Posted on: January 18, 2008
She Works Harder for the Money
New study reveals gender-based inequality in the workplace
By Ben Larrison
CTW Features
Sorry, guys: Women still have it tougher in the workplace, and there are numbers to prove it. A new study has found that women in the U.S. and Britain say they have to work harder than men.
A joint effort between sociologists Elizabeth Gorman of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, and Julie Kmec of Washington State University, St. Louis, the study was the result of five studies conducted between 1977 and 2001. Workers were asked if they agreed with the statement, “My job requires that I work very hard,” and according to the findings, women were significantly more likely to either agree or strongly agree.
The report, “We (Have to) Try Harder: Gender and Required Work Effort in Britain and the United States,” was originally published in the December issue of the journal Gender and Society.
“This is what women are up against,” Gorman says. “They have to prove themselves.” Even when accounting for factors like a job’s physical and mental demands and family responsibilities such as marriage and parenthood, Gorman and Kmec concluded that there are “…stricter performance standards imposed on women, even when women and men hold the same jobs.”
The researchers say their findings align with previous studies, which have concluded that essays, paintings and resumes bearing a woman’s name are received more poorly than those with men’s.
Existing inequalities notwithstanding, Gorman and Kmec don’t want to give the impression that women should be cutting back at work.
“We do not want to insist that female workers shirk their job responsibilities to make this gap go away,” Kmec says. “Rather, we hope employers make job performance standards more transparent and be held accountable for their evaluations of women at work.”
