Gender Differences in Work Adjustment of Prison Employees

Fieldwork and some survey questions in studying staff of three California prisons supported literature claiming that male staff are negatively oriented toward female employees, and that both women staff and women's prisons receive low priority from male-dominated state agencies. Yet the study's questionnaire survey of 1300 prison employees revealed that the genders differ very little in their work adjustment. These divergent findings are interpreted as evidence of an organizational culture shaping work adjustment that is shared by prison staff of both genders, but independently of gender subcultures that include shared ideologies on the opposite gender.