Those gender difference presumptions have been explained with the social role theory that presents the idea that the differences in the work roles between men and women stem from the initial misbalance between the characteristics that are assigned to those roles and the characteristics that are assigned to being more male or female. Acting as a leader, being ambitious and competitive, dominant and independent, with strong personality and willingness to take risk, for example, are masculine traits. On the other hand, compassion, sensitiveness to the needs of the others, being shy, soft-spoken and sympathetic are feminine traits. Most important, once both genders internalize those behavioural expectations, they start acting in a way that is consistent with them, thus building qualities that are perceived to be specifically gender orientated and reproduce this social behaviour stereotypes in the work field. But is this always true in the world of cold facts?
Researchers have conducted throughout the years multiple surveys among job candidates on the barriers they experience and attitudes they have in a wide range of work-related topics, and have created a classification which summarises in three categories the possible factors that affect decisions around the processes from looking for job to developing and maintaining a career. Those factors are based on the importance of the perceived from the individual both internal and external barriers they experience throughout their work related life. The first category is that of interpersonal (social) factors, which consist of current and future family issues. The second category is that of attitudinal factors, which consist of internal factors, such as one’s self-concept, interests and attitude towards work. The third category is that of interactional factors, including demographic characteristics, work environment, education and experience.
Research shows that nowadays family and community-based friends don’t have significant influence on shaping neither women nor men’s choices when looking for a job. Both genders show more and more individualistic approach when creating their desired career path. However, in general men show more organized strategy for looking for a job, an important part of which is the contact with the network, presented in work and study related friends and acquaintances. With regard to the influence of the self-concept, it is generally expected that women have more negative self-concept, leading to underestimation of their abilities and thus lower expectations regarding their career possibilities; however, it is more and more visible that such contrast between men and women’s attitude in their job search process is getting less and less visible. The difference between men and women’s self-concept is not much more considerable than the difference of self-concept between men and men on one hand and women and women on the other hand. What was thought to be male or female traits is now becoming interchangeable. Furthermore, with regard to attitude towards work and interests, the same patterns can be observed - the idea of work-life balance is becoming a beyond gender issue.
Still one contrast can be observed – the degree of certainty when building a job search and career strategy. Men have more confidence about what they desire from their career future, which makes them more certain in their decisions and the expected outcomes. In contrast, women show bigger uncertainty in their planning which leads to more uncertainty in their work choices and expected results. To sum, men and women do have diverse job search attitudes, however, not as different as one might think.
By: Iva Plocheva
Men and women diverse job search attitude
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