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Exploring the Consequences of Gender Ideology–Work Discrepancies

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An Erratum to this article was published on 27 January 2009

Abstract

Using survey data from married and cohabiting adults in the midwestern U.S. (N = 257), I examine the way gender ideology–work discrepancies relate to distress and self-meanings. Among women, discrepancies are unrelated to distress and negatively related to feelings of power and activity as a wife and mother, results consistent with self-consistency theory. Among men, discrepancies are negatively related to distress and positively related to feelings of goodness, power, and activity in several roles, results consistent with compensatory self-enhancement theories. The results suggest that men experience discrepancies as self-image threats to which they respond by inflating their self-evaluation, self-power, and self-activity, whereas women experience discrepancies as stressors that reduce feelings of power and activity.

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Acknowledgements

I thank Alison Bianchi, Rob Clark, Erin Maher, and Kristen Marcussen for helpful feedback. Portions of this paper were presented at the 2003 American Sociological Association annual meeting in Atlanta, GA.

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  1. Department of Sociology, University of Oklahoma, Kaufman Hall 331, Norman, OK, 73019, USA

    Amy Kroska

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  1. Amy Kroska
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Correspondence to Amy Kroska.

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An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11199-008-9580-6

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Kroska, A. Exploring the Consequences of Gender Ideology–Work Discrepancies. Sex Roles 60, 313–328 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-008-9552-x

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