Work Satisfaction among Women in Nontraditional Occupations

This article describes sources of work satisfaction and dissatisfaction among a sample of 86 California women entering “nontraditional” (i.e., male-dominated) skilled and semiskilled occupations in 1975. Respondents were interviewed at that time, and again in 1976-1977. The data indicate that the challenge of surviving and succeeding in a nontraditional job—mastering skills, increasing self-confidence, and getting along with (often troublesome) male coworkers and supervisors—was the predominant concern of the respondents in the first year, and was their primary source of both satisfaction and dissatisfaction in their work. In contrast, those women who remained in a nontraditional job one year later had become less concerned with these aspects of the job, and more concerned with the traditional sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction common to blue-collar workers, e.g., the nature of the work itself, working conditions, and relations with management. The findings also suggest that by the second year the perceived advantages of nontraditional work had been counteracted to some extent by the dissatisfactions inherent in those jobs—dissatisfactions that the respondents became more aware of as their nontraditional status in the workplace diminished.