Critical contributions to scholarship on women and work: Celebrating 50 years of progress and looking ahead to a new decade

Abstract

Women's increased participation in the workplace constitutes one of the most dramatic shifts that has occurred in the world of work over the past 50 years. In line with these changes, vocational and industrial/organizational (I/O) scholarship on women and work has evolved from early research utilizing group difference approaches (Hall et al., 2016) to contemporary theory and research that incorporate gender-specific cultural and environmental variables that impact women's work decisions and behaviors. Using an intersectional and multicultural feminist perspective, we describe the context for women's labor force participation and then discuss what we believe to be five critical areas of research on external factors that have significantly enhanced our understanding of women's work experiences: women's job quality and labor empowerment, workplace climate, interpersonal and relational factors, multiple role management, and mentorship. We summarize key findings and identify gaps and research recommendations in each of these areas, and conclude by providing general suggestions for future research to advance our understanding of women and work.