Women In Professional Occupations Research Articles

Gendered Interpretations of Job Loss and Subsequent Professional Pathways

While we know that career interruptions shape men’s and women’s professional trajectories, we know less about how job loss may matter for this process. Drawing on interviews with unemployed, college-educated men and women in professional occupations, I show that while both men and women interpret their job loss as due to impersonal “business” decisions, women additionally attribute their job loss as arising from employers’ “personal” decisions. Men’s job loss shapes their subsequent preferred professional pathways, but never in a way that diminishes the importance of their participation in the labor force. For some women in this study, job loss becomes a moment to reflect on their professional pathways, often pulling them back from paid work. This study identifies job loss as an event that, on top of gendered workplace experiences and caregiving obligations, may curtail some women’s participation in paid work.

Opportunity and change in occupational assortative mating

This article documents how opportunity and change in the U.S. occupational structure shaped patterns of occupational assortative mating between 1970 and 2015–2017. Trends in occupational assortative mating have often been cited as potentially contributing to the rise in economic inequality—the idea that doctors increasingly marry doctors instead of nurses—thereby exacerbating the concentration of resources among advantaged households. Previous estimates of trends in occupational assortative mating are now decades old and their impact on household inequality has not been quantified. Our results show large-scale change. The prevalence of dual-professional couples nearly tripled between 1970 and 2015–2017. Changes were especially large among particular occupational combinations. For instance, male doctors have become increasingly likely to be married to female doctors, and male lawyers to female lawyers. Almost all of the changes in occupational assortative mating patterns, however, are accounted for by changes in the distributions of spouses' occupations, for example, the rise of women in professional occupations. Because of this, the contribution of occupational assortative mating to the rise in economic inequality has been small. In the absence of any association between spouses’ occupations, observed increases in household earnings inequality would have been reduced by 5%. Although this is a small portion of overall changes in inequality, it is much larger than prior estimates of the effects of educational assortative mating on inequality, which recent studies have estimated to be essentially zero.

Obesity and occupation in Thailand: using a Bayesian hierarchical model to obtain prevalence estimates from the National Health Examination Survey

BackgroundLike many developing countries, Thailand has experienced a rapid rise in obesity, accompanied by a rapid change in occupational structure. It is plausible that these two trends are related, with movement into sedentary occupations leading to increases in obesity. National health examination survey data contains information on obesity and socioeconomic conditions that can help untangle the relationship, but analysis is challenging because of small sample sizes.MethodsThis paper explores the relationship between occupation and obesity using data on 10,127 respondents aged 20–59 from the 2009 National Health Examination Survey. Obesity is measured using waist circumference. Modelling is carried out using an approach known as Multiple Regression with Post-Stratification (MRP). We use Bayesian hierarchical models to construct prevalence estimates disaggregated by age, sex, education, urban-rural residence, region, and occupation, and use census population weights to aggregate up. The Bayesian hierarchical model is designed to protect against overfitting and false discovery, which is particularly important in an exploratory study such as this one.ResultsThere is no clear relationship between the overall sedentary nature of occupations and obesity. Instead, obesity appears to vary occupation by occupation. For instance, women in professional occupations, and men who are agricultural or fishery workers, have relatively low rates of obesity.ConclusionBayesian hierarchical models plus post-stratification offers new possibilities for using surveys to learn about complex health issues.

Negotiating gender in the male-dominated skilled trades: a systematic literature review

Occupations in the skilled trades are highly segregated with women comprising 1–3% of this workforce in Western nations. We report on a systematic review of 26 articles, from 1998 to 2019, which explored women’s recruitment and retention in the skilled trades. Two research questions underpinned the review; the first identified challenges and barriers, the second identified success factors. Furthermore, the review examines why percentages of tradeswomen remain lower than those of women in professional occupations within the industry. The literature included in this review focuses on the barriers to women’s employment without sufficient emphasis on solutions to overcoming those barriers. The most common explanation for the problems of recruitment and attrition made in the literature is the failure of the masculine culture to change. However, we found little theoretical examination of masculinity and masculine culture beyond the hegemonic binary. Whilst many of the barriers exist for all women in construction, we argue that two distinct factors impact women in the skilled trades more than women in other occupations in the industry. These are the gendered body and informal and unregulated employment practices. These significant points of difference shed light on the future focus for research about women in the skilled trades.

“The men did not care for us women”

The emergence of commercial television advertising impacted women working as copywriters and artists in the creative departments of London ad agencies. Looking at the period 1955 to 1968, this paper discusses whether the observed fall in the proportion of women in creative departments was on par with a broader national “problem” of fewer and fewer women in professional occupations, or whether women in this sector were particularly hard hit. The research concludes that women copywriters and artists did not benefit from the advent of commercial television advertising. Their careers were limited by disparaging attitudes held by the younger generation, and changes in processes and creative skills required by the new medium. It also illustrates, however, that new opportunities for women did open up in television advertising production, in both advertising agencies and the wider production industry.

Occupational Differences in BMI, BMI Trajectories, and Implications for Employment Status among Older U.S. Workers.

We examined associations between employment and obesity, arguing that risk for unhealthy weight may vary across occupational groups because they shape workplace exposures, social class standing, material resources, and norms and expectations about healthy behaviors and weight. We used a large sample of 51-61-year-old workers from the Health and Retirement study, tracking their body mass index (BMI) over time while accounting for potentially confounding influences of socioeconomic status and gender and exploring whether gender modified associations between occupational group, BMI, and retirement timing. Compared with women in professional occupations, women managers were less likely to be obese at baseline and were less likely to be in the obese upward trajectory class, while female professionals and operators and laborers were less likely than women in farm and precision production to be in the normal stable trajectory. Male professionals were less likely than men in sales, service, and operator and laborer positions to be obese at baseline and more often followed the normal upward trajectory than most other groups, though they and farm and precision production men were more likely to be in the overweight to obese trajectory than men in service occupations. Adjustment for sociodemographic and lifestyle characteristics reduced associations more for men than for women. While retirement risk differed across occupational groups, most of these differences were explained by socioeconomic, demographic, and lifestyle characteristics, especially for men. Obesity at baseline was an independent predictor of retirement but did not further explain differences in the timing of retirement by occupational group.

Contextual Understanding of Lower Fertility Among U.S. Women in Professional Occupations

Despite decades of research indicating that employed women in the United States have fewer children than other women, it remains unclear what it is about work, beyond work hours, that constrains fertility. The current study links a sample of 1,800 women of childbearing age who are employed at least part-time from the National Survey of Fertility Barriers with the Department of Labor’s Occupational Information Network to examine how characteristics of women’s jobs are associated with their fertility intentions and behaviors. Results indicate that women who work in more professional jobs (e.g., occupations with greater prestige, autonomy, complexity, and supervisory characteristics) are more likely to postpone childbearing than women employed in jobs with lower scores on professional characteristics. Women in more professional jobs do not want fewer children, however, and they report higher intentions to give birth. These findings suggest that women in more professional jobs face greater barriers to having children that they want to have.

Uncovering sexuality and gender: an intersectional examination of women’s experience in UK construction

UK employers have been broadening their equality and diversity activities to include the issue of sexual orientation; however, the construction industry has been slow to follow. Equally there is a lack of research on the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) workers in construction. While women’s sexuality soon becomes a focus of interest when they enter male-dominated work, little research has discussed how sexual minorities–and in particular lesbians–fare in such environments. This article examines how both gender and sexuality interact to shape women’s working lives within the UK construction sector, drawing on 22 interviews and a focus group with heterosexual women and lesbians in male-dominated occupations in construction. While women share common experiences of heightened interest and questioning, open lesbians can sometimes minimize the sexualized content of workplace interactions. However the potential for exclusion on the basis of minority sexuality also exists. Sexual harassment appears less prevalent for women in professional occupations than in the past, while women in the manual trades reported that the problem persists. Lesbians can experience different forms of harassment, however, from heterosexual women, while employers are less developed in their response to homophobic harassment.

‘Now, We Have the SameRightsas Men to Keep Our Jobs’: Gendered Perceptions of Opportunity and Obstacles in a Mexican Workplace

Drawing on extensive qualitative data at a Mexican‐owned multinational corporation, this case study investigates professional employees’ perceptions of changes to a prohibitive work policy requiring women to quit working upon marriage and having children. Employees believed the policy change meant working women were valued employees, but how this translated into opportunity highlighted distinct views of the types of positions professional women could occupy at the company, reinforcing sex‐segregated job allocation. Whereas women's narratives pointed to cultural resistance, men's narratives attributed the dearth of women in higher level positions to their lack of professionalism and commitment to work. The work policy changeonlyguaranteed therightfor women to work as the company modernized to fit the neoliberal demands of the global marketplace. Now women faced the challenge of turning that right into career advancement in a traditionally masculine‐defined company. I argue that even with the policy change, gendered discourses on women in professional occupations constructed and maintained gender inequities in the workplace. This study contributes to the scholarly discussion on gendered discourses within the context of global restructuring by showinghowmechanisms at work maintain gender inequity in the workplace.

Higher-status occupations and breast cancer: A life-course stress approach

Using the 1957–2011 data from 3682 White non-Hispanic women (297 incident breast cancer cases) in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, United States, we explore the effect of occupation in 1975 (at age 36) on breast cancer incidence up to age 72. Our study is motivated by the paradoxical association between higher-status occupations and elevated breast cancer risk, which presents a challenge to the consistent health advantage of higher social class. We found that women in professional occupations had 72122% and women in managerial occupations had 57–89% higher risk of a breast cancer diagnosis than housewives and women in lower-status occupations. We explored an estrogen-related pathway (reproductive history, health behaviors, and life-course estrogen cycle) as well as a social stress pathway (occupational experiences) as potential explanations for the effect of higher-status occupations. The elevated risk of breast cancer among professional women was partly explained by estrogen-related variables but remained large and statistically significant. The association between managerial occupations and breast cancer incidence was fully explained by job authority defined as control over others' work. Exercising job authority was related to higher breast cancer risk (HR = 1.57, 95% CI: 1.12, 2.18), especially with longer duration of holding the professional/managerial job. We suggest that the assertion of job authority by women in the 1970s involved stressful interpersonal experiences that may have promoted breast cancer development via prolonged dysregulation of the glucocorticoid system and exposure of the breast tissue to adverse effects of chronically elevated cortisol. Our study emphasizes complex biosocial pathways through which women's gendered occupational experiences become embodied and drive forward physiological repercussions.

The Impact of Legal Age Discrimination on Women in Professional Occupations

Abstract:This paper describes how anticipated age discrimination in the form of disparate treatment induces behavior that in effect constitutes gender discrimination. Potential employers often exhibit a common pattern of behavior that acts to discriminate against older workers entering a specific workplace. Women, at a decision-making point early in their lives, are aware of this pattern of discrimination. They perceive that it is important for them to establish their careers before they have a family because it will be more difficult for them to enter the work force at a later age and excel at their careers. This anticipated age discrimination disparately impacts women, resulting in gender discrimination.

The Impact of Legal Age Discrimination on Women in Professional Occupations

This paper describes how anticipated age discrimination in the form of disparate treatment induces behavior that in effect constitutes gender discrimination. Potential employers often exhibit a common pattern of behavior that acts to discriminate against older workers entering a specific workplace. Women, at a decision-making point early in their lives, are aware of this pattern of discrimination. They perceive that it is important for them to establish their careers before they have a family because it will be more difficult for them to enter the work force at a later age and excel at their careers. This anticipated age discrimination disparately impacts women, resulting in gender discrimination.

PAPER ABSTRACTS GENDER & DIVERSITY IN ORGANIZATIONS.

Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings includes abstracts of all papers and symposia presented at the annual conference, plus 6-page abridged versions of the “Best Papers” accepted for inclusion in the program (approximately 10%). Papers published in the Proceedings are abridged because presenting papers at their full length could preclude subsequent journal publication. Please contact the author(s) directly for the full papers. ArticlesPAPER ABSTRACTS GENDER & DIVERSITY IN ORGANIZATIONS.Published Online:13 Dec 2017https://doi.org/10.5465/apbpp.2000.5439160AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsDownload CitationsAdd to favoritesTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail AbstractThis article presents abstracts of articles related to gender and diversity in organizations including "The Impact of Legal Age Discrimination on Women in Professional Occupations," by Nancy Kurland, "Cultural Diversity: A Configurational Theory for Overcoming the Negative Consequences," by Amy McMillan and "The Persistence of Gender Inequality in Management Over Time: Evidence from Senior Women Managers in Europe," by Margaret Linehan.FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Vol. 2000, No. 1 Permissions Metrics in the past 12 months History Published online 13 December 2017 Published in print 1 August 2000 InformationCopyright of Academy of Management Journal is the property of Academy of Management and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder’s express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.KeywordsABSTRACTSWOMEN employees -- AbstractsSEX discrimination in employment -- AbstractsWOMEN executives -- AbstractsDIVERSITY in the workplace -- AbstractsDownload PDF

Career and Marriage in the Age of the Pill.

Genuine change in the economic and social status of U.S. women did not emanate simply from their increased labor-force participation, but rather, from their increase in professions and as “career women.” Those changes first began in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. We examine here one factor of momentous importance in this break with the past. The Economist (31 December 1999) recently named it the greatest science and technology advance in the twentieth century. It is the oral contraceptive, known worldwide by its moniker “the pill.” In 1960, 18.4 percent of professionals were women, as were 4.7 percent of “high-powered professionals.” By 1998, 36.4 percent of professionals and 25.1 percent of the high-powered subset were women. We explore in this article a series of connections that link the birth-control pill to the increase of women in professional occupations. Our evidence for the impact of the pill relies largely on the timing of various changes. Changes in laws giving minors certain adult rights and lowering the age of majority enabled young and unmarried women to obtain the pill. Young women’s control over their fertility directly reduced the costs to them of engaging in long-term career investments. The pill also served to increase the age at first marriage and thus indirectly reduced a potential penalty of delaying marriage to pursue professional education and training. All of these changes began in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. The late 1960’s and early 1970’s were years of tumultuous social and political change. How can we separate the impacts of affirmative action, the resurgence of feminism, changes in social norms, and abortion reform from the impact of the pill? The simple answer is that the timing of several of these changes is far less convincing than is that of the pill in affecting career investment. But that is not the complete answer. The economic impact of the pill did not occur in isolation. Legal change made it possible for young women to obtain contraceptives. These changes, paradoxically, did not stem primarily from concerns regarding access to contraception. They were, instead, part of the larger political movement of the 1960’s. The pill, moreover, unleashed social change by enabling an increase in the age at first marriage. There is also no doubt that the rebirth of feminism, long in the making, served to complement and reinforce the pill’s impact. Our argument for the importance of the pill in affecting women’s career decisions relies on the correspondence among breaks in various time series and in the logic of the relationships among the pill, career, and marriage. We will begin with the time series on career and marriage, which can be viewed as the dependent variables. The evidence on the diffusion of the pill (the independent variable) is taken up next. The logic of our argument relating pill use, career, and marriage follows, and finally we present our defense for why we believe the pill packed considerable power in altering the social and economic status of American women.

Gender Inequality in Political Representation: A Worldwide Comparative Analysis

We examine the determinants of cross-national variation in the share ofparliamentary seats held by women in 1998. Thefindings ofprior research on this issue have differed sharply. Studiesfocusing on the most affluent longstanding democracies have emphasized the importance of political factors, whereas three of the four studies to include less developed nationsfound that only socioeconomic and/or culturalfactors matter. Our analysis uses improved variable measures, a more complete set of variables, and a larger sample of countries than has heretofore been examined. We find that political, socioeconomic, and culturalfactors are each important. Specifically, electoral system structure, leftparty government, the timing of women's suffrage; the share of women in professional occupations, and cultural attitudes toward the role of women in politics each play a role in accountingfor variation in the degree ofgender inequality in political representation around the world.

The New Service Class: Housing, Consumption, and Lifestyle among London Bankers in the 1990s

In this paper I draw on a survey of professional employees in three of the City of London's merchant banks to assess arguments about the residential preferences and lifestyle decisions of the ‘new’ middle class. It has been argued that an increasingly polarised workforce within producer service industries has, in part, led to greater social polarisation in inner areas through the mechanism of gentrification. Further the effects of the feminisation of the labour market, especially the rise in the numbers of professional women in employment, have been adduced as a significant factor in housing-market change. A number of commentators have suggested that women in professional occupations are key players in inner-area gentrification, although the evidence here is limited. Further, middle-class anxiety about employment prospects has been identified by Lyons in a recent article in this journal as a further reason for increased preferences for inner-area locations. In this paper I assess these arguments.

Making It In and Making Out: Women in Professional Occupations in Britain and France

The relationship between gender, work and organization in professional occupations can be shown to vary according to different work environments and national contexts. The career patterns of women in chartered accountancy and law in Britain and France are explored in different types of organization in order to determine whether the societal structuring of these occupations is gendered and whether women fare better in small professional practices or large bureaucratic organizations. The findings are derived from a comparative study which combined macro‐level data with in‐depth qualitative analysis of work and family life histories of a small number of women professionals. While women in the two countries and two occupations were found to share many of the same problems in establishing and pursuing a career, the evidence suggests that women in France may have a marginal advantage over their British counterparts, not so much because they have access to more extensive statutory employment rights but rather because they are more often employed in small practices where they are able to use their independence and their control over working conditions and work‐time arrangements to structure their careers according to their own requirements and interests.

The Gender of Time in Professional Occupations

Sociological theory has not adequately represented the complexities of women's temporality. Men and women are, however, known to engage in economic activity on different temporal terms, and the gendering of time is a factor which can be shown to contribute to labour market segmentation. An examination of the problems experienced by well-qualified women in professional occupations shows how the process of segregation operates. Although women in the professions are facing the same issues in Britain and France, comparative analysis suggests that differences in national patterns of employment and time organization remain salient in explaining the temporal strategies they adopt.

Dietary intake of Aberdeen primigravidae in 1950/51 and 1984/85.

In 1984‐85 a randorn sample of maried primigravidae in Aberdeen completed a 7‐d weighed diet survey in the seventh month of pregnancy. The results are compared with a similar local survey conducted in 1950/51 and with other recent studies in the United Kingdom. Daily intake of nutrients were less in 1984/85 then in 1950/51. Although it is likely that there has been a real reduction, problems arise about direct comparison of values because of methods of calculation. Both surveys came to certain conclusions, including that taller women ate more than shorter women, that birthweight was not associated with distary intake and that smokers had a significantly reduced intake of ascorbic acid. Although wives of non‐manual workers tended to have higher nutrient intakes than other wives, the difference only reached marginal significanc for ascorbic acid in 1950/51 and for protein and calcium in 1984/85. The wife's occupation was more discriminating than that of the husband, particularly in 1984‐85, although the changes in the occupational structure necessitated a redivision of occupations. In 1984/85, women in professional occupations ate significantly more of all items except energy, fat and thiamin compared with clerical and other workers. Although 34 years apart, the two surveys showed that the proportion of energy derived from fat was unchanged (38.5%) whereas the proportion of protein had increased, offset by a reduction in carbohydrate. There were no significant differences in the components of energy by occupational group in either survey, irresective of the classification used. Evidence indicates by NACNE (1983). The recent study adds to the accumulation evidence that the DHSS (1979) recommendations for the diet of pregnant women are unrealistic.

Does maternal employment affect breast-feeding?

A prospective survey of maternal employment and breast-feeding initiation and duration was conducted among 668 Black and 511 White women who delivered their first child in Washington, DC. Ninety-one percent of White women (n = 511) and 80 percent of Black women (n = 668) reported working during pregnancy. Black women who planned to return to work part time vs full time were more likely to breast-feed rather than formula-feed (adjusted odds ratio, 2.3; 95% confidence intervals (CI) = 1.4, 3.7). Using Cox regression, Black women who returned to work had a shorter duration of breast-feeding than those not returning to work (hazard ratio = 0.5 (CI = 0.3, 0.9]. Black and White women returning to professional occupations had a longer duration of breast-feeding compared to women returning to sales or technical positions (hazard ratio for Black women = 2.4 (CI = 1.4, 44); hazard ratio for White women = 1.6 (CI = 1.0, 2.5]. In addition, White women in professional occupations had a longer duration of breast-feeding than women in clerical positions (hazard ratio = 1.7 (CI = 1.1, 2.6]. Until employers in the United States develop a maternity policy which does not discourage breast-feeding, the recommended six months of breast-feeding will be difficult to achieve for most employed women.