Reactions to Blue-Collar Work

This article compares the levels and determinants of job satisfaction and organizational commitment among blue-collar women and men in an assessment of the gender role and job structure perspectives on work attitudes. The results, based on samples of 2,489 men and 1,070 women who work in midwestern factories, suggest that women's reactions to work are formed in ways which contradict traditional gender role interpretations of the relationship of women to paid work. These women's job satisfaction and organizational commitment are affected most by the intrinsic and financial rewards which their jobs provide, as is true of their male counterparts. Still, there are gender differences in the formation of work attitudes which are consistent with the feminist strand of the gender model. This suggests that both theory and social policy must consider the work-related and nonwork manifestations of the gender role division of labor. Given their different positions in the gender stratification system, there is remarkable similarity between women and men regarding the influences of specific personal and job characteristics on reactions to work.