Tradeoffs : Gender Differences in What Matters Most in Work, Family, and Life

Abstract

One widely emphasized goal in modern society is the attainment of gender parity in vocational outcomes such as occupational prestige and job earnings. However, men and women differ on a number of dimensions that predict occupational prestige and salary, including their work values, life values, vocational interests, attitudes toward child rearing and caregiving, and personality traits such as status striving and risk taking. No study has explored the links among all these dimensions in one sample. The purpose of this study was to modify existing measures of work values to address this limitation and to assess how individual differences in work values, life values, vocational interests, and plans for work and family are interrelated.