunity to mentor or coach someone to the next level
of her or his career. Currently serving as a human resource director for a
national technology firm, Ms. Butler has set the goal to one day teach and
inspire college students. She enjoys a professional career and motherhood
and believes each adds value to the other.

Patricia Campbell, DC, resides in a small town in Ontario, Canada, and


practiced chiropractic medicine for 16 years before retiring and pursuing
other avenues. She teaches chemistry and biology at Georgian College.
She received her training at the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College
in Toronto.

Donna Casta~ neda is an associate professor in the psychology department


at San Diego State University–Imperial Valley Campus. She completed
her BA in psychology at the University of Washington and her MA and
PhD in social psychology at the University of California–Davis. Her
research focuses on gender, ethnicity, and their relationship to physical
and mental health. She has investigated the impact of close relationship
factors in HIV sexual risk behavior, particularly among Latinas/os; the
HIV/AIDS prevention needs of women factory workers in Mexico; the
close relationship context and how it affects intimate partner violence;
and the relationship between marital satisfaction and mental health
among wives and husbands.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


About the Editor and Contributors 163

Breena E. Coates is a professor of management for the department of


command, leadership and management at the United States Army War
College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania. She has a BA in English from Calcutta
University and an MPA and PhD in public policy impacts on organiza-
tional behavior from the University of Pittsburgh. Her current research
focuses on impacts of public policy on organizational behavior, strategic
management, and leadership. A second area of interest is organizational
behavior, strategy, and cultural change in the United States military.

Darlene C. DeFour, PhD, is a social psychologist/community psycholo-


gist. She is a graduate of Fisk University and received her doctorate from
the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. She is currently an asso-
ciate professor of psychology at Hunter College of the City University of
New York. There she teaches classes including ‘‘Social Psychology,’’
‘‘Personal Adjustment,’’ ‘‘Psychology of Women,’’ ‘‘Theories of Ethnic
Identity Development,’’ and ‘‘Issues in Black Psychology.’’ She is cur-
rently a member of the board of directors of the New York Association of
Black Psychologists and has served on the board of directors of the
national association. She is also active in several divisions of the American
Psychological Association. The theme of her current research is the explo-
ration of the various ways that violence in the form of racism and sexism
as well as physical violence affects the everyday lives of adolescent and
adult Black females.

Florence L. Denmark is an internationally recognized scholar, researcher,


and policy maker. She received her PhD from the University of Pennsyl-
vania in social psychology and has five honorary degrees. Denmark is the
Robert Scott Pace Distinguished Research Professor of Psychology at Pace
University in New York. A past president of the American Psychological
Association (APA) and the International Council of Psychologists, Den-
mark holds fellowship status in the APA. She is also a member of the Soci-
ety for Experimental Social Psychology and a fellow of the New York
Academy of Sciences. She has received numerous national and interna-
tional awards for her contributions to psychology. She received the 2004
American Psychological Foundation Gold Medal for Lifetime Achieve-
ment in the Public Interest. In 2005, she received the Ernest R. Hilgard
Award for her career contribution to general psychology. She was the re-
cipient in 2007 of the Raymond Fowler Award for outstanding service to
APA. Denmark’s most significant research and extensive publications
have emphasized women’s leadership and leadership styles, the interac-
tion of status and gender, aging women in cross-cultural perspective, and
the contributions of women to psychology. Denmark is the main nongo-
vernmental organization (NGO) representative to the United Nations for
the International Council of Psychologists and is also the main NGO

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


164 About the Editor and Contributors

representative for the APA. She is currently chair of the New York NGO
Committee on Aging and a member of APA’s Committee on Aging.

Eros R. DeSouza is currently a professor of psychology at Illinois State


University. He earned his PhD in community psychology from the Uni-
versity of Missouri at Kansas City. As a community psychologist, he is
deeply interested in social justice. He has carried out qualitative and
quantitative research on sexuality and gender issues, including sexual
harassment from a cross-cultural perspective. As of 2007, he has written
several book chapters and more than 40 scholarly articles; he has also co-
authored almost 100 papers presented at conferences.

Margaret Gibbs is a professor in the school of psychology at Fairleigh


Dickinson University. She received her PhD in clinical psychology from
Harvard University. She has addressed women’s issues in her research,
teaching, and clinical practice.

James Gruber is a professor of sociology at the University of Michigan–


Dearborn. He has published extensively on workplace sexual harassment
and has presented workshops and expert witness testimony on the topic
since the early 1980s. He recently co-edited a book in 2005 with Dr. Phoebe
Morgan (In the Company of Men: Male Dominance and Sexual Harassment),
which offers new directions in theory and research on the topic. Currently,
he is conducting research with Dr. Susan Fineran on bullying and sexual
harassment in middle and high school. Also, they are studying the impact
of sexual harassment on girls who hold jobs while attending high school.

Haimanot Kelbessa was born and raised in Ethiopia. She went to grade
and high school in Ethiopia. She came to the United States in 1982.
Ms. Kelbessa completed undergraduate studies at the University of Hous-
ton, in general studies in 1992. She has worked in a clerical position for
the U.S. Army as a civilian in Saudi Arabia. In addition, she has worked
in various capacities through the years, primarily in property manage-
ment. She is currently working toward her human resource management
certificate at Union Graduate College.

Maria D. Klara received her BA from Boston College in 1999 and then her
MS in counseling psychology from Northeastern University in 2003. She is
currently pursuing her PsyD in school-clinical child psychology at Pace Uni-
versity in New York City. Her academic interests include women and gen-
der issues, psychological assessment, and clinical work with adolescents.

Phoebe Morgan holds a PhD in justice studies from Arizona State Univer-
sity and is a professor of criminology and criminal justice at Northern

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


About the Editor and Contributors 165

Arizona University. She teaches courses about women, crime and justice,
research methods, and justice policy. Her research specialties include
sexual harassment, women’s complaint making, and organized claims-
making. With James Gruber, she edited Male Dominance and Sexual Harass-
ment (Northeastern University Press). Her research also appears in The
Law and Society Review, the Journal of Law, Culture and the Humanities, the
Journal of Criminal Justice Education, The Women’s Studies Association Jour-
nal, Affilia Social Work Journal, the Sourcebook for Violence Against Women,
Classic Papers on Violence Against Women, Everyday Sexism in the Third Mil-
lennium, Investigating Difference, and The Gendered Economy. She is cur-
rently researching sexual harassment in transnational corporations and
the globalization of U.S. sexual harassment policy.

Nancy Felipe Russo is Regents Professor of Psychology and Women and


Gender Studies at Arizona State University, where she is the director of
the university’s new Office for Academic Institutional and Cultural
Change and Co-I of the NSF CareerBound project led by Bianca Bernstein.
Russo is author or editor of more than 200 publications related to the psy-
chology of women and women’s issues, a former editor of the Psychology
of Women Quarterly, and a member of the editorial board of several other
journals. A former president of the American Psychological Association
(APA) division of the Psychology of Women, she is the recipient of that
group’s Centennial Heritage Award for contributions to public policy
and Carolyn Wood Sherif Award in recognition of distinguished contri-
butions to research, teaching, mentoring, and service to psychology and
society. A former member of the APA Presidential Task Force on Women
in Science and Technology, she currently serves on the executive boards
of Divisions 1 (General), 35 (Psychology of Women), and 52 (International
Psychology) of APA. A former member of the board of directors of the
Hispanic Women’s Corporation, Russo has been recognized by APA’s
Board of Ethnic Minority Affairs for contributions to ethnic minority
issues, and is the recipient of the APA’s Award for Distinguished Contri-
butions to Psychology in the Public Interest.

Marilyn P. Safir is professor emeritus in the department of psychology


(specializing in clinical and social psychology). She was the founder and
former director (1983–1993) of the University of Haifa women’s studies
program. She is also a founding member of the executive committee. Safir
is a member of numerous professional organizations and a fellow of the
American Psychological Association (APA) (Division 35: Psychology of
Women; Division 9: Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues 1;
Division 52: International Psychology, of which she is a founding fellow).
She is also a charter fellow of the APA. Safir was the first recipient of
American Psychological Association’s Division for International

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


166 About the Editor and Contributors

Psychology (52) Distinguished Visiting Professorship, August 2005–Au-


gust 2006. Safir was also the first recipient of the Florence Denmark and
Gori Gunvald Award for Research on Women and Gender, International
Council of Psychologists, 2002 (Toronto 2003). APA’s Committee on
Women and Psychology honored her in 1992 with Distinguished Leader-
ship Citation for her professional contributions to the field of psychology
of women both nationally and internationally. Safir was also elected
member of the International Academy for Sex Research. Safir was cited in
The Lexicon of 1000 Israeli Women, 1885–1985. Safir has been listed in The
International Who’s Who of Professional and Business Women, 1989; The
World’s Who’s Who of Women, 1987, 9th Ed.; 1989, 10th Ed.; 1991, 11th Ed.;
The International Directory of Distinguished Service, 1986, 1st Edition. She
was singled out as one of the 100 Heroines of the World in Rochester, New
York, in recognition of her lifetime achievements in furthering the cause
of women’s rights, freedom health, and equal opportunities, and for serv-
ing as a role model for women and girls around the world.

Janet Sigal is a professor of psychology at Fairleigh Dickinson University.


She received her PhD in social psychology from Northwestern Univer-
sity. Her research interests include women’s issues, sexual harassment,
domestic violence, cross-cultural research, and simulated jury research.
Dr. Sigal is a fellow of Divisions 35 and 52 of the American Psychological
Association.

Dorothy Wnuk received a BS from Rutgers and an MA from John Jay.


She is currently a doctoral student in the clinical psychology doctoral pro-
gram at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


The Psychology of
Women at Work

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Recent Titles in
Women’s Psychology
‘‘Intimate’’ Violence against Women: When Spouses, Partners, or Lovers Attack
Paula K. Lundberg-Love and Shelly L. Marmion, editors

Daughters of Madness: Growing Up and Older with a Mentally Ill Mother


Susan Nathiel

Psychology of Women: Handbook of Issues and Theories, Second Edition


Florence L. Denmark and Michele A. Paludi, editors

WomanSoul: The Inner Life of Women’s Spirituality


Carole A. Rayburn and Lillian Comas-Dıaz

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


The Psychology of
Women at Work
Challenges and Solutions for
Our Female Workforce

Volume 3
Self, Family, and Social Affects

Edited by
MICHELE A. PALUDI

Praeger Perspectives

Women’s Psychology

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The psychology of women at work : challenges and solutions for our female
workforce / edited by Michele A. Paludi
p. cm. — (Women’s psychology, ISSN 1931-0021)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-275-99677-2 ((set) : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-275-99679-6 ((vol. 1) :
alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-275-99681-9 ((vol. 2) : alk. paper) —
ISBN 978-0-275-99683-3 ((vol. 3) : alk. paper)
1. Women—Employment—Psychological aspects. 2. Work and family.
3. Women—Job stress. 4. Women—Psychology. I. Paludi, Michele Antoinette.
HD6053.P75 2008
158.7082—dc22 2008004119
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.
Copyright 
C 2008 by Michele A. Paludi
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced, by any process or technique, without the
express written consent of the publisher.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2008004119
ISBN: 978-0-275-99677-2 (set)
978-0-275-99679-6 (vol. 1)
978-0-275-99681-9 (vol. 2)
978-0-275-99683-3 (vol. 3)
ISSN: 1931-0021
First published in 2008
Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
www.praeger.com
Printed in the United States of America

The paper used in this book complies with the


Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National
Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


For Antoinette and Michael Paludi, who encouraged me
to define what women’s work is for myself

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Contents

Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xi
Chapter 1: Aggressive Men and Witchy Women: The Double
Standard
Susan Strauss 1
Chapter 2: Lessons from My Father: In My Own Voice
Susan Lehrman 21
Chapter 3: Self-Esteem and High-Achieving Women
Tina Stern 25
Chapter 4: Women in Human Resources: In My Own Voice
Linda Dillon 55
Chapter 5: Stress and Health
Paula Lundberg-Love and Donna Lee Faulkner 59
Chapter 6: Preparing to Be Employed: In My Own Voice
Christa White 85
Chapter 7: Mental Health Impact of Sexual Harassment
Susan Fineran and James Gruber 89
Chapter 8: Religion and Women at Work
Michael B. Mathias 109
Chapter 9: Workforce Issues: In My Own Voice
LuAnn Hart 143
Chapter 10: Society’s Gains: Economics of Women in the Workplace
Zhilan Feng and Maneechit Pattanapanchai 149
Index 173
About the Editor and Contributors 179
© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.
Acknowledgments

I thank Debbie Carvalko at Praeger for her encouragement and support


throughout the writing of these three volumes. It is an honor to work
with her. I also thank the graduate students in my human resources
classes for their comments about the changing nature of work for
women. I am confident that they will make a difference in the lives of
the next generation of women employees and their families. I am grate-
ful to Carrie Turco and Sharon Butler for their comments on earlier
versions of the introduction.
The following family, friends, and colleagues have been invaluable
during the preparation of these three volumes. Thank you to Rosalie
Paludi, Lucille Paludi, Presha Neidermeyer, and Paula Lundberg Love.
I especially acknowledge Carmen Paludi, Jr., for his friendship and
sage advice. Together we continue to make the dreams of our grand-
parents on Weaver Street into realities.
Finally, I wish to thank William Norton Dember, my advisor and
mentor in graduate school, who, like my parents, told me to seek my
own career path and be tough-minded and kindhearted at the same
time. I started drafting these books after I last saw Bill in May 2006,
when we discussed my career since graduate school (it had been
26 years since I received my PhD). He reminded me that I came to
work with him as a graduate student at the University of Cincinnati
because I was interested in the psychology of women’s work and
achievement motivation. Moreover, he inquired why I hadn’t written
or edited a book in that field during the course of my career. These
three volumes are in response to Bill’s question. Bill died in September
2006. These books are in tribute to him as a psychologist, mentor, pro-
fessor, colleague, and friend.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Introduction

Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed.


If I fail, no one will say, ‘‘She doesn’t have what it takes.’’
They will say, ‘‘Women don’t have what it takes.’’
—Clare Boothe Luce
Clare Boothe Luce’s sentiment was once again highlighted during the
preparation of these three volumes of The Psychology of Women at Work:
Challenges and Solutions for Our Female Workforce, when Senator Hillary
Rodham Clinton announced her candidacy for the presidency of the
United States. Throughout the initial part of Senator Clinton’s candi-
dacy, comments about a woman president received media attention.
Polls from CNN.com (July 24, 2007) and YouTube (January 21, 2007;
March 5, 2007) reported the following quotations:

‘‘Hillary Clinton needs to wear a dress or skirt now and then. Her
always making public appearances in pants gives a sense she is trying to
‘fit in’ with the boys, which is never going to be the case.’’
‘‘Hillary is cute. Those are her qualifications for prez.’’
‘‘It’ll be nice to have a woman president but you know white America
won’t let her.’’
‘‘Women, above all, should reject hillary. Missus clinton is the biggest
misogynist of all.’’
‘‘hillary clinton running must be a joke! A woman for president! Ha!
Now that[’]s a joke.’’

Elizabeth Edwards, whose husband, John Edwards, also declared


his candidacy for president, joined the chorus in criticizing Hillary
Clinton. Elizabeth Edwards stated the following:

She [Hillary Clinton] and I are from the same generation. We both went
to law school and married other lawyers, but after that we made other

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


xii Introduction

choices. I think my choices have made me happier. I think I’m more joy-
ful than she is.

Elizabeth Edwards also stated, ‘‘Sometimes you feel you have to


behave as a man and not talk about women’s issues.’’
Mrs. Edwards’s comments prompted a comparison of the two
women—one perceived as ‘‘feminine’’ and the other ‘‘masculine.’’
Responses from a CNN.com poll (July 24, 2007) included the following:
‘‘It would be awesome if Hillary was more like Elizabeth. But Hillary
lacks the compassion and realness Elizabeth possesses.’’
Tucker Carlson, host of MSNBC’s Tucker, asked a guest, ‘‘I mean,
let’s take this critique [by Elizabeth Edwards] seriously—is Hillary
Clinton too manly to be president?’’
This is in direct contrast to the view that many people had of Con-
gresswoman Patricia Schroeder, who, when she dropped out of run-
ning for U.S. president in 1984, cried. This raised the question of
whether a woman was too ‘‘emotional’’ to be president. Schroeder
(1998) wrote, ‘‘Crying is almost a ritual that male politicians must do
to prove they are compassionate, but women are supposed to wear
iron britches.’’
In 1870, when Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for presi-
dent, declared her candidacy, the New York Herald commented: ‘‘She is
rather in advance of her time. The public mind is not yet educated to the
pitch of universal woman’s [sic] rights’’ (‘‘Woman’s Idea of Govern-
ment,’’ 1870, p. 6). In 2008 we are still hearing arguments that the United
States is not ready for a woman president—a view expressed not only to
Victoria Woodhull but also to other women candidates for president
before Hillary Clinton: Margaret Chase Smith (in 1964), Shirley Chisolm
(in 1972), Patricia Schroeder (in 1984), Elizabeth Dole (in 2000), and Car-
olyn Moseley Braun (in 2004). Similar comments were directed toward
Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman to be placed on a national presiden-
tial ticket (as Walter Mondale’s vice president in 1984). Ferraro was
criticized for wearing short-sleeved dresses while campaigning because
her arms wobbled when she waved (considered not ‘‘feminine’’).
‘‘The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females
begins when the doctor says, ‘It’s a girl,’’’ Shirley Chisholm once noted.
Gender-role stereotypes about ‘‘appropriate’’ and ‘‘inappropriate’’
occupations for women still abound. Gender stereotyping is a psycho-
logical process that illustrates a structured set of beliefs about the per-
sonal attributes of females and males (Ashmore & DelBoca, 1981;
Doyle & Paludi, 1997; Fiske & Stevens, 1993). When asked to describe a
woman, for example, individuals commonly cite ‘‘caring,’’ ‘‘nurturing,’’
‘‘sensitive,’’ and ‘‘passive.’’ When asked to name a woman’s occupa-
tion, individuals cite ‘‘nurse,’’ ‘‘elementary school teacher,’’ or ‘‘social
worker,’’ but not ‘‘president of the United States.’’

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Introduction xiii

I have frequently used the following riddle when students and train-
ees indicate that they believe that they themselves do not hold gender-
role stereotypes about occupations:

One afternoon, a man and his son go for a drive through the countryside.
After an hour or so they get into a terrible car crash. The father dies
instantly. The son is taken by a helicopter to the nearest hospital, where
a prominent surgeon is called to help save the boy’s life. Immediately on
entering the operating room and looking at the boy, the surgeon
exclaims, ‘‘I can’t possibly operate on this boy . . . he’s my son.’’ How can
this be?

The responses I have received to this question have ranged from


‘‘The father didn’t really die—he sustained only minor injuries and
could perform the surgery’’ to ‘‘It was the boy’s stepfather who died,
and his biological father was the surgeon’’ to ‘‘The boy’s adoptive fa-
ther is the surgeon, and his biological father was with him in the car.’’
Individuals rarely solve this riddle: The surgeon is the boy’s mother.
When the answer is revealed, these individuals are angry with them-
selves that they initially stated that they hold no occupational stereo-
types for women and men. Individuals also usually ‘‘mark’’ an
occupation if they believe that the gender of the person performing the
job is atypical. Thus, they say ‘‘male nurse,’’ ‘‘female physician,’’
‘‘female professor,’’ and ‘‘male model’’ (Paludi, Paludi, & DeFour,
2004). Markings alert listeners or readers to something atypical for the
occupation—that it is held by an individual of the sex other than the
one with which it is traditionally associated.
An awareness of the contents of occupational stereotypes related to
gender begins in the preschool years and is well developed by first
grade (Betz, in press; Gottfredson, 1981; Heyman & Legare, 2004;
Hughes & Seta, 2003; Sczesny, 2003). Among 6-year-olds, there is
research evidence of gender stereotypes in the kinds of occupations
that children consider for future employment. Girls commonly choose
the occupations of nurse, teacher, or flight attendant. Boys, on the other
hand, select police officer, truck driver, architect, or pilot. Children’s
ranges of occupations are difficult to change once they are set (Betz, in
press; Eccles, Wigfield, & Schiefele, 1999).
Levy, Sadovsky, and Troseth (2000) reported that a stereotypic view
of the world reinforces many of the common gender-role stereotypes
and is a factor in prompting young boys’ interest in more than twice
as many occupations as that of young girls. Girls thus restrict their
occupational aspirations. In addition, girls have a more limited concept
than boys do of the career possibilities available to them in math- and
computer-related occupations (Burger et al., 2007; Creamer & Laughlin,
2005; Naua, Epperson, & Kahn, 1998; White & White, 2006). Girls focus

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


xiv Introduction

on occupations that are associated with less status, less satisfaction,


and less pay than the occupations considered by boys (Heyman, 2000;
Richardson & Sandoval (2007).
Siegel and Reis (1998) reported that although teachers perceived
gifted girls as working harder and doing better work than gifted boys,
these teachers gave higher grades to the boys. Similarly, Fennema and
colleagues (1996) found that teachers perceived that boys are better
than gifted girls at math and science. Kerr, Colangelo, and Gaeth
(1988) reported that gifted girls are concerned about the negative
effects of being gifted on their peers’ attitudes toward them. The
researchers found that, by the sophomore year of college, most gifted
women changed their majors to less intellectually challenging ones.
Furthermore, Kerr, Colangelo, and Gaeth found that, by their senior
year, these gifted women reduced the level of their career goals.
Brody (1977) reported a decline in self-esteem among girls but not
boys in elementary, middle, and high school. For example, 55% of ele-
mentary school girls agreed with the following statement: ‘‘I am good
at a lot of things.’’ This percentage declined to 29% in middle school
and 23% in high school. The American Association of University
Women (AAUW) (1992) reported that girls who pursued math and sci-
ence courses and participated in sports maintained their self-esteem
from elementary school through high school.
Hall and Sandler (1982) and Allan and Madden (2006) argued that,
for girls and women, the educational system is a ‘‘chilly climate.’’ Girls
and women are discouraged from classroom participation, are sexually
harassed by teachers as well as peers, receive a lack of mentoring, and
are advised by guidance counselors to lower their expectations for a ca-
reer (AAUW, 2001; Paludi, Martin, & Paludi, 2007; Richardson & San-
doval, 2007).
As can be seen from this brief review, an important manifestation of
gender-role stereotyping is a progressive decrease in girls’ and wom-
en’s career aspirations (Betz, 2007; Farmer, 1997). ‘‘The test for whether
or not you can hold a job should not be the arrangement of your chro-
mosomes,’’ Bella Abzug once protested.
Lacampagne, Campbell, Herzig, Damarin, and Vogt (2007) reported
that gender differences are significant in math-related careers and in
career aspirations. For example, of students who took the SAT in 2005,
5% of boys and 1% of girls reported planning to major in computer sci-
ence. In addition, 10% of boys and 2% of girls were planning to major
in engineering (College Board, 2005).
Career education programs continue to be gender-segregated; 90% of
women in training programs are in traditionally female fields—for exam-
ple, office technology and health care (AAUW, 2002). More than 90% of
teachers (preschool, elementary, and special education), secretaries, child-
care workers, waitresses, hairdressers, speech therapists, occupational

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Introduction xv

therapists, dental hygienists, and teacher’s aides are women (U.S. Depart-
ment of Labor, 2003). Betz (in press) reported that women remain under-
represented in technical and scientific fields as well as in managerial
positions in education, government, business, and the military.
In a recent study conducted by Catalyst (2007), gender-role stereo-
typing was linked to women’s participation as leaders in business.
According to this report, ‘‘Gender stereotyping, one of the key barriers
to women’s advancement in corporate leadership, leaves women with
limited, conflicting and often unfavorable options no matter how they
choose to lead.’’
Catalyst found that women constitute more than 50% of manage-
ment and professional occupations but are only 15.6% of Fortune 500
corporate officers and 14.6% of Fortune 500 board directors. Ilene Lang,
president of Catalyst, comments on this as follows:

When companies fail to acknowledge and address the impact of gender


stereotypic bias, they lose out on top female talent. . . . Ultimately, it’s not
women’s leadership styles that need to change. Only when organizations
take action to address the impact of gender stereotyping will they be able
to capitalize on the ‘‘full deck’’ of talent.

Women earn less than 20% of the bachelor’s degrees in fields such
as engineering and physics and less than 10% of the graduate degrees
in engineering (Betz, 2007). Women represent only about 14% of engi-
neers, 30% of computer systems analysts, and 25% of computer pro-
grammers (U.S. Department of Labor, 2003, 2005). Women account for
8% of physicists and astronomers, 7% of air traffic controllers, 5% of
truck drivers, 4% of pilots, 5% of firefighters, and 2% of carpenters and
electricians (Betz, 2007).
Equally important, women are paid less for full-time employment
than men are; women make only 77% as much as men do when both
are employed full-time (U.S. Department of Labor, 2005). This income
disparity is greater for Black, Asian, Native American, and Hispanic
women than for White women, and for middle-age and older women
than for younger women.
‘‘We haven’t come a long way,’’ noted Elizabeth Janeway, ‘‘we’ve
come a short way. If we hadn’t come a short way, no one would be
calling us baby.’’
These realities of the psychology of women at work require an in-
depth look at not only the barriers to women’s success but also the
strategies for empowering women at the individual, organizational,
legal, and societal levels. These three volumes provide an overview of
the scholarly research on the issues related to women and work.
Volume 1, ‘‘Career Liberation, History, and the New Millennium,’’
provides an overview of research on comparisons of men and women

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


xvi Introduction

in gender-relative (i.e., stereotypical masculine and feminine) commu-


nication styles, women as bosses, women as entrepreneurs, personality
factors that impact women in the workplace, feminist competing values
leadership, career preparation programs in high school, and sexual
harassment.
Volume 2, ‘‘Obstacles and the Identity Juggle,’’ offers reviews on
the double standard for women in the workplace; sexual harassment;
women and leadership; the glass ceiling; pay inequalities; incivility to-
ward women in the workplace; women in the sciences, technology,
engineering, and math; and the economics of women in the workplace.
Volume 3, ‘‘Self, Family, and Social Affects,’’ discusses women and
self-esteem, the impact of work on women’s physical health, mental
health issues for women in the workforce (especially women who have
experienced discrimination), women’s relationships with male co-workers,
and religion and women at work.
In addition to the scholarly reviews of research on the psychology of
women at work, I have included women’s personal accounts of their
career development, especially their experiences in the labor force. A
variety of careers is represented in these personal accounts—attorney,
human resource manager, college president, chiropractor, and psychol-
ogist—as well as students who are pursuing careers. For many years
researchers have defined for women what success is, what work is,
and what achievement striving should be. These definitions have typi-
cally contained masculine biases (Paludi & Fankell-Hauser, 1986). Thus,
these personal accounts of women’s experiences recognize that women
differ in the strength of their striving for achievement and in the roles
that elicit their striving, taking into account the effects of family,
friends, role models, and partners. It is the goal of these volumes that
these personal accounts stimulate additional research, legislation,
and advocacy on behalf of female students and employees so that a
woman running for the United States presidency will be accepted and
encouraged.

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American Association of University Women (AAUW). (2002). Title IX at 30:
Report card on gender equity. Washington, DC: Author.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Introduction xvii

Ashmore, R., & DelBoca, F. (1981). Conceptual approaches to stereotypes and


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xviii Introduction

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der equity problem. In S. Klein (Ed.), Handbook for achieving gender equity
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Paludi, M., Paludi, C., & DeFour, D. (2004). Introduction: Plus ca change, plus
c’est la meme chose (The more things change, the more they stay the same).
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Westport, CT: Praeger.
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© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Chapter 1

Aggressive Men and Witchy Women:


The Double Standard
Susan Strauss

Labeling a man aggressive is stereotypically associated with strength,


decisiveness, and power (Harris, 1994; Johnson, 1997), but when a
woman behaves in the same or in a similar manner, she might be la-
beled as a witch, a word commonly used to insult and demean women
(Johnson). This discrepancy of labels implies hostility toward women
and establishes a double standard, which is reinforced by both women
and men (Conway & Vartanian, 2000; Heim, 1995; Johnson; Ledet &
Henley, 2000; Wood & Karten, 1986). Turkel (2004) asserted that when
a man is direct he is considered strong, but when a woman is direct
she is considered overbearing. When women are assertive, they are of-
ten labeled aggressive and are then hesitant to express their ideas or to
disagree with others (Turkel).
Several theories have been examined in the scholarly literature to
explain the phenomenon of judging women more harshly than men:
sexism (Glick & Fiske, 1996; Masser & Abrams, 2004), sex role stereo-
typing (Deaux, 1995; Devine, 1989; Fiske & Stevens, 1993), patriarchy
(Johnson, 1997), oppression (Johnson, 1997; Stout & McPhail, 1998), and
competition (Loya, Cowan, & Walters, 2006), to name a few. Most of
the literature measured the perceptions of gender behavior within the
workplace milieu; however, a few researchers associated women’s
hostility toward women as a reflection of jealousy caused by current
beauty and body image standards (Forbes, Collinsworth, Jobe, Braum,
& Wise, 2007; Loya et al., 2006). This chapter will explore these theories
that provide a rationale for both women and men viewing women
as witchy.

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2 Self, Family, and Social Affects

STEREOTYPES AND GENDER ROLE THEORY


Research has demonstrated that stereotypes often operate uncon-
sciously (Devine, 1989), are used to evaluate situations and people
(Deaux, 1995), and have not changed much over time (Eagly, 1987).
Fiske (1993) asserted that stereotyping is more prevalent with those indi-
viduals who hold power, and Eagly, Makhijani, & Klonsky (1992) found
that women in leadership roles tend to be devalued compared to men in
leadership roles. Both women and men cultivate expectations about their
own and the opposite gender’s behavior based on their beliefs about
what is appropriate for both genders, which Eagly (1987) labeled gender-
role theory. A stereotype is a complex construct in which researchers
have hypothesized female gender subtypes. Fiske and Glick (1995) cate-
gorized three subtypes for women: sex object (sexually desirable and
potentially sexually available), traditional woman (weak, vulnerable,
and powerless), and the nontraditional woman (strong, competitive, and
difficult). Kanter’s (1977) four female subtypes are similar: mother (sym-
pathetic), seductress (sex object), pet (girlish, cute, admires male antics),
and iron maiden (strong, competitive, tough, threatening, unfeminine).
Iron maidens face hostility from their coworkers and are often viewed as
less agreeable and cooperative (Fiske & Glick).
According to Fiske and Stevens (1993), all stereotypes are comprised
of both descriptive and prescriptive elements. The prescriptive element of
the stereotype identifies how an individual ought to behave on the ba-
sis of membership within the particular group. The researchers found
that gender stereotypes are more likely to be prescriptive and therefore
more rigid about what constitutes acceptable behavior. Several scholars
(Burgess & Borgida, 1999; Franke, 1997; Schultz, 1998) asserted that
prescriptive stereotypes may result in discrimination against women
who violate these stereotypes and defy behavioral expectations; these
women may be subjected to sexual harassment or receive a poor per-
formance evaluation. Franke’s legal perspective suggested that when
sexual harassment, a form of gender discrimination, punishes individu-
als who do not conform to prescriptive stereotypes, it reinforces the
prescriptive gender stereotypes of both genders. The descriptive ele-
ment of the stereotype reflects what others believe about members of
the specific group. For example, the male stereotype is that men are
aggressive, daring, rational, strong, and self-confident (Johnson, 1997).
In contrast, the female stereotype describes a woman who is nurturing,
soft-spoken, compliant (Eagly, 1987), illogical, emotional, passive (Bur-
gess & Borgida), weak, and lacking in self-control (Johnson). Therefore,
if a woman is generally believed to be less competent than a man, then
she will be evaluated less positively and perceived as having less abil-
ity than her male counterpart (Deaux, 1995). Both women and men
share the descriptive element of gender stereotypes but differ in their

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Aggressive Men and Witchy Women 3

prescriptive gender stereotypes, resulting in both genders being likely


to discriminate (Burgess & Borgida).
Both prescriptive and descriptive female gender stereotypes were
critical in not granting a partnership to Ann Hopkins when she was
employed at Price Waterhouse, a prominent accounting firm, because
she was seen to lack femininity (Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, 1989). She
was a strong and ambitious woman, competent and well thought of by
her clients. She was also perceived as lacking skills in coworker rela-
tionships and engaging in more typically male behavior. For example,
she was told to ‘‘walk more femininely, talk more femininely, dress
more femininely, wear makeup, have her hair styled, and wear
jewelry’’ (Fiske, Bersoff, Borgida, Deaux, & Heilman, 1991, p. 1050).
Fiske and Stevens (1993), in referring to the Price Waterhouse case,
captured the dilemma many women experience:

The issue no longer is acknowledgment of competence. Rather this aspect


of the stereotyping process explains the penalties that result from per-
ceived violation of acceptable sex-role appropriate behaviors. Because
many behaviors considered inappropriate for women are the very ones
deemed necessary to be competent in a traditionally male job, sex stereo-
types create a double bind for women. Their competence is undervalued
if they behave in traditionally feminine ways, while their interpersonal
skills are derogated and their mental health is questioned if they behave
in traditionally masculine ways. (p. 218)

Women who work in male-dominated jobs, who therefore do not


fit their gender stereotype, are more likely to be viewed negatively
(Eagly & Mladinic, 1994), be victims of male backlash (Faludi, 1992),
and experience discrimination and harassment (Fiske & Glick, 1995).
According to Glick (1991), male-dominated jobs are seen as requiring
specific knowledge and skills that set men up as superior to women, so
when women are able to do the jobs, men’s self-esteem and gender
identity are threatened. This nontraditional woman is likely to experi-
ence hostility from some of the men with whom she works. A hostile
work environment results in an attempt to alienate and denigrate the
women who have moved into male-dominated roles and have entered
male turf (Fitzgerald, 1993; Gutek, 1985).
Expectancy-value theory (Troyer & Younts, 1997) is similar to Fiske
and Stevens’ (1993) model of descriptive and prescriptive stereotypes.
Expectancy-value theory is a model of social order of interacting with
others and supports a status hierarchy based on a number of variables
including gender, seniority, race, and so on. The theory consists of
first-order and second-order expectations for social interactions. The
researchers found that first-order expectations, similar to descriptive
stereotypes, is what an individual expects of her or his own behavior,

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


4 Self, Family, and Social Affects

and second-order expectations, similar to prescriptive stereotypes,


include the expectations that are held for others. If first-order and sec-
ond-order expectations are in conflict with one another, second-order
expectations carry more weight in influencing the social action of the
individual. In other words, the greatest influence on an individual’s
social interaction is what the other person’s expectations are of her or
him. When men and women are interacting while involved in a spe-
cific task, the gender beliefs of both individuals will shape what each
expects from the other gender, resulting in a double standard for eval-
uating performance with women seen as less competent (Biernat &
Kobrynowicz, 1997).
In a study of college students’ expectations about female and male
candidates for professorships, sex-role stereotypes emerged in the stu-
dents’ evaluations of the candidates based on altered application mate-
rials (Wall & Barry, 1985). If a woman’s name was used in the
materials, the students indicated that she seemed to be too focused on
the business side of her career and didn’t seem to exhibit much person-
ality. Conversely, if a man’s name was used on the materials, no refer-
ence was made regarding his career emphasis or personality. The
researchers also discovered that students judged women professors
more severely than men, expecting the women to be more devoted to
students by spending more time with them than the male professors
were expected to spend. The authors suggested that female professors
may be unfairly evaluated when students praise male professors even
when it was the females that were more attentive to students. The rea-
soning was that women, in acting more nurturing and providing more
time with students, are merely doing what is expected of them as
women, whereas a male professor, when providing time and attention
to students, is exceeding students’ expectations.
Women leaders whose style tends to fit the male stereotype of lead-
ership (i.e., autocratic and direct) received more negative evaluations
than their male peers who used the same style, and the women were
viewed as less effective leaders as well (Eagly, Karau, & Makhijani,
1995). Men are more harsh when evaluating female leaders than are
women (Eagly et al., 1992). Eagly and Johnson’s (1990) meta-analysis of
women’s natural leadership styles demonstrated that women generally
act in ways that are consistent with prescriptive stereotypes—participatory
and democratic—and will purposely use those skills in their man-
agement role. Kanter (1977) presented a sociological study of an actual
corporation she labeled Indsco. Her study contrasted roles of women
and men at work with both genders incorporating the stereotypical
behavior of their gender within the organization’s climate. As a result,
Kanter postulated that stereotypical behavior is not based solely on
individuals but rather is imbedded within the organizational system,
as for example, sex-segregated jobs. Sex-role spillover, a theory

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Aggressive Men and Witchy Women 5

suggested by Gutek and Morasch (1982), states that women and men
carry over their gender-based roles into the workplace even when those
roles are inappropriate. This phenomenon is most likely to occur when
the gender ratio is skewed toward either women or men and is most
obvious when women work in male-dominated jobs. When a woman
works in a male-dominated job, her sex is salient in her position, leading
to both her female and male coworkers questioning whether she is as ca-
pable as a man, which reflects the coworkers’ gender bias.
As these researchers have demonstrated, stereotypes appear to play
an essential role in how women and men are perceived and expected
to behave. A deviation from their prescribed role may be viewed as a
violation of the social order and may lead to the double standard of
women being devalued and viewed as witchy and less competent. As
a result women are caught in a double bind of balancing strength and
autonomy with warmth and wanting to be liked; they can be discrimi-
nated against for their membership in any of the female stereotype
subtypes, and the female stereotype works against them in a male-
dominated environment. The stereotypes reflect sexist beliefs that
require examination.

SEXISM
Sexism is defined by Forbes, Collinsworth, Jobe, Braum, and Wise
(2007) as ‘‘the assignment of roles and privileges as a function of gender
(p. 266) . . . [and] plays a central role in implementing and justifying the
oppression of women’’ (p. 267). Glick and Fiske (1996, 1997, 2001) have
further divided sexism into two interrelated components, hostile and
benevolent sexism. The researchers defined benevolent sexism as ‘‘atti-
tudes toward women that are sexist in terms of viewing women stereo-
typically and in restricted roles but that are subjectively positive in feeling
or tone (for the perceiver) and also tend to elicit behaviors typically cate-
gorized as prosocial (e.g., helping) or intimacy seeking (e.g., self-disclo-
sure)’’ (1996, p. 491). Benevolent sexism, however, stems from the belief
that women are inferior to men and that they require special attention or
privileges because they are not men’s equals (Forbes et al.). Glick and
Fiske (2001) define hostile sexism as ‘‘an adversarial view of gender rela-
tions in which women are perceived as seeking to control men whether
through sexuality or feminist ideology’’ (p. 109). According to Glick and
Fiske (1996, 1997, 2001, 2002), hostile and benevolent sexism are comple-
mentary to each other, with both demonstrating the inequality between
women and men. For example, men who hold benevolent sexist beliefs
about women (perceived by some as positive characteristics) likewise
believe in hostile sexism (negative stereotypes) (Glick & Fiske, 1996).
Sibley and Wilson (2004) found that the complementary effect
between hostile and benevolent sexism by men is evident in men’s

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


6 Self, Family, and Social Affects

belief of the various female stereotype subtypes. These results mirror


the findings of Glick, Diebold, Balley-Werner, and Zhu (1997). This
means that women who display attributes of the traditional subtype of
women may be more likely to experience a more positive experience
with men, whereas nontraditional women may bear the brunt of men’s
negative actions. Hostile sexism is associated with negative evaluations
of women, especially those who are perceived as threatening male he-
gemony within the workplace (Masser & Abrams, 2004). Masser and
Abrams’ findings were in contrast to other researchers who found that
benevolent sexism was the best predictor of negative evaluations of
women candidates for positions within a male-dominated organization
(Abrams, Viki, Masser, & Boehner, 2003; Glick et al.). Glick et al.
asserted that when women’s behavior is in violation of the traditional
gender role, they receive negative evaluations from those with benevo-
lent sexism beliefs. Glick et al. and Masser and Abrams noted that men
who display hostile sexism may also judge nontraditional women neg-
atively; however, their judgments appear to be in response to feeling
intimidated or threatened by these women.
Lee’s (2002) qualitative research suggested that failure to conform to
gender stereotypes was the basis for gendered bullying. She provided
examples of women who were bullied because they didn’t adhere to
appropriate female workplace conduct. In some cases, the bullying
resulted in low performance-related pay and promotions, which is dis-
crimination. Other examples suggested that women who were assertive
were bullies, but women who were perceived as compliant and quiet,
characteristics associated with femininity, were treated more favorably.
In the communication study conducted by Conway and Vartanian
(2000), women tended to demonstrate verbal passive-aggressive behav-
ior. Terms defining verbal passive-aggressive communication in their
study were nagging, complaining, fussy, and whiny. The researchers
raised the question as to whether the behavior of complaining is la-
beled as nagging because it is coming from a woman, and wondered if
the same term would be applied if a man were complaining. Passive-
aggressive communication may be considered more acceptable for
women than aggressive behavior.
Women are not supposed to be aggressive so that men can be
aggressive and demonstrate their manhood (Johnson, 1997). When
women don’t abide by this unspoken rule, it interferes with men’s abil-
ity to separate themselves from women, if women can be like men.
This in turn interferes with male privilege. Women who fail to follow
the stereotype of their gender by acting assertively are viewed nega-
tively and become the all-encompassing witch.
Not all women who violate female stereotypes are judged nega-
tively. According to Glick et al. (1997), hostile sexists do not routinely
evaluate career women negatively and may view them quite positively

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Aggressive Men and Witchy Women 7

when evaluating their work prowess. Women’s interpersonal skills,


however, were viewed negatively by evaluators using words such as
‘‘aggressive, selfish, greedy and cold’’ (p. 1330). Women managers,
then, are more likely to be disliked because they violate the prescrip-
tive gender stereotype; they may be seen as unable to relate well to
coworkers, yet may be respected from a competency perspective.
Sexism and sex-role stereotypes are closely aligned in the double
standard of aggressive men and witchy women. They both can be
observed in action in the communication styles that both genders use.

COMMUNICATION
Women and men communicate differently (Arliss, 1991; Stout &
McPhail, 1998; Tannen, 1990, 1994). This gendered communication
demonstrates a subtle and sometimes invisible sexism that is effective
in diminishing a woman’s status, demeaning her humanity, and mini-
mizing her power (Stout & McPhail, 1998). Tannen (1990) stated that
‘‘language keeps women in their place’’ (p. 241). She indicated that
women have a choice to make in their communication style—that of
being perceived as a ‘‘strong leader or a good woman’’ (p. 241).
Women who are assertive are labeled domineering, aggressive, witchy, or
worse. Words such as bitch, nag, whore, and cunt are on the severe end
of hostile and demeaning labels for women (Arliss), particularly when
women step out of their social stereotype and are verbally aggressive
and/or argumentative. Tannen contrasted a male speaker’s and female
speaker’s style and how others perceive them in the following quote:

[A man may] find himself commanding more attention in public if that is


what he wants. And in the process, he would better fit the model of mas-
culinity in our culture. But women who attempt to adjust their styles of
speaking louder, longer, and with more self-assertion will also better fit
the model of masculinity. They may command more attention and be
more respected, but they may also be disliked and disparaged as aggres-
sive and unfeminine. (p. 239)

Nicotera and Rancer (1994) found that men are significantly more
likely to be argumentative and to express verbal aggression. Men who
are not aggressive are often labeled wimps (Tannen, 1994). According to
Infante (1981, 1985), those who are highly argumentative are viewed
more positively than those who are not likely to argue. Men are
expected to be more aggressive and forceful on the basis of their per-
ceived higher status (Conway & Vartanian, 2000). Infante (1985) stated
that an individual’s credibility is enhanced if he is argumentative.
Women, then, may be perceived as less credible than men on the basis
of lower argumentative behavior. Tannen (1994) asserted that women

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8 Self, Family, and Social Affects

who do not display ‘‘angry outbursts’’ (p. 182) may set themselves up
for exploitation because their behavior may be perceived as avoidance
of conflict. Smith et al. (1990) found, however, that when women are
angry, they violate gender stereotypes, risk rejection, and will be
viewed more negatively than angry men.
Women are concerned with being liked and getting along so they
have learned conflict-avoidant behavior and are more likely to seek con-
sensus (Smith et al., 1990). Women typically enjoy using consensus as
the preferred style rather than a style of ruling with an iron fist (Tannen,
1994). Infante (1987) stated that ‘‘according to the cultural sex-role
expectations model, arguing . . . is compatible with expectations for male
behavior but incompatible with expectations for female behavior’’ (p.
175). Women perceive argumentativeness more negatively than men
regardless of which gender is displaying the behavior (Nicotera &
Rancer, 1994). Perceptions and evaluation of aggressive behavior varies
on the basis of the gender of the individual (Harris & Knight-Bohnhoff,
1996). Argumentativeness and aggression are not the only forms of com-
munication in which women and men are judged differently. The ways
in which both genders are addressed differs on the basis of gender, with
women more likely to be called by their first names.
Using a woman’s first name in addressing her, rather than address-
ing her with her title, such as Dr. or Ms., is common, whereas men are
more likely to be addressed with their titles (Stout & Kelly, 1990). Stout
and Kelly found in their study that 72% of the time women managers
were called by their first names yet only 28% of the time were men
referred to by their first names. Titles are indicators of one’s status and
demonstrate respect and equality when used by all individuals in com-
munication. When titles are not equally used, for example when male
physicians call female nurses by their first names yet nurses are
expected to use the title of Doctor when addressing a physician, it is a
subtle demeaning of women and demonstrates male hegemony.
According to Stout and McPhail (1998), ‘‘language has been used to
exclude women from participation as equals and thus keeps women as
invisible outsiders’’ (p. 81). One of the most common yet insidious
examples of excluding women is the use of the default gender pronoun
he or use of the word man, such as in mailman, policeman, mankind,
etc. Though progress has been made in correcting the error, it is still a
common communication trait. Wood’s (1994) study concluded that peo-
ple do not think of women but automatically think of men when hear-
ing or seeing in print the generic word man.
Communication, both overt and covert, expresses the stereotypes
and sexism that demean women at work and in society. It is the tool
used by both genders to enact the double standard that portrays
women negatively. But these three constructs—gender stereotypes, sex-
ism, and communication—are cogs in a wheel of a patriarchal system.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Aggressive Men and Witchy Women 9

PATRIARCHY AND OPPRESSION


Johnson (1997) asserted that ‘‘a society is patriarchal to the degree
that it is male-dominated, male-identified, and male-centered . . . and
involves as one of its key aspects the oppression of women’’ (p. 5). The
world is viewed through a gendered lens using the male standard as
the norm, yet the lens isn’t merely about women and men—it is a sys-
temic framework of power, control, and competition. The framework is
about leadership traits that are masculine, and according to Johnson,
recognize that ‘‘power looks sexy on men but not on women’’ (p. 7).
Patriarchy is ‘‘a culture embodied by everything from the content of
everyday conversation to literature and film . . . ideas about the nature
of things . . . about social life and how it is supposed to be . . . what’s
expected of people and about how they feel . . . standards about femi-
nine beauty and masculine toughness . . . valuing of masculinity and
maleness and the devaluing of femininity and femaleness’’ (Johnson,
pp. 84–85).
Both sexism and sex-role stereotypes are part of the patriarchal sys-
tem that serves to negate women and maintain the framework of male
hegemony, cultural misogyny, and the oppression of women (Johnson,
1997). According to Johnson, sexism is prejudice against women
because it supports a culture of male privilege by supporting patri-
archy and oppression. In contrast, anti-male stereotypes are not anch-
ored in a culture that espouses maleness as disgusting and inferior as
with femaleness. Femaleness is devalued in cultures throughout the
world, supporting the oppression of women similar to the way racial
minorities, the disabled, and gays and lesbians are devalued and
oppressed in a patriarchal system. According to Friere (1968) and John-
son, oppression is a system of inequality where one group dominates
another group and benefits from the subordination. The oppressed
internalize the thoughts and behavior of the oppressor and follow the
oppressor’s prescribed behavior. Members of oppressed groups believe
that the actions of the oppressor toward them are undertaken for their
sake when instead it is for the oppressor’s best interests. Gradually
members begin to internalize their oppression and their marginaliza-
tion and believe that it is their own deficiencies, described by the
oppressor, that are responsible for their low self-esteem, powerlessness,
and hopelessness, and eventually they learn to hate themselves and the
group to which they belong.
The misuse of power lays the framework to oppressed group behav-
ior (Friere, 1968; Johnson, 1997). The oppressor uses his power to cause
the oppressed to submit and be compliant. Lee and Saeed (2001) pos-
ited that members of oppressed groups are reactive rather than rational
and intentional. This reactive behavior continues to support the oppres-
sion. According to Freire (1968), members of oppressed groups are

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


10 Self, Family, and Social Affects

often silent when there is cause to express their concerns. Their silence
reflects feelings of shame and embarrassment about their oppression.
There is a resistance in acknowledging that as humans we are part of
the patriarchal and oppressive system, and therefore we often fail to
acknowledge its dynamic. Friere declared that oppression is successful
because it is not recognized and can therefore become internalized.
Internalized oppression occurs when women have learned to internal-
ize the negative beliefs about women touted by their oppressor, often
feeling inferior to men (Stout & McPhail, 1998). Women will often take
on the voice of men, their oppressor, by stating, for example, that they
would rather work with men than women, or would rather work for a
male boss than a female boss. In essence, then, women become judg-
mental and critical of their own gender—they internalize the misogyny
of the patriarchal system. It’s misogyny that changed the concept of
the word witch from being that of a wise woman healer or midwife to
that of an evil-doer, resulting in burning ‘‘witches’’ at the stake during
the Middle Ages because of their healing abilities (Ashley, 1976; Ehren-
reich & English, 1973; Johnson).
Not all women necessarily experience oppression the same just
because they are women, however. Race, sexual orientation, religious
beliefs, and other aspects of womanhood influence the degree of
oppression one may both experience and internalize (Johnson, 1997).
Pheterson (1986) provided a more detailed definition of the construct
of internalized oppression:

Internalized oppression is the incorporation and acceptance by individu-


als within an oppressed group of the prejudices against them within the
dominant society. Internalized oppression is likely to consist of self-
hatred, self-concealment, fear of violence, and feelings of inferiority, res-
ignation, isolation, powerlessness, and gratefulness for being allowed to
survive. Internalized oppression is the mechanism within an oppressive
system for perpetuating domination not only by external controls but
also by building subservience into the minds of the oppressed groups.
(p. 148)

When women and men label women who are assertive, or who dis-
play what are typically labeled male characteristics, or who work in
male-dominated occupations, as witchy, it serves to maintain the patri-
archal system by keeping women ‘‘in their place’’ and promoting male
privilege (Johnson, 1997).
One aspect of oppression is horizontal hostility (HH) (Stone, 2007),
also called horizontal violence (Friere, 1968; Lee & Saeed, 2001). HV
occurs when the oppressed direct their anger and sense of helplessness
and hopelessness about their oppression to members of their own
group. This is a result of often being unable to exhibit feelings of

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Aggressive Men and Witchy Women 11

aggression against the dominant group for fear of reprisal. They also
tend to lack pride with their own group and are hesitant to align them-
selves with those members who have the least power within their
group (Dunn, 2003). This can result in self-hatred, an example of inter-
nalized oppression, where women (and men) are unable to challenge
the patriarchal system and its male privilege; they may not even see
patriarchy as a problem because it is so much a part of the fabric of
their life from birth—it is the reality in which all human beings exist
(Johnson, 1997).
Stone’s (2007) qualitative study identified a number of issues that
catalyze HH. These included jealousy, competition, and/or recognition
for jobs, control, and power issues and female stereotypes where the
women expected their coworkers to behave in traditionally female
ways. Behaviors comprising the HH were sarcasm, verbal abuse, public
reprimands, sabotage of another’s work, taking credit for another’s
work, exclusion, gossip, whispering, and blaming. Simpson and Cohen
(2004), acknowledging that women can be bullies, stated:

Rather than challenging the masculine hegemony of management, some


women—particularly those who employ bullying tactics—may be con-
forming to the masculine ethic that underpins many management prac-
tices. On this basis, while men and women may be involved as
perpetrators in bullying situations, and while, irrespective of gender,
much bullying involves the abuse of power, such behavior cannot be
divorced from gender considerations. (p. 182)

A critical element to patriarchy and oppression is hatred of the very


group in which the oppressed is a member. Women’s hostility to
women is a complex phenomenon that requires discussion.

WOMEN’S HOSTILITY TO WOMEN


Women’s hostility to women (WHW) is a perplexing issue compli-
cated by women’s anger, sexist beliefs, stereotypes (Cowan, Neighbors,
DeLaMoreaux, & Behnke, 1998), and their oppression as a group
(Johnson, 1997). When women oppress other women with their hostil-
ity to their own gender, they help maintain the patriarchal system
(Acher, 1990). WHW occurs when women feel hostility toward other
women and hold negative stereotypes of women as a group and there-
fore reject other women (Cowan et al.). This phenomenon of believing
negative stereotypes about one’s own group has been called false con-
sciousness by Jost and Banaji (1994), and it is a framework that main-
tains and justifies the status quo of patriarchy.
WHW has its roots in childhood. Tannen’s (1990) research with pre-
teen girls’ conversations with their friends demonstrated that they
become judgmental of other girls who dress in expensive or designer

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


12 Self, Family, and Social Affects

clothing. Tannen asserted that ‘‘appearing better than others is a viola-


tion of the girls’ egalitarian ethic: People are supposed to stress their
connections and similarity’’ (p. 217). This ethic is in contrast to boys’
socialization, where displaying their supremacy and boasting is an
advantage in their male friendships. If girls boast and appear better than
their friends, they risk rejection by their peers at a time when affiliation
with their friends is paramount. As a result, girls and women will often
hide their successes and accomplishments to avoid loss of approval from
their friends or the actual loss of friendships. The behavior of concealing
success can later result in women not receiving the recognition deserved,
promotions, and future opportunities.
Loya, Cowan, and Walters (2006) asserted that WHW occurs when
women feel inadequate and dissatisfied with themselves, and project
those negative feelings onto their own gender, in a sense scapegoating
other women. The researchers stated this develops ‘‘because socially ac-
ceptable prejudices about women already exist. Instead of boosting her
ingroup or derogating outgroups, a woman with a threatened sense of
self may choose to derogate her own group’’ (p. 9024). This scapegoating
enables her to view other women as equally inadequate as herself,
thereby raising her own self-esteem. A woman’s self-esteem was found
to be a critical element in determining the likelihood of that woman’s
hostility toward other women (Cowan et al., 1998). For women, one’s
self-esteem is often tied to how they view their attractiveness.
Media images of attractive women stimulate WHW because women
compare their own bodies to the bodies and attractiveness of the media
images, resulting in a lowered sense of self and a negative impression of
their own bodies (Loya et al., 2006). Rodin, Silberstein, and Striegel-
Moore (1984) found that women’s negative views of their own bodies is
so pervasive as to be the norm. This can result in projecting their discon-
tent on to other women, often resenting them, and stimulating further
hostility toward them. The researchers asserted, however, that the hostil-
ity that’s generated emanates from devaluing or discounting other wom-
en’s attractiveness, not in feeling hostile about the images themselves.
The authors claimed that ‘‘women who are more hostile toward women
may make themselves feel better, or at least . . . from feeling worse,
when competing with other women who are more favorable on a
dimension traditionally valued in women (e.g., attractiveness) by devalu-
ing or discounting the attributes of the other woman’’ (p. 581).
Examining Western beauty standards from this perspective has been
argued to represent the oppression of women (Forbes et al., 2007). Jef-
freys (2005) stated that beauty standards and practices diminish wom-
en’s self-confidence, focus attention on the superficial aspects of
womanhood rather than on a woman’s competencies, and reduce
women to sex objects. Forbes and her colleagues argued that women’s
dissatisfaction with their bodies reinforces patriarchy, and Jeffreys

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Aggressive Men and Witchy Women 13

indicated that the current beauty standards and practices maintain gender
inequality. Forbes et al. also found in their study with women and men
that an association existed between sexism, hostility toward women, and
the Western standards and practices of what constitutes beauty.
When few women are employed in a male-dominated workplace, they
are known as tokens (Kanter, 1977). Kanter discovered that, when
women find themselves as tokens, they may disengage in their associa-
tion with other women, believing that it will improve their standing with
their male colleagues. The token woman will come to believe that, to
belong with the guys, she needs to detach from the other women to the
degree that she begins to incorporate the same prejudices against women
as do her male peers. As a female token, her gender becomes particularly
salient if she is promoted because the promotion may be due, in part, to
her gender. As a result, she is viewed as a competitor by the other
women with whom she works, leading to rivalry relationships. Kanter
argued that the men with whom the tokens work establish a game of
loyalty in which the women are compared to each other on the basis
of the amount of loyalty they demonstrate to their male coworkers. One
of the aspects of the game is for the women, sometimes unconsciously,
to turn against their own gender, collude with the men, and interfere
with hiring and promotional practices of other women by criticizing and
devaluing them, thereby allowing the men to maintain their dominance.
Harris (1974) found that females were more aggressive to other
females than to males. Women tend to use covert aggression in their
abuse of other women, such as exclusion and gossip (Mizrahi, 2004).
Bjorkqvist, Osterman, and Lagerspetz (1994) identified a variety of
aggressive behaviors women use toward each other in addition to
exclusion and gossip: negative facial expressions, sharing secrets,
spreading rumors, sharing nasty comments about another, and ignor-
ing, to name a few. Both men and women prefer to use covert aggres-
sion tactics, with women more likely to use social manipulation than
men. Covert aggression by both genders is an attempt to disguise abu-
sive behavior in hopes of preventing retaliation and/or social ostraciz-
ing. Likewise, covert aggression was found to be the more prevalent
form of aggression in Baron’s (Baron et al., 1999) study.
According to Loya, Cowan, and Walters (2006), one catalyst of
WHW is any situation that has the power to stimulate negative feelings
in women about themselves as women. Heterosexual women who are
dependent on men for their social identity tended to devalue other
women (Cowan et al., 1998; Henderson & Cunningham, 1993). Cowen
and her colleagues also found that women who were hostile to other
women tended to be younger, dissatisfied with their personal and sex-
ual lives, less emotionally intimate with their partners, more hostile to
men, and were more accepting of interpersonal and sexual violence to-
ward women.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


14 Self, Family, and Social Affects

Mizrahi (2004) raised the questions as to whether WHW may consti-


tute gender harassment, a form of sexual harassment, and, if so, whether
it can rise to the level of a sexual harassment hostile environment claim.
Mizrahi argued that the answers are yes because in many instances
women harass and devalue each other because of their gender:
‘‘Moreover, female-on-female harassment is often created by sex segrega-
tion and discrimination in the workplace, and falls squarely under the
coverage of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964’’ (p. 1579). Through
the Civil Rights Act, employers are prohibited from discriminating, which
includes harassment, against any employee on the basis of her or his pro-
tected class such as sex, race, color, religion, and national origin (U.S.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 1990). She explained the
relationship of female-to-female harassment, Title VII, and the superiority
of men at work in the following quote:

Some may argue that Title VII’s prohibition of discrimination based on


sex was meant to address male supremacy, and that a recognition of
female-on-female harassment would be a significant departure from Title
VII’s goal. However, legal recognition of female-on-female sex harass-
ment does work to combat male supremacy in the workplace. As
explained through this chapter the exclusion of women from male-
dominated jobs and from positions of authority creates hostile relations
among women in the workplace. Holding employers liable for the
dynamics that they have created among women shifts the focus back to
segregation and thus creates additional incentives for employers to inte-
grate their workplaces and empower female workers. (p. 1620)

Gender harassment is a form of hostile work environment sexual har-


assment characterized by unwanted behavior that creates a negative work
environment and can be psychologically injurious (Fitzgerald & Hesson-
McInnis, 1989; Lee, 2001; Piotrkowski, 1998; Yoder and Aniakudo). The
hostile work environment classification of sexual harassment is sur-
rounded by ambiguity (Fitzgerald & Ormerod, 1993). Yoder and Ania-
kudo and others (Schultz, 1998; Weiner & Hurt, 1999) suggested that it is
not the behavior alone that determines whether the incidents are hostile,
but consideration of the environmental context is required to make the
determination. Yoder and Aniakudo posited that ‘‘the gender-typing of
an occupation, the gender composition of the work groups, and the
organizational climate regarding gender all may impact on what is per-
ceived as harassing behavior’’ (p. 254). The authors stated that these
issues are broader than the workplace and reflect societal mores as well.
In the first sexual harassment case that was heard by the United
States Supreme Court, Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson in 1986, the court
held that a victim could hold an employer liable for a sexual hostile
work environment if the conduct the victim was subjected to was
because of her sex (Meritor v. Vinson, 1986). In 1998 the Supreme Court

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Aggressive Men and Witchy Women 15

heard another sexual harassment case, Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore


Services, Inc., addressing male-to-male sexual harassment (Oncale v.
Sundowner, 1998). The court stated that sexual harassment did not need
to be the result of sexual desire to constitute sex discrimination/harass-
ment on the basis of one’s sex.
Yale law professor Vicki Schultz conceptualized sexual harassment
more broadly than many courts and the scholarly literature (1998).
Schultz identified sexual harassment as both sexual and nonsexual
means to devalue women and ensure they are unsuccessful in male-
dominant domains. Her thesis stated that the courts fail sexual harass-
ment victims by not addressing the totality of a woman’s experience in
the workplace—the subtle and not so subtle ongoing daily discrimina-
tion and inequities along with sexual harassment. She asserted that
they are one and the same with the intent to hold women from pro-
gressing within the organization and their careers.
Since the Oncale ruling, courts and scholars have focused on male-
to-male harassment and gay and lesbian harassment, and, according to
Mizrahi (2004), ‘‘nonsexualized female-on-female harassment remains
invisible as well as undertheorized’’ (p. 1584). Schultz (1998) believed
that a major component of sexual harassment evolved from job segre-
gation, which is often based on sex segregation. Sex segregation in the
workplace sets the stage for sex stereotyping to occur (Masser &
Abrams, 2004; Deaux, 1995). Schultz and Mizrahi asserted that sex seg-
regation creates the dynamics of WHW in the form of harassment,
where women are more likely to undermine each other.
Mizrahi (2004) took an additional approach, indicating that WHW is
perpetuated by women who are jealous of their female peers who are
advancing and have more power than other women—therefore recog-
nizing that WHW is sex-based. Mizrahi posited that an examination of
the workplace climate, with attention to the environment and the types
of relationship dynamics among the women, would provide needed in-
formation to determine if the hostility is sex-based. Mizrahi further
explained sex-based harassment in her article:

In addition, when the reason for the harassment is female-specific, the


same ‘‘but for’’ test can be used to determine that the ‘‘because of sex’’
element has been satisfied: If only a woman could be targeted for the
harassment, it is by definition sex-based. For example, when a woman
harasses a female coworker out of jealousy regarding a female-specific
trait, the harassment can be considered sex-based. Recall, too, that sex
segregation leads to sex being salient, so that women are more likely to
compare themselves to each other along gendered lines than they would
be in an integrated environment. (p. 1617)

Mizrahi (2004) stated that courts should address three elements to


determine if WHW may constitute female to female harassment: (a)

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


16 Self, Family, and Social Affects

both horizontal and vertical segregation; (b) the relationship between the
target and the perpetrator as well as the overall relationships among the
women, the role the men play in impacting the women’s relationships;
and (c) whether the behavior was female to female and/or any other
indicators that merit attention such as a general atmosphere of misogyny.

CONCLUSION
Perhaps change is looming in perceptions of strong ‘‘masculine’’
women. Ledet and Henley’s study (2000) demonstrated that power
was associated with masculine characteristics. The researchers found
that women in senior positions within their workplace were seen as
masculine in comparison to both women and men in lower positions.
This result was viewed in a positive light, indicating that female stereo-
types of dependent, soft, and unassertive were not associated with
women in senior leadership roles, and therefore may be changing.
Examining the results of Ledet and Henley’s study, and the research
on sexism, stereotypes, and communication, is a critical step in creating
a society of equality. Framing these constructs within the patriarchal sys-
tem of oppression may add a more comprehensive approach to disman-
tling the patriarchy that has existed for thousands of years (Johnson,
1997) and continues to exert its influence on the double standard
between women and men. Changing patriarchy is a challenge that must
be stimulated and propelled forward by not only the scholarly research
but by organizations who currently support male privilege; and the
women and men who are a part of the patriarchal system must know
there are alternative paths.

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© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Chapter 2

Lessons from My Father:


In My Own Voice
Susan Lehrman

When I was 16 and beginning to think about colleges and majors, I


went to my father for advice. My father was a man who appreciated
education. He was one of the first college graduates in his extended
family and was, at the time, working on an advanced degree. Yet his
advice, at least by today’s standards, seems sadly outdated. ‘‘The plan
is for you to go to the local state school, where they have an excellent
home economics teaching program. Money is tight and I need to save
it to send your brothers away to school. After all, they will be support-
ing families, while you will have a husband to support you. Plus, you
have great interpersonal, family-oriented skills. This is clearly the right
path for you.’’
While my father’s advice is sure to set modern teeth on edge, in the
mid-1960s it was not that unusual. Although my mother worked part-
time to help support our family, she had never been to college, nor
had any of my aunts. My father was advanced enough to support the
notion of a college education for his two daughters, but his vision was
limited to consideration of typical ‘‘female’’ occupations: teaching,
social work, or nursing.
Don’t get me wrong, these are fine occupations for men or women,
and my undergraduate degree in secondary education from our local
university is one that I am proud of and one that has informed my life-
long love of learning and commitment to the field of education. But
who knows what arenas I might have explored if I had not been lim-
ited by these early constraints? And it was not just my father who lim-
ited my horizons. During high school, although I clearly had excellent

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


22 Self, Family, and Social Affects

math and science skills, I was encouraged to take chorus, acting, and
domestic science electives in my junior and senior year rather than
advanced science and math courses.
Despite these limitations, I have had an engaging career that I look
back on with pride.
I taught high school in Alaska and Australia during my early post-
baccalaureate years. I pursued a master’s degree in public health, fol-
lowed by 12 years in hospital management, in my late 20s and 30s. I
received my PhD from the University of California at Berkeley in my
early 40s. I taught at the college level and then became a higher educa-
tion administrator in my late 40s and 50s.
As discordant as this career pathway might appear, my internal
compass has consistently led me in the direction of using my interper-
sonal and organizational skills to start new programs and to solve
sticky organizational problems.
My first management position was an entry-level job in a hospital.
As fate would have it, my boss passed away very suddenly when I
had been in the position for a short time. The organization found itself
in a tough position. My boss had been spearheading several important
projects, and there was no one waiting in the wings to step into his
position. After discussing the situation with an individual who was to
play an important mentoring role in my life, I went to the president
and said that I would be willing to step into my boss’s role on an in-
terim basis. His first inclination was, literally, to laugh. I was young
and inexperienced and most of the individuals I would be supervising
were relatively uneducated older males—a tough group for anyone to
control.
In the final analysis, the organization put me into the interim slot,
‘‘but only until we find a man who can take on the position.’’ And
with the warning, ‘‘These guys are going to try to make mincemeat of
you, so don’t do anything to rock the boat!’’
While my father may have been on the wrong track regarding my
college education, he left me with a set of values that served me well
in this interim leadership position. He hammered home to all his chil-
dren, ‘‘If you accept a job, give 110% and do anything and everything
within ethical bounds to make a success of it. I don’t care if you have
to work 80 hours a week! Never give up!’’
With this in mind, I determined that I would have to not only work
hard, but be smart. It became clear to me early on that my new depart-
ment was grossly overstaffed. Although I had been told not to rock the
boat, I knew the hospital was experiencing financial difficulties.
Another piece of wisdom from my father was to, ‘‘Do the right thing,
even if it isn’t the popular thing.’’
As natural attrition began to occur in my department, I again turned
to my mentor and became convinced that the right thing to do was to

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Lessons from My Father 23

reshuffle the workload to accommodate these losses without filling the


vacated positions. Observing my actions from afar, seasoned directors
from other departments strongly advised me that I was making a terri-
ble mistake. Not only would the individuals I supervised raise a major
ruckus, when the next budgetary cycle came around administration
would surely require across-the-board labor cuts and I would be
placed in the untenable position of having to cut more deeply than my
department could bear. Far better, they said, to keep the labor budget
padded so I could demonstrate my effectiveness in reducing staff at
that time.
While I could see the inherent logic in my peers’ recommendations, I
could not get my father’s voice out of my head. I called together my
employees and told them what I intended to do and why. I told them
that taking the right road, versus the easy road, would set us apart as a
department that would never ask for resources it didn’t need and that,
in the end, we would all be better off for it. I assured them that I would
not ask them to work beyond their capacity, but that together we could
work smarter and save resources. To my astonishment, they agreed! As
a team we set about to make our department as efficient as possible.
When the predicted time came for across the board cuts, every
department but mine was cut by 10%. There was no discussion; the
other department heads were simply told to ‘‘do it.’’ My department,
on the other hand, was rewarded for demonstrating its good steward-
ship by being allowed to propose a zero-based budget; as long as we
could justify what was needed, we could have it. In the end, I was
given the job permanently and a number of positions followed with
the same organization in which I was asked to tackle difficult situations
that required the cooperation of the entire team to succeed.
I learned a number of very valuable lessons from this early manage-
ment experience that have continued to shape my leadership style to
this day: Be transparent with those who work for you and with those
you report to. Engage employees at all levels in organizational change.
Do the right thing even if it appears the tougher course to follow. Take
reasonable risks and do so courageously. Actively seek out mentors,
and listen to them carefully, although in the end you have to follow
your own intuition.
In my late 30s, I made the difficult decision to pursue a PhD that
would eventually take me out of health care and into higher education.
When I was 42, I completed my doctoral work, had my first and only
child, and along with my husband made the decision to move from
San Francisco to upstate New York. I took a 50% pay cut and became
‘‘the oldest junior faculty’’ at a small college teaching in the health
MBA program.
While it had been my intention to leave my days as a manager
behind me, this was not to be. Just as I was going through the tenure

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


24 Self, Family, and Social Affects

process, a leadership crisis occurred in my academic department. With


no one to assume the lead, a critically needed accreditation was in
jeopardy. After a failed search for the right candidate, and with much
hesitancy, I said I would take the position as long as my colleagues
agreed to support me and to work hard to successfully complete the
accreditation process. They did, and we were successful.
Not long after this my institution announced its intention of spin-
ning off all of its graduate programs in order to maintain its status as a
liberal arts institution. With no one else able or willing to fill the slot,
and with many fears about my ability to run a college, I agreed to
serve as the founding president of Union Graduate College.
Starting a college, even one that has deep roots in a very old and
prestigious undergraduate institution, has been in many ways like
starting a new enterprise. The lessons from my first big management
position have, however, continued to serve me well.
Pulling together the right team to share my vision of a growing,
graduate-only institution, rooted in the liberal arts but deeply tied to
the exciting things going on in the local business and professional com-
munities, has been my biggest and most rewarding challenge. Together
we have followed my father’s injunction to ‘‘give 110% and do any-
thing and everything within ethical bounds to make a success of it.’’
Research shows that women tend to pursue much more circular ca-
reer paths than men. Indeed, my career path has not conformed to the
norm. I have made lateral moves because they were more interesting
to me than upward moves. I have accepted jobs that paid much less
than prior jobs. In part this may be the result of early implicit or
explicit injunctions against aiming high. Ironically, however, being
freed from the push to achieve at all costs may have allowed me to fol-
low a personally rewarding but atypical career path.
Perhaps all is well that ends well, but wouldn’t it have been so
much better if I—if all of us—were encouraged to follow our own
dreams but to dream as big and wide as we wanted to? As I mentor
young women, I share my father’s early injunctions about college to
encourage them to confront their own personal, hopefully less explicit
but often just as damaging, gender stereotypes. After all, while anyone
at any time can ply us with verbiage intended to limit our horizons, it
is only when we internalize and accept these stereotypes that we are
truly limited.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Chapter 3

Self-Esteem and High-Achieving


Women
Tina Stern

INTRODUCTION
The psychology literature is full of empirical studies and theoretical
articles on self-esteem, and there is considerable research on women
and achievement. Yet, there is relatively little research on the intersection
of gender, self-esteem, and achievement, and even less research on the
concerns experienced by high-achieving women that may be related to
their self-esteem. Over the past 40 years, psychologists have proposed
that successful women have characteristics thought to be associated with
high self-esteem (Betz & Fitzgerald, 1987; Fitzgerald & Harmon, 2001)
and, conversely, that high-achieving women experience self-doubt, suc-
cess-related fears, and fail to internalize their successes (Horner, 1969;
Clance & Imes, 1978). Both hypotheses have, at times, received attention
in the professional literature. Vocational development theorists agree that
women’s achievement is influenced by a complex interaction among
various individual characteristics, such as self-esteem, with an array of
external and social influences (Betz & Fitzgerald, 1987; Fitzgerald &
Harmon, 2001; Gomez et al., 2001; Richie et al., 1997). The purpose of
this chapter is to examine literature on the relationship between self-
esteem and achievement in women and to learn more about the con-
cerns that high-achieving women experience that are related to their
self-esteem.
Research on the relationship among self-esteem and achievement,
leadership, and performance has been conducted in diverse disciplines.
Counseling psychologists who study career development have

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


26 Self, Family, and Social Affects

examined the role of self-esteem and related characteristics in voca-


tional behavior (Betz, 2001). The disciplines of business management
(Pierce & Gardner, 2004) and applied psychology (Judge & Bono, 2001;
Schwalbe, Gecas, & Baxter, 1986) have examined the role of self-esteem
as it relates to job performance. Personality and social psychologists,
along with sociologists, have studied self-esteem as it relates to a wide
array of behavioral outcomes including performance (Baumeister,
Campbell, Krueger, & Vohs, 2003; Rosenberg, Schooler, Schoenbach, &
Rosenberg, 1995), and clinical psychologists have been interested in the
relationship between self-esteem and behavioral choices (Baumeister
et al.). In the absence of research directly on the topic of women’s
achievement and self-esteem and self-esteem concerns, this chapter will
review and integrate some of the related literature from the areas of
vocational development, management, and social psychology. The
chapter begins with an examination of some of the literature in the area
of vocational development that describes the characteristics of high-
achieving women and the role of self-esteem, self-concept, and self-
efficacy in their vocational behavior. The chapter continues with a
description of some of the research challenges in the study of self-
esteem and reviews the literature on self-esteem and performance. This
is followed by a description of a theoretical approach to the study of
self-esteem that will then be used to review seven qualitative studies of
high-achieving women for possible self-esteem–related content.

CHARACTERISTICS RELATED TO WOMEN’S


VOCATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Self-Esteem and Self-Efficacy
Vocational development theories have long recognized that traits,
such as self-esteem, and other individual characteristics interact with
environmental conditions and constraints to influence vocational
behavior (Fitzgerald & Harmon, 2001). Self-concept, as distinct from
self-esteem, was among the traits considered by early vocational devel-
opment theorists to be central in the process of career development
(Betz, 2001). Early theorists proposed that people developed a voca-
tional self-concept that influenced their choices. In addition to self-
concept, some researchers emphasized the importance of self-esteem in
career selection (Betz). Betz predicted that people with high self-esteem
would make more congruent and fulfilling vocational choices than
those with low self-esteem and that they would be more certain about
their choices.
Regarding internal characteristics related to success, recent research
in the area of vocational behavior has shifted focus away from self-
esteem and self-concept as central to the process of vocational choice to

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Self-Esteem and High-Achieving Women 27

an emphasis on the importance of self-efficacy. In contrast to self-


esteem, which Betz (2001) defined as a general belief about one’s im-
portance and value, she defined self-efficacy as beliefs concerning one’s
ability to perform a specific behavior or a class of behaviors. Betz has
applied the principles of Bandura’s work on self-efficacy to the devel-
opment of a theory of vocational behavior. Betz identified various
domains of career self-efficacy, including occupational self-efficacy,
task-specific self-efficacy, career decision-making self-efficacy, and self-
efficacy and vocational interests. Career self-efficacy is related to out-
come expectations, vocational aspirations, academic success, career
barriers, vocational interests, occupational congruence, and social sup-
port (Phillips & Imhoff, 1997; Fassinger, 2002). The importance of self-
efficacy to the vocational choice process has received considerable
research support and is an important theoretical advance, particularly
for understanding women’s vocational behavior (Betz; Fitzgerald &
Harmon, 2001). Fassinger (2005) proposed that high self-efficacy is a
key ingredient to success for women. Low self-efficacy is ‘‘probably the
most pervasive and intractable internal barrier to a woman’s career
success’’ (Fassinger, 2002, p. 31) as it results in her own underestima-
tion of competencies, talents, and capabilities.

Gender Typing
In addition to self-efficacy, Fassinger (2005) and Phillips and Imhoff
(1997) emphasized the critical influence of internalized gender social-
ization on ‘‘vocationally relevant attitudes, beliefs, and personal traits
contributing to the self-concept’’ (Fassinger, 2005, p. 99). Defining char-
acteristics of female gender socialization that influence vocational
behavior include nurturance, caretaking, cooperativeness, denial of
one’s own needs, male-referential self-worth judgments, expectations
for marriage and children, and avoidance of cross-typed interests and
behaviors (Fassinger, 2005). Such female-typed characteristics manifest
themselves in the workplace as a range of ‘‘well-documented self-
concept problems for women including compromised decision making,
self-doubt, low aspirations, underutilization of talents and abilities, lack
of confidence, low expectations for success, role conflict, guilt, and in-
ordinate concern over the judgment of others’’ (Fassinger, 2005, p. 99).
An additional consequence of this cycle is that women with weak self-
concept will be more likely to blame themselves for external discrimi-
nation, which will reduce the likelihood that they will take effective
action against it, perpetuating ‘‘a cycle of self-doubt and self-denigra-
tion’’ (Fassinger, 2005, p. 99). Gender socialization can also result in
depressed entitlement (Fassinger, 2002). Given the numerous negative
consequences of strong gender-typing for occupational advancement,
it is not surprising that high-achieving women are low in many

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


28 Self, Family, and Social Affects

female-typed characteristics, such as the ones described above, and are


high in some traits typically thought of as masculine, such as agency,
instrumentality, and autonomy (Betz & Fitzgerald, 1987; Gomez et al.,
2001). Traditional female gender-typing disadvantages women for
vocational success while masculine-typed traits seem to confer an
advantage.
Also related to gender stereotypes and socialization are pressures
regarding marriage and motherhood. Expectations related to marriage
and motherhood can result in role conflict for working women and can
lead to guilt about non-parenting activities. Fassinger (2002) suggested
that many women live with contradictory ideas about women’s roles.
They may have liberal ideologies regarding women working outside
the home but maintain traditional attitudes toward women’s responsi-
bilities in the home and for the family. Even high-achieving women
often expect to perform or assume responsibility for the majority of labor
related to home and family (Fassinger, 2002). In addition to the actual
responsibilities, spousal views of the woman’s employment and gender
role attitudes of partners/spouses and other family members are also
ways that gender roles influence women’s vocational behaviors.

Fear of Success and the Imposter Phenomenon


While there is an intuitive belief that success and self-esteem are
strongly related, paradoxically, the opposite belief is also widespread.
Reported in both the popular and the psychological literature has been
the proposition that successful women have characteristics indicative
of low self-esteem. Such reports suggest that they fear success, feel like
imposters when they do succeed (Clance & Imes, 1978; Clance &
O’Toole, 1987), experience dependency conflicts (Post, 1982), and are
self-sabotaging (Post, 1989). The pervasiveness of the belief in women’s
low self-esteem related to achievement is evidenced even in feminist
works like Gloria Steinem’s book (1992) Revolution from Within: A Book
of Self-Esteem, where she writes, ‘‘Wherever I traveled, I saw women
who were smart, courageous, and valuable, who didn’t think they were
smart, courageous, or valuable—and this was true not only for women
who were poor or otherwise doubly discriminated against, but for sup-
posedly privileged and powerful women, too’’ (p. 3).
Fear of Success (FOS) (Horner, 1969) and the Imposter Phenomenon
(IP) (Clance & Imes, 1978) formulate hypothetical constructs that imply
that achievement for women is accompanied by self-esteem–related
conflicts. Both constructs propose that successful women, more than
men, experience self-esteem-related doubts. However, results from
studies on these constructs have been contradictory, and researchers
have found fault with the constructs themselves (Hyde, 2006; Rollins,
1996; Fried-Buchalter, 1992, 1997). Furthermore, neither construct has

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Self-Esteem and High-Achieving Women 29

received empirical support for its hypotheses that women experience


such problems at a rate greater than men (Paludi, 1984; Fried-Buchalter,
1992, 1997).
The premise that underlies both FOS and IP, that women experience
problems as a result of success to a greater degree than do men, has
not been supported. This premise reflects the widespread belief that
women, in general, have lower self-esteem than men (Kling, Hyde,
Showers, & Buswell, 1999). Kling and her colleagues conducted a
meta-analysis on gender differences in global self-esteem using 216 dif-
ferent samples of more than 97,000 people. While males received a
higher self-esteem score on average, the difference between males and
females was small and fluctuated with age and ethnicity. The gender
difference in self-esteem was very small in children and gradually
increased to a moderate size in high school. Gender differences in self-
esteem were largest in high school, larger than at any other time of life.
For adults between the ages of 23 to 59, the gender difference in self-
esteem was almost zero, and the size of the difference continued to
decline even further for those over 60 years old. In addition, the meta-
analysis found that the gender difference in self-esteem between
African-American men and women was also almost zero, suggesting
that broad assumptions about women’s poorer self-esteem relative to
men’s is unfounded (Kling et al.).
A final problem with the constructs of FOS and IP is that they focus
on internal barriers to women’s occupational achievement. Fitzgerald
and Harmon (2001) pointed out that discussions of women’s career de-
velopment and career choice have shifted from emphasizing internal
barriers to women’s success to recognizing the obstacles presented by
external, systemic, societal factors, including the effects of gender
socialization. Fitzgerald and Harmon’s model of women’s vocational
behavior has removed FOS as an individual influence from their con-
ceptualization because they note that it does little to explain or describe
women’s behavior.

Other Characteristics and Factors Related to Vocational Behavior


In addition to high self-efficacy and fewer gender-typed con-
straints and expectations, there is considerable consensus in the
recent vocational development literature that women with a strong
career orientation have in common a variety of other characteristics
and external circumstances (Fassinger, 2002). High-achieving women
are likely to have positive self-concepts, have had exposure to role
models, have attended all-girl schools or women’s colleges, had
employed mothers, particularly mothers who enjoyed their work, and
had fathers who supported and encouraged their achievements
(Crawford & Unger, 2004). In addition, they tend to have strong

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


30 Self, Family, and Social Affects

academic self-concepts, educated parents, taken math courses, and


married late (Betz & Fitzgerald, 1987). External or systemic occupa-
tional factors that can negatively affect women’s achievement include
unequal promotion, salary, power, discrimination, hostility, restricted
access to information, stereotyping by others, absence of role models,
sexual harassment, double standards for performance and behavior,
and lack of support for family responsibilities. These negative influ-
ences on women’s achievement are often compounded when women
work in male-dominated fields (Fassinger, 2005; Heilman, Wallen,
Fuchs, & Tamkins, 2004).
The next section reviews literature on self-esteem. Researchers have
studied self-esteem extensively in a variety of disciplines. The section
begins with an examination of some of the complexities in the study of
self-esteem. This topic is followed by a discussion of two reviews and
one meta-analysis on the relationship between self-esteem and per-
formance, and the section ends with a description of an alternative
approach to the study of self-esteem.

SELF-ESTEEM
Researchers agree that the role and importance of self-esteem is
heavily influenced by culture (Diener & Diener, 1995); in the United
States it has been called a preoccupation (Solomon, 2006), a popular ob-
session (Koch, 2006), the ‘‘holy grail of psychological health’’ (Crocker
& Knight, 2005, p. 200), and ‘‘the royal road to happiness and personal
fulfillment, and an antidote to a variety of social ills, including unem-
ployment, gang violence, and teenage pregnancy’’ (Brown & Marshall,
2006, p. 4). Solomon reports that using self-esteem as a search term in
Google in 2003 resulted in 2,270,000 results. Between January and Octo-
ber of 2001, Baumeister and his colleagues (2003) searched the Psyc-
INFO databases for all articles containing the term self-esteem in the
abstract and found 15,059 articles. Yet despite the widespread interest
and belief in self-esteem among some academics and the public,
research conclusions about the importance of and behavioral outcomes
related to self-esteem have been controversial and a source of debate in
the professional literature. Academics who research and study self-
esteem disagree about the definition of self-esteem (Mruk, 2006), its na-
ture (Marsh, Craven, & Martin, 2006), its function (Brown & Marshall),
and its importance to the individual and to society (Owens & McDa-
vitt, 2006; Crocker & Park, 2004; Pyszczynski, Greenburg, Solomon,
Arndt, & Schimel, 2004), whether it produces specific behavioral out-
comes (Baumeister et al.), whether it is a basic human need (Koch,
2006), whether having high self-esteem is necessarily positive (Bau-
meister et al.), and whether people should try to pursue high self-
esteem as a goal in itself (Crocker & Park).

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Self-Esteem and High-Achieving Women 31

Defining Self-Esteem
The first challenge in studying self-esteem is that there is little agree-
ment about what is meant by the term (Brown & Marshall, 2006).
Researchers use and define self-esteem in different ways (Mruk, 2006).
There are unidimensional and multidimensional approaches to under-
standing self-esteem (Marsh et al., 2006). A unidimensional use of the
term refers to global or trait self-esteem. Global or trait self-esteem
refers to the way ‘‘people generally feel about themselves’’ (Brown &
Marshall, p. 4) or the overall evaluation of one’s worth or importance
(Blascovitch & Tomaka, 1991). Global self-esteem has been found to be
relatively stable across a person’s life span (Brown & Marshall). From a
multidimensional perspective, psychologists also study state self-esteem
and domain-specific self-esteem (Brown & Marshall). State self-esteem
is more changeable than global self-esteem and refers to feelings of
self-worth or temporary emotional reactions to various contexts; e.g.,
feelings that occur after getting a promotion or winning an award. Do-
main-specific self-esteem refers to self-evaluations of specific abilities
and attributes; e.g., occupational self-esteem or academic self-esteem
(Brown & Marshall). While the constructs of global, trait, and domain-
specific self-esteem are related, they are also distinct, and theorists
disagree about which conceptualization is most useful (Brown &
Marshall). Brown and Marshall fault researchers for contributing to
confusion in the study of self-esteem by not specifying the definition or
level of self-esteem they are using in their research. In addition to defi-
nitional complications, the nature of self-esteem is also debated; some
researchers emphasize the cognitive aspect of self-esteem (a rational
assessment of worth; e.g., I am competent), while others focus on the
affective component (feeling of liking of oneself; e.g., I feel good about
who I am, I feel worthwhile), and some conceptualizations advocate
understanding self-esteem as a combination and interaction of both
competence and worthiness (Mruk). Finally, to confuse the issue fur-
ther, there are numerous terms that are similar to but distinct from self
esteem, including self-concept, self-efficacy, and life satisfaction. And there
are other terms that are considered to be more or less synonymous with
self-esteem, including self-worth, self-acceptance, and self-regard (Blasco-
vitch & Tomaka).

Self-Esteem and Measurement Challenges


Two methodological weaknesses occur repeatedly in research on
self-esteem that make it challenging to study: the use of correlational
studies, which makes causal conclusions difficult (Baumeister et al.,
2003), and the use of self-report measures. Few of the many thousands
of studies published on the topic use the highly rigorous methods that

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


32 Self, Family, and Social Affects

are necessary to establish causal relationships. Although studies may


imply that high or low self-esteem is causally related to many behav-
iors or psychological states, correlational research generally cannot
conclude whether level of self-esteem caused a particular outcome
(high self-esteem produces professional success), whether the outcome
caused the level of self-esteem (professional success results in high
self-esteem), or whether a third variable caused both the particular out-
come and the level of self-esteem (educational attainment causes high
self-esteem and professional success). In fact, the conclusion from sub-
stantial research examining the relationship between self-esteem and
school performance is that it is more likely that school performance
causes changes in self-esteem than the other way around, and many
researchers have found that any relationship between self-esteem and
school achievement is likely to be a result of a third variable, that is,
family background factors (Baumeister et al.).
The use of self-reports in research on self-esteem presents other sig-
nificant methodological problems. First, most self-esteem measures do
not distinguish among ‘‘defensive, inflated, narcissistic, and so-called
genuine high self-esteem’’ (Baumeister et al., 2003, p. 5). Some of these
types of high self-esteem can be associated with undesirable outcomes
like hostility or aggression (Baumeister et al.). Second, people with
high self-esteem tend to see all their characteristics in a positive light,
and those with low self-esteem tend to be generally negative about
many things, not just their self-esteem. ‘‘It is hard to distinguish the
general negativity from the specific low self-esteem’’ (Baumeister et
al., p. 7). Therefore, self-reports contain a bias, a favorable one for
those with high self-esteem and an unfavorable one for those with low
self-esteem. Furthermore, as with all self-reports, the responses may or
may not be an accurate assessment of a person’s characteristics but
merely the positive (or negative) self-view of the respondent. When
self-esteem is high in the absence of any justification, researchers
question whether the high self-esteem is a manifestation of unhealthy
narcissism. For example, Baumeister and his colleagues found that
while people with high self-esteem believe they are more popular
and interpersonally skilled than others, ‘‘when rated by peers, teach-
ers or laboratory interaction partners, people with high self-esteem
are not liked any better than people with low self-esteem’’ (p. 20).
Therefore, responses on self-report often do not correspond to objec-
tive measures.
Notwithstanding the challenges in studying self-esteem, there is con-
siderable research on the topic, and most psychologists agree that it is
important, although they may disagree as to the reasons. To better
understand the relationship between self-esteem and achievement in
women, the following section will examine selected meta-analytic

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Self-Esteem and High-Achieving Women 33

research studies and literature reviews on the relationship between


self-esteem and performance.

Self-Esteem and Performance


Judge and Bono (2001) completed a meta-analysis of 81 studies of
employed adults that was designed to examine the relationship
between each of four traits with job satisfaction and job performance.
Judge and Bono were interested in the higher-order construct called
core self-evaluation, which they also refer to as positive self-concept,
and the four traits they studied indicate a person’s core self-evaluation.
The four traits studied in this investigation were global self-esteem,
generalized self-efficacy, locus of control, and emotional stability/neu-
roticism. Judge and Bono were investigating whether the components
of the core self-evaluation construct had predictive validity for job sat-
isfaction and job performance. For the purposes of this chapter, this
discussion will focus on their findings only on the relationship between
the trait of self-esteem (or global self-esteem) and job performance.
Judge and Bono (2001) presented theoretical arguments to support
their hypotheses that each of the four traits would be related to both
job satisfaction and job performance. Specifically, with regard to self-
esteem and performance, they cited self-consistency theory as underly-
ing the prediction that individuals with high self-esteem will perform
successfully in order to maintain their positive self-image. The meta-
analysis concluded that although self-esteem had the strongest posi-
tive relationship with job performance from among the variables (.26),
the relationship was more complicated than the relationships between
the other variables and job performance. These relationships were less
clear because of the greater variability in the correlations across the
studies on self-esteem and job performance. In fact, more than 10% of
the individual studies reported a negative relationship between self-
esteem and job performance. They suggested that there are unknown
factors that influence the extent to which self-esteem is important to
job performance. Baumeister and his colleagues (2003) also found high
variability in the relationship between self-esteem and performance in
the studies that they reviewed. With regard to the relationship
between the other three traits that constitute core self-evaluation and
job performance, Judge and Bono found that all three traits had a pos-
itive and similar relationship (correlations between .19 and .23) to job
performance.
In contrast with Judge and Bono’s (2001) investigation of the rela-
tionship between global self-esteem and performance, Pierce and Gard-
ner (2004) examined a domain-specific self-esteem, organization-based
self-esteem (OBSE). They conducted a review of the literature of the

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34 Self, Family, and Social Affects

relationship between OBSE and an individual’s work and organiza-


tional experiences, including performance. They define organization-
based self-esteem as ‘‘the degree to which an individual believes him/
herself to be capable, significant and worthy as an organizational mem-
ber’’ (p. 593). Organization-based self-esteem is more changeable than
global self-esteem and less changeable than task-specific self-esteem.
The purpose of Pierce and Gardner’s review was to identify precursors
and consequences of OBSE and to examine the role of self-esteem in
the work context. Although the authors do not specifically identify the
number of articles they included in this review, they identify it as a
comprehensive review of over four dozen empirical studies that cover
more than a decade of research on the topic. The authors reviewed
mainly field studies that relied on cross-sectional data and correlational
designs. They included many studies that were conducted in cross-
cultural settings.
Looking at the antecedents of OBSE, Pierce and Gardner (2004)
found in their review a positive and significant correlation between
global self-esteem and OBSE in studies using American samples as
well as those with samples from the Middle East, Mexico, and the
United Kingdom. They concluded that people high in OBSE are also
‘‘high in global self-esteem, positive affectivity, internal locus of con-
trol, Protestant work ethic, and need for achievement, and low on neg-
ative affectivity and Machiavellianism’’ (p. 599). Pierce and Gardner
also found that high OBSE is related to organizational commitment,
improved coping, ethical behavior, altruism and compliance, and lower
rates of turnover. With regard to performance, the studies that Pierce
and Gardner reviewed found a positive correlation between OBSE and
performance that ranged from .21 to .47 on a variety of diverse per-
formance measures such as supervisor ratings or managerial behavior.
They concluded that causation is likely to be reciprocal.
Pierce and Gardner (2004) identified organizational conditions that
foster OBSE, which included tasks offering a high degree of complex-
ity, self-direction, and control. Opportunities for participation in work
groups, the chance to exert influence and participatory leadership are
also related to OBSE. These are job characteristics that are likely to be
found in positions of responsibility. Exposure to sexism and other
forms of discrimination, which women are more likely to experience
than men, are related to lower OBSE. In addition, organizational self-
esteem is negatively related to stress and job insecurity. In summary,
the authors suggest certain external characteristics of a particular
position can influence OBSE, which then relates to positive occupa-
tional behaviors. High-achieving women are likely to work in condi-
tions that are associated with high OBSE (high complexity,
self-direction, and control) and with low OBSE (sexism, discrimina-
tion, and stress).

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Self-Esteem and High-Achieving Women 35

Baumeister and colleagues (2003) reviewed methodologically rigor-


ous studies on self-esteem and its correlates. The purpose of their
review was to evaluate whether global self-esteem does, in fact, cause
a variety of positive or negative outcomes. They were very selective in
the studies they included in this review. They included mainly studies
that used objective measures of self-esteem, had large numbers of sub-
jects, or used longitudinal designs that allowed for the evaluation of
causality. While they did not identify the exact number of studies they
reviewed, they identified their criteria for exclusion; they did not
include unpublished studies, studies on the causes of self-esteem, sec-
ondary sources, and studies whose outcomes did not have broad social
relevance. These criteria resulted in the inclusion of ‘‘relatively few’’
(p. 10) studies. While they examined the relationship between self-
esteem and school performance, job and task performance, interperso-
nal relationships, aggression, violence, delinquency, antisocial behavior,
happiness, coping, depression, health, smoking, alcohol and other
drugs, sex, and eating, this chapter will describe only their summary of
findings that relate self-esteem to job and task performance or to other
variables that might also affect job and task performance.
The review by Baumeister and his colleagues (2003) agreed with the
conclusions of the above reviews that overall there is a modest, posi-
tive correlation between self-esteem and job performance; however,
there was considerable variability in the results across studies. The var-
iability, found also in the Judge and Bono review (2001), could be
accounted for by the differences in demands and rewards in diverse
work settings. They found no studies that could support causal infer-
ences; it is possible that job success causes high self-esteem rather than
the other way around. They also examined other performance-related
variables, like performance quality and persistence at tasks. They con-
cluded that self-esteem has little or no direct relationship to task per-
formance under challenging or threatening conditions; however, the
review supported a relationship between self-esteem and task persist-
ence. They concluded that those with high self-esteem were more likely
to persist at tasks, even after failure, than those with low self-esteem.
Yet, high self-esteem was also associated with knowing when to quit.
They determined that those with high self-esteem ‘‘use better self-
regulation strategies than people with low self-esteem’’ (p. 15). Their
overall conclusions were that there is a weak relationship between self-
esteem and performance, that there is no causal evidence that self-
esteem leads to improved job performance, and that most laboratory
studies and many field studies show no difference between the per-
formances of people with high and low self-esteem.
Baumeister and his colleagues’ conclusions (2003) with regard to the
relationship between self-esteem and leadership were similar to their
findings about self-esteem and performance: High self-esteem has a

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


36 Self, Family, and Social Affects

weak relationship to leadership and contributes little when other varia-


bles are controlled (like optimism or leadership efficacy). They found
that high self-esteem has a weak but significant association with speak-
ing up in group settings. The strongest relationship was found between
self-esteem and the likelihood of initiating interpersonal contacts and
relationships. However, they point out that initiating behaviors can fos-
ter either prosocial or antisocial behaviors. In other words, those with
high self-esteem are overrepresented among both the ‘‘perpetrators of
bullying and the people who stand up to bullies and defend victims’’
(p. 24). Baumeister and colleagues concluded that self-esteem is related
to initiating behaviors, regardless of whether those behaviors are posi-
tive or negative.
Many researchers agree that the main benefits of self-esteem are
emotional (happiness, positive affect, life satisfaction, and less anxiety,
hopelessness, and depression) as well as having positive beliefs about
the self (feeling intelligent, attractive, popular, and self-confident) (Bau-
meister et al., 2003; Crocker & Knight, 2005). Happiness and life satis-
faction have some of the strongest correlations with self-esteem
(Baumeister et al.). In addition, those with high self-esteem show
increased initiative and persistence. Despite these benefits, Baumeister
and colleagues concluded that apart from happiness and good feelings,
the relationships between the other variables in their investigation were
weak to modest and that ‘‘self-esteem is thus not a major predictor or
cause of almost anything’’ (p. 37).

Contingencies of Self-Worth
Despite the conclusions of Baumeister and his colleagues (2003),
Crocker and Park (2004) believe that the desire for self-esteem and its
pursuit underlie much of human behavior. However, they contend that
research and discussions of self-esteem have overemphasized the im-
portance of whether a person’s self-esteem is high or low.
The problem with research in this area is not that self-esteem is irrel-
evant but rather that research has focused too much on the level of
trait self-esteem and insufficiently on what people do to demonstrate
to themselves and to others that they have worth and value, and on
the consequences of this pursuit (p. 394).
According to this model, the things that people do to determine that
they are worthy and valuable are of greater significance than the level
of a person’s self-esteem (Crocker & Knight, 2005; Crocker & Wolfe,
2001). These behaviors are labeled contingencies of self-worth. For
example, if a person succeeds in a domain on which self-worth is con-
tingent, the person’s self-esteem would increase, and failure in a con-
tingent domain would result in a decrease in self-esteem. While global
self-esteem has few specific behavioral correlates, contingencies of

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Self-Esteem and High-Achieving Women 37

self-worth are somewhat better at predicting behaviors because they


influence behavioral regulation. Contingencies of self-worth influence
behavior by motivating people to pursue the good feelings associated
with success in contingent domains by shaping long-term and short-
term goals, by influencing efforts in pursuing those goals, and by
affecting reactions to success and failure (Crocker, 2002; Crocker &
Knight). Crocker and Knight suggest that contingencies of self-worth
influence thoughts and emotions as well as behaviors. They argue that
everyone has contingencies of self-worth, but the contingencies on
which people’s self-esteem is based differ.
While researchers have not agreed on the most common or most im-
portant contingencies, Crocker, Luhtanen, Cooper, and Bouvrette (2003)
identified seven domains most commonly mentioned in the literature.
On the basis of these seven contingencies, they developed an instru-
ment, the Contingencies of Self-Worth Scale (CSWS), to measure con-
tingencies of self-worth in college students. Crocker and her colleagues
(2003) do not propose that these are the only or most important contin-
gencies; rather, they are those most often mentioned. They also
acknowledge that contingencies may vary depending on culture, gen-
der, age, or other characteristics. The seven domains included in the
CSWS are others’ approval or regard, physical appearance, competen-
cies, love from family, outdoing others in competition, virtue, and faith.
People’s successes or failures in the domains that are relevant to their
self-esteem result in changes in self-esteem and, in turn, can create
both feelings of satisfaction and self-worth, but also vulnerability to
depressive symptoms (Crocker, 2002).
Several of these seven domains are dependent on evaluations from
external sources and are called external contingencies. The external
contingencies of self-worth include others’ approval and recognition,
physical appearance, love from family, and outdoing others in competi-
tion. Competency, faith, and virtue are the internal contingencies of
self-worth, which depend less on external influences. Because external
contingencies are dependent on responses from other people and are,
therefore, under less self-control, they are more likely to be associated
with negative outcomes, like depression, neuroticism, and lower self-
esteem, than internal contingencies, which are associated with better
outcomes (Crocker, 2002; Crocker & Wolfe, 2001; Sanchez & Crocker,
2005; Crocker et al., 2003). For example, if a person’s self-worth is
based on others’ approval, that person is likely to feel a decrease in
self-worth after receiving criticism (Crocker, 2006). Though internal
contingencies create less psychological vulnerability than external con-
tingencies, whenever self-esteem is contingent, people feel threatened
by negative feedback in domains on which their self-esteem depends.
For example, if a person’s self-esteem is contingent on being a moral
person (the internal contingency of virtue), then if that person behaves

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38 Self, Family, and Social Affects

immorally, that, too, can create a psychological vulnerability to feelings


of depression. Therefore, while self-esteem that is based on internal
contingencies of self-worth is associated with better outcomes than
self-esteem based on external contingencies, both types can be associ-
ated with decreases in self-esteem, feelings of depression, or other neg-
ative outcomes.
Some researchers suggest that optimal self-esteem is non-contingent
self-esteem (Crocker, 2006). Non-contingent self-esteem is self-esteem
that is not based on success or failure in particular domains; some
researchers think of it as true self-esteem or self-esteem that develops
naturally from ‘‘autonomous, efficacious action in the context of sup-
portive, authentic relationships’’ (Crocker & Wolfe, 2001, p. 616).
Unfortunately, few people have non-contingent self-esteem and, there-
fore, attainment of non-contingent self-esteem may be an unrealistic
goal (Crocker & Park, 2004; Crocker, 2006; Crocker & Wolfe). It is ques-
tionable whether people with truly non-contingent self-esteem actually
exist, particularly in the North American culture (Crocker, 2006;
Crocker & Wolfe). To avoid the psychological vulnerabilities and other
costs of contingent self-esteem, Crocker proposes a shift in goals away
from the pursuit of self-esteem altogether and toward goals that are
larger than the self, inclusive goals that focus not only on the self but
on the good of others (Crocker, 2006). This approach is a paradoxical
solution of shifting ‘‘away from self-focused, self-centered goals of
maintaining and protecting self-esteem, to goals that connect the self to
others in an altruistic, compassionate, and meaningful way. These goals
keep attention off self-worth, and facilitate the development of authen-
tic relationships that may, in the end, be more sustaining than self-
esteem’’ (Crocker, 2002, p. 148).

SELF-ESTEEM CONCERNS OF HIGH-ACHIEVING WOMEN


Research on high-achieving women and their self-esteem–related
concerns is limited. While we know a good deal about high-achieving
women in terms of their backgrounds, the important influences on
their lives and vocational choices, their career stages and trajectories,
the obstacles they have faced, and their coping and leadership styles,
research has not focused on their concerns related to self-esteem. The
remainder of this chapter will review seven qualitative studies of high-
achieving women to illuminate some of the issues and concerns related
to self-esteem that were suggested by the participants. Because self-
esteem–related concerns were not directly addressed in these studies, I
will use Crocker’s model of contingencies of self-worth as a framework
to understand how women’s concerns may reflect contingencies of self-
worth, those areas on which their self-esteem is based. In addition to
the seven contingencies used in the CSWS (Crocker & Wolfe, 2001;

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Self-Esteem and High-Achieving Women 39

Crocker et al., 2003), I have added a category of non-contingent self-


worth to categorize those comments that are not self-focused but focus
on the greater good and the good of others. The studies included in
this discussion were chosen because they identify as their purpose the
study of women who are high achievers, they used qualitative research
methods rather than case studies, biographies, or autobiographies, and
they studied diverse groups of women. Each of seven studies will be
described and reviewed individually.
Some limitations of this review must be noted. While the purpose of
the original studies was not to identify participants’ concerns related to
self-esteem, illuminating those concerns is one of the intents of this
chapter. Absent research that examines this topic directly, I inferred
parallels between emergent themes and participants’ comments in each
qualitative study with Crocker’s contingencies of self-worth as
described in the CSWS (Crocker et al., 2003). The themes that emerged
from the studies were not always a perfect fit with the contingency
descriptions, but fitting the themes with the exact contingency was less
the objective than to provide some theoretical support for the idea that
these concerns may be related to self-esteem and, as such, provide
some insight into high-achieving women. Some themes or comments
corresponded to a single contingency of self-worth; however, other
themes were suggestive of more than one contingency. For example,
concerns about taking time off work to have a family may be related to
concerns about approval from others, or love from family, or both. In
cases where themes may have related to multiple contingencies, they
were listed more than once, under each possible contingency. Further,
because the respondents in these studies had not been asked to discuss
self-esteem, it cannot be assumed that the themes identified by the par-
ticipants were, in fact, self-esteem contingencies. Said another way, a
respondent may have indicated concern about how she is perceived at
work, yet that concern is not necessarily one on which her self-esteem
is based; there may be other reasons for this concern (Crocker & Wolfe,
2001). In addition, the seven domains of contingent self-worth identi-
fied by Crocker and her colleagues (2003) for their measurement instru-
ment were developed for college students, and they are not intended
to represent all the contingencies on which people base their self-
esteem. Other contingencies, such as power or social identity, have
been identified in the literature, and a person’s contingencies may dif-
fer depending on age as well as culture (Crocker & Wolfe; Crocker
et al., 2003). That culture influences the nature, importance, and role of
global self-esteem and self-esteem contingencies has been recognized in
the literature (Diener & Diener, 1995). Another problem is that because
the purpose of these studies was occupational achievement, the
respondents may have mentioned only work-related concerns, rather
than a broader array of concerns that they may have. Therefore, the

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


40 Self, Family, and Social Affects

effort of this review to identify the participants’ self-esteem–related


concerns may be limited to identifying only those concerns in a specific
domain, occupational self-esteem.

REVIEW OF STUDIES
White, Cox, and Cooper (1992) conducted a qualitative study of 48
women in the United Kingdom who ‘‘had achieved extraordinary lev-
els of career success’’ (p. 5). The women were executives, entrepre-
neurs, politicians, and senior members of high-status professions. Peers
in a prominent women’s group for ‘‘high-flying women’’ determined
whether a career was considered extraordinarily successful (p. 7), but
their criteria were not specified. The purpose of their study was to
examine the characteristics and the career trajectory of those who make
it to the top. Participants were interviewed for 1 hour, and they were
asked about their childhoods, education, work and non-work/family
history, and their awareness of organizational power and politics. In
addition, participants took three psychometric tests: one on locus of
control, one on need for achievement, and one on gender identity.
Their scores on these tests were compared to those of women who had
low and moderate levels of achievement.
Based on Crocker’s contingencies of self-worth (Crocker, 2002),
respondents’ comments related most often to the contingency of com-
petency. Participants frequently cited competency-related themes,
including having a strong belief in their own abilities, having an inter-
nal locus of control, recognizing the importance of hard work, being te-
nacious, wanting to take advantage of opportunities, recognizing the
importance of perseverance, being motivated to excel, preferring inter-
esting and challenging work over promotions, recognizing that
advancement depended on competence, valuing self-development, and
having high standards. Themes related to the contingency of approval
or recognition from others included feeling increased self-confidence as
a result of feedback from mentors, desiring recognition from others,
knowing it was important to ‘‘blow their own horn,’’ recognizing the
need to ‘‘sell’’ oneself. Related to the contingency of love for family,
respondents cited feeling an ‘‘energy deficit’’ related to the complica-
tions of managing work and home and worrying about the possible
negative impact of family demands on work. Respondents discussed
the need to appear professional, which is suggestive of the contingency
of self-worth related to appearance. Finally, themes of integrity and
honesty at work emerged, which are related to the virtue contingency
of self-worth. To summarize, the participants expressed most concerns
related to the competency contingency followed by approval or recog-
nition from others and love for family. Concerns related to the contin-
gency of virtue and appearance emerged less often, and concerns

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Self-Esteem and High-Achieving Women 41

related to the faith contingency and the competition contingency were


not expressed.
Reddin (1997) completed a qualitative study of six high-achieving
women from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Though it is not stated, it
appears that this study was conducted in the United States. Reddin
defined high achievement as having an advanced degree or career
accomplishments. The definition was not further specified. The purpose
of Reddin’s study was to understand women’s achievement and wom-
en’s career development patterns better. Reddin’s results identified sev-
eral themes and characteristics of high-achieving women, including
independence, curiosity, high-achievement motivation, goal-setting,
persisting in the face of obstacles, belief in gender equality with regard
to women and work, traditional gender attitudes related to familial
and social roles, importance of family, and self-doubts despite high
achievement and recognition.
Once again, most themes expressed by the participants in Reddin’s
study corresponded to the competency contingency. Themes related to
competency included being determined to find answers, fearing failure,
valuing being good at one’s job choice, recognizing the importance of
career, and emphasizing accomplishments. Respondents in this study
expressed concerns related to the self-worth contingency of outdoing
others in competition, including being able to solve a problem that
others could not solve and fearing not measuring up to others’ expecta-
tions. Concerns related to the contingency of recognition or approval
from others included feeling important, experiencing self-blame related
to racism and sexism, and being concerned about taking time off work
to have children. Themes related to the love for family contingency
included recognizing the importance of family support and the desire
of their family’s approval of their decisions, being concerned about
work/family conflicts, and being concerned about taking time off work
to have a family. The importance of using their skills for a good pur-
pose and the desire to make a contribution were themes related to the
virtue contingency of self-worth. The desire participants had to enrich
their lives, accomplish their goals, and make a contribution could be
considered themes suggestive of non-contingent self-esteem. As with
the study by Cox and her colleagues (1992), the themes expressed by
the participants in Reddin’s study relate most often to the self-worth
contingency of competency. This was followed by concerns related to
competition, recognition, and approval of others, love of family, and
virtue contingencies of self-worth. Several themes and comments were
reflective of non-contingent self-esteem.
Walton’s (1997) research interviewed 11 women who are the heads
of colleges in the United Kingdom. Her purpose was to learn more
about women ‘‘who have reached the highest rung of the British higher
education ladder’’ (p. 70). Her study reviewed the respondents’

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


42 Self, Family, and Social Affects

personal profiles, educational backgrounds, academic career paths,


non-academic experiences, the search process, family influence, encour-
agement, discouraging factors, leadership styles, job satisfaction and
stress, salaries, career preparation, and professional development
opportunities.
The majority of concerns expressed by the participants in this study
related best to the approval and recognition from others contingency of
self-worth. Themes and comments that corresponded with this contin-
gency included feeling demands to be an ‘‘honorary man’’ wanting to
feel valued and be taken seriously, fearing that other women would
feel betrayed by them, feeling apart from the group, feeling manipu-
lated by others because they were female, experiencing pride in their
ability to work as a team, fearing negative perceptions of others if a
goal was not achieved, and feeling isolated and lonely in the leadership
role. Themes related to the competency contingency of self-worth
emerged with the next greatest frequency. They included the impor-
tance of feeling one has done a good job, feeling satisfied with what
one has completed, and recognizing the importance of professional de-
velopment. Finally, the desire to do something to decrease gender
inequity corresponds to the virtue contingency of self-worth.
Marshall (1995) conducted a qualitative study in the United Kingdom
of 12 women who had reached senior management and board levels in
diverse employment sectors and then left or contemplated leaving
employment. The purpose of her study was to consider career manage-
ment and organizational development issues and explore why women
left their positions. Given that the women had left or were contemplat-
ing leaving their positions, the participants had more to say about the
negative aspects than the positive aspects of the work environment.
The themes and comments related to the contingency of recognition
or approval from others represented the vast majority of the concerns.
They included experiencing friction and bullying when relating to
other people in power, feeling isolated in male-dominated cultures,
feeling they were being tested by others, having aggression directed at
them, feeling both close to and separated from subordinates, having
their effectiveness blocked or undermined, feeling uncertain about how
to exert power, being uncertain about relating to other women, and not
knowing how to manage in a male-dominated culture. Several of these
themes also related to the self-worth contingency of competency. Those
that correspond to both categories included feeling concern about hav-
ing their effectiveness blocked or undermined and feeling uncertain
about how to exert power. Additional themes that related to the com-
petency contingency of self-worth include wanting to operate as a
change agent and feeling overworked and over-committed. Concern
about having their image fit into a male-dominated environment
related to the appearance contingency of self-worth.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Self-Esteem and High-Achieving Women 43

Gomez and her colleagues (2001) conducted a qualitative research


study of 20 notable Latinas in the United States. The participants were
chosen by a panel of eight ‘‘distinguished Hispanic women who pub-
lished a biographical directory of 275 notable Latinas in the United
States’’ (p. 288). The purpose of this study was to develop a theoretical
framework for career development that extends previous theory to
include background and contextual factors particular to the Latina
culture. To collect their data, the authors used an in-depth, semi-
structured interview and a brief demographic questionnaire. They
asked questions about career path, professional stress, external chal-
lenges and limitations to achievement, success and failure, background
and current influences, family-work interface, cultural identity, career
and life satisfaction. The researchers propose a career development
theory that conceptualizes interacting spheres of influence that com-
pose the career-life path.
Participants’ concerns that related to the competency contingency of
self-worth included feeling a strong need to achieve their best in any
situation, believing that they must work twice as hard to prove them-
selves in the face of sexism and racism, having a strong work ethic,
possessing high career self-efficacy, believing strongly in their own
ability to succeed, and feeling unsuccessful at managing work and fam-
ily because attending to one resulted in neglecting the other. Concerns
related to the contingency of recognition and approval from others
included believing that they must work twice as hard to prove them-
selves in the face of sexism and racism, desiring to prove themselves to
others, fearing being perceived as ‘‘selling out’’ to others (only a con-
cern among Mexican-American women), and being concerned about
violating the cultural standards of gender roles. Themes related to love
for family were frequent. Participants cited feeling loyalty to family,
having a collective identity that emphasized family, having a strong
cultural identity, being concerned about managing work and family,
being concerned about meeting family expectations to marry and con-
form to traditional gender roles. More themes related to the virtue con-
tingency of self-worth emerged in this study than in the other studies.
These themes included having a desire to fulfill a calling or life convic-
tion, being motivated to make a difference and stand up for something,
emphasizing social responsibility and service, wanting to make a con-
tribution, feeling responsible toward others in terms of mentoring and
being role models, and creating opportunities for others. The desire to
make a contribution, to make a difference, to fulfill social responsibil-
ities to others, and to serve as a role model to others also correspond
to non-contingent self-esteem, or self-esteem that emphasizes others
and making a contribution to something bigger than the self. These
findings correspond to research on cultural differences in self-esteem,
which suggests that the sources of self-esteem and life satisfaction tend

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


44 Self, Family, and Social Affects

to differ between collectivist and individualistic cultures (Diener &


Diener, 1995). The repetition of themes related to love for family and
contributing to the good of society emerged more among the Latina
women as compared to the women cited in the studies above whose
race and ethnicity were unspecified.
Richie and her colleagues (1997) completed a qualitative study in
which they interviewed 18 high-achieving African-American and White
women (nine African-American women and nine White women) who
were closely matched on age, occupation, and geographic location
within eight occupational fields. The purpose of their study was to
explore critical influences, particularly those related to professional suc-
cess, on the career development of these women with the ultimate goal
of constructing a comprehensive and inclusive theory of women’s ca-
reer development. The researchers used a questionnaire that focused
on background influences, stress, coping, and resiliency; self-efficacy
and attributional factors; community and social support; external chal-
lenges and obstacles; and factors related to individual personality and
temperament.
Women in this study exhibited many strengths that did not fit neatly
into the contingencies of self-worth yet are worth mentioning. These
include persevering when facing challenges, relying on internal stand-
ards and judgment, and feeling passion for their work. They expressed
few concerns about conflicts between achievement and femininity. In
fact, the participants ‘‘displayed expressive characteristics (e.g., nurtur-
ance, relational orientation, and sensitivity) that contrast with the
rugged individualism often depicted in traditionally masculine styles
of achievement.’’ Participants reported a strong ability to manage stress
and overcome adversity.
Using Crocker’s model (2002; Crocker et al., 2003) of contingencies
of self-worth, some of the participants’ comments could be understood
in terms of the competency contingency. These themes include having
a strong commitment to their careers, persisting in the face of obstacles,
living up to their own standards, worrying about time demands, valu-
ing their own work, and balancing their work and home life.
Responses that best matched the contingency related to the importance
of the approval and recognition from others included demonstrating
nurturance and other expressive characteristics, valuing support from
friends and the community, and having a relational orientation.
Responses relating to the self-worth contingency for love of family
included recognizing the importance of support from partners and
from family. A minority of African-American women also reported that
faith was important to them. Themes relating to the contingency of vir-
tue included recognizing the importance of the collective rather than
just the individual, committing to improving conditions for other
women and for African Americans, being motivated to succeed as a

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Self-Esteem and High-Achieving Women 45

way of opening doors for others, seeing the value in giving back to so-
ciety and the community. Several of these responses are also reflective
of non-contingent self-esteem, including thinking of the collective as
well as the individual, improving conditions for others, wanting to suc-
ceed as a way of helping others, being motivated to give back to soci-
ety, feeling interconnected with others, and believing that they and
their work fit into the larger world. Participants in this study made a
high number of virtue and non-contingent responses.
Kawahara, Esnil, and Hsu (2007) conducted a qualitative study on
12 women of Asian descent. This sample purposely included partici-
pants to ensure that diverse Asian ethnicities and professions would be
represented. All women were leaders and considered to be high
achievers on the basis of a variety of criteria. Each participant com-
pleted a five-question interview that lasted from 45 minutes to 2.5
hours. The purpose of the study was to gain a greater understanding
of Asian-American women leaders.
The authors identified six themes that emerged from the interviews.
The themes were knowing oneself and doing something you believe in;
having a vision and inspiring others to work on the vision; having a
relational and collaborative leadership style; taking on challenges,
struggles, and conflicts; having both dominant culture efficacy and
biculturalism; and recognizing the importance of support and encour-
agement. The greatest number of comments corresponded with the vir-
tue contingency of self-worth. These included making choices in
accordance with their values, recognizing the importance of things
beyond themselves and their own interests, being concerned about
others and the community in general, recognizing one’s responsibility
to others, wanting to be a social activist and be of service, creating
equality in the workplace regardless of position or level, having a com-
mitment to social justice, promoting the empowerment of others, and
wanting to create a harmonious environment. All the comments related
to virtue also match the non-contingent self-esteem in that they go
beyond the self, express the desire to help others, and focus on some-
thing larger than the self. Several comments corresponded with the
contingency of self-worth related to competency. These included recog-
nizing the importance of self-development, being willing to take
charge, wanting to learn new skills, being willing to work hard, being
willing to become involved in challenges, and being willing to do
whatever it takes to achieve the desired outcome. Comments related to
the contingency of approval or regard from others included wanting to
command people’s respect and cooperation, being able to inspire
others, desiring to understand others and to be understood by them
both within and outside one’s community, desiring support and
encouragement from others, wanting to present a positive image of
Asian-American women, and wanting to show that Asian-American

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


46 Self, Family, and Social Affects

women are competent leaders. Comments relating to the love for fam-
ily contingency included recognizing the importance of support from
family members and partners. Some comments related to ethnicity did
not correspond to any of Crocker’s (2002) contingencies of self-worth.
These included experiences with oppression and prejudice as well as
the desire to challenge cultural norms for Asian women. Once again,
the number of comments reflective of collectivist values was expressed
more frequently by the Asian-American women than by some of the
other samples, with the exception of the Latinas.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS


To gain a better understanding of women’s self-esteem and how it
relates to achievement, as well as to learn more about self-esteem–
related concerns, I’ve examined research on separate aspects of this
topic from a variety of disciplines. I’ve examined research in the area
of women’s vocational development, including characteristics associ-
ated with high-achieving women. I have explored some of the research
on self-esteem as it relates to performance, and I have used the contin-
gencies of self-worth model to explore possible self-esteem–related con-
cerns in seven qualitative studies of high-achieving women.
The research findings on women and achievement seemed to dis-
agree with some of the literature on self-esteem and performance. The
review by Baumeister and his colleagues (2003) and Judge and Bono
(2001) found modest positive relationships between self-esteem and
performance. Pierce and Gardner (2004) found a slightly broader range
of correlations, but they reviewed studies on very specific task behav-
iors. Yet, the literature reviews on high-achieving women concluded
that achievement for women is associated with many characteristics
related to high self-esteem, including high self-efficacy, instrumentality,
and autonomy (Betz & Fitzgerald, 1987; Judge & Bono). One explana-
tion may have to do with the fact that the reviews and meta-analysis
examined performance, and the other studies investigated achievement.
While performance and achievement are related concepts, they are not
identical. Performance may refer to behavior related to a specific task
(task performance) or to behavior related to the job (job performance).
Achievement refers to broader and more complex responses than per-
formance. Second, the reviews and meta-analysis examined studies that
measured self-esteem directly. The studies on women’s achievement
were not focused directly on self-esteem. Another explanation of the
different conclusions drawn from the two types of studies may relate
to the purpose of these studies. Applied psychologists may be inter-
ested in knowing whether measuring self-esteem will help employers
identify employees who will perform well, whereas research in
the area of women’s career development attempts to identify the

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Self-Esteem and High-Achieving Women 47

complexity of influences on women’s achievement. For example,


Gomez and her colleagues (2001) describe a career life-path model.
This model recognizes the multiple and complex influences on
women’s achievement and includes not only a variety of personal char-
acteristics like self-esteem, but also factors in the immediate context,
like social support and coping skills, aspects of the culture, family, and
personal background, as well as sociopolitical conditions. The influen-
ces on women’s achievement are numerous, interactive, and complex.
The next goal of this chapter was to begin to identify self-esteem–
related concerns that high-achieving women experience. To understand
the importance and influence of self-esteem, Crocker and Wolfe (2001)
suggested that it is essential to look beyond the usual research preoccu-
pation of whether an individual’s self-esteem is high or low. They pro-
posed that understanding the basis of a person’s self-esteem will yield
more useful information than knowing the level of that person’s self-
esteem. The domains on which our self-esteem is based are called con-
tingencies of self-worth (Crocker & Wolfe). In the absence of research
that directly investigates the self-esteem concerns of high-achieving
women, the contingencies of self-worth model provided a framework
for understanding these concerns. I have used the seven contingencies
of self-worth that Crocker and her colleagues identified as those most
often mentioned in the literature (2003; Crocker & Wolfe) to examine
comments made by participants in seven qualitative studies of high-
achieving women. It bears repeating that the seven contingencies used
in this analysis are not intended to be exhaustive, nor am I proposing
that the comments made by participants reported in these studies
match definitively with the contingency with which they have been
paired. Further, while the participants’ comments reflect their concerns,
these concerns are not necessarily contingencies on which their self-
esteem is based. Rather, the objective of this review was to begin to
explore some concerns expressed by high-achieving women and to put
them in a framework that provides theoretical support for understand-
ing how these concerns could potentially be related to their self-
esteem.
Crocker and her colleagues (2003) designed a scale to measure con-
tingencies of self-worth based on the seven contingencies most fre-
quently cited in the literature; however, they clearly stated that other
contingencies exist. In fact, participants in the seven studies frequently
mentioned concerns related to a contingency that was not included on
the CSWS—social identity. Social identity has been described as one of
several other contingencies on which people’s self-worth may be based
(Crocker & Wolfe, 2001; Crocker et al., 2003). Many of the studies’ par-
ticipants talked about concerns related to their identities as women,
including gender roles and sexism. The participants in the studies
with Latinas, African-American women, and Asian-American women

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


48 Self, Family, and Social Affects

described concerns related to their cultural identities as well. Not only


were the respondents concerned about the majority culture’s expecta-
tions for them as women, but also with the gender-role expectations
within their cultures or subcultures. In addition to cultural gender
expectations, minority women were also concerned about racism and
racial discrimination as well as sexism. The addition of social identity as
a contingency for self-esteem is relevant for both women and minorities.
Several themes and patterns emerged from among the other con-
cerns expressed by participants in these seven studies. Certain contin-
gencies of self-worth received very few related comments. Study
participants mentioned very few concerns that related to two of the
four domains of external contingencies, those contingencies most likely
to result in psychological vulnerabilities and unhealthy behavior. Par-
ticipants expressed two or fewer concerns related to the external con-
tingencies of physical appearance and outdoing others in competition.
Concern with physical appearance is a female gender-typed response.
That participants made few comments related to this contingency may
not be surprising given that research suggests that high-achieving
women are low in gender-typed behaviors (Betz & Fitzgerald, 1987).
However, participants also made few comments related to concerns
about competition, a male-typed behavior. The studies’ participants
did express concerns related to two external contingencies: recognition
and approval from others and love for family. The concerns related to
recognition and approval from others may be understood in light of
research findings that suggest that when women are successful in a
male arena, they are less liked, personally denigrated, and treated dif-
ferently in ways that affect their career outcomes (Heilman et al., 2005).
The external contingency related to love from family may be related to
the uneven distribution of household responsibilities, the expectation
that women assume the majority of household responsibilities, the lack
of support for child care in society and the workplace, and the conflict
between family and work demands that results from these conditions.
Overall, study participants in the seven qualitative studies expressed
a high number of concerns related to internal contingencies. Internal
contingencies are contingencies associated with more favorable out-
comes because they do not depend on the evaluation of others. Partici-
pants expressed concerns related to the internal contingencies of
competency and virtue. The greatest number of participants’ total com-
ments related to the internal contingency of competency. On the basis
of the content and frequency of comments related to this contingency,
high-achieving women are concerned about their performance, reach-
ing their goals, and meeting demanding standards. Given their levels
of achievement, this is not surprising. Interestingly, women expressed
numerous concerns related to virtue. Many of these concerns dealt
with wanting to make a contribution and wanting to make things

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Table 3-1.
Study participants’ comments categorized by contingencies of self-worth

Others’ Outdoing
approval or Physical Love from others in Non-contingent
regard appearance Competency family competition Virtue Faith self-esteem

White, Cox, & Cooper (1992) 4 1 11 2 1


. 48 women
. U.K.
Reddin (1997) 3 5 4 2 2 3
. 6 women
. U.S.
Walton (1997) 8 3 1
. 11 women
. U.K.
Marshall (1995) 9 1 4
. 12 women
. U.K.
Gomez et al. (2001) 4 6 5 7 4
. 20 Latinas
. U.S.
Richie et al. (1997) 3 6 1 4 1 6
. 9 African-American
women
. 9 White women
. U.S.
Kawahara, Esnil, & 6 6 1 9 9
Hsu (2007)
. 12 Asian-American
women
. U.S.
Total comments 37 2 41 13 2 24 1 22

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


50 Self, Family, and Social Affects

better for other women or members of their ethnic group. Only one
concern related to the internal contingency of faith, and this was
expressed by an African-American participant. Finally, and impor-
tantly, many comments were reflective of non-contingent self-esteem,
self-esteem some consider to be optimal. Non-contingent self-esteem is
demonstrated when, instead of focusing on the self, a person’s focus is
outside of the self and on helping others and making a contribution.
Latinas, Asian-American women, and the participants in the study
with both African-American and White participants cited many more
concerns that were reflective of non-contingent self-esteem than did the
participants in other studies.
Participants repeated specific concerns across studies that dealt with
negotiating the demands of work and family, gaining recognition in
the workplace, valuing competence, and having the desire to make a
contribution. Despite theoretical disagreements about many aspects of
self-esteem and its weak predictive relationship to performance, based
on findings from research on women and achievement, high-achieving
women possess many characteristics that are suggestive of high self-
esteem. These characteristics include high self-efficacy, instrumentality,
autonomy, and persistence. Gomez and her colleagues (2001) con-
cluded that a profile for high-achieving, professional women is emerg-
ing in the literature that finds them to be passionate, tenacious, high in
career self-efficacy and conviction, and to have effective coping skills,
internal motivation, career persistence, and high instrumentality.

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© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Chapter 4

Women in Human Resources:


In My Own Voice
Linda Dillon

I have been employed in the human resources field for approximately


27 years. Over the course of these many years, I’ve held progressively
responsible positions within the human resources office, culminating in
my current position of director of human resources. I have responsibil-
ity for all aspects of human resources, including position classification,
staffing and recruitment, payroll and benefits, training, labor relations,
and employee services.
Throughout these many years there have been several people who
have influenced my life and my decisions both personally and profes-
sionally. These people have supported my beliefs, encouraged me
when I lost faith in myself, and acted as role models.
My parents from the very beginning were steadfast in their belief in
me and my abilities. They always encouraged me to accept new chal-
lenges and believe in my own capabilities. I recall that when I was a
high school senior and contemplating a college course of study, my
parents encouraged me to select a major I was interested in—to select
a career I wanted to pursue rather than a career that was traditionally
female. Keep in mind that when I was entering college, women were
just beginning to pursue careers in law, medicine, accounting, and vari-
ous sciences. (Previously, women pursed careers in teaching, nursing,
library science, and secretarial science if they pursued careers at all.)
Thus, the support I received from my parents challenged me to chal-
lenge myself.
Their encouragement didn’t end once I became a successful human
resource professional. I recall two days before my father passed away,

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


56 Self, Family, and Social Affects

he and I were chatting about something minor and he said to me,


‘‘Don’t defeat yourself. You can do anything you put your mind to.’’
It’s just so demonstrative of the steadfast support I was fortunate
enough to receive. My parents were outstanding role models for me as
well. They instilled in me a strong sense of family, a strong work ethic,
and a strong sense of what is fair and ethical.
My husband of 34 years has also been a steadfast supporter. There
were often times when I felt overwhelmed trying to balance work and
home life. Yet he was there, encouraging me and assisting me along
the way.
I was very fortunate recently to have a supervisor who was also
very supportive. Not only did he promote me to my current position
as director of human resources, he challenged me to do more. Shortly
after my appointment, he said, ‘‘Linda, this is your time. Make your
mark.’’ He provided me the opportunity to make some changes—to
introduce new initiatives.
My entrance into the human resources field happened quite by acci-
dent. My undergraduate degree is in accounting; however, before I
obtained that ‘‘perfect’’ job in accounting, I was offered a promotion to
a position in human resources. I accepted the position, thinking it was
just a temporary arrangement. What I didn’t expect was that the longer
I remained in the human resources office, the more I liked the human
resources field. So I decided to stay.
We, as women, tend to inexplicably accept the majority of home life
responsibilities. As a result, we can be overwhelmed trying to balance
home and work life responsibilities. Integrating work and family roles
successfully is just about impossible if you don’t establish your prior-
ities and have appropriate support and flexibility. Both roles demand
your attention and commitment. To me, my family is most important—
they are my priority. I could not have juggled climbing the professional
career ladder and being a mom without help. My parents were my
children’s child care during the day. They were the absolute best! On
those occasions when one or both of the children were ill, my husband
and I would alternate taking time off from work to care for them. I
didn’t have to concern myself with the quality of their care whether
they were healthy or ill.
My supervisors knew how important my family was to me and
allowed me to adjust my full-time work schedule to attend various
school functions. (I was always very careful to provide as much
advance notification to my supervisors as possible.) In return for this
flexibility, I would often take work home with me or work extra non-
paid hours. In my view, it was only fair. My supervisors provided me
opportunities to be a more involved parent at my children’s schools. I
responded by working harder—clearly a win–win situation. My chil-
dren are now college graduates and have embarked upon their

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Women in Human Resources 57

respective careers, yet I continue to schedule home projects or vacation


plans as far in advance as possible. I’ll also adjust my schedule to mini-
mize my absence from work. With the use of cell phones, BlackBerries,
laptops, and so on, it’s easier to keep in touch with the office and
attend to the needs of my family.
With regard to integrating work and family, appropriate support
may also include hiring a cleaning service or gardening service. When
our children were younger, my husband and I had to make a decision
regarding the quality of the time we spent with our children. For us,
hiring someone to clean our home was a financial sacrifice beneficial to
all of us.
Human resources is an increasingly demanding field. It is no longer
a clerical payroll function. We are and should continue to be strategic
partners with the executive staff and the heads of various operations
and legal divisions. Human resources helps balance the needs of the
organization to develop and prosper with the needs of our employees
to develop and prosper. Both sides need to be successful. As human
resources specialists, it’s important to enjoy working with people. Peo-
ple are the most interesting part of the job, but they are also the most
difficult part of the job. You must demonstrate patience, flexibility,
understanding, and perseverance. You must believe that what you do
makes a difference. Most importantly, you must be ethical in your deci-
sions and your interactions with people.
As a professional woman in today’s workforce, it is fundamental to
be secure in who you are as a woman, to know what’s most important
to you, to allow yourself to be flexible, and to take the time to find the
humor in your life. No matter how difficult things get, either at home or
in the workplace, always keep in mind that success stops when you do.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Chapter 5

Stress and Health


Paula Lundberg-Love
Donna Lee Faulkner

Sixty-three million women constitute nearly one-half of the United


States workforce, an increase of 56% since 1950. Women hold professio-
nal and managerial positions as well as jobs in trades traditionally
occupied by men. However, with these changes in the workplace
women have been exposed to the same occupational hazards as men.
One of these hazards is workplace stress. Indeed, data suggest that
women report more stress and stress-related illness than men do (Har-
vard Women’s Health Watch, 2000). The purpose of this chapter is to
discuss the impact of workplace stress on women’s medical and mental
health.
When given the opportunity to address the impact of workplace
stress on the health and well-being of women, the authors initially
envisioned a focus on the relationship between workplace stress and
specific medical or psychological disorders. Indeed, we found many
studies that investigated the relationship between workplace stress and
particular types of disorders. However, after a thorough review of the
empirical literature across a number of disciplines, it became apparent
that there are various themes that comprise the fabric of the research
on the effects of stress in the workplace. For example, there is a body
of work that emphasizes the importance of ‘‘job control,’’ that is the
amount of control over or the degree of autonomy that one has in her
job. This line of research investigates the demand-control-support
theory of the relationship between jobs and stress and its myriad
effects. It is also characterized by various models that seek to assign
some quantitative value to the amount of variance that the particular

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60 Self, Family, and Social Affects

factors in the model contribute to the levels of reported stress. There


are also studies that investigate the magnitude of workplace stress in
women who have particular types of careers. Finally, much has been
learned about the physiological effects of stress, in general, and work-
place stress, in particular. Due to the volume of studies that have been
published on the effects of workplace stress, this chapter cannot effec-
tively describe the totality of the data in existence. Therefore, we elected
primarily to focus on studies that have been published during the past
20 years. Additionally, we chose to organize this chapter with respect to
four themes apparent within the body of workplace stress literature,
namely, a discussion of the physiological consequences of stress, the
effects of stress that have been reported in studies that investigated the
demand-control-support model of workplace stress, the effects of stress
as it relates to cardiovascular disease, and the effects of workplace stress
with respect to particular types of occupations.

THE BIOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES OF STRESS


Walter Cannon (1929) first demonstrated that the psychophysiologi-
cal reactions of ‘‘fight or flight’’ could be induced under conditions of
fear, pain, hunger, and rage. He observed that environmental threats
provoked a general discharge of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS)
marked by increases in the release of catecholamines, which prepare
the individual to fight or to flee (Cannon, 1932). Hans Selye (1956) sub-
sequently demonstrated that the ‘‘stress response’’ could be elicited via
physical, chemical, biological, and psychosocial stimuli. If the stimuli
were prolonged, frequent, and/or intensive, stress would lead to physi-
ological damage to the organism. Selye’s stress response caused an acti-
vation of the pituitary adrenal cortex that resulted in a release of
corticosteroids (cortisol and corticosterone). While there have been
many differences in the manner in which stress has been defined and
measured in the research literature, most contemporary definitions of
stress incorporate the following assumptions: Stress is a process that
occurs when environmental demands exceed the adaptive capacity of
the organism; this process results in biological and/or psychological
changes that may have consequences for health; and individual
‘‘appraisals’’ are important in determining responses to stress (Cohen,
Kessler, & Gordon, 1998).
When studying the biological consequences of stress, two particular
neuroendocrine systems are of interest with respect to their effects on
health. These are the sympathetic adrenomedullary (SAM) system and
the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) system. Stimulation of
the SAM system results in the release of epinephrine (EPI) and norepi-
nephrine (NE), whereas stimulation of the HPA system results in the
secretion of cortisol. In response to SNS stimulation, EPI and NE are

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Stress and Health 61

secreted into the bloodstream, which results in pronounced effects on


the cardiovascular system and the release of energy such as glucose
and free fatty acids. Cortisol secretion is regulated by the release of
adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) from the anterior pituitary
gland, which reaches a peak in the bloodstream after about 30 minutes
of acute stress. Release of ACTH stimulates the adrenal cortex to
release cortisol. Cortisol influences the metabolism in cells, the distribu-
tion of fat and the immune system, and its level is controlled by a feed-
back system in the hypothalamus and the hippocampus. Furthermore,
the stress hormones can be measured in the blood and the urine. Corti-
sol can even be measured in the saliva. Measurement of these hor-
mones provides a link between an individual’s perception of stress and
its impact on various health outcomes (Lundberg, 2005).
Many studies have documented the sensitivity of EPI secretion to
various types of stressors in the laboratory and stress in natural set-
tings (Frankenhaeuser, 1983; Lundberg, 1984). NE is involved in the
regulation of blood pressure and is more sensitive to physical
demands and body posture. Consequently, among white-collar work-
ers mainly exposed to mental demands, EPI levels rose about 50% at
work as compared to nonwork conditions while NE levels did not.
However, among blue-collar workers who were physically active per-
forming manual tasks, the levels of both EPI and NE were increased,
EPI about 100% and NE about 50% (Lundberg & Johansson, 2000).
Cortisol levels habituate rapidly to regular work conditions and gener-
ally do not increase during daily work. Instead, cortisol secretion
increases in response to novel conditions, emotional challenge, fear,
anxiety, helplessness, and during heavy workloads (Kirschbaum &
Hellhammer, 1989; Folkow, 1993). In a study of women who regularly
worked more than 50 hours per week, it was found that their cortisol
levels were twice as high in the morning compared with women who
had a more moderate workload (Lundberg & Hellstrom, 2002). In
response to the extreme stress of childbirth, cathecholamine (EPI and
NE) levels and cortisol may increase to more than 10 times the levels
during pregnancy (Alehagen, Wijma, Lundberg, Melin, & Wijma,
2001).
EPI levels can increase in response to pleasant as well as unpleasant
stimuli (Levi, 1972), while cortisol levels seem to be more sensitive to
negative emotional conditions (Folkow, 1993; Kristenson, Eriksen,
Sluiter, Starke, & Ulsin, 2004). The results of a study of male and
female white-collar workers indicated that individuals high in psycho-
logical well-being had significantly lower levels of cortisol at work as
compared with those who had lower levels of psychological well-being
(Lindfors & Lundberg, 2002). However, very low cortisol levels are
associated with burnout and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
(Yehuda, Teicher, Trestman, Levengood, & Siever, 1996).

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62 Self, Family, and Social Affects

Biological responses to stress have been investigated as a function of


gender. In response to performance stress in a laboratory setting, men
increased their EPI levels by 50% to 100%, while those of women
responded very little or not at all, even though women performed as
well or better than the men on the tasks (Frankenhaeuser, 1983). How-
ever, in response to a real-life stressor such as an important examina-
tion, female students exhibited a significant increase in EPI output, but
it was still less than that of their male colleagues (Frankenhaeuser).
Lundberg (1996) conducted a series of studies that investigated the
effects of a number of variables, such as type of stressor (performance
stress versus emotional and interpersonal stress), type of education,
gender roles (masculinity, femininity), and sex hormones (testosterone,
estrogens) on secretion of stress hormones. Mothers following their
child to the hospital had higher levels of EPI than the fathers (Lund-
berg, de Chateau, Winberg, & Frankenhaeuser, 1981). Women who had
chosen a line of male-dominated education had EPI responses to per-
formance stress similar to their male colleagues (Collins & Franken-
haeuser, 1978). Moreover, estrogen replacement therapy (Collins et al.,
1982) and high testosterone levels (Lundberg et al., 1983) did not mark-
edly influence women’s EPI response during stress. The conclusions of
the authors was that gender roles and psychological factors were more
important than biological factors in explaining gender-related differen-
ces in EPI release during stress.
Although the results of other studies (Frankenhaeuser et al., 1989;
Lundberg & Frankenhaeuser, 1999) indicated that men and women at
the same occupational level responded in a similar manner to work-
related stress, comparisons between male and female white-collar
workers showed that women’s stress levels tended to remain elevated
while men would relax and unwind at the end of the work day (Frank-
enhaeuser et al.; Lundberg & Frankenhaeuser). The authors speculated
that perhaps the gender difference in the stress levels might be caused
by the fact that women have a greater unpaid workload as a result of
child care and household responsibilities (Lundberg, Mårdberg, &
Frankenhaeuser, 1994). Significant correlations also have been obtained
for women’s physiological stress levels at work and at home in the
evening (Frankenhaeuser et al.) and between the number of extra
hours of work and EPI levels during the weekend (Lundberg & Palm,
1989).
The secretion of stress hormones has important implications for
stress-related health problems. For example, catecholamines have been
linked to hypertension, myocardial infarction (MI), and stroke. A
model has been proposed that describes how elevated blood pressure
could lead to successive thickening of the arterial walls, which could
lead to narrowing of the blood vessels, thereby increasing peripheral
resistance in the cardiovascular system (Folkow, 1982). Also, elevated

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Stress and Health 63

blood lipids, increased blood clotting, and the development of atheroscle-


rosis, all risk factors for MI, are mediated by levels of catecholamines.
Therefore, elevated levels of catecholamines in response to work-related
stress can put one at greater risk for cardiovascular disease.
With respect to cortisol, overactivity/dysregulation of the HPA axis
has been associated with an array of health problems, including cardio-
vascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, cognitive impairment, and reduced
immune function, when cortisol levels are high. Because there is a high
density of cortisol receptors in the abdomen, elevated cortisol levels
result in an accumulation of abdominal fat. Abdominal fat is readily
releasable into the bloodstream, which in turn can result in an increase
in free fatty acid levels and contribute to cardiovascular disease. High
cortisol levels also block the ability of cells to utilize blood glucose,
thus resulting in Type 2 diabetes. Additionally, cortisol has anti-
inflammatory effects. However, chronically elevated levels of cortisol
can impair immune function, and thus increase the risk of infections
(Lundberg, 2005). Because cortisol can cross the blood–brain barrier, it
can enter the brain and result in the degeneration of neurons in the
hippocampus, which manifests itself as memory impairment (Sapolsky,
1996). Finally, in people exposed to chronic psychosocial stress, ele-
vated baseline levels of cortisol followed by an attenuated cortisol
response have been observed (Kristenson et al., 1998). According to
Lundberg (2005),

countries such as Sweden and Norway have seen a dramatic increase in


absenteeism during the past 10 years, particularly among women, due to
health problems. These include burnout, depression, muscular pain,
headache, gastrointestinal problems, and so on. Most of these disorders
have been regarded as stress-related and described as ‘medically unex-
plained symptoms.’ It is possible that the more rapid pace of modern life,
increased workload, and continuous adjustment to changes and new
demands have contributed to a change between catabolic and anabolic
processes.

JOB CONTROL, PHYSICAL HEALTH, AND PSYCHOLOGICAL


WELL-BEING
One aspect of working life that has been extensively researched is
the degree of control or autonomy that an individual has over her job.
It is a crucial feature of the major theoretical approaches to understand-
ing the impact of workplace stress (Karasek, 1979; Payne, 1979; Warr,
1987), and it is a central factor of job design theories (Hackman & Old-
ham, 1980; Wall, Corbett, Clegg, Jackson, & Martin, 1990). Additionally,
in the management literature, the issue of job control is seen as impor-
tant for releasing employee potential and improving job performance.

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64 Self, Family, and Social Affects

Within the psychological literature the concept of control can be


viewed as a characteristic of the environment and a characteristic of the
individual. Assembly line work could be viewed as an occupation where
an employee lacks control over her job. However, an individual could
still view herself as having high control based upon her level of mastery
or self-efficacy (Bandura, 1977). Or individuals could be seen as having
greater or lesser needs for control (Burger & Cooper, 1979). The major
models of job design and stress treat the concept of job control (decision
latitude, discretion, autonomy) as characteristics attached to particular
job tasks; however, the fact that individuals vary in their perceptions of,
or needs for, control, also has implications for the importance of individ-
ual differences in these models (Jones & Fletcher, 2003).
The most well-known demand-control-job strain model is that of
Karasek (1979), which posits that physical and psychological work-
related stress can be predicted from combinations of job demand and
job control. Historically, the model has evolved. While many studies
focus on the negative impact of jobs that are high in demand and low
in control, suggesting that these two variables are additive, other
researchers have proposed that the combination of high demand and
low control may be interactive such that this particular condition pro-
duces greater strain (Terry & Jimmieson, 1999). This is an important
distinction because an additive versus an interactive effect has different
implications for improving the workplace and reducing stress. If job
demand is harmful primarily under conditions of low control, then,
theoretically, job strain could be reduced by increasing control without
reducing workload (Karasek; Parkes, 1991). Furthermore, Kasl (1996)
has observed that some researchers view decision latitude as buffering
the effect of job demand such that high demands will be present only
in the face of low control, while others regard the interaction as syner-
gistic. Often the design of the studies does not permit one to make
such a distinction (Jones & Fletcher, 2003).
The job-strain model has been further developed to include the vari-
able of social support and is often referred to as the iso-strain model
(Johnson & Hall, 1988). In this model there are also two alternative
hypotheses, an additive model and an interactive one wherein social
support acts as a buffer (Van der Doef & Maes, 1999). The job-strain
model has been tested using a variety of methods and levels of analy-
sis, including long-term epidemiological studies that have followed
subjects over years to predict coronary artery disease and other disease
outcomes (Jones & Fletcher, 2003), as well as cross-sectional studies
using self-report measures of demand and control to investigate predic-
tors of psychological well-being or other symptoms (Dollard, Winefield,
Winefield, & de Jonge, 2000; Fletcher & Jones, 1993).
Nevertheless, the job strain model has been criticized. Researchers
have raised concerns regarding the nature and subjectivity of the

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Stress and Health 65

measurements, the statistical tests used to determine the interaction, a


tendency for the core dimensions to be confounded with socioeconomic
status, and the fact that the model does not take into account sociocul-
tural issues and individual differences (Ganster & Fusilier, 1989; Jones,
Bright, Searle, & Cooper, 1998; Kristenson, 1996; Muntaner &
O’Campo, 1993). While it has been criticized for its simplicity and lack
of scope, it has stimulated much research on the effects of job control
on health.
Another model that investigates the importance of autonomy in job
stress is the job characteristics model (JCM). The JCM suggests that there
are five core job characteristics: skill variety, task identity, task signifi-
cance, autonomy, and feedback. The construct of autonomy is concerned
with the freedom to decide how to do the job and the opportunity to
use one’s discretion (Jones & Fletcher, 2003). It is thought that these
characteristics in conjunction with experienced meaningfulness, experi-
enced responsibility, and knowledge of results predict work motivation,
work effectiveness, and job satisfaction. While this model did not ini-
tially suggest a relationship between core job characteristics and health,
subsequent researchers added the outcome variable of mental health
(Wall, Clegg, & Jackson, 1978; Wall, Kemp, Jackson, & Clegg, 1986).
There also has been criticism of the JCM model particularly because
of a bias to utilize cross-sectional studies that rely on self-report meas-
ures only (Roberts & Glick, 1981). Moreover, the model posits that job
characteristics cause high or low job satisfaction and that self-reports of
job characteristics are valid reflections of the objective characteristics of
a job. Thus the assumption is that modifying the job tasks to provide
greater control will necessarily result in greater motivation of employ-
ees because they will perceive themselves as having greater control.
But self-reports do not always correspond to the objective characteris-
tics of a job, and perceptions of job characteristics can be manipulated
(Sanchez & Levine, 2000; Spector & Jex, 1991). Furthermore, individual
differences in one’s affective state (positive or negative) can certainly
impact the relationship between job characteristics, work effectiveness,
and job satisfaction (Champoux, 1991).
Recently, the concepts of job control and Karasek’s model have been
incorporated into studies in the medical literature that investigate an
array of aspects of physical and psychological health and well-being.
Where some studies have found a relationship between job strain (high
demand and low control), neck pain in salespeople (Skov, Borg, &
Orhede, 1996), and adverse outcomes of pregnancy in clerical and com-
mercial workers (Brandt & Nielsen, 1992), the preponderance of this lit-
erature focuses on cardiovascular disease (CVD) and its associated risk
factors (Jones & Fletcher, 2003).
A review of 36 studies published between 1981 and 1993 concluded
that there was a significant relationship between job strain and CVD,

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66 Self, Family, and Social Affects

job strain and mortality from all causes, and job strain and risk factors
for CVD (Schnall, Landsbergis, & Baker, 1994). Other studies have
investigated the impact of job strain on risk factors associated with
CVD such as high blood pressure and elevated levels of EPI and corti-
sol. In a study of nurses (Fox, Dwyer, & Ganster, 1993), it was found
that a combination of high demand and low control predicted blood
pressure and cortisol levels, while the results of another study using a
heterogeneous sample of occupations found no such relationship.
Where demands did show any type of relationship, those with lower
demands had higher blood pressure (Fletcher & Jones, 1993). However,
when one reviews studies that monitored ambulatory blood pressure, a
more sensitive measure than blood pressure taken in a clinic, five out
of nine studies showed a relationship between control and blood pres-
sure (Schnall et al.).
With respect to the impact of job strain on health in general, some
researchers have concluded that across different populations, using
different measurement methods and job designs, there is substantial
support for the hypothesis that the combined effects of high-demand,
low-control jobs lead to increased CVD (Van der Doef & Maes, 1998).
However, while Schnall et al. (1994) agreed with the preceding conclu-
sion, they also considered the separate effects of high-demand and
low-control jobs and concluded that although 17 out of 25 studies
found significant relationships between job decision latitude and out-
come, only eight out of 23 studies demonstrated significant associations
between job demand and outcome. Thus, at this point it is not possible
to draw an unequivocal conclusion. However, when the effects of job
demand and control can be separated, the data suggest that the impact
of job control may be greater than job demands. Thus, more research is
needed to clarify these relationships.
In the case of the impact of the job-demand and job-control model
on psychological well-being, there have been a number of studies. This
is due, at least in part, to the fact that while psychological distress is
important, in and of itself, it also is a mediating variable whereby work
stressors may ultimately lead to illness. According to Jones and
Fletcher (2003) there is a ‘‘plethora of research indicating that low job
control is associated with poor psychological well-being.’’ This is true
whether a measure such as the General Health Questionnaire (Gold-
berg, 1978) is used or whether specific measures of depression, anxiety,
or job satisfaction are employed (Jones & Fletcher, 2003). Results of the
studies generally suggest that the combination of high demand and
low control are associated with poor psychological well-being, and
additive effects are more numerous than moderated effects (Van der
Doef & Maes, 1998).
Knowing that people who report low levels of demand and control
also experience high levels of distress at work can be important

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Stress and Health 67

information for employers. However, the data are not strong enough to
warrant an assumption that the association is causal, as there are few
studies examining the job-demand-control hypothesis and the develop-
ment of psychiatric illness. However, some studies have found a rela-
tionship between low control and symptoms. Occupations associated
with lower levels of control have higher levels of depression (Mausner-
Dorsch & Eaton, 2000; Muntaner, Tien, Eaton, & Garrison, 1991). In a
study of teachers (Cropley, Steptoe, & Joekes, 1999), job strain was
linked to ‘‘neurotic disorder.’’
There also are some studies that have investigated the JCM and its
relationship to job satisfaction. A meta-analysis of the relationship
between job characteristics and job satisfaction in 28 studies found that
of all the core job characteristics, autonomy had the strongest relation-
ship to job satisfaction (Loher, Noe, Moeller, & Fitzgerald, 1985).
Another meta-analysis looked at perceived control in relation to 19 out-
come variables, some of which were health related. A relationship was
found between autonomy and emotional distress in addition to absen-
teeism and physical symptoms (Spector, 1986). Finally, Saavedra and
Kwun (2000) have used the JCM to predict affective states and deter-
mined that autonomy was associated with enthusiasm and they have
suggested that autonomy may relieve job dissatisfaction as well as
energize, reinforce, and maintain work behavior. Overall, the bulk of
the data suggest that there is evidence to support the hypothesis that
job control is an important variable with respect to the development of
CVD and reduced psychological well-being.

THE EFFECTS OF WORK STRESS ON RISK FACTORS AND THE


DEVELOPMENT OF CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE (CAD)
The physiological responses to stress involve a coordination of activ-
ity in a number of bodily systems, including the central nervous sys-
tem (CNS), the autonomic nervous system (ANS), and the endocrine,
cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, gastrointestinal, and immune/inflam-
matory systems. Current research on the effects of stress on cardiac
pathophysiology emphasizes the effects of the CNS and ANS in the de-
velopment of CAD (Strike & Steptoe, 2004; Rozanski, Blumenthal, &
Kaplan, 1999). This activation could predispose one to MI and sudden
cardiac death by promoting coronary endothelial dysfunction and
immune/inflammatory responses, thus influencing the pathophysiolog-
ical processes that occur in atherosclerosis. Such processes can increase
the vulnerability to clinical cardiac events by triggering lethal arrhyth-
mias through altered neural transmission to the heart (Holmes, Krantz,
Rogers, Gottdiener, & Contrada, 2006).
Evidence also exists to support the thesis that several specific com-
ponents of the physiological responses to stress may promote coronary

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68 Self, Family, and Social Affects

vasoconstriction, platelet aggregation, or the rupture of plaques in the


coronary blood vessels. Mental stress can result in significant arterial
blood pressure surges (Rozanski, Bairey, & Krantz, 1988). In people
with vulnerable plaques in their arteries, a vascular blood pressure
surge may cause a plaque to rupture and lead to coronary thrombosis
(blood clots in the coronary arteries). In the presence of atherosclerosis,
stress-induced elevations in blood pressure, heart rate, and levels of
catecholamines increase the oxygen demand for the heart, which can
result in myocardial ischemia (insufficient oxygen levels in the heart
tissue). If stress induces coronary vasoconstriction, or a state of blood
hypercoagulation caused by increased blood platelet adhesiveness, pla-
telet rupture can trigger the development of small thrombi (blood
clots), which can trigger a blood clotting cascade that results in acute
coronary occlusion and MI, ischemia, vulnerability to arrhythmias, or
sudden death (Muller, Abela, & Nesto, 1994). Data also suggest that
mental stress can lead to constriction of arteries in diseased coronary
vessels with a damaged endothelium (blood vessel wall) (Yeung,
Vekshtein, & Krantz, 1991).

EFFECTS ON BLOOD PRESSURE


While there are a number of risk factors for CAD, including family
history, smoking, lack of exercise, and being overweight, two risk factors
in particular, namely hypertension and elevated blood lipid levels, have
been studied with respect to workplace stress (Shirom, 2003). Blood
pressure fluctuates in response to changes in the internal and/or exter-
nal environment. To discuss blood pressure one needs to understand the
difference between systolic and diastolic blood pressure. The maximal
pressure of the pulse of blood expelled from the left ventricle of the
heart into the aorta is systolic blood pressure, while the minimal pres-
sure exerted when the heart is at rest just before the next heartbeat is
termed the diastolic blood pressure (Shirom). As mentioned earlier in
this section, blood pressure can be measured when one is seated or
when one is ambulatory. The latter is experimentally advantageous
because subjects can go about their typical activities while blood pres-
sure can be measured multiple times daily (Pickering, 1993).
Acute diastolic blood pressure reactivity to various stressors has
been prospectively linked to an increased incidence of cardiovascular
disease, including CAD, stroke, and renal disease (Fredrikson & Mat-
thews, 1990). The results of studies that have investigated ambulatory
blood pressure over time have indicated that blood pressure measured
at work is higher than all other measures of blood pressure taken dur-
ing the day independent of the time of day (James & Brown, 1997).
Personality factors such as the Type A personality, which is charac-
terized by impatience, chronic urgency, enhanced competitiveness,

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Stress and Health 69

aggressive drive, and an inclination toward hostility, can affect blood


pressure (Booth-Kewley & Friedman, 1987). Meta-analytic data indicate
that individuals with Type A personality show a greater diastolic blood
pressure increase in response to daily activities than do people who
are not Type A (Lyness, 1993), although the differences were small.
Furthermore, in situations involving positive or negative feedback, ele-
ments inherent in playing video games, and socially aversive events
such as criticism or verbal harassment, Type A individuals were found
to have significant increases in blood pressure (Lyness). In a meta-anal-
ysis, while the experience of anger was correlated with elevated
blood pressure, the effect was small and highly variable (Suls, Wan, &
Costa, 1995).
Studies have repeatedly found that during periods of increased
work demands blood pressure may be especially high (James, Broege,
& Schlussel, 1996). It is possible that chronic exposure to job-related
demands may be associated with changes in posture and increased
physical activity. However, another pathway leading from chronic
stress to elevated blood pressure could be related to one’s sense of
autonomy and control. In a series of studies that used both job demand
and job control appraisals to predict ambulatory blood pressure in a
sample of working adults who were followed longitudinally, it was
found that low levels of decision latitude and high workload predicted
elevated blood pressure at work, at home, and even during sleep
(Schwartz, Pickering, & Landsbergis, 1996). Subsequent attempts to
replicate this study in working men and women have had mixed
results. Sometimes the predicted interaction was confirmed (Fox et al.,
1993), and sometimes it was not (Fletcher & Jones, 1993; Kamarck
et al., 1998; Weidner, Boughal, Connor, Pieper, & Mendell, 1997). A
carefully conducted study of the effects of job strain on ambulatory
blood pressure did indicate that situations in which participants per-
ceived as high on control were associated with lower levels of diastolic
blood pressure, which suggests that control may protect against acute
SNS activation (Kamarck et al.).
In summary, while the effects of chronic stress on hypertension remain
inconclusive, and more research is required to clarify this possible rela-
tionship, there is considerable support for the hypothesis that short-term
stress, such as that associated with critical job events, is implicated in ele-
vated blood pressure (Schwartz, Pickering, & Landsbergis, 1996).

EFFECTS ON BLOOD LIPIDS


Elevated levels of blood lipids, such as triglycerides and cholesterol,
particularly low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, have been
shown to be associated with increased risk of CAD (Brindley, McCann,
Niaura, Stoney, & Suarez, 1993; Niaura, Stoney, & Herbert, 1992).

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70 Self, Family, and Social Affects

However, levels of serum lipids also have been shown to be influenced


by other factors such as heredity, gender, body mass, dietary fat intake,
degree of physical activity, and cigarette smoking (Rosenman, 1993).
Yet, all of these factors combined still only account for a small fraction
of the variability associated with serum lipid levels. As a result
researchers have continued to try to determine the impact of psychoso-
cial stress on lipid levels (Dimsdale & Herd, 1982). In a qualitative
review of the literature, Niaura et al. (1992), concluded that even
though the effect may be inconsistent, there are data that implicate
objective or perceived stress as a variable related to elevated concentra-
tions of blood lipids, particularly the types of lipids that are the most
atherogenic.
The relationship between cholesterol levels and CAD is graded and
continuous (Niaura et al., 1992). For example, the results of the Fra-
mingham study revealed that for every 1% reduction in cholesterol lev-
els, there was a 4% reduction in CAD, even after controlling for risk
factors such as age, obesity, and blood pressure (NIH Consensus Con-
ference, 1993). Such a dose-response relationship between cholesterol
levels and CAD suggests that continuous exposure to psychosocial
stress may be implicated as an etiologic factor in the development of
coronary heart disease (CHD). The results of studies that investigated
the effects of specific types of chronic stress, such as occupational insta-
bility and job insecurity, have found elevations of levels of total choles-
terol that have persisted for as long as the stressors were present for a
time period as long as one or two years (Mattiasson, Lindgarden, Nils-
son, & Theorell, 1990; Siegrist, Matschinger, Cremer, & Seidel, 1988). In
a quasi-retrospective study of female manufacturing employees, work
overload predicted a subsequent elevation of total cholesterol even af-
ter controlling for age, obesity, fatigue, emotional reactivity, and burn-
out (Shirom, Westman, Shamai, & Carel, 1997).
The effects of stress on lipid levels in middle-aged men and women
have been studied by Stoney and colleagues (Stoney, Niaura, Bausser-
man, & Matacin, 1999). They compared the effects of low versus high
occupational stress and acute laboratory stress on a battery of lipid and
lipoprotein measures. The results indicated that most of the lipid pa-
rameters increased significantly in response to both acute and chronic
stress. Additionally, Stoney & Niaura et al. (1999) reported the results
of an unpublished meta-analysis, which reviewed the results of 101
studies with respect to the effects of chronic stress (greater than 30
days), episodic (1–30 days), or acute stress (no more than 24 hours).
Acute and episodic stress were found to have a significant elevation
effect on several lipid parameters. Nevertheless, while chronic stress
and total cholesterol levels were associated with increases, none of the
other lipid parameters provided a significant effect size with respect to
chronic stress. Thus the authors concluded that the evidence supported

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Stress and Health 71

a relationship between acute and episodic stress and lipid reactivity,


but that the data were less robust for a relationship between chronic
stress and lipid reactivity (Stoney & Niaura et al., 1999). It should be
noted, however, that the meta-analysis results could be influenced by
the fact that the designation of acute, episodic, and chronic stress were
arbitrary, or because there are a small number of studies that investi-
gated chronic stress and its impact on lipid levels (Shirom, 2003).
In a final study that investigated the relationship between lipid lev-
els and acute and chronic stress in 100 men and women, it was found
that both types of stress induced both significant and transient eleva-
tions of atherogenic lipids that were not attributable to changes in diet,
levels of activity, sleep patterns, or changes in plasma volume shifts,
which where controlled for statistically (Stoney, Baussermen, Niaura,
Marcus, & Flynn, 1999).

THE IMPACT OF WORKPLACE STRESS ON THE HEALTH AND


WELL-BEING OF MANAGERIAL WOMEN AND WOMEN IN
SPECIFIC OCCUPATIONS
The bulk of the available research with respect to the effects of
workplace stress on managerial personnel primarily has been con-
ducted on men. Research investigating the effects of workplace stress
on managerial women, a highly educated, motivated, and well-paid
group, has only occurred during the past decade (Burke, 2003). Because
this group of women is growing in size, we thought that the examina-
tion of the impact of workplace stress in managerial women warranted
attention. Additionally, there have been some studies that have exam-
ined the impact of workplace stress on women in particular occupa-
tions, and we will also discuss the results of these studies.
Some researchers have reviewed the literature on stress and health
outcomes in women managers and have noted that, while stressors
such as role conflict, work overload, and ambiguity are shared by both
men and women, women experienced additional stressors unique to
them and exhibited different ways of interpreting and coping with
them (Offermann & Armitage, 1993; Langan-Fox, 1998; Davidson &
Fielden, 1999). The stressors experienced by women managers could
be categorized as being in three groups: those from society at large
including work–family interface, off-job support, attitudes toward
women in management and discrimination; those from organizations
such as on-the-job support, sexual harassment, sexual discrimination,
tokenism, and old-boys network; and, finally, those from women
themselves, which consist of Type A personality, personal control, and
self-esteem.
Davidson and Cooper (1992) have proposed a model wherein stres-
sors at work, home, and within the individual act as precursors of a

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72 Self, Family, and Social Affects

wide range of possible stress outcomes. The results of their research


indicated that female managers scored higher on both stressors and
stress outcomes than did their male counterparts. Women also reported
significantly greater Type A behavior.
A longitudinal study of stress and health outcomes in 311 male sen-
ior managers and 172 female senior managers suggested that stress-
related illness was more likely to be expressed as physical illness in
males, while female managers were more likely to report psychological
illness (Jick & Mitz, 1985). Also, Type A behavior predicted cardiovas-
cular risk, poor physical health, and psychological health problems for
both men and women, but more so for women. While men scored
higher than women on more work stressors, these stressors were only
weak or modest predictors of cardiovascular risk, poor physical health,
or poor emotional health.
It has been reported that managerial women experience more pres-
sure at work than male managers, while the latter group reported
stress from internal sources (Davidson & Cooper, 1986). Women also
reported more pressure at home and received little support from their
partners (Hochschild, 1989). The women in this study felt isolated at
work, exhibited greater symptoms of stress, and tended to exhibit Type
A personality. Those women in junior and middle management experi-
enced the highest overall occupational stress levels, although the pro-
files of male and female managers were different.
Other researchers studied occupational stress in 220 male and 126
female undergraduate business majors. In this sample the female mid-
dle and junior level managers reported greater stress levels than the
male managers (Davidson, Cooper, & Baldini, 1995). Women also
attributed greater stress with respect to gender-related issues such as
discrimination, prejudice, and work–home conflict. Finally, the women
managers revealed more physical and mental health symptoms than
their male counterparts.
Another study examined the stress effects as a function of work
and career experiences associated with career advancement in 792
women (Burke & McKeen, 1994). The dependent variables were vari-
ous aspects of emotional well-being. The authors investigated
four groups of predictor variables: (a) individual demographics,
(b) organizational demographics, (c) work experiences associated with
job and career satisfaction and progress, and (d) work outcomes.
Work experiences such as support and encouragement, the absence of
strain from conflict, ambiguity, and overload and challenging jobs
were consistently and significantly related to self-reported emotional
well-being in this sample of managerial women. Additionally, short-
term responses to work conditions and work experiences that could
affect emotional health also were significantly related to emotional
well-being (Burke & McKeen).

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Stress and Health 73

With respect to studies on the impact of workplace stress in individ-


uals employed in particular types of occupations, the authors identified
some studies that examined workplace stress in supermarket cashiers
(Lundberg et al., 1999), men and women in high-ranking positions
(Lundberg & Frankenhaeuser, 1999), white-collar teleworkers (Lund-
berg & Lindfors, 2002), and critical care nurses (Sawatzky, 1996). The
remainder of this section will discuss the results of these studies.
Lundberg and colleagues have studied the impact of workplace
stress upon various groups of employees in Sweden. In their study of
supermarket cashiers, the authors were interested in determining the
psychophysiological stress responses as they impacted muscle tension
and neck and shoulder pain (Lundberg et al., 1999). The results of the
studies suggested a multifactorial etiology of musculoskeletal symp-
toms wherein physical and psychosocial conditions interact with indi-
vidual characteristics and behavior. It also is documented that
physically monotonous and repetitive work is associated with an
increase in lower back, shoulder, and neck pain (Bernard, 1997). How-
ever, other studies have indicated that there is a relationship between
psychosocial variables in the workplace and musculoskeletal disorders
(Johansson, 1994; Moon & Sauter, 1996). Time pressure, lack of influ-
ence over one’s work, and constant involvement in repetitive tasks of
short duration often characterize jobs associated with a high risk for
muscular problems. Supermarket cashiers experience time pressure,
expectations from the customer and the employer, very little influence
over the content of their work, and repetitive physical activity (Lan-
nersten & Harms-Ringdahl, 1990). The results of this study suggested
that the stress levels of supermarket cashiers were significantly ele-
vated at work as reflected in the catecholamine levels, blood pressure,
electromyographic (EMG) activity, and self-reports. Seventy percent of
the cashiers suffering from neck/shoulder pain had higher EMG activ-
ity at work and reported more tension after work. Women who
described more musculoskeletal pain and kept a diary for 1 week were
older, had higher blood pressure, and reported more work stress and
psychophysiological symptoms (Lundberg et al., 1999).
Lundberg and Lindfors (2002) studied the psychophysiological reac-
tions to telework in male and female white-collar workers, where tele-
workers include individuals who are said to engage in telecommuting,
distance work, and remote work. In general such employees typically
work outside a traditional workplace and use information technology
and telecommunication equipment (Johnston & Nolan, 2000). In this
study, psychophysiological data were gathered for 26 healthy, full-time,
male and female employees while at the office, engaging in telework at
home, and relaxing at home. Blood pressure was significantly higher dur-
ing work at the office than when teleworking at home. Levels of EPI
were significantly elevated in men in the evening after telework at home.

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74 Self, Family, and Social Affects

As mentioned in the beginning of this chapter, it is clear that the


proportion of women in the labor force is approaching that of men in
many industrialized countries. However, data from several countries
indicate that, because of unequal division of labor at home, married
women who are employed full-time have a greater total workload than
their male counterparts (Kahn, 1991). These gender differences have
been detected in both blue- and white-collar workers from different
parts of the world (Ayree, 1993; Barnett & Brennan, 1997; Beena &
Poduval, 1992), thus supporting the hypothesis that there is an interac-
tion between conditions at work and conditions at home that contrib-
ute to greater levels of stress in employed women as compared to
employed men. Conversely, there also are data indicating that chal-
lenging work may serve as a stress buffer (Barnett, Marshall, & Sayer,
1992; Eckenrode & Gore, 1990; Repetti, 1998; Waldron, 1991). Thus, it
seems as if workplace stress can result in both health-promoting and
health-damaging consequences in women. Lundberg and Franken-
haeuser (1999) conducted a study to determine the effects of physiolog-
ical and psychological stress responses to work and family situations
in full-time female and male manager employees of a large insurance
company in Sweden. The results of this study suggested that, while
both men and women experienced their positions as stimulating and
challenging, the data indicated a more favorable situation for men than
for women. Furthermore, women were significantly more stressed by
their greater unpaid workload and by a greater responsibility for duties
related to home and family. Women had higher levels of NE than men,
both during and after work, which the authors suggest was a reflection
of the women’s greater workload (Lundberg & Frankenhaeuser, 1999).
Additionally, women with children at home had significantly higher
NE levels after work than did the other participants.
A study of critical care nurses in Canada sought to describe the
stressful work experiences, the perceptions of work stressors, and life
stress in the lives of these employees (Sawatzky, 1996). Nurses working
in intensive care units (ICUs) assume significant responsibility for the
management of patient care. Not only is the ICU nurse confronted by
impending crises with their patients and their families, but also by the
demand for technological excellence (Oehler, Davidson, Starr, & Lee,
1991; Oskins, 1979). The results of this study suggested that patient
care–related stressors ranked the highest overall. A sense of lack of
control appeared to be a common element among the situations ranked
as most stressful. Significant correlations were also obtained for the
relationship between perceived life stress and the perceived severity of
work stressors as well as between frequency and intensity of stressful
work events. The authors concluded that, to address these issues, it is
critical to change the perception of powerlessness and inevitability in
the ICU, and that one of the best ways to foster a better sense of

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Stress and Health 75

control is via continuing educational experiences that enhance compe-


tence and expertise (Sawatzky, 1996).

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ENHANCING WOMEN’S HEALTH


AND WELL-BEING IN THE WORKPLACE
Given all the information that we have reviewed in this chapter
regarding the effects of workplace stress on the health and well-being
of women, the authors thought it prudent to offer some recommenda-
tions for both organizations and women who are employed. Burke
(2003) has identified three levels of prevention: primary, secondary,
and tertiary. Primary prevention involves efforts directed at reducing
or eliminating the risk factors for workplace stress and/or the sources
of stress. Secondary prevention involves helping women manage their
responses to the unavoidable demands of work and home, while terti-
ary prevention directs efforts toward healing women and organizations
via appropriate professional care (Burke, 2003). The remaining part of
this section will provide some suggestions for the primary, secondary,
and tertiary prevention of stress in the workplace.
With respect to primary prevention, organizations could enact poli-
cies and procedures to accomplish the following goals:

. Provide flexible work schedules, telecommuting, alternative work sched-


ules, and company assistance with child care and elder care to help
women deal with work–home overload issues.
. Develop zero tolerance for inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace
and for sexual harassment, as such problems have been linked to depres-
sion, headaches, nausea, and other physiological symptoms (Burke, 2003).
. Ensure that companies institute development and reward systems that
promote equitable treatment of all employees with a specific focus on
resolving the wage differential between male and female workers.
. Design programs that enhance mentoring and networking to improve
social support in the workplace.

Primary prevention suggestions for women employees include but


are not limited to:

. Identify the sources of your stress and implement a personal stress man-
agement program that could include engagement in regular exercise, daily
relaxation interventions, and perhaps intermittent professional counseling
‘‘check-ups.’’
. Utilize developmental opportunities to enhance your experience and use
these developmental opportunities as a means of gaining exposure in the
organization.
. Recognize the existence of the work–home stress interaction and make
suggestions to your employer regarding flexible working arrangements.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


76 Self, Family, and Social Affects

. Address your perceptions of stressors because part of primary prevention


is changing the stressor. Modifying one’s perception of the stressor is the
first step in doing that. Optimism and positive self-talk can foster resil-
ience.

Recalling that secondary prevention involves assisting women in


managing their responses to stress and tension, organizations can assist
women by:

. Creating workplace exercise facilities and options for child care because
women have less discretionary time to pursue health club memberships
and often need child care to attend an exercise program.
. Create networking groups whose purpose is to facilitate emotional
release, a sort of ‘‘self-help group therapy.’’
. Encourage or create opportunities for employees to learn stress manage-
ment techniques such as diaphragmatic breathing, progressive muscle
relaxation, meditation, or yoga.

Because women in the workplace also have a responsibility for sec-


ondary prevention, our suggestions for them are similar to those for
the employers and include:

. Engage in a regular exercise routine multiple times per week, ideally five
days out of seven.
. Engage in a daily stress management technique.
. Talk to others to engage in productive problem-solving as opposed to
obsessing and ruminating.

Finally, because tertiary prevention involves symptom management


and resolution of the sequelae of workplace stress, organizations should
have employee assistance programs that provide appropriate professio-
nal care and that recognize the issues of workplace–home stress, which
may be more prevalent in women. Such issues can include but are not
limited to alcohol abuse, eating disorders, and smoking. Gender-specific
interventions may be more successful (Burke, 2003). Women in the
workplace need to establish working relationships with physicians, men-
tal health providers, and other trained health care providers to establish
a working network for their health and well-being.

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© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Chapter 6

Preparing to Be Employed:
In My Own Voice
Christa White

I am currently an undergraduate at a small, private college in upstate


New York. It’s my senior year and I’ve found myself in the middle of
what seems like a quarter-life crisis at the age of 21. After spending
eight years away from home at boarding school and college, it’s now
time to figure out what I’ll do with my life after the institutionalized
structure that I’ve become so used to is finally taken away. Still unsure
of myself, I do hope for more than the words of George Orwell in 1984
when O’Brien states, ‘‘If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot
stamping on a human face—forever.’’ Although I feel lost in translation,
I hope for and imagine the best outcome possible; one that reflects my
hard work—academically, socially, and athletically—and expands the
image of myself in terms of the reality of all that I am capable of.
I’ve always been entirely independent; it never seemed early enough
to get away from home and do things on my own. At four years old I
didn’t understand why I hadn’t yet been placed in the school system.
When I was six, I decided that I should go to sleep-away summer
camp. At 11, I needed to go on a term abroad for school, and then at
the end of my middle school career, I decided that I needed to go to
boarding school for high school. It was all over from there; I was away
from home, in charge of my own schedule and setting responsibilities
for myself. At boarding school I mastered time management and
learned how to form mature yet close relationships with my teachers,
coaches, advisors, and peers. Although I wasn’t stable financially, the
school, in cooperation with my friends who fought for me to stay at
the institution, made it possible for me to graduate regardless. After

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86 Self, Family, and Social Affects

being given so many opportunities at boarding school in terms of


classes, extracurriculars, and the social environment, my expectations
for college were almost impossibly high.
It’s not to say that I’ve been disappointed with my college years.
I’ve had a great sense of social support that has specifically come from
my swim team. Especially as an incoming freshman, the team was a
necessary distraction from the temporary depression that had over-
come me as a result from starting a new life in a new place; I no longer
had the best friends who let me live with them when I wasn’t able to
afford boarding life for senior year, nor did I have the comfort of dorm
parents or the general comforts of a familiar environment. I thought
that because I was able to approach new situations rather easily that
the transition to college would barely even phase me. However, I soon
learned that my adjustment had affected me more than I had thought
would be the case.
When swim practice started only a few weeks after classes began, it
allowed me to regain a sense of schedule and time management. I
finally had a healthy alternative to the constant party scene that so
many of the incoming freshmen took advantage of almost daily. The
training allowed me to mentally focus on something specific and that
was not all that I missed about my high school days of security. I
quickly grasped onto a routine that included classes and sports prac-
tice. I furthermore felt as though I had found one adult, my coach,
with whom I could talk freely about my new experiences as a fresh-
man in college. He was one person who understood my sarcasm and
personality in general. When this connection formed, as well as those
connections with the members on the team, I started to feel as though I
would be OK in a new place.
I had gone from positive to distraught, and finally leveled off at
hopeful by the end of my first term at college. Four years later, the
most special part of my college experience has been my athletic life. I
have learned what it means to balance work and training and to work
with a team to accomplish goals such as winning conference meets
multiple times or making national qualifying consideration times. I’ve
learned to work for others and not only for myself. I’ve found myself
on a team for which I would sacrifice myself; I have gone beyond my
comfort limits for something that is more important than the individ-
ual; and in turn I have found that my own successes stem from realiz-
ing the importance of working for a team. I have learned that I thrive
most in a competitive, fast-paced environment where my efforts are
relied on by others. This has been valuable to learn about myself, not
only for efforts in the pool but also for where my personal best can be
found most evident in my academic as well as social life.
I’ve had some obstacles along the way, of course, regardless of how
well athletics has treated me during these years. I’ve been frustrated

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Preparing to Be Employed 87

with certain aspects of the academic life. One professor once told my
psychology class on the first day that not all of us would get A’s. I
wondered how she knew that on the first day. It turns out that she
made sure that there was always a perfect bell curve with every grad-
ing period so that she would not be addressed by superiors for being
too easy or too hard. It seemed more important that she appear legiti-
mate in the eyes of the administration rather than to work with each
student to ensure success. I found it frustrating that a professor whom
I initially entrusted to provide me with a valuable learning experience
spent more time missing class herself and setting rules to disallow any
possible cheating that could take place. My teachers in high school
seemed to have more faith in me as a student than this particular col-
lege professor.
Another setback in my academic experiences has been the lack of
courses available specifically in the department of my major, psychol-
ogy. Finding that I was nearly done with the requirements for my
major during the middle of my third year, I wondered where I would
spend my time for the remainder of my college credits. An under-
staffed department was unable to offer courses that had been previ-
ously set up as electives, and as a result there was a slim selection of
courses. One professor who has graciously worked with me along the
way suggested that I take on a program in the graduate school that
had to do with human resources. I was thrilled that such an opportu-
nity was available; it seemed as though I would be able to graduate
having an added benefit to give me an edge upon graduation—both
because I would have added experience in a particular study and
because I would be more confident about entering the workforce in an
area that I would specifically desire. However, the school administra-
tion soon turned me down, with hardly an explanation. They were
sorry that I didn’t understand, and would I please stop inquiring about
the situation. This was one of the most upsetting setbacks during my
academic experience because it seemed as though I was being denied a
valuable opportunity for no justifiable reason.
However, despite these obstacles in my academic life, I have had a
few professors in my college career who have helped me learn a little
bit of what I want out of life after college. In terms of work, it seems
that it’s becoming less of a man’s world than it used to be. Women are
now receiving more benefits than before, thanks to research that shows
that successful integration of work and family life benefits both the
employee as well as the employer than if such benefits were otherwise
not offered.
For example, direct services offered by companies are important fac-
tors in the workforce. On-site health services and fitness centers would
ensure a healthy experience for me and therefore a more successful
work experience. Culture change strategies where there is training for

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


88 Self, Family, and Social Affects

managers and others to help deal with work and life conflicts, as well
as the focus of quality work and not quantity, also seem to be important
factors to consider as a young woman attempting to enter the workforce
for the first time. Although I’m not yet at the place of marriage and
family, it’s important that companies understand information-based
strategies in terms of giving information to employees about child care,
and so on, and further accommodating childbirth leave and child-care
options. Again, although this does not directly and immediately concern
me, it’s important to me that companies are accommodating and under-
standing in these ways, because it shows the value that they place on
their employees. If companies understand the importance of work and
life integration, it seems that we are all in the right place.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Chapter 7

Mental Health Impact


of Sexual Harassment
Susan Fineran
James Gruber

Over the last 25 years, scholars from a variety of disciplines (e.g., psy-
chology, social work, women’s studies) and a wide range of nations
have documented the devastating impact of sexual harassment on the
health and well-being of girls and women. This chapter provides an
overview of the literature and research on one aspect of the harm of
sexual harassment: its effect on women’s and girls’ mental health. We
begin the chapter with a brief explanation of the laws that cover sexual
harassment for both the workplace (Title VII) and educational environ-
ments (Title IX). Given that sexual harassment was first introduced as
a form of employment discrimination, the chapter will begin by sum-
marizing the research on the mental health effects of workplace harass-
ment and then move on to harassment in university and K–12
education environments.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a)) pro-
vides the principal framework prohibiting discrimination on the basis
of race, color, religion, national origin, and sex. In 1980 the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) defined sexual harass-
ment as a form of sex discrimination and issued specific guidelines to
prohibit it. Six years later, the U.S. Supreme Court further refined the
law by specifying two categories of sexual harassment: hostile environ-
ment and quid pro quo (EEOC, 2000). Hostile environment is applicable
when the behavior of one or more people (not only a supervisor)
causes the workplace to become sexually abusive, intimidating, or

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


90 Self, Family, and Social Affects

offensive and interferes with an employee’s job. Quid pro quo applies
when a person in a power position (e.g., a supervisor) makes decisions
that affect an employee’s job, on the basis of whether the employee
complies with his or her sexual demands.
Title VII set the stage for Title IX, which was signed into law in 1972
and states: ‘‘No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex,
be excluded from participation in, or denied the benefits of, or be sub-
jected to discrimination under any educational program or activity
receiving federal assistance’’ (Title IX of the Education Amendments of
1972 to the Civil Rights Act of 1964). Using language that is similar to
Title VII, the U.S. Department of Education defines sexual harassment
under Title IX as

unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal,
nonverbal, or physical conduct of a sexual nature by an employee, by
another student, or by a third party, that is sufficiently severe, persistent,
or pervasive to limit a student’s ability to participate in or benefit from
an education program or activity, or to create a hostile or abusive educa-
tional environment. (Department of Education, 1997, p. 12038)

Both Title VII and Title IX protect women and men from sex discrimi-
nation in education and the workplace. However, although sex dis-
crimination can occur to either males or females, sexual harassment
has had the distinction of being more problematic to women and girls.

SEXUAL HARASSMENT OF WORKING WOMEN


Sexual harassment is a common phenomenon among working
women in America. Every year at least 40% of employed women expe-
rience some form of this unwanted and uninvited sexual attention. A
review of research across cultures found that it is also a frequent prob-
lem for women around the world and has similar effects (DeSouza &
Solberg, 2003). It appears, however, that Nordic countries, which
actively promote programs and policies to reduce gender inequality,
have lower rates of sexual harassment. Compared to American blue-
and white-collar workers, Danish and Finnish women with similar jobs
not only experienced less sexual harassment but fewer adverse job and
health outcomes as well (Kauppinen & Gruber, 1993). The factors that
cause sexual harassment, including profiles of the targets (e.g., non-mar-
ried, young), the types of jobs that have high rates of harassment (e.g.,
male-traditional occupations), the ways in which women cope with
harassment, and the negative consequent health outcomes appear to be
fairly universal across cultures (Gruber, Smith, & Kauppinen, 1996;
DeSouza & Solberg).
To date, the most ambitious studies of working women (and men)
have been conducted by the Merit Systems Protection Board of the U.S.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Mental Health Impact of Sexual Harassment 91

federal government (USMSPB). Their three national surveys of federal


employees (1981, 1987, 1995) provide some of the best data on the
extent and impact of sexual harassment. Also, their survey items have
been adapted by a number of researchers for studies of other public
sector employees (e.g., MacIntyre, 1982; Stringer-Moore, 1982) as well
as by foreign scholars (e.g., Canadian Human Rights Commission,
1983; Hogbacka, Kandolin, Haavio-Mannila, & Kauppinen, 1987). The
overall rate of harassment of women in the USMSPB samples remained
fairly constant across the three surveys (over 40%), as did the incidence
of most of the individual categories (e.g., sexual teasing, looks and ges-
tures, pressure for sexual favors). One finding that has been replicated
by a large number of studies across time and cultures is that less
severe forms of harassment, such as sexual remarks or sexually offen-
sive looks or gestures, are much more common than more severe (and
more harmful) forms, such as sexual touching or pressure for sexual
favors.
The Merit Systems surveys also provided evidence of commonly
found coping strategies. Most women dealt with the harasser/harass-
ment by ignoring the behavior, avoiding the harasser, or asking him to
stop. Women infrequently reported the behavior through formal chan-
nels or directly confronted the harasser. Women stated that direct or
confrontational responses were used less often either because the more
common coping responses were effective in resolving the problem or
because the women feared the consequences (e.g., retaliation, job loss)
of more assertive action (USMSPB, 1995: Table 11). As other research
has confirmed, women’s fear that assertive action would make things
worse is well founded (Hesson-McInnis & Fitzgerald, 1992).
The job and health impacts of sexual harassment have been well docu-
mented over the last quarter century for a variety of occupations, work-
place settings, and educational environments. Some of the earliest
research studies found that targets of harassment experienced low life sat-
isfaction and self-esteem (Gruber & Bjorn, 1982), anxiety, anger, and help-
lessness (Crull, 1982; Gutek, 1985), and depression (Hamilton, Alagna,
King, & Lloyd, 1987), as well as a number of job-related outcomes. Similar
adverse health outcomes have been found outside the United States. Cana-
dian and European women experienced psychosomatic symptoms,
depression, an inability to concentrate, and heightened job dissatisfaction
as a result of harassment (Canadian Human Rights Commission, 1983;
Hogbacka et al., 1987). A comparative study of working women found that
Americans suffered greater psychological stress and had poorer self-
images than either their Scandinavian or former Soviet (Russian and Esto-
nian) counterparts as a result of harassment (Kauppinen & Gruber, 1993).
These and other adverse outcomes have been found in more recent
research. An oft-cited study by Louise Fitzgerald and her colleagues
on two samples (workers at a utility company and university staff)

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


92 Self, Family, and Social Affects

found that targets of harassment in both samples had lower life satisfac-
tion, poorer mental health, and more symptoms of post-traumatic stress
disorder (PTSD) than other women did (Schneider, Swan, & Fitzgerald,
1997). Additionally, their analyses revealed that even low levels of (or low
exposure to) sexual harassment produced negative health outcomes or, in
their own words, ‘‘harassment apparently does not have to be particularly
egregious to result in negative consequences’’ (p. 412). Indicators of men-
tal stress that were used by Richman and her colleagues—excessive drink-
ing (both drinking as an escape and drinking to intoxication) and
prescription drug use were significant outcomes of sexual harassment
among university staff members (Richman et al., 1999). Negative body
image and eating disorders were also found to be a consequence of sexual
harassment among college students (Harned, 2000).
Though women’s self-reports of depression and stress symptoms
resembling post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSS) have appeared fre-
quently in the research literature, the clinical dimensions of these prob-
lems were not formally documented until the mid-1990s. Researchers
at the Medical University of South Carolina developed survey items
for PTSS using Diagnostic Statistical Manual III-Revised (DSM-III-R)
criteria in a national sample of more than 3,000 women. When com-
pared to women who had not experienced harassment, victims—in
particular, those whose experiences met EEOC criteria—were at an
increased risk of PTSD and/or depression (Dansky & Kilpatrick, 1997).
The relationships between harassment and PTSD were explored further
by Avina and O’Donohue (2002). They argued that a number of harass-
ing experiences can fit the DSM-IV criteria as probable causes because
they pose a threat to physical integrity—specifically, by threatening the
target’s financial well-being, threatening her physical boundaries,
and/or threatening the victim’s control over situations that she should
be able to control (p. 73).

SEXUAL HARASSMENT ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES


Hall and Sandler (1982) gave a name to a problem that thousands of
women experienced during college—‘‘the chilly climate.’’ They used
narratives and interviews to reveal the marginalization and maltreat-
ment of women, and the consequent suffering they experienced. The
publication of The Lecherous Professor by Billie Dzeich and Linda Weiner
in 1984 brought national attention to the problem. Several years later
Michele Paludi expanded our understanding of the problem in Ivory
Power: The Sexual Harassment of Women on Campus (1991). All three pub-
lications presented sexual harassment as a widespread, endemic prob-
lem caused by male professors with an inflated sense of entitlement
who routinely groped, propositioned, and verbally abused their female
colleagues and students. Paludi’s book was ground-breaking insofar as

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Mental Health Impact of Sexual Harassment 93

it examined the problem of sexual harassment from a variety of per-


spectives. Its chapters included measurement issues, the confluence of
racism and sexism, the effects of coping responses of harassment tar-
gets, profiles of male perpetrators, and institutional strategies for pre-
venting and remediating harassment. A chapter by Mary Koss on the
psychological impact of harassment told of the stress caused not only
by the harassment—diminished self-confidence, anxiety, psychosomatic
ailments, among others—but also of the problems women faced when
they told others about their treatment. Women who complained were
doubly victimized: first, by the harassment itself, and then by stigmati-
zation by their peers and retaliation by their harassers.
Louise Fitzgerald and her colleagues first used their Sexual Experiences
Questionnaire (SEQ) on samples of students and staff at two universities
(Fitzgerald et al., 1988). They found high levels of harassment (over 50%)
for women in both groups. Most targets experienced gender harassment.
Approximately 5% of each group had been sexually bribed. Harassment by
professors was frequent among women undergraduate (49%) and graduate
(53%) students on a large campus studied by Cortina, Swan, Fitzgerald,
and Waldo (1998). Harassment rates were especially high among lesbian
and bisexual women (81%). More recent studies that used the SEQ have
found similar results. Fifty-six percent of the women students in a study by
Huerta, Cortina, Pang, Torges, & Magley (2006) experienced harassment
from faculty, staff, or peers during the last year. Harassment targets experi-
enced significant levels of psychological stress, more health problems
(including symptoms of eating disorders), and less academic satisfaction.

THE HARM OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT


Though it is clear that sexual harassment causes adverse health out-
comes in women (and men as well), the question remains as to which
victims experience greater harm than others. Though much early research
compared victims and non-victims, recent studies have focused on a vari-
ety of factors that may either increase or buffer the effects of harassment.
We present four.

Severity of Sexual Harassing Experiences


While research models of sexual harassment have become more so-
phisticated over the years, even some of the earliest studies examined
harassment severity as an issue apart from simply whether or not
someone had been a target (Gruber & Bjorn, 1982; USMSPB, 1981). Se-
verity is related to frequency insofar as some experiences become har-
assing while others become more severe through repeated exposures.
Some experiences have a very low threshold and are harassing with
one exposure (sexual bribery, sexual assault), while others with a

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94 Self, Family, and Social Affects

higher threshold become more severe as a result of repetition and/or con-


textual factors (e.g., acts by a supervisor versus a peer). In addition to fre-
quency, Gruber (1992) argued that there were at least four other factors
that affected severity: source of the harassment (e.g., supervisor versus
coworkers), directness (whether the harassment was personal or ‘‘envi-
ronmental’’), averseness or offensiveness, and threat. Some experiences
are severe (e.g., sexual assault, sexual bribery) because they are highly of-
fensive, threatening, and single out the victim. Others are less severe
(e.g., a woman who hears sexually degrading comments about a female
coworker) because they are indirect or environmental and offensive, and
arguably less threatening because the comments are not about her.
USMSPB (1981) divided their seven categories into ‘‘most severe,’’
‘‘severe,’’ and ‘‘less severe’’ and found that more severe harassment
was associated with the respondents’ ‘‘emotional and physical condi-
tion’’ becoming worse. The frequency of harassment was also signifi-
cantly associated with adverse psychological outcomes in a more
recent study. Schneider et al. (1997) tabulated how often respondents
had been harassed, regardless of the type of harassment, and found
that higher frequencies as measured by the SEQ significantly predicted
life satisfaction, mental health, and PTSD symptoms. A strong relation-
ship between harassment severity and PTSD was found among college
students as well (McDermot, Haaga, & Kirk, 2000). Rather than use a
simple frequency measure, they divided the SEQ categories into
‘‘severe’’ and ‘‘mild’’ forms and found that victims of the former had
higher scores on all three PTSD subscales (re-experiencing the harass-
ment, avoidance and numbing, and hypervigilance).

Male Domination
Research over the last quarter century provides compelling evidence
that women in nontraditional jobs experience more frequent and severe
harassment than other working women. Part of the reason for this, as
Kanter (1977) has demonstrated, is because of highly skewed sex ratios.
In addition, there is a significant minority of occupations where a
skewed gender imbalance (numerical dominance) is coupled with occu-
pational roles and norms that reinforce traditional, sexist masculine
values and perspectives (normative dominance). A survey of military
personnel found that more than two-thirds of the women had been
harassed (Bastian, Lancaster, & Reyst, 1996). Similarly, women working
in other male-dominated occupations like policing and firefighting
have significantly higher rates of harassment than their counterparts in
other public sector jobs (Brown, Campbell, & Fife-Schaw, 1995; LA
Commission on Women, 1992).
Similar problems have been found for women in nontraditional
fields on college campuses (e.g., Paludi, 1991). Women students and

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Mental Health Impact of Sexual Harassment 95

faculty in nontraditional fields (e.g., physical and natural science, com-


puter science, engineering) experience more frequent harassment and
are subjected to a wider range of sexist behavior (e.g., lower evalua-
tions, poorer mentoring, limited access to training opportunities) than
their peers in other departments.
The health outcomes for women in these situations are fairly pre-
dictable given the higher levels of harassment they experience. Female
targets of harassment in the military reported decreased satisfaction
with health and recorded problems with emotional and physical
health, even when the experiences were somewhat infrequent (Magley,
Waldo, Drasgow, & Fitzgerald, 1999). Because women in male-
dominant work settings are often treated as ‘‘outsiders’’ and endure
ostracism and isolation, they lose the potential buffering or protective
effects of social support and collegiality that other women use to mod-
erate the psychological harms of sexual harassment. The organizational
hierarchy also poses a potential problem because women’s superiors—
typically men—may not understand or sympathize with the plight of
female subordinates. And, the leadership of an organization has a sig-
nificant impact on its gender climate and the tolerance of sexual har-
assment (Niebuhr, 1997; Pryor, LaVite, & Stoller, 1995).

Work Structure and Processes


Sociological research over the last half century has demonstrated the
adverse effects of work structure and processes on the health, well-
being, and job attitudes of women and men (Blauner, 1964; Kohn, 1990;
Miller, 1980). Kauppinen and Gruber (1993) were among the first to
show that work structure and processes were a significant cause of sex-
ual harassment and, correspondingly, of psychological distress. Like-
wise, Mueller, DeCoster, and Estes (2001) found that centralized
decision making, a lack of formal policies that protect employee rights,
and rigid organizational structures that provided little job mobility pre-
dicted sexual harassment above and beyond ‘‘gender climate’’ variables
that are used in a number of studies. In a related vein, Kauppinen and
Patoluoto (2005) found that bullying was frequently found in workpla-
ces where the pace of work had increased and/or the structure of work
had become more hierarchical.

Personal and Situational Factors


Not all women are harmed in the same way by similar types of har-
assment. There are a number of ‘‘Who, what, and when?’’ issues that
influence the impact of harassment. To begin with, women may have
one or more ‘‘personal resources’’ that enable them to cope with sexual
harassment. Those with high self-esteem, high life satisfaction, and/or

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96 Self, Family, and Social Affects

high job status (Gruber & Bjorn, 1986) or a feminist orientation (Gruber
& Smith, 1995) are more apt to respond assertively to their harassers than
other women. Also, women who have social support, either in the work-
place through positive collegial relationships or outside of work through
networks of family and friends, are able to buffer some of the potentially
damaging effects of harassment to their well-being. Kauppinen and
Gruber (1993), for instance, found that friendly, cooperative relationships
with coworkers protected women in nontraditional jobs from some of the
psychological distress that troubled other women. More recently, Reder-
storff, Buchanan, and Settles (2007) found that a feminist orientation buf-
fered White sexually harassed college students from post-traumatic
stress. However, this was not the case for African-American students.
Conventional wisdom suggests that women should deal with harass-
ment by confronting the harasser or reporting him to their superiors.
The implied assumption is that women who don’t take such action
have personality problems. While having significant personal resources
may encourage women to respond assertively to their harassers, these
strategies have a low ‘‘success’’ rate. A number of studies have docu-
mented the fact that responding assertively (confronting the harasser
or reporting his behavior) often makes matters worse by prompting
more harassment and/or retaliation (Fitzgerald, Swan, & Fischer, 1995).
So, while providing emotional and social support to targets of sexual
harassment is highly commendable, we should be cautious in urging
them to take matters into their own hands. There are numerous contin-
gencies that affect the outcomes of harassment situations (e.g., organi-
zational policies, attitudes of supervisors, procedures for investigating
and resolving complaints) that may either undermine women’s
attempts to stop the harassment or help them resolve the problem.

SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND K–12 STUDENTS


Unlike the body of research that has accumulated over the past
25 years regarding workplace sexual harassment and its impact on
adults, sexual harassment in K–12 schools has a shorter (15 year) his-
tory. Many of the behaviors identified as sexual harassment in the
school environment are also identified as noxious forms of stress or
sexual violence and contribute to the psychological and health distress
of both school employees and students alike. It is also important to
note that these behaviors may also rise to the level of impermissible
employment or education discrimination as determined under Title VII
or Title IX. For this reason, studies examining the impact of sexual har-
assment are important to provide scientific evidence to school adminis-
trators, policy makers, and the courts who may be considering
complex problems regarding mental and physical health issues for both
children and adults.

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Mental Health Impact of Sexual Harassment 97

Researchers, for the most part, have not examined the effects of sex-
ual harassment on adult personnel employed in K–12 school environ-
ments, and, unlike the body of research regarding mental and physical
health outcomes for adults in various types of work environments,
only a few studies have examined mental and physical health out-
comes for children in schools. This is especially the case for young
(K–6) students. Most of the information on sexual harassment experien-
ces and outcomes has come from a small number of case studies that
have garnered media attention and/or been litigated. Because of this,
our discussion focuses on middle and high school students.
Sexual harassment that occurs in schools is primarily peer to peer,
although the American Association of University Women (AAUW)
(1993, 2001) estimated that 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 10 boys has been har-
assed by school personnel (teacher, coach, school bus driver, etc.). Lee,
Croninger, Linn, and Chen (1996), in a re-analysis of the 1993 AAUW,
found that 16% of students had been harassed by a teacher (girls, 20%;
boys, 8%) and 44% by other school personnel (girls, 48%; boys, 37%).
However, unlike studies on adult women where degree of threat or
harm has been examined on the basis of how much power a harasser
has over his target, no studies have examined differential effects of
adult-to-student as opposed to student-to-student harassment.
The most comprehensive reports on school sexual harassment were
conducted by the American Association of University Women (AAUW)
in 1993 and repeated with similar results in 2001. Their most recent
report, Hostile Hallways (2001), found that 81% of students in U.S. schools
had experienced peer sexual harassment (83% female, 79% male). Other
studies on sexual harassment report similar figures: Between 50% and
88% of the students were victims (Fineran & Bennett, 1999; Fineran &
Bolen, 2006; Permanent Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW),
1995; Roscoe, Strouse, & Goodwin, 1994; Stratton & Backes, 1997; Trigg
& Wittenstrom, 1996).
Sexual harassment research to date has primarily focused on preva-
lence and situational factors (type of behavior, when and where it
occurs, student responses to it, etc.). Except for the AAUW (1993, 2001)
studies, which used a stratified random sampling technique to select a
representative sample of the U.S. student population, and the PCSW
(1995) study, where the findings can be generalized to the Connecticut
student population, the remainder of the studies used convenience
samples that constrain findings to individual schools.
Peer sexual harassment may include unwanted or unwelcome
behaviors such as making sexual comments, jokes, gestures, or looks;
showing sexual pictures, photographs, illustrations, messages, or notes;
writing sexual messages or graffiti on bathroom walls or locker rooms;
spreading sexual rumors; calling someone gay or lesbian in a malicious
manner; spying on someone dressing or showering at school;

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98 Self, Family, and Social Affects

‘‘flashing’’ or ‘‘mooning’’ someone; touching, grabbing, or pinching in a


sexual way; pulling at clothing in a sexual way; intentionally brushing
against someone in a sexual way; pulling clothing off or down; blocking
or cornering in a sexual way; and forcing a kiss or other unwelcome sex-
ual behavior other than kissing (AAUW, 1993, 2001). Sexual harassment
may also include ‘‘spiking’’ or pulling down someone’s pants, ‘‘snuggies’’
or pulling underwear up at the waist so it goes in between the buttocks,
and or being listed in ‘‘slam books,’’ which identify student’s names and
have derogatory sexual comments written about them by other students
(Strauss & Espeland, 1992).
The AAUW (1993, 2001) reports indicated that over 50% of male and
female students experienced sexual comments, jokes, gestures, or looks.
Over 30% of boys and girls experienced being touched, grabbed,
pinched, or brushed up against in a sexual way from schoolmates. In a
study by Fineran and Bennett (1999), unwanted sexual attention,
including pressure for dates and sex, was reported by approximately
43% of girls and 30% of boys, while in the PCSW (1995) studies, 25%
of girls and 5% of boys reported unwanted sexual attention. Gender
differences in victimization are common; girls report experiencing sex-
ual harassment more frequently than boys, and boys perpetrate sexual
harassment more frequently than girls (AAUW, 1993, 2001; DeSouza
& Ribeiro, 2005; Fineran & Bennett, 1999; Fineran & Bolen, 2006;
Hand & Sanchez, 2000; PCSW, 1995; Stratton & Backes, 1997; Trigg &
Wittenstrom, 1996).

Mental Health Outcomes


A few of the studies inquired about mental and physical health
symptoms and students self-reported the following: loss of appetite,
loss of interest in their usual activities, nightmares or disturbed sleep,
feelings of isolation from friends and family, and feeling sad, nervous,
or angry (AAUW, 1993, 2001; PCSW, 1995; Stein, Marshall, & Tropp,
1993; Stratton & Backes, 1997; Trigg & Wittenstrom, 1996). Students
also noted feeling afraid, upset, or threatened by the sexual harassment
(AAUW, 1993, 2001; Duffy, Wareham, & Walsh, 2004; Fineran & Ben-
nett, 1999; Fineran & Bolen, 2006; PCSW, 1995; Stein et al., 1993).
Duffy, Wareham, and Walsh (2004) found that girls felt the negative
impact of sexual harassment victimization more than boys. Specifically,
girls felt more embarrassed, afraid, self-conscious, and they talked less
in class. These behaviors translate into lowered self-confidence, concen-
tration, classroom participation, and leadership potential. Most school
sexual harassment studies derived detailed descriptions of harassment
situations by asking respondents to provide information on an experi-
ence that was particularly upsetting. These descriptions reveal that
girls not only experience a wider range of harassing behaviors more

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Mental Health Impact of Sexual Harassment 99

frequently than boys, they also consistently answer that they found
these behaviors to be more threatening or upsetting (AAUW, 1993;
PCSW, 1995; Fineran & Bennett, 1999; Fineran & Bolen, 2006; Duffy
et al., 2004; Trigg & Wittenstrom, 1996). Similarly, Lee et al. (1996) also
found that girls were more severely harassed than boys and had a
higher probability of experiencing more psychological problems (i.e.,
trouble sleeping or loss of appetite) than boys. Hand and Sanchez
(2000) also conducted a re-analysis of the 1993 AAUW data and found
that girls who experienced physical sexual harassment had more nega-
tive educational outcomes than boys. In addition, their analysis showed
that ‘‘girls experience qualitatively more severe, physically intrusive,
and intimidating forms of harassment than do boys’’ and that the ‘‘del-
eterious effects of physical sexual harassment were stronger for girls
than boys, across all of the measured outcomes’’ [emphasis added]
(p. 740).
Several recent studies conducted by Gruber and Fineran used a vari-
ety of scales to measure psychological outcomes of the impact of sexual
harassment on students. In one study comparing middle school and
high school girls, six outcomes (self-esteem, mental and physical
health, trauma symptoms, life satisfaction, and substance abuse) were
compared (Gruber & Fineran, 2005). Study results showed high school
girls experienced more sexual harassment and had poorer health out-
comes than their middle school peers.
In another study comparing bullying and sexual harassment victim-
ization (Gruber & Fineran, 2007), girls were particularly harmed by
both forms of victimization. Twice as many psychological outcomes for
bullying and sexual harassment were statistically significant for girls
compared with boys. Additionally, an analysis of data on 8th graders
showed sexual harassment impacted the mental health of girls more
negatively than boys, and girls reported more trauma symptoms than
boys (Fineran & Gruber, 2004). On the basis of the few outcome studies
conducted on adolescents, many of the symptoms reported by students
due to peer sexual harassment resemble symptoms experienced by
women subjected to sexual harassment in the workplace.

Mental Health and Sexual Minority Students


Compared to the published material on gender, the research on the
mental and physical health risks of sexual minority students is sparse
because most studies to date have not asked for this type of informa-
tion. A study by Fineran (2001) found that sexual minority students
experienced sexual harassment more frequently than heterosexual stu-
dents. Specifically, sexual minority girls experienced significantly more
sexual harassment than heterosexual girls for the following behaviors:
being called sexually offensive names, having rumors told about them,

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100 Self, Family, and Social Affects

being called gay or lesbian in a derogatory way, receiving sexually of-


fensive photos or messages, being touched or grabbed in a sexual way,
being pressured for a date, and being sexually assaulted.
Studies conducted by Gruber and Fineran (2006, 2005) have also
shed some light on the experience of sexual minority youth. They
found that in both high school and middle school, lesbian girls experi-
enced more sexual harassment and ridicule than their heterosexual
peers. In another study comparing bullying and sexual harassment,
gay and lesbian students experienced more bullying (79% vs. 50%) and
sexual harassment (71% vs. 32%) (Gruber & Fineran, 2007).
Although there have been no large-scale studies examining the psy-
chological impact of sexual harassment on student mental health, there
have been some statewide statistics gathered on general student popu-
lations. An annual school survey, The Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior
Survey (Massachusetts Department of Education, 2007), found that sex-
ual minority students when compared to their heterosexual peers had
higher suicide rates, were more apt to skip school because they felt
unsafe, had been threatened with or injured by a weapon at school,
and experienced more dating violence and nonconsensual sex. A recent
report (2005) by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network on
Michigan schools revealed that two-thirds of students in their sample
were harassed because they were, or appeared to be, gay or lesbian.
More than 80% of these students reported hearing derogatory homo-
phobic comments.
Supporting this very negative picture, Fineran and Gruber (2004)
found in a study of 8th graders that gay/lesbian/bisexual students who
experienced sexual harassment had poorer mental health and more
trauma symptoms in contrast to their heterosexual peers. In addition,
sexual minority students and heterosexual girls reported being signifi-
cantly more upset and threatened by peer sexual harassment victimiza-
tion than boys, and lesbian girls experienced significantly more sexual
harassment than gay boys and heterosexual students (Fineran, 2001).
The fact that sexual minority students appear to experience a signifi-
cantly higher frequency of sexual harassment than their heterosexual
peers reinforces concerns regarding increased mental health risks to
sexual minority youth in schools. Sexual minority students feel unsafe
in schools where they are experiencing more sexually harassing behav-
iors than their straight peers, including the experience of physical vio-
lence. Current research, however, continues to suggest that girls are
most threatened by these behaviors and that more attention should be
directed at the overall hostile environments of schools for both of these
at-risk populations—sexual minority students and heterosexual girls.
Turning our attention to younger elementary students (K–6) or stu-
dents with disabilities, we find that little research has been conducted
on these populations and there is no conclusive information regarding

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Mental Health Impact of Sexual Harassment 101

sexual harassment victimization and mental health outcomes. One


small pilot study consisting of 26 students with disabilities (Rousso &
Wehmeyer 2001) found that students were sexually harassed in public
places and girls were more likely to be the target of non-disabled male
peers. Fineran (2002) reported that high school students with disabil-
ities experienced sexually harassing behaviors more frequently than
non-disabled students, while a study of 8th graders found that disabled
and able students have similar levels of sexual harassment victimiza-
tion, but disabled students experienced more negative mental health
outcomes as a result of these experiences (Fineran & Gruber, 2004). No
other studies have been conducted on this issue with this population.
Large-scale survey research exploring sexual harassment has not
been conducted on populations of younger children in the same way
that junior high and high school students have been studied. Most of
the elementary school examples are single cases that have garnered
media attention and/or been litigated (Stein, 2007). Many elementary
school administrators struggle with naming the range of behaviors
that young children experience as sexual harassment and frequently
reframe these behaviors as teasing and bullying (Stein, 1999). Gener-
ally, however, victims tend not to be identified in the press and so
their stories do not become as familiar as those who are identified
as perpetrators and defended. In summary, the lack of data on this
very young population makes it difficult to say how sexual harass-
ment affects the mental health of children who are at an impression-
able age.

SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND STUDENTS WHO WORK


While the adverse effects of sexual harassment on mental health
have been documented for adults who have experienced sexual harass-
ment in the workplace, little attention has been given to students who
work while attending school.
A preliminary study by Fineran and Gruber (2005) of 260 New Eng-
land girls looked at the frequency and the outcomes of sexual harass-
ment among those who worked while attending high school. In addition
to comparing the health outcome differences between girls who had
and had not been harassed, the study also compared the health out-
comes of the harassed teens to published data on health outcomes among
adults.
Most of the teens who worked were under age 18 (72%) and were
employed mostly in two broad categories of the formal wage econ-
omy: restaurant service jobs (44%) and retail sales (36%). More than
52% of the teens reported that they had experienced some form of
sexual harassment during the past year at their jobs. More than half
(56%) of the perpetrators were coworkers, while supervisors and

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102 Self, Family, and Social Affects

vendors/customers accounted equally for the remainder. A large ma-


jority of the perpetrators were older than the teens, with nearly half
(46%) described as older than 30.
When the teens were compared to a study of working adults by
Richman et al. (1999), the results were compelling. The teens reported
experiencing significantly higher levels of unwanted sexual attention
(38%) than women in all three of Richman’s samples (service workers,
15%; clerical staff, 14%; and employed college students, 10%). The per-
centages for sexual coercion in Richman’s three samples—5% of service
workers, 3% of clerical workers, and 1% of college student workers—
are comparable to the study on teens. This suggests that the teens
experienced more harassment than adults because teens are working
part time while Richman et al. (1999) collected data from women work-
ing full time.
Results also showed sexually harassed teens experienced greater
work stress and lower satisfaction with both supervisors and co-
workers, and they were more apt to avoid work or to think about leav-
ing their jobs. Also, they were more apt to miss school and less able to
focus on school. However, their psychological and physical well-being
were not negatively impacted by workplace harassment. Findings from
the teen study contrast with the considerable research literature cited
earlier in this chapter that finds that workplace sexual harassment is a
source of low self-esteem, psychological distress, and health problems
for adult women. It appears that workplace harassment for teens does
not produce the level and range of negative outcomes that have been
found in studies of adult women. This may be because of the smaller
role that work plays in teens’ busy lives. Only a fraction of girls indi-
cated their jobs were important to their identities.
Though research has found that sexual harassment at school has det-
rimental effects on the psychological and physical health of girls, find-
ings from Fineran and Gruber (2005) suggest that the overall mental
health and health risks of workplace sexual harassment for teens are
fairly modest. However, teens’ work experiences may have an impact
on school. Teens who were sexually harassed at work did not find
school as exciting or engaging as other classmates. These findings may
be alarming because students who are avoiding school, daydreaming
in class, and receiving lower grades may find their full career potential
threatened or at the very least impeded. Additionally, although the
overall mental health risks of workplace sexual harassment for teens
may be low, this may not accurately reflect health risks involving phys-
ical safety. Sexual harassment consists of many behaviors, some of
which are described as acts of sexual assault (Fineran, 2002). Redefin-
ing sexual harassment as sexual violence and educating girls about
workplace violence may be an important precaution for schools, for
communities where teens are employed, and for parents to initiate.

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Mental Health Impact of Sexual Harassment 103

CONCLUSION
Millions of women and girls experience sexual harassment as a daily
part of their work and school lives, and those who are targeted experi-
ence a multitude of consequences that negatively impact their mental
health. A number of factors concerning sexual harassment appear to be
consistent globally: age of targets, types of occupations where harass-
ment occurs, ways women cope, and psychological reactions to harass-
ment. Less severe harassment behaviors (i.e., sexual remarks or
sexually offensive looks or gestures) appear to be much more common
than more severe behaviors (i.e., sexual touching or pressure for sexual
favors), and low levels of (or low exposure to) sexual harassment pro-
duce negative reactions.
Mental health outcomes appear to be similar across age groups for
both students and employees alike. Students who experience sexual
harassment in schools and universities have similar outcomes as
women who experience sexual harassment on the job. Overall, research
overwhelmingly demonstrates that sexual harassment has a major
impact on women and girls’ psychological well-being and mental
health, and that schools, universities, and the workplace have responsi-
bility for making these environments safe and nondiscriminatory.

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© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Chapter 8

Religion and Women at Work


Michael B. Mathias

In 2002 the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on


Women in Society and in the Church (USCCB) undertook a project to
examine the relationship between women’s spirituality and their
employment outside the home. The committee invited dioceses to
convene focus groups on the topic, and between the fall of 2002 and
the spring of 2004 focus groups involving more than 800 women were
conducted by 36 arch/dioceses. Based on the feedback from these ini-
tial focus groups, the committee identified several themes that it
wanted to explore more in depth and then conducted another round
of focus groups in 14 arch/dioceses. The women in these focus
groups described a strong, often intense, relationship between their
faith and their work. They see spirituality as a unifying factor that
permeates all of life, and they resist compartmentalization in their
lives. Many of these women spoke of their work as a vocation, a call
from God. These women see their work as an extension of their spirit-
ual lives. Most of the focus group participants reported that helping
and serving people is the most satisfying aspect of their work. They
reported that their faith exhibits itself in the workplace in a number
of different ways. Many of them expressed a desire to ‘‘model
Christ’’—that is, to set a good example by treating others as Christ
would. A lot of them reported that their faith helps them deal with
difficult situations at work, including interpersonal issues with col-
leagues and ethical challenges. Many of these women said that they
witness to their faith in the workplace. While some find their work-
place to be conducive to their spiritual life, others indicated that
expressions of faith are discouraged in their workplace. They

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110 Self, Family, and Social Affects

sometimes see fundamental tensions between Christian ideals and the


realities of business life.
In its follow-up study, the committee asked focus group participants
to discuss in greater detail workplace experiences that they think are
unique to women. Many participants said that relationships in the work-
place are more important to women than men. They believe women are
more supportive of one another, exhibit more empathy and compassion,
and are less competitive. Women, in their view, tend to be better com-
municators than men. They maintain that women try harder to create a
cooperative workplace and that women generally are more concerned to
make the world a better place through their work.
This study provides a good picture of how women in this particular
faith tradition think about and experience spirituality in the workplace,
and its findings are generally confirmed by solid research in the behav-
ioral and social sciences. The study’s findings also hint at some of the
challenges that religious women face in the workplace as a result of their
spiritual orientation. Importantly—and at long last, some might say—it
acknowledges and explores the distinctive ways that women think
about and experience religion and work, and the relationship between
the two. This chapter explores all of these themes in greater depth.
The first part of this chapter examines the fundamental ways that
women attempt to integrate faith and work, particularly in light of
feminine conceptions of identity, religion, and work. In most cases, reli-
gion is a healthy, vital part of an individual’s identity, and successfully
integrating faith and work has a number of benefits. However, the sec-
ond part of this chapter shows that the common policy of separating
spirituality from the workplace leads many religious employees to
compartmentalize their religious and work lives. The fragmented sense
of identity that results leads to significant psychological and moral
strain. The view that the workplace is primarily a secular sphere is re-
inforced by federal law governing religion in the workplace. Part three
discusses Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits religious
discrimination in the workplace. Although Title VII requires employers
to reasonably accommodate the religious beliefs and practices of
employees, a series of court decisions have significantly limited the
employer’s duty. The final part of this chapter compares and contrasts
two organizational approaches to religion in the workplace.
Before proceeding, there is an important matter of conceptual clarity
to be addressed. To this point, the terms religion and spirituality have
been used interchangeably, but many Americans see a great difference
between the two. Spirituality is regarded as highly personal yet inclusive
in that it embraces all ways of experiencing the sacred. Religion is
regarded as institutional, dogmatic, inflexible, and divisive. As Spilka,
Hood, Hunsberger, and Gorsuch (2003) explain, in this usage ‘‘spiritu-
ality is about a person’s beliefs, values, and behavior, while religiousness

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Religion and Women at Work 111

is about the person’s involvement with a religious tradition and institu-


tion.’’1 So, spirituality is more psychological and religion more sociologi-
cal. Given this bifurcation, a person can be spiritual without being
religious, though being religious invariably involves being spiritual. Roof
(1993) dubs the baby boomers ‘‘a generation of seekers,’’ and says ‘‘these
intense seekers prefer to think of themselves as ‘spiritual’ rather than as
‘religious.’’’ Rayburn and Richmond (2002) report that women more of-
ten distinguish between religion and spirituality, and more often see
themselves as more spiritual than religious, than men do.
As Hicks (2003) points out, authors of management literature more
frequently talk about spirituality than about religion in the workplace.2
Mitroff and Denton (1999) claim that there are good empirical reasons
for this approach. In their recent book, A Spiritual Audit of Corporate
America, they report that the respondents to their survey generally dif-
ferentiated strongly between religion and spirituality.

They viewed religion as a highly inappropriate topic and form of expres-


sion in the workplace. Conversely, spirituality was viewed as highly
appropriate. Religion was largely viewed as formal and organized. It was
also viewed as being dogmatic, intolerant, and dividing people more
than bringing them together. In contrast, spirituality was largely viewed
as informal and personal, that is, pertaining mainly to individuals. It was
also viewed as universal, nondenominational, broadly inclusive, and tol-
erant, and as the basic feeling of being connected with one’s complete
self, others, and the entire universe. (p. xvi)

Roughly 60% of those surveyed and interviewed had a positive view


of spirituality and a negative view of religion. Mitroff and Denton
argue it is appropriate (and strongly advisable) to foster spirituality in
the workplace, but agree that ‘‘any and all expression of religion in the
workplace is highly inappropriate.’’ To the extent that Mitroff and Den-
ton’s argument for accommodating spirituality in the workplace seems
to entail that religion also should be accommodated, this position, it
will later be argued, appears to be inconsistent. This chapter will focus
primarily on the experience of those women who would self-identify
as religious (and, by implication, spiritual). But most of the discussion
here is highly relevant to women who would identify themselves as
spiritual but not religious. When the distinction is relevant, this will be
noted.

INTEGRATED FAITH AND WORK


America is a deeply religious nation. As Prothero (2006) explains,

In the United States, religion matters. In overwhelming numbers, Ameri-


cans believe in God, pray, and contribute their time and money to

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


112 Self, Family, and Social Affects

churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples. As much as race, gender,


ethnicity, or region, religious commitments make individual Americans
who they are. The significance of religion is not confined, however, to self-
identity and the private sphere. In the United States, religion is as public as
it is pervasive, as political as it is personal. And so it has been for a long,
long time. (p. 1)

According to a recent poll, roughly 9 in 10 Americans profess a belief


in God or a universal spirit (Gallup, 2007). Nearly the same percentage
says religion is either very important (57%) or fairly important (27%)
(Gallup, 2006). About two-thirds of Americans (63%) report that they
are members of a church or synagogue, and 43% report attending reli-
gious services at least once a week or almost every week (Gallup,
2006). International comparisons indicate that the United States is one
of the most religious nations in the West (Spilka et al., 2003, 149f).
Moreover, in A New Religious America (2001), Diana Eck has demon-
strated that the United States is among the most religiously diverse
countries on the globe. Today the United States is home to more than
2,000 different faiths and denominations, and more than 500,000
churches, mosques, synagogues, and temples.
As Prothero suggests, many Americans regard their religion as a
very public matter. For the devout, religion provides the overarching
framework that orients them in the world and provides them with
motivation and direction for living. As Hill and Pargament (2003)
explain, ‘‘religion and spirituality are not a set of beliefs and practices
divorced from everyday life, to be applied only at special occasions;
instead, religion and spirituality are ways of life to be sought, experi-
enced, fostered, and sustained consistently’’ (p. 68). Nasr’s (1993)
account of Islam nicely illustrates the point in the context of this partic-
ular faith tradition:

In the Islamic perspective, religion is not seen as a part of life or a special


kind of activity along with art, thought, commerce, social discourse, poli-
tics, and the like. Rather, it is the matrix and worldview within which
these and all other human activities, efforts, creations, and thoughts take
place or should take place. (p. 439)

Despite the widespread notion that religion is intimately related to all


aspects of life, sociologists agree that the process of differentiation domi-
nates modern societies. As Fenn (2001) describes it, differentiation is
‘‘the process by which areas of social life become separated from each
other and operate under their own, independent auspices’’ (p. 11). As a
result of this process, Fenn explains, each separate sphere becomes rela-
tively autonomous of the others in setting its own internal standards,
setting its goals and policies, and determining its own identity and belief
system. Through this process, religion has been separated from the

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Religion and Women at Work 113

sphere of economic life and other facets of so-called public life. Thus,
according to one of the grand narratives in the sociology of religion,

Abandoned to the impersonal structures of impersonal institutions, modern


men and women find themselves trapped in an iron cage of rationalized
bureaucracy, which can supply neither meaning nor significance. Home-
less, alienated, and anomic minds can now find purpose and value only in
the realm of personal and private life. Religion, once part of the public
realm, correspondingly shrinks in scope, and can work its enchantments—
if at all—only in a severely delimited sphere. It becomes, in other words, a
‘‘privatized’’ means by which a declining number of people cope with the
dislocations and restrictions of public life. (Woodhead, 2001, p. 76)

The so-called Religious Right—represented by organizations such as


the Christian Coalition and the Moral Majority—has mobilized in an
effort to combat this process of differentiation in American society,
and, over the past three decades, it has emerged as a powerful political
and social force.3 While the evangelical movement’s initial efforts were
primarily directed at giving greater voice to religion—specifically,
Christianity—in political matters, it has increasingly directed its efforts
toward the workplace. As a result of this, and a number of other con-
tributing factors, there has been a sharp increase in interest in religion
in the workplace, and a large body of literature devoted to the topic
has emerged over the past decade.4
Another factor driving this trend is the increased participation of
women in the U.S. labor force.5 Women not only exhibit a greater affin-
ity for religion than men, but they also experience faith differently than
men. As the USCCB study noted at the outset indicates, religious
women tend to see spirituality as infusing all they do, including their
jobs. So, as women enter the workforce, they tend to bring their faith
with them.
Those who are religious—men and women alike—have a fundamen-
tal desire to integrate their religious lives and their work lives. (Indeed,
to the extent that one considers religion as an overarching framework
in one’s life, the dichotomy between religious life and work life makes
little sense.) In God and Mammon in America (1994) sociologist Robert
Wuthnow examined the relationship between religious commitment
and economic behavior in the United States.6 Wuthnow found that a
considerable portion of the American workforce thinks about how to
relate their faith to their work and discusses their faith with others at
work. When asked how much they had thought during the past year
about ‘‘how to link your faith more directly with your work,’’ 33% of
working Americans said they had thought about this a great deal or a
fair amount. Among persons who said they were members of a church
or synagogue, this proportion rose to 46%, and among persons who
attended religious services every week, it was 60%. Based upon these

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


114 Self, Family, and Social Affects

findings, Wuthnow inferred two things: Many American workers are


interested in making their faith relevant to their work; and, because
the proportions are lower than one would expect given the religiosity
of Americans, ‘‘many people have learned to compartmentalize [their
faith and work].’’ On the whole, approximately one-third of working
Americans claimed to have discussed their faith with someone at
work during the past year. Among members of churches or syna-
gogues, this proportion rose to 47%, and among those who attend reli-
gious services every week, it was 58%. Wuthnow determined that
women are more likely than men to engage in discussions about faith
at work.
Religious individuals seek to relate their faith to their work in a
number of fundamental ways. First, religion imbues work with
meaning and purpose. Many religious workers emphasize the non-
instrumental value of their work; first and foremost, they see their
work as service to others. In addition, by emphasizing transcendence
of the self, religion encourages workers to view the workplace as a
communal setting. Religious workers often report closer connections to
coworkers, and, again, tend to call attention to the non-instrumental
value of work relations. Moreover, religion provides guidance in relat-
ing work to other aspects of life, such as family. Religious workers also
find their faith to be a powerful resource for managing stress. Religion
may also provide the moral grounding needed to address ethical chal-
lenges that arise at work. Ultimately, many religious individuals see
work as an opportunity for spiritual growth and self-actualization. This
section proposes that, in light of feminine understandings of identity,
religion, and work, as well as the unique circumstances of working
women, there is good reason to believe that the desire to experience
and express spirituality in the context of work and the workplace will
be particularly strong in religious women.
The evidence is clear and well established: Women are generally
more religious than men on a wide range of measures (Spilka et al.,
2003; Walter & Davie, 1998; Francis, 1997; Beit-Hallahmi & Argyle, 1996;
Cornwall, 1989). Findings demonstrate both stronger beliefs and higher
levels of religious activity on the part of women. Donelson (1999) reports
that, ‘‘relative to men, women attend worship services more often, pray
more often, report more intense religious experiences, regard religion
more favorably, feel closer to God, are more likely to express need for a
religious dimension in their daily lives, and are more involved in reli-
gious social activities.’’ An extensive study by Wilson and Sherkat (1994)
found that women are less likely to become apostates than are men,
though women apostates are also less likely to return to the fold than
are men. A number of theories have been proposed to explain why
women tend to be more religious than men, but as of yet little empirical
research has been undertaken to test these hypotheses.7

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Religion and Women at Work 115

Many observers see women’s extensive participation in religion as


paradoxical. All of the major religious traditions—including Buddhism,
Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism—have historically placed
women in a subordinate position to men (Reinke, 1995). Their teach-
ings have traditionally been interpreted to support the doctrine of
‘‘separate spheres.’’8 Despite the mass entry of women into the U.S.
labor force in the late 20th century, it is clear that these teachings still
influence some women: ‘‘To the extent that a woman is religious, she
is likely to maintain established sex roles in marriage, to continue to be
a homemaker and mother, and not to work outside the home’’ (Spilka
et al., 2003, p. 188). Not surprisingly, Wuthnow (1994) found this to be
true particularly for women associated with more conservative reli-
gious traditions. These teachings can be the source of guilt and frustra-
tion for religious women that enter the workforce. Willits and Crider
(1988) found that, for females in the workforce, increased adolescent
religious participation is negatively associated with job satisfaction.
(Note that they found no relation between current religious participa-
tion and job satisfaction.) They write, ‘‘Since the primary socialization
on gender roles takes place during childhood and adolescence . . . reli-
gious women may see employment for pay as an intrusion on their
perceived God-given roles of wife, mother and keeper of the home.’’
Bridges and Spilka (1992) write about the potential negative effects of
religion on the mental health of women. Through the patriarchal orga-
nization of sex roles, these religions may offer negative meanings to
women, reducing their sense of personal control and lowering their
self-esteem.
Hence, scholars like Ozorak (1996) have asked why women dispro-
portionately invest in an institution that systematically devalues them.
She suggests that the answer might lie in recent work showing that
women and men experience God and faith differently. ‘‘For women,
the emphasis commonly seems to be on personal relationships with a
loving God and with others in the religious community,’’ says
Ozorak, ‘‘while men are more likely to focus on God’s power and
judgment, and on their own spiritual discipline.’’ These differences,
she notes, are reminiscent of the two voices of morality contrasted by
Gilligan (1982): the feminine voice of relationship and the masculine
voice of individuation.9 Regarding the women in her study, Ozorak
writes,
It is striking that the women in this sample, almost without exception,
emphasized the centrality of caring and community to their religious ex-
perience and insisted on a view of God as a friend and confidant rather
than as a cosmic ruler or judge. This offers a possible explanation for the
paradox proposed earlier. . . . Most of the women in this study recognized
that by social standards, organized religion does not treat them as well
as it might. . . . But in absolute terms, they do not see themselves as

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


116 Self, Family, and Social Affects

disenfranchised. The power of connection and relationship, most essen-


tial to their own views of the faith experience, is available to them in
abundance. (p. 27)

Woodhead (2001) sees in findings like this evidence of the feminization


of religion, which involves a ‘‘shift of weight towards the relational in
religion’’ (p. 78). Women in particular (but increasingly men as well)
have come to regard and value religion primarily in terms of its ability
to sustain and validate various forms of relationship. When the recent
history of religion is reconceptualized from a feminist perspective,
Woodhead argues, ‘‘religion can be seen as far from the private matter
that has so often been assumed.’’ Indeed, the narrative of modern reli-
gious history presented earlier, according to which religion has become
a matter of purely private significance, makes no sense from this per-
spective because the sharp line between ‘‘private’’ and ‘‘public’’
spheres of life that is central to this narrative is drawn from a mascu-
line point of view. Women tend not to see themselves as ‘‘unencum-
bered’’ or ‘‘separate’’ selves but as being ‘‘radically situated’’ in a rich
network of relations with others (Miller, 1976; Chodorow, 1978; Gilli-
gan, 1982).10 Religious women report that spirituality is pervasive in
these relations, and, hence, the notion that a sharp boundary can be
drawn between one’s religious life and other aspects of one’s life, such
as one’s work life, is inconsistent with their experience. Consider repre-
sentative comments from two participants in the USCCB study men-
tioned at the outset: One woman said, ‘‘Categorizing where spirituality
lies can be artificial; it penetrates all we do’’; another put it this way,
‘‘Spirituality is intertwined in everything.’’
This feminine, relational understanding of religion encourages the
sacralization of everyday life, including work life. Ozorak (1996)
reports that the women in her study repeatedly mentioned service to
others as an integral part of religious practice, and many of these
women see work as an important venue for this service.11 One of her
subjects, a Unitarian woman, said, ‘‘Going to church is nice, but I really
feel religious when I am working. I enjoy working with dying people.
So, I really feel like that my God’s work on earth is to do that kind of
stuff.’’ Another subject, a Methodist businesswoman, expressed it this
way, ‘‘I have the power to make a difference, to be the hands that
work for Jesus.’’ Ozorak concluded that these women ‘‘experience
God’s power not just in God’s goodness to them but in the work they
feel God empowers them to do for others . . . they feel better about
themselves in part because they believe that their own behavior and
capabilities change for the better.’’ For these women, work is construed
as a form of religious expression. They regard their work as important
and valuable in light of their religious views, and this strong sense of
purpose promotes their self-esteem.

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Religion and Women at Work 117

The desire to find meaning and purpose in one’s work is common to


men and women, but Ruthellen Josselson’s longitudinal study (1996) of
how women construct their identities over a lifetime suggests that this
desire may be particularly acute for women. Josselson found that
‘‘unlike many men, few women defined themselves as ‘a manager’ or ‘a
teacher.’ Occupation may be what she ‘does’ for many hours of her life,
but is seldom what she feels she ‘is.’’’ While the women in her study
were generally disinclined to define themselves in terms of their occu-
pation, she reports that ‘‘more than half the women I have interviewed
define themselves in an important spiritual way. . . . For many of these
women, [spiritual development] is an even more consuming quest than
occupational self-definition.’’ For the women in her study, the degree to
which occupational endeavors were assigned prominence in their iden-
tity was a function of whether they perceived their work to have a
meaningful impact on the lives of others. In an otherwise diverse group,
‘‘nearly all located meaning—and identity—in their work relative to the
impact they felt they had in the lives of others.’’ When these women felt
stymied by the inflexibility or indifference of their organizations, and,
consequently, believed that they were not getting anything of worth
accomplished, they came to feel great dissatisfaction with their jobs. Jos-
selson acknowledges that men may also become very disappointed with
their jobs, but she suggests that women, who are less likely to define
themselves by their work, experience this sort of dissatisfaction more
intensely and for different reasons.

I think that because these women bring a deep sense that they are choos-
ing to work, that they are a first generation pioneering high-status roles
for women, they demand more from what they are doing. Unlike men,
they don’t see themselves, in most cases, of ‘‘having’’ to work in order to
‘‘have’’ an identity at all. . . . These women don’t seem to value them-
selves based on their income level. . . . They work in hopes of self-realiza-
tion and a feeling of effectiveness. When this is thwarted, the whole
enterprise of employment is open to question. (p. 195)12

All of this may be especially true for religious women because They
see their faith as more fundamental to their identity than their occupa-
tion, they see their work as serving a higher purpose, and they may
feel that their choice to enter the workforce conflicts with the tradi-
tional teachings of their faith.
Those who are religious feel deeper connections not only to their work
but also to their fellow workers. Religion connects individuals to one
another and promotes sociality (Spilka et al., 2003, p. 18f). It fosters a
sense of community and a sense of belonging to something larger than
oneself. Scholars from many fields have noted that employees—both the
religious and non-religious—increasingly see the workplace as a

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118 Self, Family, and Social Affects

communal center (Conger, 1994). This is due, in part, to the fact that
Americans spend a lot of time there. Indeed, according to Galinsky et al.
(2005), one-third of all U.S. employees can be viewed as being chronically
overworked.13 ‘‘As more Americans spend more time ‘at work,’’’ writes
Poarch, ‘‘work gradually becomes less of a one-dimensional activity and
assumes more of the concerns and activities of both private (family) and
public (social and political) life’’ (cited in Putnam, 2000, p. 86). Religious
concerns and activities should certainly be added to this list. Partly
because Americans are spending more time at work, participation in tradi-
tional forms of social association, including church, has diminished signifi-
cantly in recent decades (Putnam).14 In the past, civic organizations offered
support and provided a place for people to contribute and establish con-
nections. But as involvement in these organizations has declined, people
have brought their need for community (and spirituality) to work. As
Nash and McLennan (2001) say, ‘‘For many businesspeople, the corpora-
tion is the closest thing that they have to community after the family.’’
As indicated, an influential line of research in psychology has found
that women in general have a more communal orientation than men. To
the extent that this is true, the increased presence of women in the work-
place is likely to encourage the notion of ‘‘company as community.’’ In
fact, it opens the prospect of a revolutionary change in the nature of work
and the workplace. Fenn (2001) nicely summarizes the idea:

As women enter the labor force in increasing numbers, the very related-
ness of people to one another will make it increasingly difficult for corpo-
rations and bureaucracies to separate domains such as education and the
family, the neighborhood and the community, from the spheres of work
and politics. In fact, the increased presence of women in the areas for-
merly dominated by men may intensify pressures to put back together
areas of social life that the Western world has torn apart. . . . As the world
of work becomes feminized, relationships on the job will become con-
nected to wider possibilities, networks of relationships, and universes of
meaning. (p. 11)

The relational conception of religion common to women further promotes


the transformation of work and work relations. Traditionally, work and
work relations have been regarded as having primarily (or only) instru-
mental value—that is, work provides the means to life, but not the mean-
ing of life. But when work and work relations are sacralized, they are
seen as having significant non-instrumental value. Work, as explained
above, becomes an expression of one’s deepest principles, and the work-
place is a venue for self-actualization, which one pursues by helping and
serving others in the workplace community and the community at large.
In addition to bestowing deeper significance to work and work rela-
tions, many women report that religion constructively helps integrate
work in their broader lives. By offering a conception of the nature and

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Religion and Women at Work 119

purpose of life generally, religion offers adherents motivation and


direction for living. It identifies and prioritizes activities that are truly
worthwhile and important. Hence, religion provides followers with a
mechanism for balancing career pursuits with other activities. A sacral
perspective, Nash and McLennan (2001) suggest, ‘‘is a way of prevent-
ing oneself from getting too caught up in a corporate mindset that
throws the individual out of balance, a state neither personally reward-
ing nor ultimately effective’’ (p. 23). Consider the comments of one of
their interviewees, a woman struggling with career decisions that
would affect her family life:

I really get carried away with work. I need to put my priorities in bal-
ance, and I think a deeper spiritual life will help me do that. You can’t
wait until it’s all over to decide what’s really important. My religious
belief helps me keep the important things in mind. (p. 25)

The need to find balance in one’s life is especially pressing for work-
ing women. As Gutek (1993) makes clear, employed women face more
stressors, on average, than men, due to gender-asymmetric change in
work and family roles. Employed women face a wide variety of stres-
sors owing to the major commitments of time and energy associated
with the roles of spouse, parent, and worker.
In addition to the strain that comes from juggling multiple roles in
life, there are the day-to-day stresses associated with work. Numerous
surveys and studies indicate that occupational pressures are by far the
leading source of stress for American adults and that these pressures
have steadily increased over the past few decades. For example, accord-
ing to surveys cited by the National Institute for Occupational Safety
and Health (NIOSH, p. 4f), 40% of workers report that their job is ‘‘very
or extremely stressful,’’ and one-fourth of employees view their jobs as
the number one stressor in their lives. Galinsky et al. (2005) found that,
while men work longer hours, take less vacation time, and tend to have
jobs with characteristics leading to more stress, women report having
more demanding jobs and feeling more stress. Women face a variety of
unique stressors in the workplace, related to: the social isolation that
can result from entering a male-dominated workplace or field; a sense
of being undervalued in their efforts or contributions; challenges to their
competency rooted in false stereotypes; sexual discrimination and har-
assment; and, as mentioned above, work/family conflicts. Many women
report that religion plays an important role in stress management.
Religious commitment has been tied to positive methods of coping.15
As Silverman and Pargament (1990) explain,

People do not face stressful situations without resources. They rely on a


system of beliefs, practices, and relationships which affects how they deal

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120 Self, Family, and Social Affects

with difficult situations. In the coping process, this orienting system is


translated into concrete situation-specific appraisals, activities, and goals.
Religion is part of this general orienting system. (p. 2)

Spilka et al. (2003, p. 483f) indicate that three needs underlie people’s
attempts to cope: a need for meaning, based on a desire to make sense of
life events; a need to maintain one’s sense of control over life events; and
a need to maintain one’s sense of self-esteem. Religion is responsive to
all of these needs, and, hence, provides many possible ways of coping
with the stresses of life. Moreover, studies show that religion plays a sig-
nificant role, not only in coping with major negative life events—such as
death, divorce, or job loss—but also in a person’s experience with minor
stressors on a day-to-day basis (Spilka et al., p. 494). Wuthnow (1994)
found that those who regularly attend religious services face the same
sorts of psychological, emotional, interpersonal, and ethical problems as
other workers, but religious people are more likely than non-religious
people to engage in two types of activities that alleviate job-related
stress. Some of these are ‘‘religious-specific’’ activities (activities such as
praying, meditating, or seeking help from a member of the clergy) and
others are ‘‘religion-related’’ activities (activities such as talking with
friends and family, or seeing a therapist, which are encouraged by reli-
gious involvement but do not necessarily occur in a religious setting).16
Studies have consistently found that religious coping is more com-
mon among women, Blacks, the poor, and the elderly (Pargament,
1997). Pargament notes two characteristics of these groups to explain
these findings. First, these groups report higher levels of personal reli-
giousness than others—for them, religion has become a larger part of
their orienting system. Second, these groups tend to have less access to
secular resources and power in our society; so, religion may be one of
the few resources accessible to members of these groups. A number
of recent studies have linked these general findings to the experience
of women in the workplace. Bacchus and Holley (2004) found that pro-
fessional Black women utilize spirituality—particularly prayer, medita-
tion, and inspirational readings—to gain personal strength, inner
peace, and guidance and to reflect on and reappraise stressful situa-
tions in the workplace. Sullivan (2006) determined that the primary
role for faith in the workplace for very low income, urban mothers cen-
tered on coping with the stresses of low-wage service sector work.
Two-thirds of the women in her study reported that they connected
their faith with their daily lives, despite the fact that few attended
church regularly. In Sullivan’s words: ‘‘These mothers found their faith
to be a powerful tool in helping them calm down and deal produc-
tively with rude customers or difficult bosses or coworkers. Faith
helped them carry out unpleasant tasks and complete the work that
had to be accomplished’’ (p. 106).

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Religion and Women at Work 121

One source of stress in the workplace involves ethical problems, and


the workplace is rife with such challenges. Indeed, a number of sur-
veys indicate the widespread perception that there is a crisis in busi-
ness ethics. In a survey conducted by the Gallup Organization for
Wuthnow (1994), 86% of the public said corruption in business is a se-
rious or extremely serious problem in American society. Daniel Yanke-
lovich has even claimed that the main force driving the current search
for spiritual growth in America is declining confidence in the ethics of
business leaders (cited in Nash & McLennan, 2001, p. 31).17 Nash and
McLennan report that ‘‘people feel the need for a personal recovery of
moral grounding and membership in a moral community.’’ Religion
plainly satisfies both needs, and one would expect adherents to turn to
the moral tenets of their religion for guidance and support when facing
ethical predicaments at work. One would also expect to find a positive
relation between religious commitment and ethical conduct.
Wuthnow (1994) found that religious commitment deters ethically
questionable behavior in the workplace, but not much. While religious
people are somewhat more likely to avoid activities such as bending the
rules, lying, arriving late, taking time off that they shouldn’t, using office
equipment for themselves, and charging illegitimate expenses than
are nonreligious people, ‘‘what is also obvious,’’ Wuthnow says, ‘‘is that
the differences between religious and nonreligious people on these items
are not great.’’ This finding is generally consistent with the analysis of
Spilka et al. (2006). Based on their review of nearly a century’s worth of
studies, they conclude that, although religious people say that they are
more ethical than others, religion in fact has little or no impact in reduc-
ing dishonesty and cheating among religious persons.
Wuthnow (1994) attributes these findings to the powerful coun-
tervailing influence of workplace culture and secular society more
generally.

If religion often has only a small impact on how people think about
ethics and how they conduct themselves at work, an important reason is
that the workplace itself has come to provide its own understanding of
ethics, and even more than that, its own well-established procedures that
sometimes obviate the need for ethics at all. Both of these developments
are characteristics of postindustrial society. (p. 88)

Wuthnow is describing the general effect that the process of differentia-


tion has had on the ethical climate of the American workplace. In the
economic sphere, ethics has come to be understood in terms of eco-
nomic logic—honesty, for example, is ‘‘right’’ because it generally pays
to be honest. ‘‘In this perspective, ethics becomes a kind of autono-
mous system that can be understood entirely within the framework of
the workplace,’’ Wuthnow explains, ‘‘rather than needing any external
validation or grounding in an ultimate or transcendent sense of

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122 Self, Family, and Social Affects

reality.’’ But when conduct is justified in terms of economic logic, it


may become too easy to argue that it is permissible to do whatever is
in one’s own (or one’s firm’s) self-interest.
These findings imply that religious workers have compartmentalized
their thinking about ethics: Ethics is understood one way in a work
context but in another way in nonwork contexts. This shapes Wuth-
now’s general conclusion about the relationship between faith and
work in America today:

Religious commitment plays a more important role in guiding work than


has generally been acknowledged in the scholarly literature on this sub-
ject, especially the literature that instructs us to think about work strictly
from a market or organizational orientation. But I also suggest that pre-
vailing cultural assumptions have weakened the influence of religious
commitment in the workplace. We have come to think of religion—at
least implicitly—as a way of making ourselves feel better and have
largely abandoned the idea that religion can guide our behavior, except
to discourage activities considered blatantly immoral. (p. 39)

Religious conviction makes workers feel better by contributing mean-


ing to their work; however, Wuthnow believes this therapeutic func-
tion may be one of the few roles it still can play in a secular society.
The ‘‘prevailing cultural assumptions’’ create a major obstacle for the
seamless integration of faith and work. Before moving on to discuss
these difficulties, it is important to note that those who do successfully
link their faith and work generally experience positive benefits for
doing so.
Validating earlier research, Wuthnow (1994) found that individuals
with higher levels of religious commitment also have higher levels of
job satisfaction.18 Although those who are religious value their relation-
ship to God more than their work, they also value their work more in
absolute terms than those who are not religious. Several lines of empir-
ical research provide support for the connection between religious
commitment and job satisfaction: (a) People reportedly experience less
conflict with, derive greater satisfaction and meaning from, and invest
more time, care, and energy into those aspects of their lives they view
as sacred; (b) religious motivation appears to have positive psychologi-
cal implications; (c) measures of intrinsic religiousness have been tied
to positive methods of coping (Hill & Pargament, 2003, p. 68). Spilka et
al. (2003) suggest that the greater attachment to religion on the part of
women implies that religion is likely to possess more utility for women
than for men.19 ‘‘Because the preponderance of evidence generally indi-
cates a positive association between spirituality or religion and the
health and well-being of women,’’ Williams-Nickelson (2006, p. 186)
writes, ‘‘spiritual self-care strategies such as meditation (or prayer for
women of faith) may be useful.’’

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Religion and Women at Work 123

COMPARTMENTALIZING RELIGIONS AND WORK LIVES


Henry Ford asked, ‘‘Why is it that I always get the whole person when
all I really want is a pair of hands?’’ (cited in Pollard, 1996, p. 25). Many
of today’s business organizations still reflect Ford’s attitude, particularly
when it comes to the religious and, more broadly, spiritual dimensions of
employees’ identity. According to convention, religious and spiritual con-
cerns are personal matters that have nothing to do with work. Moreover,
they can lead to animosity and division. So, employees are encouraged to
check their faith at the door when they go to work. A recent Fortune
magazine article referred to spiritual expression in the workplace as
‘‘the last taboo in corporate America’’ (Gunther, 2001, p. 58). This conven-
tional view is defended in terms of the private-public distinction and is
advanced by the process of differentiation. But whether or not business
organizations want whole persons, whole persons report for work. To
the extent that prevailing cultural norms discourage religion in the work-
place, it is not surprising that many religious workers report less-than-
satisfactory connections between religion and work in their lives.
A theme that consistently emerges in empirical studies of religion and
spirituality in the workplace involves the strong sense of fragmentation
that religious and spiritual workers experience in their lives. As noted
earlier, Wuthnow (1994) concluded from his comprehensive study
that ‘‘many people have learned to compartmentalize [their faith and
work]’’ (p. 55). Mitroff and Denton (1999) report that their interviewees
‘‘realized that they had to separate and compartmentalize significant
parts of themselves at work’’ (p. 38), and Nash and McLennan’s (2001)
subjects ‘‘express feelings of radical disconnection between Sunday ser-
vices and Monday morning activities, describing a sense of living in two
worlds that never touch each other’’ (p. 6f). Those with strong religious
convictions clearly sense that they cannot express them at work and, as
Nash and McLennan put it, ‘‘They are left feeling as if they live out a
spiritual schizophrenia’’ (p. 213). Obviously, they wish this were not the
case. As Mitroff and Denton explain:

People do not want to compartmentalize or fragment their lives. The


search for meaning, purpose, wholeness, and integration is a constant,
never-ending task. It is also a constant, never-ending struggle. To confine
this search to one day a week or after hours violates people’s sense of in-
tegrity, of being whole persons. In short, the soul is not something one
leaves at home. People want to have their souls acknowledged wherever
they go, precisely because their souls accompany them everywhere. They
especially want to be acknowledged as whole persons in the workplace,
where they spend the majority of their waking time. (p. xvf.)

Nash and McLennan likewise conclude that businesspeople of faith are


seeking a greater degree of integration of faith and work.

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124 Self, Family, and Social Affects

Despite their clear desire to live their faith in the workplace, these
studies have found that religious and spiritual workers are extremely
hesitant to act on it. They fear being marginalized, ridiculed, taken
advantage of, or even punished. Mitroff and Denton (1999) refer to this
as the Faustian dilemma: ‘‘On the one hand, [the employees, managers,
and executives to whom they spoke] wished fervently that they could
express more of themselves in the workplace, but they were afraid to
do so. Indeed, many of those to whom [they] talked were terrified to
do so’’ (p. 7). Nash and McLennan’s subjects came up against the same
problem:

This split [between the religious and work-related dimensions of one’s


identity] poses significant psychological and moral uncertainty. . . . [Those
who are religious] struggle with how they can act on, articulate, and
symbolize Christian spirituality within a secular social context. To dis-
guise faith seems inauthentic, but taking it out of the closet may provoke
conflict or accusations of being inappropriate. (2001, p. 7)

Mitroff and Denton point out that ‘‘almost the entire set of respondents
[in their study] was unable to mention at least one organization that
they regarded as a role model in fostering spirituality’’ (p. 44). This is
an indictment of the business community at large.
As indicated, many employees cope with this dilemma by compart-
mentalizing their lives. These workers resign themselves to the fact that
they will not realize their full potential at work. This can exact a con-
siderable toll: ‘‘The individual,’’ Wolfteich (2002) writes, ‘‘lives with a
hollow feeling that one’s everyday life lacks meaning—or at least
meaning that is strongly affirmed by one’s religious tradition’’ (p. 144).
These employees work without the engagement that comes from feel-
ing that they are fully bringing themselves to what they are doing, and
this sense of alienation from their work brings great disappointment.
Part one of this chapter indicated that feminine conceptions of identity,
religion, and work suggest that religious women will have a particu-
larly strong desire to resist fragmentation in their lives. But, clearly,
prevailing cultural norms governing spirituality in the workplace have
made it immensely difficult for religious women to maintain a cohesive
sense of identity.
Commentators fault not only business leaders but also religious
leaders for their failure to provide constructive models of faith in the
contemporary workplace. This is a central theme in Nash and
McLennan (2001) and Wolfteich (2002). Despite surging interest in spi-
rituality in the workplace, the church has largely failed to respond. The
inadequacy of the clergy’s response is exemplified in a quote from one
of Nash and McLennan’s subjects: ‘‘I see many tensions between my
Christian beliefs and what I do at work, and I feel deeply responsible

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Religion and Women at Work 125

to be a ‘good Christian’ in my daily life. But my pastor is the last per-


son I’d discuss this with’’ (p. 3). Based upon their research, Nash and
McLennan concluded that ‘‘businesspeople and clergy live in two
worlds’’ (p. 128). These two groups have conflicting attitudes about the
nature and value of business in general. Moreover, businesspeople per-
ceive that members of the clergy have little understanding of the day-
to-day life of a businessperson. (Most members of the clergy that were
interviewed confirmed that this perception is accurate.) Wolfteich
argues that the Roman Catholic Church has failed to adequately
address the complexity of women’s work in particular. For example,
the church has not offered up female role models whose lives indicate
that work can be a spiritual path.
This paling of work in the lives of great women in the [Roman Catholic]
tradition encourages contemporary women to compartmentalize their
working lives from their faith. Work seems irrelevant to faith, or uncom-
fortably dissonant with the values women learn in church. The reality is
that women find themselves in new, demanding social and economic
roles with little guidance about how to fit these new roles into traditional
religious frameworks that, however, remain important sources of identity
and community. No wonder women describe an experience of fragmen-
tation. No wonder many compartmentalize these two seemingly unre-
lated areas of life; compartmentalization is a useful strategy for living
with dissonance. (p. 143f.)

So, religious businesspeople in general—and women in particular—do


not receive helpful guidance or support from either their work or reli-
gious organizations, and they are left to navigate these complex issues
of identity and meaning on their own.

PART III
As it has been interpreted by the courts, federal law addressing reli-
gion in the workplace tends to reinforce the conventional view that re-
ligion is a private matter and the workplace is a secular sphere. Title
VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act (42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq.) prohibits re-
ligious discrimination in private and public employment.20 The Act
also requires employers to reasonably accommodate the religious
beliefs and practices of an employee, unless doing so would create
an undue hardship on the employer’s business (42 U.S.C. § 2000e(j)).
Under the Act, the term religion includes ‘‘all aspects of religious ob-
servance and practice, as well as belief.’’ But the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) Guidelines interpret religion more
liberally: Religious beliefs include ‘‘moral or ethical beliefs as to what
is right or wrong which are sincerely held with the strength of tradi-
tional religious views’’ (29 C.F.R. § 1605.1).

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126 Self, Family, and Social Affects

According to the EEOC (2007), between 1997 and 2006, complaints


under Title VII alleging religion-based discrimination jumped nearly 50%
(from 1,707 complaints in 1997 to 2,541 in 2006). During this same period,
charges alleging race-based discrimination dropped almost 7% (from
29,199 to 27,238); sex-based discrimination charges dropped about 6%
(from 24,728 to 23,247); and discrimination charges filed under the Amer-
icans with Disabilities Act dropped around 14% (from 18,108 to 15,575).
Some religious discrimination claims arising under Title VII involve
simple or ordinary discrimination. This occurs when a person is denied
an employment opportunity because an employer makes a negative
judgment based on her religion.21 Also, an employer’s policies and
practices may not favor one religion over another. For example, it
would be unlawful for a company to refuse to hire a Muslim simply
because she is a Muslim, or for it to allow Christian employees to dis-
play religious articles or messages in their workspace while prohibiting
Hindu employees from doing the same.
While Title VII permits religious expression by employees and their
supervisors, it prohibits harassment. Quid pro quo harassment occurs
when an employee is required, explicitly or implicitly, to acquiesce to
the religious beliefs or practices of a superior in order to obtain a job
benefit. A more common form of harassment involves a supervisor or
coworker creating a hostile work environment. Like in cases of sexual
or racial harassment, whether a particular employee’s work environ-
ment is ‘‘hostile’’ for purposes of religious discrimination depends on
the totality of the circumstances, including the frequency of the alleg-
edly harassing conduct, the severity of the conduct (whether it is
humiliating or physically threatening), and whether the conduct unrea-
sonably interferes with the employee’s work performance. If, for exam-
ple, Christian workers inspired by their recent viewing of Mel Gibson’s
The Passion of the Christ repeatedly taunt a Jewish colleague, making
working conditions very unpleasant, the worker has suffered religious
harassment. If, after she has complained, nothing is done to stop the
abuse, the employer may be implicated.22
A third type of religious discrimination occurs when an employer
fails to properly accommodate an employee’s religious beliefs or prac-
tices. In these cases, an employee establishes a prima facie case of reli-
gious discrimination by showing that: the employee has a bona fide
religious belief that conflicts with an employment requirement; the em-
ployee informed the employer of this belief; and the employee was dis-
ciplined for failing to comply with the requirement.23 After this prima
facie showing, the employer then must demonstrate that it offered a
reasonable accommodation or that any reasonable accommodation
would have resulted in an undue hardship to the employer. Common
employee accommodation requests involve holy day observances (such
as when a Sabbatarian requests Saturdays or Sundays off, or a Roman

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Religion and Women at Work 127

Catholic requests Good Friday off), religious garb requirements (such


as when a Muslim woman wears a headscarf or a Jewish man wears a
yarmulke), and religious grooming requirements (such as when a Ras-
tafarian wears dreadlocks or a Sikh wears a mustache and beard). But
accommodation claims may also involve religious speech issues (such
as when a ‘‘pro-life’’ Christian wears a button with a photograph of an
aborted fetus24), issues related to specific job-related duties (such as
when a pharmacist refuses on religious grounds to speak to any cus-
tomers unless they are pre-screened by another employee to ensure that
they are not seeking birth control25), or issues related to union member-
ship (such as when an employee refuses to affiliate herself with a labor
organization because of religious beliefs26).
The Supreme Court has interpreted the key provisions of Title VII’s
accommodation requirement very narrowly, and in so doing it has sig-
nificantly limited the employer’s obligation to accommodate employ-
ees’ religious beliefs and practices. In Trans World Airlines v. Hardison
(432 U.S. 63 (1977)), the Court determined that anything more than a de
minimis cost—that is, a nominal or negligible cost—to an employer con-
stitutes an ‘‘undue hardship’’ for purposes of the accommodation
requirement. Undue hardship also may be shown if accommodating
the employee would require an employer to violate a statute or regula-
tion.27 The Court held in Ansonia Board of Education v. Philbrook (479
U.S. 60 (1986)) that an employer can satisfy its duty to accommodate
by offering any reasonable accommodation. This means that the
employer does not have to provide the accommodation preferred by
the employee, so long as the employer’s proposed accommodation
effectively eliminates the religious conflict and does not disadvantage
the individual’s employment opportunities.
Based upon her review of recent cases involving religious accommo-
dation claims under Title VII, Smith (2004) concluded:

The safeguards provided for employee religious practices have been so


restricted by court decisions that an employee who requests a religious
accommodation must rely more on an employer’s generosity and good-
will than on statutory protection. In case after case, employers have cho-
sen to deny employees’ requests for accommodation by citing some
trivial difficulty, perhaps even a ‘‘potential’’ hardship, as undue; in other
words, requiring more than a de minimis cost. (p. 64)

There does, however, remain a category of very-low-to-no-cost accom-


modations that employers are typically required to provide, including
exemptions from dress codes and grooming rules, scheduling changes
that can be accomplished without overtime pay and without infringing
on the rights of other employees, and approved absences for occasional
religious holidays. Moreover, some lower federal courts appear to have
deviated from the restrictive doctrine that flows from Hardison and

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128 Self, Family, and Social Affects

Philbrook by writing opinions favoring the employee’s position.28 This


has left the judicial landscape somewhat unsettled, as the line between
the trivial costs that do constitute undue hardship and the even more
trivial costs that do not remains unclear.
The Supreme Court’s constrictive readings of Title VII’s accommoda-
tion requirement have been sharply criticized by those who favor more
extensive religious freedom in the workplace. The Workplace Religious
Freedom Act (WRFA), which has been introduced in every Congress since
1997, aims to strengthen the existing requirements imposed on employers
to accommodate the religious practices of their employees.29 The bill has
historically received support from both religious conservatives and some
of the most socially liberal members of Congress. The WRFA is backed by
the Coalition for Religious Freedom in the Workplace, a 50-member
strong partnership of organizations affiliated with a wide spectrum of
religions. It is opposed, at least in its current form, by the Chamber of
Commerce, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and a variety of
women’s advocacy groups, including the National Women’s Law Center.
The WRFA makes three significant changes to Title VII’s religious
accommodation requirement. First, the WRFA requires employers to
accommodate three specific categories of employees’ religious practices:
practices related to wearing religious clothing, practices related to taking
time off to observe religious holidays, and other religious practices that
may have ‘‘a temporary or tangential effect on the ability to perform job
functions.’’ This third category is intended to accommodate cases like that
of a Muslim who requests to take brief time during the day to pray. Accord-
ing to the WRFA, these three types of practices do not conflict with the
‘‘essential functions’’ or ‘‘core requirements’’ of the employment position.
Second, the WRFA defines ‘‘undue hardship’’ as ‘‘an accommodation
requiring significant difficulty or expense.’’ The WRFA models its under-
standing of undue hardship on the standard articulated in the Ameri-
cans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 (42 U.S.C. §§ 12101–12213),
which is the only other federal statute to impose a duty of accommoda-
tion on employers. Employers are required to accommodate disabled
employees—for example, by modifying facilities—unless doing so would
cause the employer undue hardship. However, the standard applied to
determine undue hardship under the ADA is much more rigorous than
the standard applied under Title VII of the CRA per Hardison.30 The
ADA lists a number of factors to be considered in determining whether
an accommodation for a disabled employee would impose an undue
hardship on the employer. These factors include the nature and cost of
the accommodation, the overall financial resources of the employer, and
the type of operations of the employer. Although the factors for deter-
mining undue hardship set forth in the WRFA are not identical to those
of the ADA, they do require the cost of accommodation to be quantified
and considered in relation to the size of the employer.

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Religion and Women at Work 129

Finally, the WRFA requires that, for an accommodation to be consid-


ered reasonable, it must fully remove the conflict between employment
requirements and the religious observance or practice of the employee.
This provision makes it clear that a reasonable accommodation, by defini-
tion, cannot require any compromise of the employee’s religious beliefs.
Proponents of the bill claim that the WRFA will ensure that Ameri-
can workers of all creeds are accorded respect by employers and are
able to remain true to their faith in the workplace. For example, Mor-
gan (2005) writes, ‘‘If enacted, the WRFA could play a significant role
in bringing the legal and business communities’ perception of religion
and its practice at work in line with the expectations of an increasingly
religious workforce and a society that exhibits growing religious plu-
ralism’’ (p. 75). Opponents of the bill worry that the WRFA will sanc-
tion proselytizing and harassing behavior by religious employees. The
ACLU (2005) claims that the WRFA threatens critical personal and civil
rights of coworkers, customers, and patients. For example, if the bill
becomes law, pharmacists with religious objections to contraception
might refuse to fill birth-control prescriptions, or police officers might
refuse to protect abortion clinics. Other critics argue that there are good
reasons to distinguish religious observance from disabilities. Thompson
(2005), for example, writes: ‘‘Religious employees forced to decide
whether to honor a religious belief or stay at a job face a difficult
choice, to be sure. But people with disabilities have no choice at all.’’
Because religious observance is a matter of choice and disability is not,
Thompson argues it is appropriate that the law should require less by
way of accommodating employees’ religious practices.

PART IV
If the prevailing policy of separating religion from the workplace
fails to acknowledge that the ‘‘whole person’’ comes to work, what are
the alternatives? Are there any theoretical models for fostering spiritu-
ality in the workplace? And, if there are, what sorts of reasons are
there for organizations to adopt these models given that the law does
not require it? Is it good for business? Is it morally incumbent upon
organizations to promote the spiritual development of their workers?
As noted in this chapter’s opening, much of the literature tends to take
for granted a strict distinction between spirituality and religion (for
example, see Conger, 1994). Again, spirituality is understood to address
many of the same concerns as religion—concerns about the nature and
purpose of life, transcendence, and moral values as these all manifest
themselves in daily life. But, in contrast to conventional religion, spiritu-
ality is not formally organized or denominational; it is broadly inclusive
in accepting all ways of experiencing the sacred. Most authors take for
granted the notion that spirituality unites while religion divides, and,

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130 Self, Family, and Social Affects

hence, a good deal of the literature embraces spirituality while rejecting


religion.31 Proponents of workplace spirituality typically appeal to a
‘‘person-centered’’ approach to management. This approach recognizes
that the worker is a complex individual who brings all of her beliefs,
commitments, and motivations with her to work, and that her multifac-
eted identity impacts her potential and actual job performance. This
approach is distinguished from classic management theories as typified
by Taylor’s ‘‘scientific management,’’ which view workers as one-dimen-
sional and motivated mainly by rational self-interest. Despite this shift in
management paradigms, Sheep (2006, p. 368) has noted that there is still
a distinct instrumental rationality that runs through the workplace spiri-
tuality literature: The ultimate rationale for promoting workplace spiri-
tuality is its alleged link to better organizational performance. This final
section critically evaluates the model of workplace spirituality as it is
exemplified in the work of Mitroff and Denton (1999). This model, it is
argued, is inadequate for a number of reasons. This section and chapter
concludes by pointing to a more promising model for accommodating
both the spiritual and religious convictions of workers.
Mitroff and Denton (1999), as with Wuthnow (1994) and Nash and
McClennan (2001), have conducted pioneering empirical studies of reli-
gion and spirituality in the workplace. They have documented spiritual
employees’ tendency to compartmentalize their lives, and they mount
a compelling case against ‘‘the usual way in which organizations
respond to spiritual matters and concerns of the soul by declaring them
inappropriate or out of bounds’’ (p. 5). The ‘‘Chinese wall’’ that organi-
zations erect between the so-called private concerns of their employees
and the public demands of their businesses, they argue, creates both an
external and an internal division: ‘‘It is external in that it walls off the
organization from the deepest sources of creativity and productivity of
its members. It is internal in that it produces a fundamental split in the
souls of its members’’ (p. 6). Mitroff and Denton advise organizations
to tear down this wall and ‘‘seek ways to tie together and integrate the
potential inherent in the soul with the realities of the workplace’’; for
doing so will unleash ‘‘the immense energy or potential that lies at the
core of each of us yet remains largely unacknowledged and untapped
in our places of work’’ (p. 5).
But while Mitroff and Denton (1999) believe that spirituality should
be welcomed into the workplace, they also believe that religion should
be turned away. They report that the majority of the participants in
their study indicated that ‘‘any and all expression of religion in the
workplace is highly inappropriate’’ (p. 73). Commenting on this find-
ing, Mitroff and Denton write:

We are inclined strongly to agree with them, even though we realize it


may be difficult to ban all religious talk because it can be construed as

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Religion and Women at Work 131

protected speech. Nonetheless, in spite of the legal difficulties, the vast


majority of our respondents felt that it was highly desirable to set clear
limits on religious expression and talk in the workplace. Many felt even
more strongly that zero-based tolerance policies should be set. In other
words, no religious talk at all should be tolerated. However unfortunate
this attitude may be, it means that employees who consider religion
extremely important in their lives will not be able to realize their full
potential in most environments. The most desirable if not the only alter-
native may be for them to seek employment in expressly religious organ-
izations. (p. 73f.)

Setting aside the complex issue of protected speech, this analysis is


problematic for two reasons. First, it appears to commit the ‘‘is/ought
fallacy’’ to the extent that it assumes that because things are a certain
way, they ought to be that way—precisely, it assumes that because
people disapprove of religious expression in the workplace, religious
expression ought to be banned. But perhaps Mitroff and Denton, by
indicating that their respondents’ general attitude toward religion in
the workplace is ‘‘unfortunate,’’ do not intend any such inference to be
drawn. Even if this is so, it is not clear how their view that religious
expression in the workplace is inappropriate is to be reconciled with
their more general view that organizations should acknowledge the
whole person. To admit spirituality into the workplace while turning
away religion looks to be inconsistent, particularly when they them-
selves acknowledge that ‘‘Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, and Islam
are all historically important ways in which spirituality has been expe-
rienced and celebrated’’ (p. 23). In light of the discussion in part one, it
should be clear that religion is a fundamental dimension of the reli-
gious workers’ identity, and, moreover, that positive outcomes are typi-
cally associated with the successful integration of faith and work.
Perhaps Mitroff and Denton could respond that the benefits of per-
mitting religious expression in the workplace are outweighed by the
potential for acrimony and conflict that would result. But there are
problems with this response. First, it uncritically assumes that religious
expression in the workplace generally would be divisive and that the
overall impact on the organization in terms of efficiency would be neg-
ative. The court cases described previously, and the media in general,
tend to focus our attention on those cases of religious expression that
involve deep conflict. Perhaps these cases are the exception, though,
and religious expression in the workplace typically does not lead to
disagreement. But even if it were established that religious expression
frequently leads to conflict, it may be the case that the moral value
associated with religious expression trumps the loss of economic value.
This last consideration leads to questions about the underlying ra-
tionale that Mitroff and Denton (1999) posit for promoting workplace
spirituality. Like many proponents of the ‘‘spiritual organization,’’ they

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132 Self, Family, and Social Affects

defend their view primarily in terms of instrumental reasons—that is,


they argue that organizations should acknowledge the whole person,
including her spiritual dimensions, because doing this translates into
superior organizational performance. Thus, at the heart of Mitroff and
Denton’s argument are their findings that

those organizations that identify more strongly with spirituality or have


a greater sense of spirituality have employees who (1) are less fearful of
their organizations, (2) are far less likely to compromise their basic beliefs
and values in the workplace, (3) perceive their organization as signifi-
cantly more profitable, and (4) report that they can bring significantly
more of their complete selves to work, specifically their creativity and
intelligence. (p. xiv)

The cover-flap of their book tells managers, executives, and organiza-


tion designers that they will learn how to ‘‘harness the power of spirit-
ual energy . . . in order to make [their organizations] more creative,
competitive, and profitable.’’32 Now, it might well be the case that
organizations that accommodate the spiritual dimensions of their
employees’ lives do experience these benefits (note that Mitroff and
Denton’s (1999) findings do not prove that organizations are in fact
more profitable, but only that employees of these organizations perceive
them to be); but a number of theorists find this approach to justifying
workplace spirituality troubling. From the point of view of spiritual
and religious employees, the focus should be on exploring how work
can be an extension of spirituality and faith, rather than on how spiri-
tuality and faith can be profitable tools for business. Sheep (2006) dubs
the attempt to justify workplace spirituality in terms of the odd admix-
ture of concerns about spirituality and profitability the ‘‘instrumentality
dilemma.’’ Spiritual and religious employees are likely to develop the
sense that their spirituality and faith are being exploited for the sake of
the bottom line rather than being accorded the moral respect that they
rightly deserve.
Some theorists have already formed this impression. Joanne Ciulla
(2000), for example, offers a scathing appraisal of the workplace spiri-
tuality movement.

While this interest in religion and spirituality at work is admirable, it


is also problematic. . . . From management’s perspective, the spiritual
approach picks up where the psychological approach left off. In the
1950s management theorists cultivated workers’ ‘‘need’’ for belonging-
ness. In the 1990s they are cashing in on their need for spirituality and
meaning. The nonreligious spiritual approach [i.e., Mitroff and Denton’s
approach] is most interesting. It offers a combination of religion ‘‘lite’’
and therapy ‘‘lite.’’ This approach attempts to satisfy what some want
from religion without the work of faith and what some want from ther-
apy without the work of changing. But the biggest problem is that

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Religion and Women at Work 133

behind this desire for spirituality often lurk serious ethical problems
about how employers and employees treat each other. In the end, spiritu-
ality at work does what pop psychology and management fads have
always done: It attempts to make people feel good and adapt, not
address the serious problems of power, conflict, and autonomy that make
people feel bad in the first place. (p. 222f)

According to Ciulla’s broader analysis, employers often use progressive


concepts—like workplace spirituality—to develop new, more subtle,
ways to dominate employees. The workplace spirituality movement is
the just latest attempt to harness the motivation, goodwill, and energy
of employees for the purpose of improving organizational performance.
Workplace spirituality, in other words, is the newest opiate that
employers have to offer employees. In Ciulla’s view, the growing inter-
est in religion and spirituality in the workplace is symptomatic of a
deeper problem involving the nature of modern work.

The real problem is that their work zaps them of the energy, the time,
and perhaps even the will to take part in meaningful activities and com-
munities outside of work. If employers want to fill this need for some-
thing more, the answer is not a prayer meeting or a seminar on finding
your soul. They need to rethink the structure of the workplace and give
employees more time and flexibility to lead good lives outside of work
without fear of losing promotions, bonuses, or jobs. (p. 223f)

There is a good deal of truth in this analysis, but to the extent that it
suggests that spiritual and religious concerns are matters to be pursued
outside of work, it perpetuates the customary view that religion is a pri-
vate matter and the workplace is a secular domain.
What is needed in light of the discussion to this point is a frame-
work that acknowledges the significant non-instrumental value of spirit-
ual and religious expression within the workplace. A promising model
is offered by Hicks (2003), who argues that organizations have a moral
obligation to adopt a policy of ‘‘respectful pluralism.’’
The guiding principle of respectful pluralism is termed the presump-
tion of inclusion. It can be stated as follows: To the greatest extent,
workplace organizations should allow employees to express their reli-
gious, spiritual, cultural, political, and other commitments at work,
subject to the limitations of noncoercion, nondegradation, and nones-
tablishment, and in consideration of the reasonable instrumental
demands of the for-profit enterprise (p. 173).33
This framework is intended to be responsive to the circumstances of
the contemporary American workplace: It acknowledges that religious
diversity among employees is steadily growing, that religious and spir-
itual beliefs are a fundamental and inseparable part of many employ-
ees’ lives, that the workplace is increasingly becoming a public site,

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134 Self, Family, and Social Affects

that the place of religion in public life is highly contested, and that
companies are for-profit enterprises. The ultimate aim of this model is
to foster mutual respect amidst diversity in the workplace.
Hicks (2003) intentionally eschews an instrumental justification of his
principle and defends it exclusively on moral grounds. The presump-
tion of inclusion is premised on the moral values of human dignity and
respect, which, Hicks argues, entail a basic right of religious exercise.
Like other basic rights, such as the right to physical security, which
entails the right to safe working conditions, the right to religious free-
dom is part of the structure in which employment occurs. The moral
obligation to respect workers’ dignity is prior to considerations of eco-
nomic efficiency; so, the worker does not forfeit her basic rights, includ-
ing the right to religious expression, simply by entering the workplace.
‘‘The essential point is that the moral status of employees, possessing
dignity and deserving respect, builds a presumption for a high degree
of ‘personal’ expression,’’ Hicks explains (p. 173).34 There is a stark dif-
ference between the presumption of inclusion involved in respectful
pluralism and the presumption of exclusion that is tacit in the current
understanding of the workplace as a secular domain. The default
assumption of respectful pluralism is that it is legitimate for a worker
to bring her religious convictions to work, and the moral burden is on
the organization to justify policies that would limit personal expression.
Respectful pluralism does not warrant any and all expression simply
because it is religious. Just as the religious employee is entitled to dig-
nity and respect, so are others in the organization. Hence, the same
moral values that justify the presumption of inclusion also imply
several norms limiting personal expression. First, religious employees
may not illegitimately impose their religious values on others. Second,
religious employees may not employ speech or action that shows clear
disrespect for particular individuals or groups of coworkers or third par-
ties. Third, the organization as an institution may not endorse or pro-
mote any particular religious tradition, because employees from
differing religious (or secular) backgrounds may understandably feel
compelled to assent to the privileged viewpoint. Clearly, determining
whether these norms have been violated—determining whether some
instance of personal expression is coercive or degrading, or whether
some institutional policy gives preferential treatment to a particular reli-
gious outlook—will require the exercise of moral judgment.
Respectful pluralism acknowledges that, within the bounds of legal-
ity and morality, companies have a legitimate right to seek profits. This
entails the employers’ right to limit personal expression for legitimate
reasons related to efficiency, as long as they do so on an equal basis
for all employees. But the presumption of inclusion entails that costs in
efficiency would have to be significant before limits on personal
expression would be warranted. ‘‘Respectful pluralism’s approach,’’

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Religion and Women at Work 135

Hicks writes, ‘‘requires accommodation—on moral grounds—that goes


beyond the standard de minimis interpretation of the legal framework
required in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act’’ (p. 176). Hicks does not
discuss the WRFA, but on the basis of his discussion it seems that his
understanding of what would constitute an undue burden is generally
in line with the proposed legislation.
Religion is an essential and healthy aspect of the identity of many
women in the American workforce. But the traditional policy of sepa-
rating religion and work—grounded in the distinction between
‘‘private’’ and ‘‘public’’ spheres—makes it very difficult for religious
women in the workforce to live an integrated life. Many women
respond by compartmentalizing, which often leads to significant psy-
chological and moral strain. There are alternative models of public and
organizational policy, however, that would accord religious women
greater freedom to live and express their faith in the context of work.

NOTES
1. Spilka et al. (2003, p. 11) also point out that, in the current social and be-
havioral sciences, there is no commonly accepted way of distinguishing the
meaning of ‘‘spirituality’’ from that of ‘‘religion’’—indeed, some theorists
maintain that it is not possible to distinguish the two—and, hence, the use of
these terms is highly ambiguous in the literature. So, one must check what an
investigator actually measures, regardless of the investigator’s usage of these
terms, to determine what is being researched.
2. Hicks also points out that this literature tends to focus on the views and
experiences of business executives, and, to the extent that men are dispropor-
tionately represented in this group, this literature tends to focus on the views
and experiences of men.
3. Nobel Prize winning economist Robert Fogel (2000) argues that the rise
of the Religious Right is symptomatic of the ‘‘Fourth Great Awakening’’ in
American history.
4. An excellent introduction to this literature is Douglas Hicks’s Religion and the
Workplace (2003).
5. According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics
(2006), in 1970, 43% of women age 16 and older were in the labor force. By the
late 1990s, the labor force participation rate of women had risen to 60%. From
1975 to 2000, the labor force participation rate of mothers with children under
age 18 rose from 47% to 73%. Moreover, during the past several decades,
women have been increasingly employed in higher paying occupations. In
2000, half of all the workers in management, professional, and related occupa-
tions were women. The Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau (2006) notes
that in 2006 a record 67 million women were employed in the U.S., and women
comprised 46% of the total U.S. labor force.
6. Wuthnow’s analysis was based upon a very detailed survey of more
than 2,000 members of the U.S. labor force. This research was supplemented
with in-depth interviews of 175 people.

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136 Self, Family, and Social Affects

7. Woodhead (2001, p. 73) summarizes the three most frequently offered


hypotheses: (1) Women are more religious than men because of their structural
locations in society (religion, like housework, has become one of the gendered
institutions created by the division of labor); (2) women are differently social-
ized; (3) women’s greater religiosity is a compensatory response to their mate-
rial and social deprivation. (See also Spilka et al., 2003, p. 154f).
8. Consider, for example, Hassan (2003): ‘‘Many traditional societies—
including the Muslim—divide the world into private space (that is, the home,
which is the domain of women) and public space (that is, the rest of the world,
which is the domain of men). Muslims, in general, tend to believe that it is best
to keep men and women segregated, in their separate, designated spaces,
because the intrusion of women into men’s space is seen as leading to the dis-
ruption, if not the destruction, of the fundamental order of things. If some exi-
gency makes it necessary for women to enter into men’s space, they must
make themselves ‘‘faceless,’’ or, at least, as inconspicuous as possible. This is
achieved through veiling, which is thus an extension of the idea of the segrega-
tion of the sexes’’ (p. 226).
9. Just as Gilligan criticized Kohlberg’s theory for its failure to deal with
the unique aspects of women’s moral development, some (e.g., Schweitzer,
1997) have criticized the leading theories of religious development for their fail-
ure to address the unique aspects of women’s religious experience. For a dis-
cussion of this issue, see Spilka et al., 2003, p. 81.
10. This position—sometimes dubbed the ‘‘different voice’’ position—is not
without its critics. For an overview of the controversies related to this line of
work, see Donelson (1999, p. 319ff).
11. When asked ‘‘what do you find most satisfying about your work,’’ the
most common answer offered by participants in the USCCB focus groups was
helping and serving others. Though this answer was especially common for
educators and those in the health professions, it dominated all occupational
categories.
12. Josselson’s subjects were college educated women of the boomer genera-
tion. It is likely that the experience of women with different educational and
socioeconomic backgrounds, and, perhaps, younger women, would be very
different.
13. See Juliet B. Schor’s The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of
Leisure (1992). A more recent analysis by the Organisation for Economic Coop-
eration and Development indicates that during 1970–2002 the number of hours
worked per capita declined in 14 of 19 nations surveyed. France recorded the
sharpest drop among declining nations with 23.5%. Germany dropped 17.1%;
Japan dropped 16.6%; and the United Kingdom dropped 7.2%. For the five
nations whose per capita hours rose, the U.S. led the way with a 20.0%
increase in hours (OECD, 2004, p. 6).
14. A number of commentators attribute declining attendance at religious
services to the increased participation of women in the labor force. In his intro-
duction to Gender and Religion (1994), sociologist William Swatos writes, ‘‘I
would be willing to offer the hypothesis that virtually the entire ‘‘decline’’ of
‘‘the churches’’ in America can be ‘‘explained’’ by the entrance of women into
the workforce, certainly more so than by anything like a ‘‘crisis of belief’’
(p. xi).

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Religion and Women at Work 137

15. The definitive work in the field of religious coping is Kenneth Parga-
ment’s The Psychology of Religion and Coping (1997).
16. Those attending religious services every week were 32 points more likely
to pray or meditate to relieve feelings of stress from their job; 11 points more
likely to discuss stress with others (9 points more likely to discuss stress with
their spouses, 6 points more likely to talk to a member of the clergy, and 3
points more likely to talk with friends); 5 points less likely to come home and
watch television; and 4 points less likely to drink alcohol (p. 321).
17. According to Gallup (2006b), nearly one in three Americans say that
business executives have ‘‘low’’ or ‘‘very low’’ ethical standards.
18. An emerging body of empirical evidence supports, in varying degrees, a
positive relationship between religiousness and well-being in general (see Spilka
et al., 2003, Chapter 15; and Miller & Thoresen, 2003), and as researchers have
made advances in conceptualizing and measuring religion, some potential rea-
sons for this positive association are starting to emerge (see Hill & Pargament,
2003).
19. The author is unaware of any investigation into whether religious and
spiritual factors may play some role in the ‘‘gender/job satisfaction para-
dox’’—that is, the finding that women report levels of job satisfaction that are
comparable to and often exceed those of men, although, in objective terms,
women do not fare as well as men in the workplace.
20. The Civil Rights Act (CRA) applies to all private employers of 15 or
more persons whose business affects interstate commerce. (Virtually all states
have similar fair employment laws that reach smaller employers than does the
CRA. Many of these state laws are more stringent than federal law or address
areas not covered by federal law.) The CRA also applies to public employers
and labor unions. Religious entities are exempted from the provisions of the
CRA prohibiting hiring based on religion.
21. Note that Title VII also prohibits discrimination against atheists. So, an
employer may not refuse to hire, or fire, an individual simply because she has
no religious belief or affiliation.
22. This case is described by Cummins, H.J. (2005, August 24). Sea of faith
washing over the workplace. Star Tribune. Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN.
23. See Wilson v. US West Communications, 58 F. 3d 1337 (8th Cir. 1995), cit-
ing Bhatia v. Chevron, U.S.A. 734 F.2d 1382 (1984). Note that atheists can appeal
to the reasonable accommodation provision of Title VII if their rejection of reli-
gion is the source of a workplace conflict. See, for example, EEOC v. Townley
Engineering and Mfg. Co., 859 F.2d 610 (9th Cir. 1988).
24. See Wilson v. US West Communications, 58 F. 3d 1337 (8th Cir. 1995).
25. See Noesen v. Med. Staffing Network, No. 06-2831 (7th Cir. 2007).
26. See McDaniel v. Essex Int’l., 696 F. 2d 34, 35 (6th Cir. 1982).
27. As in Hardison, employers often invoke the provisions of collective bar-
gaining agreements, which are enforced by federal labor laws, in refusing to
accommodate employee accommodation requests.
28. For example, in Protos v. Volkswagen of America (797 F. 2d 129 (3d. Cir.
1986)) the court refused to find undue hardship when an employee of a large
automobile manufacturer requested time off for his Sabbath, and in EEOC v.
Ilona of Hungary (198 F. 3d 1569 (7th Cir. 1997)) the court held that a beauty sa-
lon faced no undue hardship in accommodating two Jewish employees’ request

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138 Self, Family, and Social Affects

for unpaid leave to participate in Yom Kippur, even though the day the
employees requested off happened to be the busiest day of the week for the sa-
lon.
29. In the spring of 2007, the WRFA was reintroduced in the House as H.R.
1431 by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D, NY). The bill is cosponsored by 13 Repre-
sentatives. The bill currently rests in committee, where it has died every year
that it has been introduced.
30. One of the main reasons why the ADA has such a strong definition of
undue hardship is because its drafters saw how the Court had eviscerated the
religious accommodation requirement through its narrow interpretations of
Section 701(j) of Title VII.
31. Consider, for example, Fairholm (1998): ‘‘While important, the religious
nature of spirituality is not considered here. This aspect of spirituality is better
accommodated in doctrinaire religions and their social instrumentalities.
Indeed, many, including this author, would object to matters of personal reli-
gion being introduced in the workplace’’ (p. 113).
32. To be fair, although an economic mode of justification dominates their
book, Mitroff and Denton do hint at other sorts of arguments in favor of devel-
oping workplace spirituality. Although they do not explicitly say so, it seems
clear that they believe it is morally wrong for organizations to force spiritual
employees to compartmentalize their lives. (But, again, why is it not similarly
morally wrong for organizations to force religious employees to compartmental-
ize their lives?) They also suggest that fostering workplace spirituality will pro-
mote ethical organizational cultures, which benefits society more generally.
33. Respectful pluralism provides a framework for all forms of personal
expression in the workplace. This is advantageous for it does not require man-
agers to discriminate between religious, spiritual, cultural, and political expres-
sions. Consider, for example, does a ‘‘pro-life’’ button constitute religious or
political speech?
34. It seems any moral system that regards living an integrated, noncom-
partmentalized life as a fundamental moral value would support the presump-
tion of inclusion. If people should live integrated, noncompartmentalized lives,
then there is a presumption that they should be allowed to express their reli-
gious convictions in the workplace. So, while Hicks defends the presumption
of inclusion in terms of moral concepts such as ‘‘dignity,’’ ‘‘respect,’’ and
‘‘rights,’’ one could make a case for the presumption of inclusion in terms of
other moral frameworks, including Aristotelian ethics and some forms of femi-
nist ethics.

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© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Chapter 9

Workforce Issues: In My Own Voice


LuAnn Hart

I am currently an administrator for the Arthropod-Borne Disease Pro-


gram (ABDP), which is located within the Bureau of Communicable
Disease Control, Division of Epidemiology, New York State Depart-
ment of Health (NYSDOH). It is clear to see by this description that I
work within a bureaucratic organization, which most government
agencies are. I have worked for this program for 6 years and am pre-
paring for an imminent change in programs.
As an administrator I am responsible for day-to-day operations
including human resource management, procurement, and oversight of
contracts of a complex program that is charged with surveillance of ar-
thropod-borne diseases throughout New York state. Arthropod-borne
diseases are those that are transmitted by insects, primarily mosquitoes
and ticks.
I started with the NYSDOH in early 1994, when I accepted an
entry-level secretarial position (Keyboard Specialist grade 6). At the
time, my husband was out of work due to a recession and we needed
benefits. I had been working for a mortgage company where I held the
position of new construction (residential) underwriter. The job was
very challenging; however, the pay was equal to the entry-level secre-
tarial position in state government. At the time, I held two associate
degrees: legal secretarial science and business administration. I hadn’t
spent a single day as a secretary until I came to work for NYSDOH. I
worked the equivalent of 50% effort or half-time (2 days one week, 3
days the next week). We also had two young daughters, ages 3 and 7
months.
It did not take long before I was completely bored and asked for
more work. It never mattered to me if I was working beyond my pay

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144 Self, Family, and Social Affects

scale—I needed to be busy, challenged, and constantly learning. Over


time, I accepted a five-grade promotion to an entry-level administrative
position. I took this job full-time because my husband was again out of
work (he worked in the commercial construction industry, which was
badly hurt during the early 1990s) and it was a requirement to get the
promotion. I worked full-time for about 18 months, when I had my
son. During that time, there was a reorganization and I was ‘‘saved’’
when I was assigned to another program, where I went on to receive
two more promotions over the next 3 years. During that time, I went
back to Siena College (yes, work, three young children, a home, a hus-
band, a dog, and everything I had ever wanted) to earn a BS in Mar-
keting/Management. This was difficult because I dealt daily with the
pulls from demands of daily life. However, I knew that I needed this
degree to advance further within the health department. It didn’t take
me long to realize how credentialed the health field was, and where I
wanted to be. I graduated magna cum laude (my third degree with
honors) from Siena College in May 2002.
Shortly before my graduation, I applied for and was awarded
another promotion to a Health Program Administrator grade 18 (Octo-
ber 2001). This was a significant move and allowed me to utilize my
BS degree months before graduation. I had negotiated working four
days a week, which was vital to keeping up with school (I had taken
three classes that fall to finish up my graduation requirements) and
three small children. My son was not yet in school and my goal was to
be able to stay home with him as much as possible. Within 18 months
exactly, I applied for and was awarded another promotion to a Health
Program Administrator 1 grade 23. This was amazing in that this is a
professional title, and I had worked my way up from a G-6 to a G-23
in 9 years. This was a rare accomplishment in government, though I
had worked very, very hard to develop my career to the level I am
today. Thinking back on it all, I did not choose to go into this field. I
only took advantage of opportunities available to me when I began
work in the state health department. It didn’t take long for me to see
that there was an opportunity to do valuable work and that I wanted
to play an important role in the field of public health. This was the
driving force behind my decisions regarding my graduate education.
In 2005, I took a chance and met with the admissions staff at Union
Graduate College (UGC). I had previously planned on working on a
master’s degree and started investigating programs. I wanted an MBA
because it was in line with my undergraduate degree, but I did not
want to study the stock market. UGC had an MBC with a health man-
agement concentration. Based on my GPA at Siena College, I was
awarded a 50% scholarship, which made this graduate degree afford-
able when combined with my employer’s tuition reimbursement pro-
gram. Here I was, back in school again! Although there was reason to

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Workforce Issues 145

celebrate: No one in my family or my husband’s had ever obtained a


graduate degree, and it was Union!

MENTORS
During my time at NYSDOH, I participated in the Mentor/Protege
program twice. The first time I participated as a G-16, where I worked
with a woman who was a G-18. She helped me rewrite my resume,
discuss my career goals, and ultimately referred me to my next promo-
tion to a G-18. She was a wonderful supporter and understood the
complexities of my life and the need to balance my career aspirations.
A year later, I had met with Dennis Murphy, then association director
for the division of family health. Dennis and I went to a conference
and met in the exhibition hall. We had dinner and spoke about my ca-
reer at NYSDOH. He offered to mentor me formally in the Mentor/
Protege program. We were paired and worked together for a year for-
mally. During that time, we met each month. Dennis put me in touch
with key executive staff throughout NYSDOH, including the Deputy
Commissioner Dennis Whalen (currently Secretary of Health for New
York State). These meetings were very enriching; Dennis and I met
shortly before each meeting to develop relevant interview questions and
to go over the results from my previous interview. I met with about nine
executives in total—all upper level executives. The interview questions I
chose included their early career experiences (which were of great inter-
est to me when I met with women whom I wanted to emulate), educa-
tion, growth and promotional experiences, and advice for my career.
Some meetings started rather uncomfortably, especially when the inter-
viewee thought I was there to ask for a promotion or transfer. When I
was able to explain my goals for the meeting, my questions were met
with enthusiasm, warmth, and generosity of both time and advice. These
meetings allowed me to network and to obtain information for my per-
sonal use in developing and implementing my career aspirations. To this
day, Dennis Murphy remains a mentor for me and a confidant. In
reflecting back to the development of this mentor relationship, I could
easily say that I would not have guessed that my mentor would be a
man. I will explain further in the gatekeeping section.

GATEKEEPERS
In the broadest sense, my first response when I am asked about
gatekeepers would be that they were all women. All of them were key
women in my life; however, I must say that my gatekeepers were only
obstacles for me to overcome, and never seemed impassable to me.
My mom was a single mother of two. She divorced at a time when
it was not politically correct to be divorced and wore a wedding ring

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146 Self, Family, and Social Affects

after the divorce so as not to embarrass my grandmother. The thinking


at the time was that your children were illegitimate, not that they were
the product of a divorced couple. Mom worked as many as three jobs
most of my adolescent life. She accepted government assistance until
my younger brother and I were in school. When I was about 16, my
boyfriend at the time (now my husband) was applying to colleges. This
was exciting for me because I had every intention of doing the same
the following year. My mother informed me that if I had intentions
(note ‘‘if’’) of going to college that I had to start working on my plan-
ning because she couldn’t help me, financially or otherwise: Gatekeeper
#1. I got a job shortly thereafter as a clerk in a nursing home and began
my college plans. At that time, I wanted to be a lawyer, but more than
that I wanted to be a mom. I decided that I did not want to work in
the health field! I felt that I couldn’t do both well after seeing my
mother working long hours at low-paying jobs and after gaining much
of my own independence early. I decided I would do the next best
thing, which was legal secretarial science. I was excellent in high school
in my business classes and enjoyed and excelled in shorthand. I did
receive my AAS degree (graduated magna cum laude) in legal secretar-
ial science. I know that my mother was trying to help me in the only
way she knew how.
The other gatekeepers I experienced were women who hired me at
the G-13 and G-18 levels. I found over time that they had preconceived
notions about the limit of my professional skills. These notions were
revealed during the course of my employment when I appealed for
increased challenge or responsibility. I am determined and many have
called me driven. I overcame each gatekeeper with gentle persistence
and a work ethic that has provided me with career growth and
rewards. When I have discussed these women (three at different times
of my career over the past 10 years) with male supervisors, their read
was always that I was a threat to these women. I cannot agree that all
three of these gatekeepers were threatened, but I can agree that at least
two may have felt that I was competition. Ultimately, my response was
to move on to other jobs, leaving on the best of terms with these
women. I never felt driven away; I actually felt that I was in control of
my own destiny and that I would choose my opportunities and move-
ment when I felt that growth was limited.

INTEGRATION OF WORK AND FAMILY


Because my mom worked so hard, and still does, and was not the
cookie-baking homeroom mom, I worked very hard to be able to bal-
ance my home and work life. When my children were little, my hus-
band worked very hard so that I could work part-time and be home
with my children. I knew that I could not babysit other people’s

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Workforce Issues 147

children to make money, so I maintained a ‘‘foot in the working


world’’ by working part-time. This meant that my advancement was
stifled somewhat during those years, but my priority was and is my
family. At the same time, they have supported me when I have taken
on career and educational challenges. My children do not lose out on
any (I mean any!) school, sport, or extracurricular opportunity. This takes
a small army to accomplish, but there is no other option for me. My old-
est daughter, Meghan (age 16), has been in dance, competitive cheerlead-
ing (requiring East Coast travel), and currently is in high school and
competitive softball (requiring East Coast travel). My middle child, also a
daughter, Jaclyn (age 14), has been in dance and sports throughout ele-
mentary and middle school (basketball, volleyball, and softball) as well
as band, and has taken private drum lessons for five years. My youngest
is Bobby (age 10), who has been involved in all kinds of sports.
I often worried that I wasn’t doing the right thing by going back to
college, and was even told so by one mother when she told me that
she was a ‘‘better mother because she put her children before her ca-
reer.’’ In speaking with my daughters and other mothers, I thought
and still feel that I was actually setting a better example for my girls
by pursuing my career goals and working very hard to balance my
responsibilities. I have to credit my husband with my success as well.
He’s a traditional guy, but he has been supportive at every step in my
education and career. I know that going back to school put additional
stress on our family—at least doubled the demands over working full
time. Yet they have been nothing but supportive. They all attended my
Siena graduation ceremony and cheered me on loudly. I know that it
will be no time at all before I am doing that for my children! My expe-
riences have also enriched my children. My current job allows me to
bring my children to work occasionally and to have experiences in a
professional setting and to learn about the research that is conducted.
These experiences are ones that they would not otherwise have.

ADVICE
The very first piece of advice I would give anyone for work or oth-
erwise is that there is no such thing as luck. There is only preparation
for opportunity. I’ll have to credit Oprah with this bit of advice, which
is something I have always kept with me. Hard work, perseverance,
and preparation are key elements to success, particularly control over
your own destiny and ultimate success. Working hard at an education,
learning new job skills, or remaining open to new experiences can pro-
vide preparation and skills necessary to take advantage of unforeseen
opportunities.
Second, women should think like men. This sounds strange, but I
will explain. I mean that women tend to develop emotional attachments

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148 Self, Family, and Social Affects

to jobs and to people, which prevents them from making strategic pro-
fessional moves. Men don’t tend to make those emotional connections
and are better at making changes that benefit them professionally in
the long run.
Last, work hard to develop personal and professional networks and
do not burn bridges. You never know who will be your next boss, so
do not make enemies. And work hard to meet people and demon-
strate your potential. Interviewing for jobs even when you are not nec-
essarily in the market is a great way to make a good first impression
and develop professional ties with people outside of your immediate
work environment. Never forget that you may only have one first
impression.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Chapter 10

Society’s Gains: Economics of Women


in the Workplace
Zhilan Feng
Maneechit Pattanapanchai

INTRODUCTION
Employed women have become a driving force in our modern econ-
omy. Women’s contribution both to unpaid home services and to the
labor market has contributed to recent economic growth and is
believed to be the foundation for its future growth.
‘‘A Guide to Womenomics’’ (2006) presented several statistics concern-
ing employed women. For example, in developed economies, women pro-
duce just under 40% of the official gross domestic product (GDP). If the
value of the domestic services at home is estimated and added to their
contribution, however, ‘‘then women probably produce slightly more than
half of total output’’ (p. 73). The GDP is a way for measuring the size of
the country’s economy. It is defined as the market value of all final goods
and services produced within a country in a given period of time. The
Economist (2006) also noted that women’s importance is not limited to
goods and homecare but also as ‘‘consumers, entrepreneurs, managers
and investors.’’ Women make about 80% of the buying decisions in areas
such as housing, furniture, food, and health care. Furthermore, Catalyst
(2007) reported that American companies with more women in senior
management jobs earned a higher return on equity than those with fewer
women in top managerial positions.
In this chapter, we discuss women’s contribution to the economy.
We begin with a general description of women’s participation in the
workforce and its contribution to productivity and GDP growth. We

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


150 Self, Family, and Social Affects

then investigate the income gender gap and its harmful consequences.
Finally, we discuss women’s contribution to long-term economic growth.

WOMEN’S LABOR PARTICIPATION RATE


Labor force participation rate is defined by the Bureau of Labor Sta-
tistics as ‘‘the proportion of a particular population group that is in the
labor force—that is, either working (employed) or actively looking for
work (unemployed).’’ This number is important because the GDP
growth can be achieved by either increasing the productivity (output
rate) or by labor utilization (labor participation rate).
According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (Table 10.1),
women’s labor participation rate (for women aged 16 and older) in
United States has steadily increased from 34% in 1950 to 59% in 2006.
This participation rate reflects an increase of more than 50 million
employees. On the other hand, the labor participation rate for men has
dropped from 86% to 74% during the same time period. We also report
the employment to population ratio in Table 10.1 as a comparison. Both
the labor participation rate and employment rate share the same
trends. This phenomenon is not unique to the United States. For exam-
ple, Taiwan reported that women’s labor force participation has grown
from 33% in 1965 to 45% in 1995.1 Men’s labor force participation has
declined from 83% to 72%.2 Table 10.2 reports the labor force participa-
tion rate, and Table 10.3 reports the employment rate by sex of

Table 10.1
U.S. labor force 16 years and 1950–2006

Employment to Civilian labor force Labor participation


population ratio, % (thousands) rate, %
Year Male Female Male Female Male Female

1950 81.98 31.98 43,820 18,390 86.4 33.9


1960 78.85 35.50 46,387 23,239 83.4 37.7
1970 76.18 40.80 51,228 31,543 79.7 43.4
1980 72.03 47.68 61,453 45,487 77.4 51.5
1990 72.15 54.40 69,049 56,860 76.4 57.5
2000 71.90 57.48 76,280 66,303 74.8 59.9
2001 70.88 57.03 76,886 66,848 74.5 59.8
2002 69.70 56.28 77,500 67,363 74.1 59.6
2003 68.90 56.13 78,238 68,272 73.5 59.5
2004 69.18 55.98 78,980 68,421 73.4 59.2
2005 69.58 56.25 80,033 69,288 73.3 59.3
2006 70.08 56.63 81,255 70,173 73.5 59.4
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Table 10.2
Labor force participation rates by sex 15 – 64 years (percentages)

Men Women
Countries 1973 1983 1990 2000 2005 2006 1973 1983 1990 2000 2005 2006

Australia 91.1 85.9 85.9 82.0 82.7 82.9 47.7 52.1 62.1 65.5 68.4 69.0
Austria 83.0 82.2 80.1 80.1 79.3 80.4 48.5 49.7 55.4 62.5 65.6 67.0
Belgium 83.2 76.8 72.7 73.8 73.1 72.7 41.3 48.7 52.4 56.6 59.5 58.9
Canada 86.1 88.5 84.9 83.1 82.5 82.2 47.2 62.2 68.1 70.5 73.1 73.5
Denmark 89.6 87.6 89.6 84.0 83.6 83.4 61.9 74.2 78.4 75.9 75.1 76.7
Finland 80.0 82.0 80.6 76.5 75.7 76.2 63.9 72.7 72.9 72.0 72.9 73.2
Francea 85.2 78.4 74.6 74.4 74.5 74.2 50.1 54.3 56.6 61.7 63.8 63.9
Germanya 89.6 82.6 80.8 81.1 80.6 81.4 50.3 52.5 57.0 63.2 66.9 68.5
Greece 83.2 80.0 82.1 77.1 79.2 79.1 32.1 40.4 39.9 49.7 54.6 55.0
Ireland 92.3 87.1 82.2 79.1 79.9 81.0 34.1 37.8 38.9 55.7 60.3 61.3
Italy 85.1 80.7 78.9 73.8 74.4 74.6 33.7 40.3 44.5 46.2 50.4 50.8
Japan 90.1 89.1 87.8 85.2 84.4 84.8 54.0 57.2 60.4 59.6 60.8 61.3
Luxembourg 93.1 85.1 95.1 76.4 76.0 NA 35.9 41.7 50.5 51.7 57.0 NA
Netherlands 85.6 77.3 79.9 83.9 81.4 81.9 29.2 40.3 53.0 65.7 68.6 69.4
New Zealand 89.2 84.7 82.2 83.2 84.4 85.1 39.2 45.7 62.1 67.5 70.8 71.4
Norwayb 86.5 87.2 84.5 84.8 82.3 81.4 50.6 65.5 71.2 76.5 75.4 74.8
Portugal NA 86.9 86.1 78.8 79.0 79.5 NA 56.7 61.3 63.6 67.9 68.4
Spainc 92.9 80.5 76.8 79.1 82.2 82.5 33.4 33.3 40.9 51.8 59.1 61.1
Swedenb 88.1 85.9 85.3 81.2 82.5 82.6 62.6 76.6 81.1 76.4 77.7 77.7
Switzerland 100.0 93.5 96.2 89.4 87.4 87.8 54.1 55.2 59.2 73.9 74.3 74.7
United Kingdomb 93.0 87.5 86.5 84.3 83.0 83.2 53.2 57.2 67.4 68.9 69.6 70.3
United States 86.2 84.7 85.8 83.9 81.8 81.9 51.1 61.9 68.2 70.8 69.2 69.3
OECD Europec 88.7 82.3 80.6 78.0 77.9 78.0 44.7 49.8 53.5 60.2 58.1 58.6
Total OECDc 88.2 84.4 83.7 81.1 80.3 80.4 48.3 55.2 60.0 61.3 60.4 60.8
a
Data for 2006 are Secretariat estimates obtained by applying changes between 2005 and 2006 estimates from the European Labour Force
Survey to national estimates for 2005.
b
Refers to persons age 16 to 64.
c
For data under 2000, 2005, and 2006, OECD Europe also includes Czech Republic, Hungary, Iceland, and Slovak Republic.
Source: OECD Employment Outlook Statistical Annex, 1996, 2001, and 2007.
© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.
Table 10.3
Employment/population ratio by sex 15 – 64 years (percentages)

Men Women
Countries 1973 1983 1990 2000 2005 2006 1973 1983 1990 2000 2005 2006

Australia 89.9 77.5 80.3 76.6 78.5 78.8 46.4 47.0 58.0 61.6 64.7 65.5
Austria 82.4 79.4 77.7 76.2 75.4 76.9 47.7 47.1 53.5 59.7 62.0 63.5
Belgium 81.6 69.2 68.4 69.8 67.7 67.0 39.9 39.8 45.7 51.9 54.1 53.6
Canada 81.9 77.8 82.3 76.3 76.7 76.8 44.1 55.0 65.1 65.8 68.3 69.0
Denmark 89.0 78.3 82.7 80.7 80.1 80.6 61.2 65.0 71.4 72.1 70.8 73.2
Finland 78.1 77.4 77.4 69.4 69.4 70.5 62.3 69.0 70.8 64.5 66.5 67.3
Francea 83.8 73.4 70.3 68.1 67.8 67.5 47.9 48.3 50.9 54.3 56.9 57.1
Germanya 88.8 76.6 76.1 74.8 71.4 72.9 49.7 47.8 53.2 57.7 59.6 61.5
Greece 81.8 75.3 71.7 71.3 74.5 74.6 31.2 35.6 38.5 41.3 46.2 47.5
Ireland 86.5 73.8 69.5 75.6 76.2 77.3 32.8 33.6 35.0 53.3 58.0 58.8
Italy 81.6 75.7 73.7 67.6 69.7 70.5 29.9 34.2 37.9 39.3 45.3 46.3
Japan 88.8 86.7 86.1 81.0 80.4 81.0 53.4 55.7 59.1 56.7 58.1 58.8
Luxembourg 93.1 84.0 76.8 75.0 73.3 NA 35.9 40.9 43.9 50.0 53.7 NA
Netherlands 83.5 69.1 75.5 82.1 77.4 78.7 28.6 34.7 47.4 63.4 64.8 66.0
New Zealand 89.1 80.3 76.7 78.0 81.5 82.1 39.1 42.8 58.3 63.5 68.0 68.4
Norwayb 85.6 84.4 79.8 81.5 78.3 78.6 49.3 63.0 67.8 74.0 72.0 72.3
Portugal 99.2 82.8 86.1 76.2 73.4 73.9 30.5 49.8 58.8 60.4 61.7 62.0
Spainb 90.5 67.9 68.4 71.4 76.4 77.3 32.5 26.5 31.4 41.1 51.9 54.0
Swedenb 86.2 83.0 83.0 76.1 75.9 76.8 60.8 73.9 78.8 72.3 71.8 72.1
Switzerland 100.0 92.7 95.7 87.3 83.9 84.7 54.1 54.7 59.3 71.6 70.4 71.1
United Kingdomb 90.3 75.9 80.3 79.1 78.8 78.4 52.7 52.6 63.4 65.5 66.7 66.8
United States 82.8 76.5 81.2 80.6 77.6 78.1 48.0 56.2 64.9 67.9 65.6 66.1
OECD Europec 86.7 75.2 75.4 72.0 71.2 71.8 43.2 44.4 48.1 53.9 52.3 53.2
Total OECDc 85.8 77.6 79.1 76.3 75.0 75.6 46.4 50.3 55.6 57.1 56.1 56.8
a
Data for 2006 are Secretariat estimates obtained by applying changes between 2005 and 2006 estimates from the European Labour Force
Survey to national estimates for 2005.
b
Refers to persons age 16 to 64.
c
For data under 2000, 2005, and 2006, OECD Europe also includes Czech Republic, Hungary, Iceland, and Slovak Republic.
Source: OECD Employment Outlook Statistical Annex, 1996, 2001, and 2007.
© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.
Society’s Gains 153

countries around the world. We observe that these trends (increasing


participation by women in the labor force and declining participation
by men between the ages of 15 and 64) occur across all continents.
Child-care support programs such as on-site child care, child-care
subsidy, and child-care credit have helped facilitate women’s participa-
tion in the workforce. This fact has suggested that the increased
participation of women’s labor may contribute to the decline in the
non-paid domestic home service. Braunstein (2003) investigated this
issue using 30 years of labor force data from Taiwan from 1965 to
1995. Braunstein noted that Taiwan’s high economic growth during this
period is credited to the increase in women’s labor participation rate,
most especially for women with college and graduate school education.
Women’s participation in the market sector contributes to the increased
public investment in human capital and hence leads to high productiv-
ity in the household sector as well.
In Table 10.4, we report the percentage of part-time3 and full-time
employees from 1950 to 2006 for individuals aged 16 years and older.
The table indicates that 7.8% of men had a part-time job in 1968. This
number has been increased to 10% since 1980 and has stayed relatively
stable in the 1990s and during the first six years of the 21st century.
For women, the percentage of part-time employment is in the range of
25% to 27% over the last 40 years. Certainly, women are more likely to
take a part-time job relative to men because of maternity leaves and
their responsibility as primary caregivers to children and elderly
parents. This trend is likely to continue as employers offer flex time,

Table 10.4
U.S. labor force 16 years and over 1950–2006, %

Male Female
Year Full-time Part-time Full-time Part-time

1968 92.2 7.8 75.1 24.9


1970 91.5 8.5 73.9 26.1
1980 90.4 9.6 73.2 26.8
1990 89.8 10.2 74.7 25.3
2000 89.9 10.1 74.8 24.6
2001 89.7 10.3 75.4 24.8
2002 89.4 10.6 75.2 25.3
2003 89.2 10.8 74.7 25.6
2004 89.2 10.8 74.4 25.7
2005 89.3 10.7 74.3 25.2
2006 89.4 10.6 74.8 24.7
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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154 Self, Family, and Social Affects

job sharing, telecommuting, and other flexible job designs (Paludi &
Neidermeyer, 2007). In 2006, there were more than 100,000 customer-
service representatives who worked from home. As Naylor (2006)
observed, ‘‘in the face of political pressures and customer backlash,
many companies are bringing call center operations back from over-
seas.’’ Hence, the number of part-time jobs is predicted to exceed
300,000 by 2010. The flexibility of the home-based jobs will certainly
encourage more women’s participation in the labor market.

WOMEN’S CONTRIBUTION TO SOCIETY


Human Capital
Tables 10.5 and 10.6 report the education levels for full-time, year-
round employees aged 25 years old and older during the period of
1991 to 2005. The number of both men and women employees who
received some college education and above (including associate
degrees, bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees, professional degrees, and
doctoral degrees) have been increasing over the years. On average,
women employees invest more in education than men. For example,
the percentage of men employees who received less than a 9th grade
education is always higher than the percentage of women employees
who received the same amount of education. The story of the educa-
tion levels for those employees who receive some college education or
higher is more compelling. In 1991, about 54% of all full-time female
workers had some college education, compared with 55% of men. In
2005, however, there were more women employees (about 65%) who
received some college or higher education compared to 59% of men
employees. These statistics suggest that women employees are more
willing to invest in human capital development.
Supporting our previous finding, Figure 10.1 depicts the number of
bachelor’s degrees awarded in Science and Engineering (S&E) and
non-Science and Engineering (non-S&E) fields by sex during the years
1966 to 2004. The dark dotted line is the number of degrees awarded
to women in S&E, while the light dotted line is for men in S&E. Simi-
larly, the dark solid line is the number of degrees awarded to women
in non-S&E; the light solid line is for men in non-S&E. Over this pe-
riod, there are more women who were awarded bachelor’s degrees in
non-S&E fields each year. The number of women with bachelor’s
degrees has grown at a faster pace compared to that of their male
counterparts. In the S&E field, the number of women with bachelor’s
degrees started lower in 1966, but since then it has increased and
caught up with the number of men with bachelor’s degrees received in
2003. Even though there are fever master’s and doctoral degrees
awarded to women in the field of S&E during this period, the numbers

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Table 10.5
Employment by educational attainment full-time, year-round workers 25 years old and over, 1991–2005
(thousands)

Women
Elementary/secondary College
High school
Less 9th to 12th graduate Some
than 9th Grade (no (includes college, no Associate Bachelor Master Professional Doctorate
Year grade diploma) equivalency) degree degree degree degree degree degree

1991 733 1,819 10,936 5,621 2,523 5,251 2,022 311 206
1992 733 1,653 11,026 5,903 2,651 5,599 2,192 334 225
1993 764 1,576 10,505 6,276 3,061 5,733 2,166 323 260
1994 694 1,675 10,777 6,254 3,210 5,897 2,173 398 283
1995 774 1,760 11,059 6,328 6,334 6,432 2,268 421 283
1996 750 1,751 11,358 6,574 3,468 6,686 2,213 413 322
1997 791 1,761 11,470 6,628 3,536 7,172 2,447 488 318
1998 814 1,876 11,605 7,067 3,527 7,276 2,639 468 329
1999 905 1,921 11,984 7,524 3,844 7,712 2,857 479 353
2000 934 1,964 11,801 7,534 4,231 7,869 2,865 499 364
2001 927 1,869 11,686 7,281 4,190 8,253 3,089 531 392
2002 857 1,840 11,673 7,353 4,281 8,226 3,281 572 402
2003 876 1,738 11,586 7,340 4,397 8,327 3,376 567 462
2004 916 1,797 11,395 7,341 4,492 8,683 3,467 532 453
2005 900 1,736 11,412 7,451 4,751 9,072 3,589 657 437
continued

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Table 10.5 Continued

Men
Elementary/secondary College
High school
Less 9th to 12th graduate Some
than 9th Grade (no (includes college, no Associate Bachelor Master Professional Doctorate
Year grade diploma) equivalency) degree degree degree degree degree degree

1991 1,807 3,083 15,022 8,034 2,899 8,455 3,073 1,147 674
1992 1,815 3,009 14,722 8,066 3,203 8,719 3,178 1,295 745
1993 1,790 3,083 14,599 8,490 3,555 9,178 3,131 1,231 808
156

1994 1,895 3,057 15,097 8,783 3,735 9,636 3,225 1,258 868
1995 1,944 3,335 43,3351 8,908 3,926 9,597 3,395 1,208 853
1996 2,041 3,440 15,838 9,172 3,931 9,898 3,272 1,277 893
1997 1,914 3,548 16,220 9,169 4,086 10,349 3,228 1,321 966
1998 1,870 3,613 16,442 9,375 4,347 11,058 3,414 1,264 998
1999 2,095 3,407 16,797 9,786 3,398 11,253 3,783 1,291 1,033
2000 2,159 3,476 16,735 9,837 4,813 11,654 3,788 1,268 1,086
2001 2,207 3,503 16,314 9,492 4,714 11,29 3,961 1,298 1,041
2002 2,154 3,677 16,002 9,603 4,399 11,829 4,065 1,308 1,065
2003 2,209 3,366 16,283 9,337 4,696 11,846 4,124 1,348 1,037
2004 2,427 3,464 17,052 9,255 4,906 11,705 4,244 1,308 1,090
2005 2,425 3,651 17,258 9,532 5,020 12,032 4,275 1,369 1,144
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Housing and Houshold Economic Statistics Division.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Table 10.6
Employment by educational attainment full-time, year-round workers 25 years old and over, 1991–2005 (%)

Women
Elementary/secondary College
High school
Less 9th to 12th graduate Some
than 9th Grade (no (includes college, no Associate Bachelor Master Professional Doctorate
Year grade diploma) equivalency) degree degree degree degree degree degree

1991 2.5 6.2 37.2 18.6 8.6 17.8 6.9 1.1 0.7
1992 2.4 5.5 36.4 19.5 8.7 18.5 7.2 1.1 0.7
157

1993 2.5 5.1 34.3 20.5 10.0 18.7 7.1 1.1 0.8
1994 2.2 5.3 34.4 19.9 10.2 18.8 6.9 1.3 0.9
1995 2.2 4.9 31.0 17.7 17.8 18.0 6.4 1.2 0.8
1996 2.2 5.2 33.9 19.6 10.3 19.9 6.6 1.2 1.0
1997 2.3 5.1 33.1 19.1 10.2 20.7 7.1 1.4 0.9
1998 2.3 5.3 32.6 19.9 9.9 20.4 7.4 1.3 0.9
1999 2.4 5.1 31.9 20.0 10.2 20.5 7.6 1.3 0.9
2000 2.5 5.2 31.0 19.8 11.1 20.7 7.5 1.3 1.0
2001 2.4 4.9 30.6 30.6 11.0 21.6 8.1 1.4 1.0
2002 2.2 4.8 30.3 19.1 11.1 21.4 8.5 1.5 1.0
2003 2.3 4.5 30.0 19.0 11.4 21.5 8.7 1.5 1.2
2004 2.3 4.6 29.2 18.8 11.5 22.2 8.9 1.4 1.2
2005 2.2 4.3 28.5 18.6 11.9 22.7 9.0 1.6 1.1
continued

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Table 10.6 Continued

Men
Elementary/secondary College
High school
Less 9th to 12th graduate Some
than 9th Grade (no (includes college, no Associate Bachelor Master Professional Doctorate
Year grade diploma) equivalency) degree degree degree degree degree degree

1991 4.1 7.0 34.0 18.2 6.6 19.1 7.0 2.6 1.5
1992 4.1 6.7 32.9 18.0 7.2 19.5 7.1 2.9 1.7
1993 3.9 6.7 31.8 18.5 7.8 20.0 6.8 2.7 1.8
1994 4.0 6.4 31.7 18.5 7.9 20.3 6.8 2.6 1.8
1995 4.0 6.9 31.6 18.4 8.1 19.8 7.0 2.5 1.8
1996 4.1 6.9 31.8 18.4 7.9 19.9 6.6 2.6 1.8
1997 3.8 7.0 31.9 18.0 8.0 20.4 6.4 2.6 1.9
1998 3.6 6.9 31.4 17.9 8.3 21.1 6.5 2.4 1.9
1999 4.0 6.4 31.8 18.5 6.4 21.3 7.2 2.4 2.0
2000 3.9 6.3 30.5 17.9 8.8 21.3 6.9 2.3 2.0
2001 4.1 6.5 30.2 17.6 8.7 21.3 7.3 2.4 1.9
2002 4.0 6.8 29.6 17.7 8.1 21.9 7.5 2.4 2.0
2003 4.1 6.2 30.0 17.2 8.7 21.8 7.6 2.5 1.9
2004 4.4 6.2 30.8 16.7 8.8 21.1 7.7 2.4 2.0
2005 4.3 6.4 30.4 16.8 8.9 21.2 7.5 2.4 2.0
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Housing and Houshold Economic Statistics Division.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Society’s Gains 159

Figure 10.1

of women who received master’s degrees and PhDs have grown at


faster rates compared to those of their male counterparts (see Figures
10.2 and 10.3).
The high level of education of women employees has contributed to
their improved position in the labor market. In Table 10.7, we report
the change of occupation by women employees (aged 16 years and
older) from 1984 to 2004. More women are in positions that require a
high degree of education. These positions include executives, adminis-
trators and managers, professional specialists, engineering and related
technologists and technicians, health technologists, and science techni-
cians. For example, the percentage of female employees in the execu-
tive, administrator, and manager positions has increased from 8.4% in
1984 to 13.2% in 2004. Likewise, the percentage of women employees
Figure 10.2

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


160 Self, Family, and Social Affects

Figure 10.3

in the professional specialty positions has increased from 14.4% to


21.6% during the same period.
Another measure of human capital is healthiness. Research has
found that women’s participation in the workforce has positive impacts
on their own as well as their children’s health. McMunn, Bartley,
Hardy, and Kuh (2006), for example, investigated the relationship
between long-term social role and healthiness of women in the United
Kingdom. They reported women who have multiple roles—wife,
mother, and actively involved in the labor market for longer period of
time—are in relatively good health at age 54. Moreover, they find that
women who are less active in the labor market are more likely to be
obese at age 53. Only 23% of working mothers were overweight when
they reached their fifties, while 38% of stay-at-home moms were.

Reducing Poverty
The investment in human capital by women employees has earned
them deserved returns and improved their economic position. Table
10.8 reports the median family income by family types from 1950 to
2005 according to the U.S. Census Bureau, Housing and Household
Economic Statistics Division. The numbers are reported in current dol-
lars. Without adjusting for inflation, we can calculate the annual
growth rate for each family type during this 55-year period. On aver-
age, the annual growth rate is 5.28% for all families. The married-
couple families with the wife in paid labor force enjoys the highest an-
nual growth rate at 5.57%, followed by the single-female families with
an annual growth rate of 4.94%. The married-couple families with only

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Table 10.7A
Employed females 16 years and older by occupation in selected years, 1984–2004 annual averages

Engineering
Executives, and related Health
All administrators, Professional technologists technologist Science Other
occupations and managers specialty and technicians and technician technician occupation

1984 46,094 3,889 6,619 157 927 71 34,431


1986 48,893 4,653 7,059 166 945 58 36,012
1988 51,879 5,590 7,643 175 1,013 67 37,391
1990 53,906 5,931 8,287 196 1,086 77 38,329
1992 54,235 6,110 8,771 162 1,241 87 37,864
1994 56,771 7,014 9,411 179 1,298 98 38,771
1996 58,674 7,767 10,160 183 1,293 92 39,179
1998 60,946 8,469 10,776 202 1,414 123 39,962
2000 63,100 8,960 11,570 205 1,388 112 40,865
2002 63,737 9,446 12,154 204 1,531 138 40,264
2004 64,728 8,517 13,979 141 1,639 120 40,332
Source: National Science Foundation.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Table 10.7B
Employed females 16 years and older by occupation in selected years, 1984–2004, % of total employed

Engineering
Executives, and related
administrators, Professional technologists Health technologist Science Other
and managers specialty and technician and technician technicians occupation

1984 8.4 14.4 0.3 2.0 0.2 74.7


1986 9.5 14.4 0.3 1.9 0.1 73.7
1988 10.8 14.7 0.3 2.0 0.1 72.1
1990 11.0 15.4 0.4 2.0 0.1 71.1
1992 11.3 16.2 0.3 2.3 0.2 69.8
1994 12.4 16.6 0.3 2.3 0.2 68.3
1996 13.2 17.3 0.3 2.2 0.2 66.8
1998 13.9 17.7 0.3 2.3 0.2 65.6
2000 14.2 18.3 0.3 2.2 0.2 64.8
2002 14.8 19.1 0.3 2.4 0.2 63.2
2004 13.2 21.6 0.2 2.5 0.2 62.3
Source: National Science Foundation.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Society’s Gains 163

the husband working have an annual growth rate in median income of


4.83%, and single male households have an annual growth rate of
4.80%. Obviously, there are multiple factors that contribute to growth in
women’s wages (such as efforts to reduce the gender gap). The invest-
ment in human capital by women employees is certainly one of them.
In 2001, the poverty rate for families with children in the United States
was 13%. Using census data and a simulation technique, a study by the
Brookings Institute (2003) reported that if all heads for non-elderly and
non-disabled families have full-time jobs, the poverty rate would be
reduced by 5% to 7.5%. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, families with
two or more working members are less likely to live in poverty than those
with only one working member. In a study sponsored by the United King-
dom Department of Trade and Industry, Walby and Olsen (2002) reported
that women’s participation in the labor force helped reduce child poverty.
Especially for single-female household families that are reported in Table
10.8, an increase in median income means fewer children are living in pov-
erty in the short run. In the long run, a mother who does not live in pov-
erty herself is likely to raise productive workers for the next generation.

Improving Child Welfare


Another notable benefit of female participation in the workforce is
their contribution to their children’s well-being. In the United States,

Table 10.8
Median family income by family type, all races 1950–2005 (current
dollars)

Married couple families No spouse families


Wife not in
All Wife in paid paid labor Male Female
Year families labor force force housholder housholder

1950 3,319 4,003 3,315 3,115 1,922


1960 5,620 6,900 5,520 4,860 2,968
1970 9,867 12,276 9,304 9,012 5,093
1980 21,023 26,879 18,972 17,519 10,408
1990 35,353 46,777 30,265 29,046 16,932
2000 50,732 69,235 39,982 37,727 25,716
2001 51,407 70,834 40,782 36,590 25,745
2002 51,680 72,806 40,102 37,739 26,423
2003 52,680 75,170 41,122 38,032 26,550
2004 54,061 76,854 42,215 40,361 26,969
2005 56,194 78,755 44,457 41,111 27,244
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Housing and Houshold Economic Statistics Division.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


164 Self, Family, and Social Affects

more than 70% of women with children under 18 years of age were in
the labor force in 2005. Mothers with children ages 6 to 17 years were
more likely to participate in the labor force than mothers with pre-
school children (age 6 or under). In 1975, 55% of mothers with children
ages 6 to 17 years were in the labor force, and this number rose to
76.5% in 2005. During the same period, mothers of preschool children
who were in the labor force rose from 39% to 62.8% (Child Health
USA, 2006).
Furthermore, Hong and White-Means (1993) reported that mater-
nal employment is a significant factor affecting children’s physical
health. Similar results were reported by Heyman (2001). A 2003 study
by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation indicated that almost 60%
of women with children received their insurance through either their
or their spouses’ employers. Of these women, approximately half
received coverage through their own employers, and half received
coverage as dependents. In 2005, job-based insurance was the major
form of health insurance for women ages 18 to 64, accounting for
approximately 34%.
Heck and Parker (2002) examined the impact of family structure on
the characteristics of health insurance coverage for children in the
United States. They reported that, in two-parent families, 9% of chil-
dren with both working parents are uninsured, while 15.1% of children
do not have insurance coverage when the father is the only one work-
ing in the family. A report by the Institute for Women’s Policy
Research (Lee, 2004) indicated that mothers are more likely to stay on
their job longer if the job provides child care or health insurance.

INCOME GENDER GAP


As we documented above, women have been and continue to be the
driving force of economic growth. To ensure a prosperous future, policy
makers should remove barriers and detriments that discourage women’s
participation in the market. One such barrier is the existence of the
income gender gap. In the updated ‘‘Womenomics Revisited’’ (2007),
the authors reported a study by the United Nations Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific which concluded that ‘‘sex discrim-
ination cost[s] the region $42 billion to $47 billion a year by restricting
women’s job opportunities’’ (p. 88). They also cited findings in a recent
report by Kevin Daly (an economist at Goldman Sachs), which sug-
gested that under the assumption that GDP grew in proportion with
employment and if the women’s employment rates were raised to the
same level as men’s, then ‘‘America’s GDP would be 9 percent higher,
the Euro zone’s would be 13 percent more, and Japan’s would be
boosted by 16 percent’’ (p. 88). Hence, minimizing the gender gap is cru-
cial to sustainable growth in the future economy. In this section, we will

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Society’s Gains 165

Figure 10.4

document the income gender gap in the United States and around the
world, and we will discuss the importance of gender equality.
Figure 10.4 shows the changes in the income/gender wage ratio for
full-time employees from 1960 to 2005. The gender/wage ratio is calcu-
lated based on median earnings of full-time, year-round employees
15 years of age and older. Obviously, we have made substantial
improvement in reducing the income gender gap over this period.
However, the situation is less impressive if we consider the annual
income by education levels. In Tables 10.9A and 10.9B we report the
median annual income of men and women by the amount of education
they attained from 1991 to 2005. In 10.9A, the numbers are in thou-
sands of dollars, while in 10.9B, the numbers are percentage of wom-
en’s median income to men’s median income. On average, we observe
reducing gaps between women’s median income and men’s median
income in all levels of education. The income gap between men and
women who have professional degrees has reduced most during this
period. In 1991, women with professional degrees earned less than 61%
compared with men in the same professions. The situation has been
improved and by the end of 2005 they earned more than 80% of the
men’s income in the same category. However, the numbers are less
comforting for other education levels. For example, the income gaps
between men and women are widened during this period for those
who have master’s degrees and associate’s degrees. For all other levels
of education, the reductions in income gaps are almost stalled. The sit-
uation is even more pronounced when we look at the women’s income
globally. The fact-sheet reported by the United Nation’s web site stated
that ‘‘women earn on average slightly more than 50 percent of what

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Table 10.9A
Median annual income by educationa attainment full-time, year-round workers 25 years old and over, 1991–2005
(current thousands $)

Elementary/secondary College
High school
9th to 12th graduate Some
Sex and Less than Grade (no (includes college, no Associate Bachelor Master Professional Doctorate
year 9th grade diploma) equivalency) degree degree degree degree degree degree

Men
166

1991 16,880 20,994 26,218 31,034 32,221 39,894 47,002 70,284 54,626
1992 16,853 21,057 26,699 31,341 32,340 40,344 47,227 73,602 56,346
1993 16,380 21,402 26,820 31,278 32,616 41,416 49,826 77,185 61,347
1994 17,151 21,748 27,237 31,344 35,121 42,049 51,354 72,090 60,270
1995 17,492 21,887 28,542 32,363 33,468 42,602 51,814 75,283 61,700
1996 17,246 22,206 30,090 33,293 36,072 43,780 56,076 78,144 66,159
1997 18,551 24,241 30,655 35,087 36,677 46,255 57,553 78,290 70,706
1998 18,553 23,438 30,868 35,949 38,483 49,982 60,168 90,653 69,188
1999 19,532 23,946 32,028 37,166 40,422 50,994 61,816 76,722 76,722
2000 20,250 24,646 32,432 38,175 40,983 5,280 65,280 93,276 75,366
2001 21,139 25,857 33,037 40,159 41,658 53,108 66,934 100,000 81,077
2002 20,919 25,903 33,206 40,851 42,856 56,077 67,281 100,000 83,305
2003 21,217 26,468 35,412 41,348 42,871 56,502 70,640 100,000 87,131
2004 21,646 26,280 35,726 41,906 44,395 57,199 71,434 100,000 82,397
2005 22,330 27,189 36,302 42,418 47,180 60,020 75,025 100,000 85,864
continued
© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.
Table 10.9A Continued

Elementary/secondary College
High school
9th to 12th graduate Some
Sex and Less than Grade (no (includes college, no Associate Bachelor Master Professional Doctorate
year 9th grade diploma) equivalency) degree degree degree degree degree degree

Women
1991 11,637 13,538 18,042 21,328 23,862 27,654 32,122 42,604 40,172
1992 12,153 13,705 18,615 21,951 24,817 29,206 35,001 44,313 43,778
1993 11,876 14,700 19,168 21,997 25,067 30,344 36,924 48,406 46,420
1994 12,029 14,474 19,529 22,171 25,214 30,740 37,546 48,284 46,479
1995 12,776 15,103 19,649 22,512 26,281 30,798 38,593 48,111 41,920
167

1996 13,572 16,132 20,501 23,832 26,773 31,910 40,415 56,431 51,989
1997 13,447 15,907 21,291 25,035 27,206 33,432 41,856 54,528 50,758
1998 14,132 15,847 21,963 26,024 28,377 35,408 46052 55,460 52,167
1999 14,420 16,328 21,956 26,419 30,108 56,685 45,360 56,685 56,322
2000 15,622 17,186 23,571 27,304 30,701 38,456 46,987 60,481 57,351
2001 16,170 17,937 24,217 28,839 31,194 39,818 48,276 60,093 60,425
2002 16,510 19,307 25,182 29,400 31,625 40,853 48,890 57,018 65,715
2003 16,907 18,938 26,074 30,142 32,253 41,327 50,163 66,491 67,214
2004 17,015 19,167 26,045 30,822 33,489 41,703 51,319 75,100 68,387
2005 16,142 20,125 26,289 31,399 33,939 42,172 51,412 80,458 66,852
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Housing and Houshold Economic Statistics Division.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Table 10.9B
Gender/wage ratio by educational attainment full-time, year-round workers 25 years old and over, 1991–2005, %

Elementary/secondary College
High school Some
9th to 12th graduate college,
Less than Grade (no (includes no Associate Bachelor Master Professional Doctorate
Year 9th grade diploma) equivalency) degree degree degree degree degree degree

1991 68.9 64.5 68.8 68.7 74.1 69.3 70.5 60.6 73.5
1992 72.1 65.1 69.7 70.0 76.7 72.4 74.1 60.2 77.7
1993 72.5 68.7 71.5 70.3 76.9 73.3 74.1 62.7 75.7
1994 70.1 66.6 71.7 70.7 71.8 73.1 73.1 67.0 77.1
1995 73.0 69.0 68.8 69.6 78.5 72.3 74.5 63.9 67.9
1996 78.7 72.6 68.1 71.6 74.2 72.9 72.1 72.2 78.6
1997 72.5 65.6 69.5 71.4 74.2 72.3 72.7 69.6 71.8
1998 76.2 67.6 71.2 72.4 73.7 70.8 69.8 61.2 75.4
1999 73.8 68.2 68.6 71.1 74.5 71.2 73.4 59.0 73.4
2000 77.1 69.7 72.7 71.5 74.9 73.2 72.0 64.8 76.1
2001 76.5 69.4 73.3 71.8 74.9 75.0 72.1 60.1 74.5
2002 78.9 74.5 75.8 72.0 73.8 72.9 72.7 57.0 78.9
2003 79.7 71.6 73.6 72.9 75.2 73.1 71.0 66.5 77.1
2004 78.6 72.9 72.9 73.6 75.4 72.9 71.8 75.1 83.0
2005 72.3 74.0 72.4 74.0 71.9 70.3 68.5 80.5 77.9
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Housing and Houshold Economic Statistics Division.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Society’s Gains 169

men earn’’ worldwide. Also, the majority of the 1.5 billion people liv-
ing on $1 a day or less are women. Hence, we certainly have a long
way to go in reducing the gender gaps in terms of income.
There are other factors restricting women’s economic opportunities.
Women assume major responsibility in taking care of their families.
Caregiving demands their time and increases their workload, and thus
reduces their availability to participate in the workforce (Paludi et al.,
2007). To encourage more participation of women in the labor force,
affordable child care has to be made available, and favorable tax rates
and policies have to be put in place. If incomes are high and some
household care can be purchased at a reasonable price (maybe with
subsidies), more women will likely join the labor force.
Women are less likely to return to work full-time after they give
birth (Barrow, 1999; Paul, 2006). In the United Sates, women are offered
a 12-week maternity leave without any pay. This policy obviously con-
tributes to the gender gap in income that we observed above. Women
are forced to choose between having children and continuity of their
career. The fact that 49% of high-achieving women in the United States
are childless compared to 19% of their male colleagues suggests that
lack of provisions for child rearing hinders women’s career achieve-
ment and restricts their economic opportunities (Hewlett, 2002).
It is important for policy makers to see that there is a clear correla-
tion between gender equality (measured by economic participation,
education, health, and political empowerment) and GDP per head.
Also, inequality between the sexes harms long-term growth. As a re-
minder for the policy makers, The Economist stated ‘‘men run the
world’s economics; but it may be up to the women to rescue them’’ (p.
88). To achieve and maintain economic growth, it is critical to continu-
ously fight to minimize the income gender gap.

CONCLUSION
As we demonstrated, women’s participation in the workforce is not
only instrumental to GDP growth and long-term economic success, it
also has profound secondary social benefits. It helps to reduce poverty,
increases the investment in human capital, and improves children’s
welfare. We also show that homecare responsibility and the existence
of the income gender gap have been detrimental to women’s active
involvement in the market. The failure of the United States in remov-
ing obstacles to employment for women is noted. The United States is
among the handful of countries that do not guarantee payment to
mothers during their maternity leaves. The female economic activity
rate, which is defined as the percentage of the economically active pop-
ulation (both employed and unemployed) out of the total population
for those aged 15 and older was 58.8% for the United States in 2000,

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


170 Self, Family, and Social Affects

ranking 58 out of 157 countries. We hope that these numbers serve as


an alarm to the policy makers and prompt their actions to encourage
women’s participation in the market. If the United States wants to keep
its leadership role in the world economy, we have to be more active
and aggressive in facilitating women’s involvement.

NOTES
1. The author does not mention ages for the labor participation rates. For a
comparison we report the employment and labor participation rate for the age
group 15–64 years across the world in Tables 10.2 and 10.3.
2. In the United States, the labor participation rate was 59% for women and
75% for men aged 16 and older in 1995.
3. Those who work less than 35 hours per week (U.S. Department of Labor
and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics).

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Braunstein, E. (2003). Shifting women’s work from the home to market: Assess-
ing policies for economic growth in Taiwan, University of Massachusetts,
Political Economy Research Institute. http://www.peri.umass.edu/filead
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The Brookings Institute (2003). Welfare reform & beyond #28, The Brookings
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Heck, K., & Parker, J. (2002). Family structure, socioeconomic status, and access
to health care for children. Health Services Research, 37, 171–184.
The Henry Kaiser Family Foundation (2003, April). Women’s issue brief, an
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Hewlett, S. A. (2002). Executive women and the myth of having it all. Harvard
Business Review, 80, 66–73.
Heyman, J. (Ed.). (2000). The widening gap: Why American working families are in
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Lee, S. (2004). Women’s work supports, job retention, and job mobility: Child
care and employer-provided health insurance help women stay on jobs.
Institute for Women’s Policy Research, November. http://www.iwpr.org/
pdf/C359.pdf.
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and women’s health in mid-life: Causation or selection. Journal of Epidemi-
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Naylor, M. (2006). There’s no workforce like home. Business Week. http://www.
businessweek.com/technology/content/may2006/tc20060502_763202.htm.
Paludi, M., & Neidermeyer, P. (Eds.). (2007). Work, life and family imbalance:
How to level the playing field. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Paludi, M., Vaccariello, R., Graham, T., Smith, M., Allen-Dicker, K., Kasprzak, &
White, C. (2007). Work/life integration: Impact on women’s careers, employ-
ment, and family. In M. A. Paludi & P. E. Neidermeyer (Eds.), Work, life and
family imbalance: How to level the playing field. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Paul, G. (2006). The impact of children on women’s paid work. Fiscal Studies,
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Department of Trade and Industry, UK.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Index

Page numbers followed by f indicate figures; t indicates tables.

Achievement: internal barriers, 29; Bureau of Labor Statistics, women’s


self-esteem relations, 25–26 labor participation, 150t
Adrenocorticotrophic hormone
(ACTH), stress response, 63
Cardiovascular disease (CVD), job
African-American women, professio-
stress and, 63, 65–67
nal successes, 44–45
Career development, self-esteem and,
Aggressive behavior, 1–20; verbal, 7;
25–26
women’s hostility to women and,
Career success: notable Latinas, 43;
13; women versus men, 6
United Kingdom, 40
American Association of University
Central nervous system (CNS), job
Women (AAUW), report on school
stress and, 67
sexual harassment, 97
Child-care support programs, effect
Angry outbursts, perception of
on women in the workforce, 153
women, 8
Children: sexual harassment in K-6 stu-
Ansonia Board of Education v. Philbrook,
dents, 100–101; sexual harassment
129–30
in K-12 students, 96–101; sexual ha-
Argumentativeness, perceptions by
rassment in working students, 101–2
men and women, 8
Child welfare, women in the work-
Asian women, professional successes,
force and, 163–64
45
Cholesterol levels, job stress effects,
Autonomic nervous system (ANS),
69–71
job stress and, 67
Circular career paths, 21–24
Autonomy. see Job control
Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VII: re-
ligion in the workplace, 127–28;
Benevolent sexism, 5 sex segregation and discrimination,
Blood lipids, job stress effects, 69–71 14; sexual harassment laws, 89–90
Blood pressure, job stress effects, Cognitive impairment, job stress and,
68–69 63

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


174 Index

College campuses, sexual harassment 168t; median annual income,


on, 92–93 166–67t
College education, 21–24 Education levels, full-time and part-
College heads, United Kingdom, time employees, 155t, 156t
41–42 Emotional stability/neuroticism, self-
Communal orientation, women versus esteem and performance, 33
men, 119 Employee assistance programs, pre-
Communication, 7–8; labels for women, vention of workplace stress, 76
7; stereotypes and sexism, 8 Epinephrine, stress response, 60–63
Compartmentalization: ethics versus Equal Employment Opportunity
faith, 123–24; religious and work Commission (EEOC), 89; guide-
lives, 125–27 lines for religion, 127–28
Competition, horizontal hostility and, Ethics, workplace religion and, 122–23
11 Ethnicity, high-achieving women, 41–45
Complaining, verbal passive- Expectancy-value theory, 3–4
aggressive communication, 6
Conflict-avoidant behavior, women, 8
Faith, integrated with work, 112–24
Contingencies of Self-Worth Scale
Family/work integration, 146–47
(CSWS), 37; self-esteem concerns of
Fear of success, 28–29
high-achieving women, 38–40
Female occupations, 21–24
Core self-evaluation, 33
Female stereotype, 2–5
Coronary artery disease (CAD), work
Fight-or-flight response, workplace
stress and, 67–71
stress, 60
Correlational studies, in self-esteem,
Fussy, verbal passive-aggressive
31–32
communication, 6
Cortisol, stress response, 60–63
Credibility, verbal aggression and,
7–8 Gatekeepers, 145–46
Critical care nurses, stressors, 74–75 Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education
Culture: definitions, 31; importance of Network (GLSEN), report on
self-esteem, 30 sexual harassment, 100
Gay and lesbian harassment, 15
Gender: effects on income, 164–69,
Demand-control-job strain model,
165f, 166–68t; religious activity
64–65
and, 115–17; sexual harassment, 90;
Demand-control-support theory, jobs
workplace stress effects, 71–75
and stress, 59
Gendered bullying, 6
Depression, sexual harassment and, 92
Gendered communication, 7–8
Descriptive elements, stereotypes, 2–3
Gender harassment, 93; women’s
Diabetes, type 2, job stress and, 63
hostility to women and, 14
Different voice position, 117
Gender role theory, stereotypes and,
Domain-specific self-esteem, 31
2–5
Double standard, aggressive men and
Gender typing, women’s vocational
witchy women, 1–20
behavior and, 27–28
Gender-wage ratio, 160f
Economics, women in the workplace, Global (trait) self-esteem, 31; perform-
149–71 ance and, 33
Educational attainment: employment God and Mammon in America
by, 155–58t; gender wage ratio by, (Wuthnow), 113

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Index 175

Gross Domestic Product (GDP), con- Job satisfaction: relationship to JCM,


tribution of women, 149 67; religion/faith effects, 124
A Guide to Womenomics (2006), 149 Job strain model, 64–65

Health and well-being: biological con- Labor force participation rate, 150–54;
sequences of stress, 60–63; job con- countries around the world, 151t;
trol effects, 63–67; managerial employment rate by sex, around
women, 71–73; occupation-specific, the world, 152t; part-time and full-
73–75; recommendations for time employee rate, 153t
enhancement, 75–76; religion/faith Language, use for exclusion of
effects, 124; sexual harassment women, 8
effects, 89–107; stress effects on risk Leadership: college heads in the U.K.,
of CAD, 67–71; women’s participa- 41–42; male and female stereotypes,
tion in the workforce, 160 4–5; patriarchy and, 9; self-esteem
High-achieving women: diverse eth- relations, 25–26; senior management
nic backgrounds, 41; notable Lat- and board levels, U.K., 42; work-
inas, 43; self-esteem and, 25–53; place stress effects, 71–75
self-esteem concerns, 38–40 The Lecherous Professor (Dzeich and
Horizontal hostility (violence), 10–11; Weiner), 92
courts addressing of, 15–16; wom- Lessons from my father, in my own
en’s hostility to women, 11–16 voice, 21–24
Hostile Hallways (AAUW), 97 Life satisfaction, 31
Hostile work environment: category Locus of control, self-esteem and
of sexual harassment, 89; gender performance, 33
harassment, 14; sexism, 5
Human Resources, in my own voice, Male domination, as sexual harass-
55–57 ment, 94–95
Hypertension, job stress effects, 68–69 Male stereotype, 2–5
Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical Managerial women, workplace stress
system (HPA), consequences of effects, 71–75
stress, 60–63 Marriage and motherhood, effects on
vocational behavior, 28
Immune function, job stress and, 63 Masculine women, 1–20
Impostor phenomenon, 28–29 The Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior
Income gender gap, 164–69, 165f, Survey, on sexual harassment, 100
166–68t Median family income, 160, 163t
Internal barriers, women’s occupa- Mental health: impact of sexual har-
tional achievement, 29 assment, 89–107; outcomes after
Iso-strain model, 64 sexual harassment, 98–99; sexual
Ivory Power: The Sexual Harassment of minority students, 99–100
Women on Campus (Paludi), 92–93 Mentoring, 145
Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, 14–15
Jealousy, horizontal hostility and, 11 Merit Systems Protection Board, U.S.
Job characteristics model (JCM), 65 federal government (USMSPB),
Job control (autonomy): jobs and 90–91; categories, 93–94
stress, 59; physical health, and psy-
chological well-being, 63–67; satis- Nagging, verbal passive-aggressive
faction and, 67 communication, 6

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


176 Index

A New Religious America (Eck), 112 Presumption of inclusion, respectful


Non-contingent self-esteem, 38 pluralism, 136–38
Non-contingent self-worth, 39 Prevention, work stressors for
Non-Science and Engineering (non- women, 75–76
S&E), bachelor’s degrees by sex, Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, 3
154, 159f Psychological well-being, job control
Nonsexualized female-on-female har- and, 63–67
assment, 15
Norepinephrine, stress response, Quid pro quo harassment: category of
60–63 sexual harassment, 89; religious
discrimination, 128
Occupation changes, women employ-
ees, 159, 161–62t Recognition for jobs, horizontal hos-
Occupation-specific stress, 72–74 tility and, 11
Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Religion: compartmentalizing work
Inc., 15 and life, 125–27; devaluation of
Oppressed group behavior, 9–10; hor- women, 115–16; employer accom-
izontal hostility, 10–11; perception modation of beliefs, 129–32; indi-
by women, 10; reprisal, 11 vidual connectivity at work, 119;
Organization-based self-esteem quid pro quo harassment, 129;
(OBSE), 33–34 workplace and, 109–41
Organization stressors: managerial Religious discrimination, 127–29
women, 71; recommendations for Religious Right, on religion in the
prevention, 75 workplace, 113
Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-
Part-time employment, 153–54 Esteem (Steinem), 28
Patriarchy and oppression, 9–11; Risk factors for CAD, job stress and,
women’s hostility to women, 11–16 67–71
Peer sexual harassment, children,
97–98 Scapegoating, women’s hostility to
Performance: self-esteem and, 33–3; women, 12
self-esteem relations, 25–26 School sexual harassment, 96–101
Personal stressors: impact of sexual Science and Engineering (S&E), bach-
harassment, 95–96; managerial elor’s degrees by sex, 154, 159f
women, 71 Self-acceptance, 31
Person-centered management, spiritu- Self-concept, 31
ality in the workplace, 133 Self-efficacy: generalized, 33; self-
Physical health, job control and, 63–67 esteem and, 26–27, 31
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Self-esteem, 25–53; affective compo-
61; sexual harassment and, 91–92 nent, 31; benefits, 36; cognitive
Poverty reduction, women in the aspect, 31; fear of success and the
workforce, 160, 163 impostor phenomenon, 28–29;
Power issues, horizontal hostility and, high-achieving women, 38–40; lit-
11 erature reviews, 30–38; measure-
Preparing to be employed, in my own ment challenges, 31–33; non-
voice, 85–88 contingent, 38; performance and,
Prescriptive elements, stereotypes, 33–34; self-efficacy and, 26–27
2–3 Self-regard, 31

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


Index 177

Self-report measures, self-esteem, 31–32 Stress hormones, 60–63


Self-worth, 31; contingencies of, 36–38 Sympathetic adrenomedullary system
Senior management, United Kingdom, (SAM), consequences of stress,
42 60–63
Sexism, 5–7; in communication, 7–8; Sympathetic nervous system, effects
definition, 5; patriarchal system, 9 of stress, 60
Sex-role spillover, 4–5
Sex-segregated jobs, 4–5
Teleworking, stress differences, 73
Sex segregation and discrimination, 14
Tokenism, women’s hostility to
Sexual Experience Questionnaire
women and, 13
(SEQ), 93
Trans World Airlines v. Hardison, 129
Sexual harassment: college campuses,
Type A behavior, managerial women,
92–93; EEOC definition, 89; gender
71–72
atmosphere of misogyny, 16; harm
cause by, 93–96; hostile environ-
ment type, 89; hostile work envi- U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops,
ronment, 14; K-6 students, 100–101; Committee on Women in Society
K-12 students, 96–101; male domi- and in the Church, 109
nation, 94–95; male to male, 15;
mental health impact, 89–107; men-
Verbal passive-aggressive communi-
tal health outcomes, 98–99; peer,
cation, women, 6
97–98; personal and situational fac-
Vocational behavior: characteristics
tors, 95–96; quid pro quo type, 89;
related to, 26–30; fear of success
relation of target and perpetrator,
and the impostor phenomenon,
16; severity of experiences, 93–94;
28–29; gender typing and, 27–28;
students who work, 101–2; work-
marriage and motherhood effects,
ing women, 90–92; work structure
28; other characteristics and factors
and processes, 95
related to, 29–30; self-esteem and
Sexual minority students, mental
self-efficacy, 26–27
health, 99–100
Vocational development, self-esteem
Situational factors, impact of sexual
and self-efficacy, 26–27
harassment, 95–96
Society, women’s contribution to,
154–64 Whiny, verbal passive-aggressive
Society stressors, managerial women, 71 communication, 6
A Spiritual Audit of Corporate America White women, professional successes,
(Mitroff and Denton), 111 44–45
Spirituality: models for fostering in Witchy behavior, 1–20
workplace, 132; workplace, 109–10 Women’s hostility to women, 11–16;
State self-esteem, 31 childhood roots, 11–12; media con-
Stereotypy: aggressive men, 1; de- tribution to, 12; scapegoating, 12
scriptive and prescriptive elements, Workforce issues, in my own voice,
2–3; gender role theory and, 2–5; 143–47
gender typing, 27–28; hostile and Worklife balance, religion and, 120
benevolent sexism, 5–6; patriarchal Workplace: economics for women,
system, 9; witchy women, 1 149–71; faith/religion in, 109–41;
Stress, 59–83; biological consequences, federal law addressing religion,
60–63; coronary artery disease and, 127; finding meaning and rele-
67–71; sexual harassment and, 92 vance, 118; religion relevance in,

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


178 Index

109–41; spirituality versus religion, 75–76; religion or faith as coping


133–36 mechanism, 121–22; sexual harass-
Workplace Religious Freedom Act ment and, 92; sexual harassment of
(WRFA), 128–29 students, 101–2
Workplace stress, 59; recommenda- Work structure and process, as a
tions for health and well-being, cause of sexual harassment, 95

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


About the Editor and Contributors

Michele A. Paludi, PhD, is the author/editor of 27 college textbooks, and


more than 140 scholarly articles and conference presentations on sexual
harassment, psychology of women, gender, and sexual harassment and
victimization. Her book, Ivory Power: Sexual Harassment on Campus (1990,
SUNY Press), received the 1992 Myers Center Award for Outstanding Book
on Human Rights in the United States. Dr. Paludi served as chair of the
U.S. Department of Education’s Subpanel on the Prevention of Violence,
Sexual Harassment, and Alcohol and Other Drug Problems in Higher Edu-
cation. She was one of six scholars in the United States to be selected for this
subpanel. She also was a consultant to and a member of former New York
State Governor Mario Cuomo’s Task Force on Sexual Harassment. She is
the series editor for Praeger’s Women’s Psychology Series.
Dr. Paludi serves as an expert witness for court proceedings and admin-
istrative hearings on sexual harassment. She has had extensive experience
in conducting training programs and investigations of sexual harassment
and other equal employment opportunity issues for businesses and educa-
tional institutions. In addition, Dr. Paludi has held faculty positions at
Franklin & Marshall College, Kent State University, Hunter College, Union
College, and Union Graduate College, where she directs the human
resource management certificate program. She teaches courses in the School
of Management: Foundations of Human Resource Management, Managing
Human Resources, and International Human Resource Management.

Linda Dillon is currently the director of human resources for the New
York State Higher Education Services Corporation. She has over 30 years
of service in the New York state government. Ms. Dillon earned a BS from
Russell Sage College and has completed several master’s level courses
from both Russell Sage College and Union College. Ms. Dillon resides

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


180 About the Editor and Contributors

outside Albany, New York, with her husband William. Their son Christo-
pher is a recent graduate of Harvard Business School, and their daughter
Stephanie is a recent graduate of the Roger Williams University School of
Architecture.

Donna Lee Faulkner is currently completing the requirements for the Mas-
ter of Science degree in clinical psychology at the University of Texas at
Tyler, and she plans to become a licensed professional counselor in the state
of Texas. Shelly L. Marmion, PhD, and Ms. Faulkner co-authored the chapter
entitled ‘‘Effects of Class and Culture on Intimate Partner Violence,’’ which
was included in Intimate Violence Against Women: When Spouses, Partners and
Lovers Attack. In addition, Ms. Faulkner has assisted Dr. Marmion in experi-
mental research at the University of Texas at Tyler and has collaborated with
Dr. Paula Lundberg-Love on several research projects.
Zhilan Feng received her master’s and doctoral degrees from the Univer-
sity of Connecticut. She has been an assistant professor for Union Gradu-
ate College since September 2003, and has published papers in several
real estate and finance journals. Her current research topics are corporate
governance, asset pricing in capital markets, capital structure policy, and
real estate investment and securitization.

Susan Fineran is an associate professor at the University of Southern


Maine School of Social Work. Her professional career includes clinical ex-
perience in the areas of aging, substance abuse, child and family treat-
ment, sex discrimination, and women’s issues. Her research interests
include sexual harassment and bullying that affects adolescents in schools
and in the workplace and the implications for child and adolescent men-
tal health.

James Gruber is a professor of sociology at the University of Michigan–


Dearborn. He has published extensively on workplace sexual harass-
ment and has presented workshops and expert witness testimony on the
topic since the early 1980s. He co-edited a book in 2005 with Dr. Phoebe
Morgan (In The Company of Men: Male Dominance and Sexual Harassment)
that offers new directions in theory and research on the topic. Currently,
he is conducting research with Dr. Susan Fineran on bullying and sexual
harassment in middle and high school. Also, they are studying the
impact of sexual harassment on girls who hold jobs while attending high
school.

LuAnn Hart is an administrator for the Arthropod-Borne Disease Pro-


gram for the Bureau of Communicable Disease Control, Division of Epi-
demiology, New York State Department of Health. She is also earning her
MBA in health administration at Union Graduate College.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


About the Editor and Contributors 181

Susan Lehrman has been president and dean of the faculty of Union
Graduate College since it was spun off from Union College in 2003. Prior
to that time she served as dean of Union College’s graduate programs
and as a faculty member in its MBA program. Dr. Lehrman is a nationally
known health services researcher focusing on the evaluation of services
for the HIV infected and affected population, providing research and
evaluation services at the national, regional, and local levels. Prior to her
academic career, she had a successful 15-year career in health care man-
agement. Dr. Lehrman holds a BS in education from Oregon State Univer-
sity and MPH and PhD degrees from the University of California at
Berkeley. She currently is the dean of the business school at Providence
College.

Paula Lundberg-Love is a professor of psychology at the University of


Texas at Tyler and the Ben R. Fisch Endowed Professor in Humanitarian
Affairs for 2001–2004. Her undergraduate degree was in chemistry and
her doctorate was in physiological psychology with an emphasis in psy-
chopharmacology. After a 3-year postdoctoral fellowship in nutrition and
behavior in the Department of Preventive Medicine at Washington Uni-
versity School of Medicine in St. Louis, she assumed her academic posi-
tion at University of Texas at Tyler, where she teaches classes in
psychopharmacology, behavioral neuroscience, physiological psychol-
ogy, sexual victimization, and family violence. Subsequent to her aca-
demic appointment, Dr. Lundberg-Love pursued postgraduate training
and is a licensed professional counselor. She is a member of Tyler Coun-
seling and Assessment Center, where she provides therapeutic services
for victims of sexual assault, child sexual abuse, and domestic violence.
She has conducted a long-term research study on women who were vic-
tims of childhood incestuous abuse, constructed a therapeutic program
for their recovery, and documented its effectiveness upon their recovery.
She is the author of nearly 100 publications and presentations and is co-
editor of Violence and Sexual Abuse at Home: Current Issues in Spousal Batter-
ing and Child Maltreatment. As a result of her training in psychopharma-
cology and child maltreatment, her expertise has been sought as a
consultant on various death penalty appellate cases in the state of Texas.

Michael B. Mathias (PhD, University of Rochester) is a clinical assistant


professor of management at Union Graduate College and lecturer in the
philosophy department at Union College. His teaching and research
interests include business ethics and ethical, political, and legal theory.
He also works as an ethics consultant and conducts workshops on teach-
ing ethics.

Maneechit Pattanapanchai was born and raised in Bangkok, Thailand.


She received a doctoral degree in environmental economics from the

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.


182 About the Editor and Contributors

University of Connecticut. Her research interests include economic fore-


casting, public policies, and corporate restructuring. She is currently
working as an economist for the Ways and Means Committee of the New
York State Assembly in Albany, New York.

Tina Stern grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and has lived in Atlanta, Georgia,
since 1987. She earned her undergraduate degree from Boston University,
her master’s degree from Cleveland State University, and her PhD from
the University of Georgia. She is a professor of psychology at Georgia Pe-
rimeter College, where for many years she has taught courses on the psy-
chology of women. In addition, as a licensed psychologist, Tina maintains
a clinical practice specializing in women’s issues. Since her days at Boston
University, Tina has been interested in and has written about issues
related to women and, in particular, the psychology of women.

Susan Strauss, RN, EdD, is a national and international speaker, trainer,


and consultant. Her specialty areas include harassment and workplace
bullying, organizational development, and management/leadership de-
velopment. Her clients are from business, education, health care, law, and
government organizations from both the public and private sector. Dr.
Strauss has authored book chapters and articles in professional journals,
written curriculum and training manuals, as well as authored the book
Sexual Harassment and Teens: A Program for Positive Change. Ms. Strauss has
been featured on The Donahue Show, CBS Evening News, and other televi-
sion and radio programs and has often been interviewed for newspaper
and journal articles such as for the Times of London, Lawyers Weekly, and
Harvard Education Newsletter. Ms. Strauss has presented at international
conferences in Botswana, Egypt, Thailand, Israel, and the United States.
She has consulted with professionals from other countries such as Eng-
land, Australia, Canada, and St. Maarten. She has her doctorate in organi-
zational leadership, is a registered nurse with a bachelor’s degree in
psychology and counseling, a master’s degree in public health, and a pro-
fessional certificate in training and development.

Christa White is majoring in psychology at Union College and is


expected to graduate in June, 2008. She has conducted research in
work/life integration, especially the impact of maternal employment on
children and elder care responsibilities for women.

© 2010 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.

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