Gender traits in relation to work versus career salience

Abstract

Orientation: The concepts of work- and career-role salience are used interchangeably, yet work focuses on the short-term aspect and career on the long-term aspect.Research purpose: We utilised gender traits, that is, masculinity, femininity and psychological androgyny, to find greater nuances in the salience of work versus career roles. We also set out to confirm the adapted factor structure of the revised Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI).Motivation for the study: Generally, self-reported sex is used to determine differences in role salience between men and women, as opposed to considering the gender roles people associate with.Research approach/design and method: A sample of 395 South African employees was used. Structural equation modelling and t-tests were applied.Main findings: We confirmed work- and career-role salience as distinct constructs. The factor structure of the revised BSRI holds for this study. With regard to gender traits, femininity decreased work-role salience, while psychological androgyny increased work-role salience. Masculinity had a direct effect on work-role salience while indirectly influencing career-role salience through work-role salience. Women were found to be significantly more feminine and psychologically androgynous than men.Practical/managerial implications: Utilising gender traits may have greater career guidance relevance for individuals than traditional approaches utilising differences between the sexes.Contribution/value-add: This study confirmed that work and career roles are to be viewed as separate constructs and that people may view the importance placed on work- and career-role salience differently. The study further contributes by including gender traits as a significant contributor to role salience.

Gender Diversity and Work–Life Conflict in Changing Times

“…Gender role theory postulates that society sets norms for what role behaviors are appropriate and the roles that men and women should emphasize: women's proper place is in the home and men's in the workplace [20]. Research on the GRO theory has shown that masculinity traits were related to avowed work role importance, whereas femininity traits to avowed family role importance [21]. This is the work and family role enacting for traditional men and women as decreed in a traditional society.…”

“…However, the demarcation between work and family is blurred for nontraditional men and women as they do not identify with traditional gender traits. For men who identify with nontraditional feminine traits, compared to their traditional counterparts who draw self-identity primarily on the work role, femininity traits make them more sensitive to family-related responsibilities [21]. Powell and Greenhaus [31] found a positive association between femininity traits and the importance of family role for both men and women.…”

“…As prioritizing the family role is not socially desirable for men, they will experience more intense FWC. For women who identify with high masculine or low feminine traits, compared to their traditional counterparts who draw self-identity primarily on the family role, masculinity traits make them more inclined to pursue career achievements [21]. Research has found that women with the nontraditional gender role identity had higher achievement motivation and pursued career success more rigorously [32,33].…”

“…Similarly, when family demands increase, we expect that nontraditional men and women will experience increased WFC. For nontraditional men, compared to their traditional counterparts who draw self-identity primarily on the work role, the femininity traits make them more inclined to pursue family happiness through involvement and participation [21]. When family duty calls, nontraditional men will be more resentful of the competing demands of the work role that depletes their energy and constrains their time.…”

Do Gender and Gender Role Orientation Make a Difference in the Link between Role Demands and Family Interference with Work for Taiwanese Workers?

“…The demarcation between work and family, however, is blurred for egalitarian men and women . Egalitarian men equally value work and family life [ 34 ]; thus, when they face increased work demands, they do not opt to sacrifice their family life [ 35 ]. While trying harder to fulfill both roles that are equally akin to their self-identities, they are more likely to overtax the resources and invoke the resource loss spiral.…”