Occupational gender composition and workplace support: The role of motherhood

This paper analyzes the dependency between working in a gender-segregated occupation and perceived workplace support. It also examines the extent to which this effect is moderated by motherhood. In line with expectation states theory, persons working in gender-atypical occupations (that is, occupational minorities) are faced with biased performance expectations because they are seen to be less suitable for the occupational role and less competent to fulfill the demands of the position. It is assumed that this leads to isolation mechanisms and lower support at the workplace for these persons. Furthermore, it is hypothesized that these isolation mechanisms are moderated by motherhood, which is culturally associated with particularly low performance expectations. Quantitative analyses of German data confirm lower perceived workplace support for men working in women’s occupations, and - even stronger - for women working in men’s occupations. In addition, the study provides clear evidence that for women the effect of being an occupational minority on workplace support is driven to a large extent by mothers with young children: For mothers, working in men’s occupations is associated with especially low levels of workplace support; mothers show by far the lowest value compared to all other groups. Therefore, the motherhood role seems to work as an additional status characteristic besides gender, leading to a particularly low level of workplace support for women in typically male occupations. In addition, the model shows especially for women that the degree of perceived workplace support is significantly larger in firms that have a family-friendly climate: If job-family compatibility at the workplace is high, this has strongly positive effects on perceived workplace support. From that result it gets visible that a family-friendly climate is important when analyzing determinants of workplace support or related measurements like job-related well-being from a gender perspective.