Making Employment Decisions

Posted on June 19, 2024 by Martin Hahn, One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.

Like symphony orchestras, many of today’s organizations utilize
hiring practices designed to prevent sex discrimination, as well as other
types of discrimination. Although some organizations have embraced
nondiscriminatory practices in order to hire the best talent available, others have been motivated by legal requirements. Because most employers have substantial motivation to avoid sex discrimination in their employment practices, one might assume that sex and gender have little effect on employment decisions. Unfortunately, this assumption is incorrect. Both job seekers and organizations make employment decisions. Job seekers identify and apply for relevant opportunities, complete job interviews and tests, accept or reject job offers, and negotiate starting salaries. At the same time, organizations promote job openings, evaluate applicants, make job offers, and determine job assignments and starting salaries.

Self-selection Decisions

The decisions of individual job seekers during the job search process are called self-selection decisions. In self-selection decisions, individuals actively choose which opportunities to pursue and which job offers to accept. Of course, job seekers’ self-selection decisions affect the nature of the jobs that they obtain. Self-selection decisions, however, also affect organizations. If highly qualified potential applicants do not apply for jobs or accept job offers, organizations may experience shortages of qualified workers?

During the self-selection process, job seekers assess the fit or match between themselves and employment opportunities. Individuals’ evaluations of the fit between themselves and specific opportunities are based on the nature of the job and the organization. Women and men may react differently to jobs and organizations, leading to sex differences in fit evaluations and, ultimately, self-selection decisions.’

Sex differences in self-selection decisions also result from differences in the techniques that men and women use to find employment. Men and women may obtain different types of employment because their job search methods are dissimilar.

As women and men seek job opportunities that fit their own characteristics, they may seek different kinds of jobs. Given the increased labor force participation of women worldwide, do gender stereotypes and roles continue to dictate individuals’ job preferences?

Job attributes preferences

Job attribute preferences refer to the extent to which an individual views different qualities and outcomes of paid work as desirable. Job attributes represent general characteristics of jobs such as working hours, geographical location, advancement opportunities, salary, benefits, relationships with coworkers, and opportunities for using skills and abilities. Preferences for job attributes are most important to job seekers at the beginning of their job search and play less of a role in actual job choice decisions, when organizational factors such as reputation and recruiting practices are more important. Sex differences in job attribute preferences are prevalent. Most of these differences align with gender roles and stereotypes, but others do not.

Women are more concerned with job attributes that allow them to meet demands of the homemaker role (e.g., good hours, easy commute) and the feminine stereotype than are men. The opportunity for positive interpersonal relations (e.g., working with people, opportunity to help others, opportunity to make friends) is especially important to women. However, job attributes normally associated with the male breadwinner role and the masculine stereotype are not uniformly endorsed to a greater extent by men than by women. Although men consider income, autonomy, the opportunity to exercise leadership and power, challenging work, and promotion opportunities to be more important than do women, women consider job

benefits, the availability of job openings, and feelings of accomplishment as more important. There are no sex differences in the extent to which women and men seek jobs that provide high status, recognition, meaningful work, and responsibility.’

Job attribute preferences may be influenced by the nature of one’s family structure. For example, women who are mothers value flexibility more than childless women. Men who are married and fathers value income and advancement more than single, childless men.

Sex differences in job attribute preferences also may be influenced by cultural factors. For example, in Japan, where women typically serve as clerks and leave the workforce after marriage, female employees attach more importance to factors such as working hours, commute, location, salary, benefits, and job security than do male employees. In contrast, male employees are more concerned about their future prospects for advancement with the organization. Lengthy commutes and long working hours are common in Japan. Because Japanese women, unlike Japanese men, do not expect to remain with their employers, they may be more concerned with factors that reduce the everyday stresses of their work schedules than with their long-term prospects with the organization.’

Men and women differ in their preferences for work activities. Generally, these differences are consistent with gender stereotypes and roles. Young women are more interested in activities that involve people (e.g., taking care of people, performing community service), while young men are more interested in activities that involve things (computers, machines, tools).

Interest in six activities

Individuals may be further classified based on their interests in six activities: realistic (e.g., manipulation of objects, tools, machines, and animals), investigative (e.g., examination of physical, biological, and cultural phenomena), artistic (e.g., creation of art forms and products), social (e.g., informing, training, and developing others), enterprising (e.g., influencing others to attain goals), and conventional (e.g., administrative) activities. Sex differences in preferences for enterprising and conventional activities appear to be small, with young men preferring enterprising and conventional activities somewhat more than do young women. However, sex differences for the other four types of activities are more substantial. Young women are more interested in artistic and social activities than are men, while men are more interested in realistic and investigative activities.’

Sex differences in occupational preferences are also of interest. As the labor force participation of women has increased, young women have become somewhat less interested in pursuing female-intensive occupations and somewhat more interested in pursuing male-intensive occupations.

However, during the same time, the occupational interests of young men have changed very little. As a result, sex differences in occupational preferences have diminished but still remain. Stereotypically masculine occupations such as building contractor, race car driver, stockbroker, and professional athlete are more likely to be preferred by men than by women.

In contrast, the occupations of social worker, bank teller, dietician, elementary schoolteacher, and registered nurse are more likely to be preferred by women.’

Job choice based on gender

Why do individuals continue to prefer jobs that are regarded as appropriate for members of their sex? Gender socialization processes certainly contribute to sex differences in occupational preferences. The sex segregation of occupations may also lead job seekers to restrict their occupational choices. People assume generally that individuals possess the characteristics needed for their current work roles.

Thus, women are assumed to possess the attributes needed in female- intensive jobs while men are assumed to possess those attributes appropriate for male-intensive jobs. People also believe that success in female-intensive jobs requires feminine personality traits and physical characteristics while success in male-intensive jobs requires masculine personality traits and physical characteristics.”

The notion that success in the occupations dominated by one sex requires the personal characteristics associated with that sex is likely to have a chilling effect on job seekers of the other sex. Job seekers may believe that they cannot succeed in occupations that are numerically dominated by the other sex and look elsewhere for employment. Both women and men suffer when they restrict their occupational choices to those that seem suitable for members of their sex. However, women are more likely to suffer financially because female-intensive occupations pay less than male-intensive occupations. In fact, sex differences in occupational choice contribute to the lower pay of women even when we account for differences in the job-related skills and credentials that men and women bring to their jobs.”

Gender and occupational preferences

Job seekers’ preferences for work activities and occupations are not a function of their sex only. Gender identity also plays an important role in individuals’ interests and occupational preferences. Individuals differ in the extent to which they internalize the lessons of gender socialization and embrace the gender roles prescribed for members of their sex. Masculine individuals are more likely to prefer working with things and to choose male-intensive occupations, whereas feminine individuals are more likely to prefer working with people and to choose female-intensive occupations.

College men who endorse anti-femininity and toughness norms are more likely to pursue male-intensive occupations such as computer science, engineering, and construction technology, while those who reject these norms are more likely to pursue female-intensive occupations such as nursing, counseling, and elementary education.

In sum, sex differences in preferences for specific job attributes, work activities, and occupations are substantial. As individuals make choices about the kind of work they would like to do, they are influenced by their own socialization experiences and by the distribution of male and female workers across occupations. Individuals tend to seek jobs that are viewed as appropriate for members of their sex, thereby reinforcing the sex segregation of the workforce.