This study aimed to examine psychosocial factors related to working long hours, which causes depression, anxiety, and so forth, including karoshi [work to death]. In particular, the issue of working very long hours and its impacts on employees is seen as an urgent issue in Japan, and by clarifying the factors associated with this phenomenon, we aim to contribute to efforts to identify appropriate mitigation measures. We proposed a model of factors related to long work hours from multiple perspectives, and tested it in six countries: China,
Despite global commitments and efforts, a gender-based division of paid and unpaid work persists. To identify how psychological factors, national policies, and the broader sociocultural context contribute to this inequality, we assessed parental-leave intentions in young adults (18-30 years old) planning to have children (N = 13,942; 8,880 identified as women; 5,062 identified as men) across 37 countries that varied in parental-leave policies and societal gender equality. In all countries, women intended to take longer leave than men. National parental-leave policies and women's political representation partially explained cross-national variations in the gender gap. Gender gaps in leave intentions were paradoxically larger in countries with more gender-egalitarian parental-leave policies (i.e., longer leave available to both fathers and mothers). Interestingly, this cross-national variation in the gender gap was driven by cross-national variations in women's (rather than men's) leave intentions. Financially generous leave and gender-egalitarian policies (linked to men's higher uptake in prior research) were not associated with leave intentions in men. Rather, men's leave intentions were related to their individual gender attitudes. Leave intentions were inversely related to career ambitions. The potential for existing policies to foster gender equality in paid and unpaid work is discussed.
Although Germany and Japan are top-ranking in STEM, women are underrepresented in the STEM fields of physics, engineering, and computer science in both countries. The current research investigated widespread gender-science stereotypes in STEM in the two countries (Studies 1 and 2) and negative consequences of expected backlash (i.e., imagining negative reactions and lower ascribed communion in scenarios) for women’s emotions and motivation in STEM due to role incongruity and lack-of-fit (Study 3). Studies 1 (N = 87) and 2 (N = 22,556) showed that explicit and implicit gender-science stereotypes are widespread and comparable in Germany and Japan. Study 3 (N = 628) showed that lower ascribed communion was related to less positive emotions, more negative emotions and anxiety emotions, and less study motivation for STEM students (from the fields of physics, engineering, and computer science) from Germany and Japan. Results point to more subtle expected backlash effects for women in STEM than hypothesized. Theoretical and practical implications for gender equality in STEM are discussed.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.