More from the Author

• Article | Current Opinion in Psychology

  Gender, Social Class, and Women's Employment

  Kathleen L. McGinn and Eunsil Oh

  People in low-power positions, whether due to gender or class, tend to exhibit other-oriented rather than self-oriented behavior. Women’s experiences at work and at home are shaped by social class, heightening identification with gender for relatively upper class women and identification with class for relatively lower class women, potentially mitigating, or even reversing, class-based differences documented in past research. Gender-class differences are reflected in women’s employment beliefs and behaviors. Research integrating social class with gendered experiences in homes and workplaces deepens our understanding of the complex interplay between sources of power and status in society.

  Keywords: gender; Social Class; women's employment; Gender; Employment; Status and Position;

  Citation:

  McGinn, Kathleen L., and Eunsil Oh. "Gender, Social Class, and Women's Employment." Special Issue on Inequality and Social Class. Current Opinion in Psychology 18 (December 2017): 84–88.  View Details

  CiteView Details Read Now Purchase

  Related

• Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2017

  Class Matters: The Role of Social Class in High-Achieving Women's Career Narratives

  Judith A. Clair, Kathleen L. McGinn, Beth K. Humberd and Rachel D. Arnett

  Our study explores the career narratives of women from diverse social class backgrounds as they describe how they ascended to elite organizational roles despite severe gender underrepresentation. We illuminate the varied ways that high-achieving women understand and retell their career stories, identifying five broad approaches to narrating their ascent against the odds: serendipity, competence, social ties, maneuvers, and aggressive action. We demonstrate the role that social class origins play in shaping the career narratives of these high achieving women. Women from lower social class backgrounds employ highly agentic narratives to fuel their success against the double obstacles of gender and class. In contrast, women from middle- and upper-class origins were constrained in their use of agentic narratives and were more likely to describe their success in terms of serendipity. The present findings shed light on the variation in women’s career narratives and demonstrate that some women deviate significantly from gender stereotypes by narrating their success using extreme levels of agency typically associated with men.

  Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Gender; Success; Diversity; Perception;

  Citation:

  Clair, Judith A., Kathleen L. McGinn, Beth K. Humberd, and Rachel D. Arnett. "Class Matters: The Role of Social Class in High-Achieving Women's Career Narratives." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 18-014, August 2017. (Revised for requested resubmission.)  View Details

  CiteView Details Read Now

  Related

• Case | HBS Case Collection | November 1995 (Revised February 2017)

  Luna Pen (A)

  Kathleen McGinn and Michael Wheeler

  Discusses the negotiation of a possible trademark infringement involving a German conglomerate and a Taiwanese trading firm.

  Keywords: Strategy; Law; Negotiation Tactics; Decision Choices and Conditions; Gender; Culture; Trademarks; Power and Influence; Germany; Taiwan;

  Citation:

  McGinn, Kathleen, and Michael Wheeler. "Luna Pen (A)." Harvard Business School Case 396-156, November 1995. (Revised February 2017.)  View Details

  CiteView DetailsEducatorsPurchase

  Related