GENDER, DIMENSIONS OF WORK, AND SUPPORTIVE COWORKER RELATIONS

Do women report a higher level of coworker support than men? If so, do dimensions of work contribute to that difference? To address these questions, I examined data from a sample of employed Toronto residents. Overall, women reported a higher level of coworker support than men. Job authority and nonroutine work are associated positively with coworker support, while job noxiousness is associated negatively with coworker support. In addition, two gender‐contingent associations between work dimensions and coworker support emerge: (1) job autonomy is associated positively with coworker support among women only, and (2) job demands are associated negatively with coworker support among women and positively with coworker support among men. I discussed ways that these findings fit into and extend sociological analysis of the links between occupational life and psychosocial functioning.     

Household Work Complexity,Intellectual Functioning,and Self‐Esteem in Men and Women

Using data from a U.S. longitudinal investigation of psychological effects of occupational conditions (a project of the National Institute of Mental Health’s unit on Socioenvironmental Studies), we examined the relationship between the complexity of household work and 2 psychological variables: intellectual flexibility and self‐esteem. Longitudinal reciprocal effects analyses revealed that for men (n = 351) and women (n = 355), more complex household work was associated with increased intellectual flexibility. For women, complex household work was also associated with increased self‐confidence and decreased self‐deprecation. For men, complex household work was associated with decreased self‐confidence. The results are discussed in terms of theories of the cognitive and neurological effects of environmental complexity and of theories of self‐esteem.     

Home-to-Work Conflict,Work Qualities,and Emotional Distress

Among a representative sample of employed men and women in Toronto, Canada, home-to-work conflict is associated positively with anxiety and depression. Two hypotheses propose work qualities as moderators. The double disadvantage hypothesis predicts that home-to-work conflict is more distressing when work is nonautonomous, routine, or noxious. The intrusion on job status/rewards hypothesis predicts that conflict is more distressing when work is autonomous, nonroutine, or nonnoxious. Results show that the association between home-to-work conflict and distress is stronger (1) among people in more autonomous jobs; (2) among women in routinized jobs; and (3) among men in noxious environments.     

The nature of work and the stress of higher status

Are occupational and work conditions associated with work-to-home conflict? If so, do those associations vary by gender? Among a sample of adults in Toronto, Canada, we found that men and women in higher-status occupations reported higher levels of work-to-home conflict than workers in lower-status jobs. In addition, we observed higher levels of work-to-home conflict among workers who are self-employed and among those with more job authority, demands, involvement, and longer hours. The only significant gender-contingent effect was found for nonroutine work, which is associated positively with work-to-home conflict among men but not women. Higher levels of job demands, involvement, and hours among individuals in higher-status occupations significantly contribute to occupation-based differences in work-to-home conflict. Moreover, despite some overlap, these work conditions have largely independent associations with work-to-home conflict. Results generally support the "stress of higher status " hypothesis among both women and men. Although higher-status positions yield many rewards, such positions are not impervious to inter-role stress, and this stress may offset those rewards.     

Partner Appraisal and Marital Satisfaction: The Role of Self‐Esteem and Depression

This study examined whether people are more maritally satisfied when the valence of their partner's view of them is congruent with the valence of their self‐view. In doing so, competing hypotheses derived from self‐verification theory and self‐esteem enhancement theory were examined. Married couples, recruited from the community and mental health facilities, completed measures of marital satisfaction, self‐esteem, depression, and rated their spouse on a wide array of personality traits, both depressionrelated and depressionneutral. Regardless of self‐esteem and depression level, and across trait categories, targets were more maritally satisfied when their partners viewed them positively and less satisfied when their partners viewed them negatively. Thus, findings were inconsistent with self‐verification theory and consistent with a self‐esteem enhancement model.     

College Student Psychological Distress: Relationship to Self‐Esteem and Career Decision Self‐Efficacy Beliefs

College students experience a number of stressors, such as adjustment to a new environment, postgraduation planning, and the balancing of changing roles and responsibilities. These stressors may contribute to increased rates of psychological distress that have implications for their educational and career development. The purpose of this study was to extend understanding of the nature of the relationships among psychological distress, self‐esteem, and career decision self‐efficacy (CDSE) beliefs. Results from 292 undergraduate students demonstrated support for the proposed hypotheses. Psychological distress negatively related to self‐esteem and to CDSE. Self‐esteem was positively related to, yet distinct from, CDSE, and both self‐esteem and psychological distress contributed unique variance to the prediction of CDSE. Results highlight the importance of attending to student psychological distress in the provision of career counseling services. Future research that centralizes mental health is needed to better understand relationships among career development processes over time and within diverse student populations.     

Getting to know reality and breaking stereotypes: the experience of two generations of working disabled women

This paper sets out the results of a Spanish study of the experience and meaning of work among disabled women of two generations, with three types of disability (physical, visual and hearing). Performing a socially recognised activity such as a job is a source of emotional welfare and self‐esteem. Moreover, it confers a certain social status. For the participants in this study the kind of work involved, whether productive, paid and ‘extra‐domestic’ or ‘reproductive’, unpaid and done at home, acquires different meanings, since for disabled women, sexist stereotypes – already more or less accentuated in the culture – social attitudes towards disability and personal factors introduce relevant differences, while leading to conflicts and dilemmas that these women have to solve. At any rate, their sense of responsibility in performing all types of work should be emphasised as evidence of their sense of independence and personal competence, forming a keystone in their construction of a sense of identity and social integration.     

Sources of Volunteer Motivation: Transformational Leadership and Personal Motives Influence Volunteer Outcomes

We examined the separate influences of volunteers' personal motives and their team leaders' behaviors on volunteer satisfaction and contributions, along with mediating processes suggested by self‐determination theory. Participants were 302 volunteers who worked in teams at various sites through a central agency. As predicted, both personal motives for volunteering and transformational leadership influenced volunteer satisfaction through enhanced work meaningfulness and higher‐quality team relationships. However, motives that predicted volunteer contribution were different from those that predicted satisfaction. Whereas satisfaction was positively associated with motives concerning esteem enhancement and value expression, contribution was positively associated with motives to gain understanding and negatively related to motives pertaining to esteem enhancement and social concerns. Transformational leadership was positively associated with volunteer satisfaction, but not with volunteer contributions. The theoretical ramifications of these findings are discussed, along with practical implications for the recruitment and retention of volunteers.     

Social capital,human capital,and career success in public relations in Taiwan

This study examined the degree to which demographic, human capital, and social capital variables can predict career success for public relations practitioners in Taiwan. Social capital includes two dimensions: social trust and social network. Human capital includes education, rank, career tenure, and motivation. Public relations practitioners (150) from 16 agencies in Taiwan were interviewed in 2006. Social capital explained the significant variance in subjective career success. As for human capital, motivation negatively predicted job comfort, but positively predicted challenge and task significance. Career tenure and rank in the agency positively predicted autonomy, while only age and professional tenure predicted objective success. This study also revealed that the longer the practitioners stay in the business, the more the sense of autonomy, financial rewards, and support they have. Combined with the results of objective career success, career tenure is the best predictor for career success among all the variables in human capital. Since gender does not predict career success, we may infer that public relations practice in Taiwan does not seem hostile to women.     

Parent‐Adolescent Communication About Sex: Retrospective Reports by Latino College Students

Latina female (n= 97) and Latino male (n= 69) college students (M age = 21.4 years) completed self‐report surveys regarding family of origin experiences, including sexual communication with parents while growing up. Latino parents of this comparatively highly educated sample tended to use direct rather than indirect strategies for communicating about sexuality with their children. Young women reported higher levels of sexual communication with mothers while growing up than did young men, and respondents reported less communication with fathers than mothers. Among young women, sexual communication with mother was positively associated with non‐Mexican origin and negatively associated with having older brothers living at home. In contrast, maternal education was positively associated with mother‐son communication about sex. Paternal education and the absence of older brothers positively predicted communication with both sons and daughters. The analyses provide novel information regarding sexual communication in Latino families and suggest directions for future research.     

MALE MARITAL WAGE DIFFERENTIALS: TRAINING,PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS,AND FIXED EFFECTS

Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, we replicate previous estimates of the marital wage differential for white men, extend the analysis to African American men, then explain the within and between race differentials. We first control for formal job training, then for cognitive skills, parental background, and self‐esteem with little effect. By contrast, the white differential but not the black differential disappears in fixed‐effects estimation. We reconcile the cross‐section/panel differentials by focusing on the distinct identification conditions employed by each technique. Men who never change marital status play a significant role in white cross‐sectional estimates. (JEL J31, J12)     

Comparing Offers and Take‐ups of Employee Health Insurance across Race,Gender, and Decade*

How often do U.S. employees receive health insurance offers from employers? When offered, how often do they take up their employer‐based health insurance? This article uses the 1992 and 2002 waves of the National Study of the Changing Workforce (NSCW) to investigate changes in access to (offers) and employees electing to accept, take, or purchase their employers’ health insurance plans (take‐ups) among wage and salaried workers. Although much research has studied employee health benefits, little has examined the intersection of gender and race regarding both offers and take‐ups of such benefits. Logistic regression results indicate that offers and take‐ups of personal health benefits declined from 1992 to 2002, net of salient controls. Further analyses demonstrate that these declines did not affect all workers identically. Offers declined somewhat for both women and men among whites and African Americans, but declined more among Hispanic women and men. Among other ethnoracial groups, offers declined the most among men, but increased among comparable women. Take‐ups declined among white men and Hispanic workers. However, white and African American women's take‐ups did not change and among African American men take‐ups increased. We discuss the need to examine gender and race simultaneously and urge researchers to more closely examine changes in health benefit offers and take‐ups.     

Marriage,Money, and African American Mothers’ Self‐Esteem

This study examined the effects of marital status and family income on the self‐esteem of 292 African American mothers. Counter to previous studies with European American mothers, family income moderated the effects of marital status. Those mothers with higher family income had higher self‐esteem, regardless of their marital status. For those with less family income, married mothers had much higher self‐esteem than unmarried mothers. Low‐income married mothers had the same levels of self‐esteem as high income mothers. It was concluded that financial resources can buffer the effects of being single, and being married can buffer the effects of being low income. Policy initiatives that focus on reducing the financial hardship on single mothers and increasing the marriage rate among lower income parents were also discussed.     

More Control,Less Conflict? Job Demand–Control,Gender and Work–Family Conflict

The connection between working hours and work‐to‐family conflict has been established in a number of studies. However, it seems what is important is not only the quantity of work but also its quality, as captured by the job demand–control model. Survey data from 800 Swedish employees show that job demands spill over negatively into family life, while job control reduces work‐to‐family conflict. Interestingly, women in jobs with high demands and high control — regarded as the prototype for modern, flexible work life — do not experience more work‐to‐family conflict than men, even when working the same hours.     

The Business of Caring: Women's Self‐Employment and the Marketization of Care

Our goal in this article is to contribute to a differentiated analysis of paid caring work by considering whether and how women's experiences of such work is shaped by their employment status (for example, self‐employed versus employee) and the nature of care provided (direct or indirect). Self‐employed care workers have not been widely studied compared with other types of care workers, such as employees providing domestic or childcare in private firms or private homes. Yet their experiences may be quite distinct. Existing research suggests that self‐employed workers earn less than employees and are often excluded from employment protection. Nonetheless, they often report greater autonomy and job satisfaction in their day‐to‐day work. Understanding more about the experiences of self‐employed caregivers is thus important for enriching existing theory, research and policy on the marketization of care. Addressing this gap, our article explores the working conditions, pay and levels of satisfaction of care workers who are self‐employed. We draw on interviews from a small‐scale study of Canadian women engaged in providing direct care (for example, childcare) and indirect care (for example, cleaning).     

Self‐Esteem,the Fear of Crime,and the Decision to Protect Oneself From Victimization

This research extends prior work that examines self‐esteem as an outcome of protective behaviors against crime victimization by focusing instead on the moderating influence of self‐esteem on the relationship between the fear of crime and the decision to protect oneself from victimization. The fear of crime is conceptualized as two separate components (fear of victimization and perceived risk) in accordance with prior work. Self‐esteem is conceptualized as three separate components (worth, efficacy, and authenticity), and measured with a recently designed instrument for capturing each aspect of self‐esteem separately. Data are collected through surveys of a population at high risk for victimization (undergraduate college students). Logistic regression analyses demonstrate that self‐esteem does play a role for deciding whether to engage in protective behaviors, and that the specific components of self‐esteem moderate defensive behavioral outcomes differently. Specifically, the self‐worth, self‐efficacy, and authenticity components of self‐esteem influence the decision to carry protection, but not the decision to take a self‐defense class. Implications for both the fear of crime and self‐esteem literatures are addressed.     

Organizational values,job experiences and satisfactions among female and male psychologists1

This study examined the relationship of managerial and professional women's and men's perceptions of organizational values supportive of work–personal life integration and their job experiences, work and non-work satisfactions and psychological well-being. Data were collected from 324 women and 128 men psychologists in Australia using anonymous questionnaires. Both women and men reported benefits from such values. Women psychologists reporting organizational values more supportive of work–personal life integration also reported working fewer hours and extra-hours worked per week, greater job and career satisfaction, more optimistic career prospects, less time to job and less work stress, greater friends satisfaction, and more positive emotional and physical well-being. Men psychologists reporting organizational values more supportive of work–personal life integration also reported less job stress, greater joy in work, lower intentions to quit, greater job and career satisfaction, more optimistic career prospects, fewer psychosomatic symptoms and more positive emotional and physical well-being. Multiple regression analyses indicated more independent and significant correlates of organizational values supporting work–personal life integration among women than among men. Possible explanations for why women might benefit more from such organizational values are offered.     

Job Segregation and Gender Differences in Work-Family Spillover Among White-Collar Workers

We test two propositions in this paper: (1) work-family conflict varies with gender composition and hours on the job; and (2) women will experience more tension between work and family responsibilities than will men. Using a sample of white-collar workers, we measured work-family conflict with a composite scale tapping negative job-to-home spillover. Workgroup composition had no effect on men's reported work-family conflict, while work hours was positively associated with work-family conflict. For women, longer work hours and tokenism in the immediate workgroup increased perceptions of work-family conflict, but unexpectedly, the interaction of work hours and tokenism was negatively related to work-family conflict. We explored several possible arguments for this contrary finding.     

Raising network resources while raising children? Access to social capital by parenthood status,gender, and marital status

Does raising non-adult children facilitate or restrict access to social capital as network resources? Using data from a national sample of adults in the United States, I do not find evidence for the direct effect of parenthood on the three dimensions of social capital (diversity, extensity, and quality), but instead I find evidence for its interaction effects on the quality of social capital. There is marginal evidence that parenthood status is associated with the quality of social capital positively for men but negatively for women. There is evidence that parenthood status is associated with the quality of social capital positively for the married but negatively for the unmarried. Also parenthood status is associated with the quality of social capital negatively for unmarried women but positively for the other three gender-marital groups, in particular unmarried men. These findings suggest the structural interplay of parenthood status with gender and marital status, and indicate the motherhood penalty, the fatherhood premium, the single-parenthood penalty, the married-parenthood premium, and the single-motherhood penalty in reaching higher-quality, rather than more diverse and extensive, social capital.     

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN JOB SATISFACTION

This article analyzes gender differences in job satisfaction among full-time workers. Why do women report equal or greater job satisfaction than men in spite of objectively inferior jobs? Analysis reveals few differences between men and women in the determinants of job satisfaction when considering job characteristics, family responsibilities, and personal expectations. Little support is found for theories that men and women: (1) focus on different aspects of work in arriving at a given level of job satisfaction; (2) differentially condition their job satisfaction according to the extent of their family responsibilities; and (3) employ different personal expectations in evaluating their jobs. Two alternative explanations for women's relatively positive job attitudes are considered. First, women may arrive at a higher level of job satisfaction than men by using different comparison groups. Second, men may be more willing to verbalize dissatisfaction with work because of different socialization. The most likely explanation is that these processes operate in conjunction to produce greater reported job satisfaction among women.