Equality in Misery: The Shared Emotional Consequences of Everwork Among Women and Men

• In Event: 021 - Regular Session. Gender, Work, and Overwork

Abstract

While flexibility is often perceived as a “mother’s issue,” this paper corroborates emerging research finding that men and women without children also struggle with ideal worker norms and benefit from flexible work options (O’Connor and Cech 2015; Padavic, Ely, and Reid 2015). Through 50 in-depth interviews with management consultants, I find that employees of all genders and parental statuses suffer in particularly intensive work environments, which I term “everwork” environments—a combination of overwork, face time, constant availability, and unpredictability. Employees vary by gender and parental status in their responses to these environments; I characterize young childless men and women as “opt-out intenders,” mothers as “tightrope walkers,” and fathers as “reluctant sacrificers.” In addition, employees lack egalitarian role models who successfully advance at work while sharing family responsibilities equally with their partners. While substantial research has documented the lack of women role models in leadership positions (Ely, Ibarra, and Kolb 2011), empirical evidence detailing the impact of egalitarian role models is scant. I find the lack of egalitarian role models shapes younger employees’ expectations of their own careers, rendering them pessimistic about their futures.

Author

• Alison Wynn, Stanford University