Gendered interpretations of job loss and subsequent professional pathways

Rao, Aliya ORCID: 0000-0003-0674-4206 (2021) Gendered interpretations of job loss and subsequent professional pathways. Gender and Society, 35 (6). 884 - 909. ISSN 0891-2432

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Abstract

While we know that career interruptions shape men’s and women’s professional trajectories, we know less about how job loss may matter for this process. Drawing on interviews with unemployed, college-educated men and women in professional occupations, I show that while both men and women interpret their job loss as due to impersonal “business” decisions, women additionally attribute their job loss as arising from employers’ “personal” decisions. Men’s job loss shapes their subsequent preferred professional pathways, but never in a way that diminishes the importance of their participation in the labor force. For some women in this study, job loss becomes a moment to reflect on their professional pathways, often pulling them back from paid work. This study identifies job loss as an event that, on top of gendered workplace experiences and caregiving obligations, may curtail some women’s participation in paid work.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://journals.sagepub.com/home/gas
Additional Information:	© 2021 The Author
Divisions:	Methodology
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman
Date Deposited:	07 Sep 2021 15:06
Last Modified:	17 Apr 2024 16:03
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/111866

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