Search results

Part‐time work in Japan, as in other countries, is increasing as a form of paid work. There are, however, significant differences developing out of Japan’s gender contract. Employers have created a gendered employment strategy which has been supported by governments, through social welfare policies and legislation, and the mainstream enterprise union movement which has supported categorisations of part‐time workers as “auxilliary” despite their importance at the workplace. An analysis of one national supermarket chain indicates that part‐time work as it is constructed in Japan does not challenge the gendered division of labour but seeks to lock women into the secondary labour market.

The purpose of this study is to examine data from a 2016 replication of a 1986 study of upper-level administrators in government agencies in the US State of Utah. The unique cultural context of this state is used to challenge Hakim’s preference theory; specifically, that the individual agency of work-oriented women is stronger than structural constraints, including culture. This study joins others that have questioned the preference theory’s applicability in certain cultural contexts.

A simple approach using difference-of-means t-tests shows that female respondents in 2016 are more like their male contemporaries than they are to their sister administrators 30 years prior. T-tests are also used to compare male respondents in 1986 and 2016.

Women in upper management in 2016 are more likely to be married and have preschool-aged children at home than they were in 1986. These results suggest that women are succeeding at the highest levels in state government administration and also adhering to strong cultural norms. Women’s views on labor market policies changed over time, as well. While women in 2016 are found to resemble their male counterparts in 2016 more than they resemble female respondents in 1986, variations in men’s responses in 1986 and 2016 are statistically no different from zero.

This study challenges the predictions of Hakim’s preference theory in the context of strong cultural norms that dictate separate gender roles. The results contradict the preference theory’s predictions and are consistent with critiques of its applicability across cultural contexts.

To explore the failure of equal opportunity policies to counteract the barrier of children for women in management by considering male and female managers’ views on work culture, family division of labour and childlessness.

Thirty Australian managers (19 male, 11 female) were interviewed as a follow up to a larger study in 1996, in order to extend inquiries around the issues of children, childlessness and senior management aspirations.

Managers acknowledge the impediment that children are to a woman's career path. They also have an awareness of patterns of delayed childbearing and potential childlessness. This awareness is confirmed through first hand experience in the families and at work. Managers also use a language of sacrifice and loss regarding their own or others’ failure to partner and procreate, as well as some reference to freedom and lifestyle. Furthermore there are diverging discourses on company loyalty and company greed given in relation to competing family loyalties and obligations. Finally, acknowledgement of gendered inequality (and some blindness to it) is indicated by both male and female managers.

Although based on a small sample from one country, the findings do imply that it is unwise to assume that women committed to a career do not want children. The option of having both is not made easy.

Family policy for senior management should continue to be considered.

Recognition of the complexity and diversity of attitudes to children, family and work contributes to a critique of overdrawn notions of types of women (Hakim, 2001).

The purpose of this paper is to examine the usefulness of Hakim's preference theory in the understanding of the attitudes of women retail senior managers and directors towards their career and non‐work lives. It provides a critical analysis of the main tenets of preference theory and evaluates the extent to which women have “free choice” in their careers.

A qualitative methodology consisting of 13 in‐depth interviews with women at senior executive and director levels in retailing was adopted. The interviews examined women's career paths and uncovered the choices and constraints impacting on their career progress and other aspects of their lives.

The findings demonstrate the complexity of careers and choices. While several women talk about the choices they have made, it is apparent that these choices have been constrained by extraneous variables, both at an individual and organisational level.

The findings from the paper can enhance practitioners' understanding of some of the choices and constraints women make in their working lives, which in turn might lead to improved organisational policies for women to better accommodate work‐life balance issues.

The paper questions whether choice equates to preference and assesses the usefulness of Hakim's preference theory as a means of understanding the careers of women in contemporary organizations.

This article is about the relationship between paid work and family life for both women and men; in particular, about the hopes — indeed, the expectations — of many people that the division of labour between men and women in both spheres will be more egalitarian in the future.

This paper aims to review Ruth Simpson’s contribution to the field of gender and management.

This paper looks at Ruth Simpson’s body of work over her career through a conversation that took place between Pullen and Ross-Smith.

Ruth Simpson’s contribution to gender, class, work and organizations is discussed.

This piece remembers Ruth Simpson’s feminist scholarship to the field of gender and management.