Gender, Work, and Stress: The Potential Impact of Role-Identity Salience And Commitment

Abstract

In a period when most women and men combine work and family roles, the relationship between these roles and stress is of particular importance. Using an identity theory perspective, this study focuses primarily on gender differences in the sources and levels of stress associated with these roles. An identity-based perspective provides a more parsimonious way to address this issue than the frequently employed gender specific models. Based on differences in the meaning and salience of and commitment to work and family role identities, this study predicts gender differences in identity-linked sources of stress, and relates these to the results of prior stress research. Despite reliance on general norms to infer the salience and commitment of men and women to their work and family roles, and identity perspective demonstrates considerable promise.