Abstract:

Patriarchy and its implications for the social and working lives of women throughout the globe continue to be open empirical questions. Early studies of patriarchy from an employment perspective have focused on its impact on gender differences, in particular, differential treatment and outcomes between men and women within organizations and institutional settings. Structural gender inequality within organization reflected in gendered working expectations, biased evaluation system, unfair promotion approach has exerted strong resistance to female employees. Not only does the gendered disparity of treatment in the workplace result in differences in career advancement, but it also leads to occupational segregation for men and women, and within that, men are dominant in higher ranking industry such as IT and finance. A less studied problem is how patriarchy shapes women’s perceptions and decision-making on their employment and life trajectory, such as choices of educational and professional paths or when dealing with tensions between career and personal aspirations at a structural, societal and institutional levels. The way in which patriarchy constructs women’ s self-agency and the mechanism through which women’ s mindset is established in life turning points is still underdeveloped and needs further theoretical exploration.

Drawing on data from open biographical interviews with 40 women between 25-50 years of age, working in the financial industry in small cities in China, this paper explores how patriarchy interplays with individual and structural dimensions to shape women’s life course decisions, employment and personal outcomes and overall experiences in society and the labour market. The underlying thoughts behind women’s preference in life crossroads attributes to the internalization of patriarchy will be further investigated.

Please choose your submission type: Developmental Paper

Primary Track: Gender in Management

Keywords: Cross-cultural issues in gender and management;Gender diversity and inclusion policies and practices;Gender discrimination and industry specific features;Intersectionality

Menu

Ms. Xiangyu Sheng