The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

458 Chapter 12

not offered a job or are offered a lesser job

because of their sex, this is access discrimi-

nation. Some high-status jobs are certainly

less accessible to women than to men. For

example, women are less represented than

men in the judicial and legislative branches of

government, although important strides have

been made. Nancy Pelosi was elected the first

woman speaker of the U.S. House of Repre-

sentatives in 2006. Sonia Sotomayor became a

member of the U.S. Supreme Court in 2009,

and is currently one of three females on the

Court (see Figure 12.8). In 1979, 3% of the

U.S. Congress was female. Over 30 years later

in 2010, the figure was 16.5%: 17 of 100 U.S.

senators were female, and 72 of 439 (16%)

U.S. representatives were female. Six of the

50 state governors (12%) are women. In 2008,

New Hampshire became the first state to have

a majority of women in the state senate. There

are a variety of reasons as to why there are a

small number of women in some occupations,

one of which is access discrimination.

Access discrimination was the sub-

ject of a 2002 nationwide sex discrimina-

tion case against Rent-A-Center (Grossman,

2002). The case resulted in the awarding of a

equally provide men: Women receive more

support at work compared to men (Bond

et al., 2004).

Effects on Health

Does the quality of the paid worker role have

the same implications for men’s and women’s

health? It may depend upon the aspect of

work examined. One study showed that high

job demands were associated with lower job

satisfaction and greater distress for men but

not women (Bond et al., 2004), and another

study linked job stress to depression in men

but not women (Godin et al., 2009). Yet in-

terpersonal conflict at work (Appelberg et al.,

1996) and perceptions of control at work

(Muhonen & Torkelson, 2004) seem to be

more strongly related to job and health out-

comes for women than men. It is difficult to

compare the impact of job quality on wom-

en’s and men’s health because the women

and men being compared to one another may

differ in the other roles they possess. Perhaps

paid work is less related to women’s than

men’s health because more of the women in

the study work part time compared to the

men. Or the women in the study are more

likely than the men to have family roles

(spouse, parent). Even studies of dual-earner

couples may find that one person is more in-

volved or less involved in family roles.

Discrimination

An important aspect of paid work that

has implications for women’s and men’s

psychological and physical well-being is

discrimination. There are two kinds of dis-

crimination:access discriminationand

treatment discrimination.

Access discrimination occurs when hir-

ing decisions are made. If women or men are

FIGURE 12.8 Sonia Sotomayor was elected

to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2009. Of the nine

Supreme Court Justices, she is one of three women.

M12_HELG0185_04_SE_C12.indd 458 6/21/11 9:16 AM