Gender Essentialism at Work? The Case of Norwegian Childcare Workers

Abstract

Abstract We examine the influence of gender essentialism, a key explanation of gender segregation in the labor market, by zooming in on childcare work, which remains a female-dominated occupation. Building on the assumption that gender essentialism is expressed through people’s perceptions of what jobs and tasks are suitable for men and women, we ask the following question: are childcare workers gender essentialists? We answer this question by investigating the attitudes and work-task participation of 2,549 Norwegian childcare workers. The results show that the workers did not display gender-essentialist attitudes. Male and female workers reported significantly different levels of participation in some work tasks, but the main conclusion is that gender is not an organizing principle of work-task participation. These results contradict findings from previous studies and contribute to ongoing debates about the causes of segregation because attitudes and behaviors are often evoked as explanations for the status quo.