Are managerial women in “extreme jobs” disadvantaged?

Abstract

Purpose

It has been suggested that females may be disadvantaged in professions and organizations that require working long hours since females may choose to work fewer hours or may have to work fewer hours because of home and family responsibilities. The term “extreme jobs” has been used previously to describe jobs in which incumbents work 60 or more hours a week. The purpose of this paper is to compare female and male managers working 56 or more hours a week on personal and work situation characteristics, job behaviors, work and extra‐work outcomes and indicators of psychological well‐being.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from 530 managerial and professional women and men in Canada using an anonymously completed questionnaire, about a 35 percent response rate. All had achieved their MBA degrees from the same university. Only those working 56 h a week or more were used in this research.

Findings

First, a slightly smaller percentage of females worked 56 or more hours a week. Second, females were significantly different from males on a number of personal and work situation characteristics (were younger, less likely to be married or to have children, had less job and organizational tenure). Third, there were few differences on stable individual difference characteristics, job behaviors, work outcomes, extra‐work satisfactions and psychological well‐being. Females did, however, indicate more psychosomatic symptoms, higher levels of satisfaction with friends, and tended to report higher levels of perfectionism and job stress. The work and non‐work experiences of females and males in these “extreme jobs” tended to be more similar than different. The few differences noted did indicate females to be somewhat disadvantaged.

Research limitations/implications

All data were collected using questionnaires raising the possibility of response set tendencies.

Originality/value

This paper describes one of the few studies that looks at the effects of “extreme jobs” on managerial women.

Citation

Burke, R.J. and Fiksenbaum, L. (2009), "Are managerial women in “extreme jobs” disadvantaged?", Gender in Management, Vol. 24 No. 1, pp. 5-13. https://doi.org/10.1108/17542410910930716