Relative Deprivation and Working Women, 1978-79

Abstract

This study was designed to apply the theory of relative deprivation to the situation of working women and to describe how women experience and express contentment or dissatisfaction with their working conditions. The study compared groups of housewives and employed women and men in high and low prestige occupations to assess felt deprivation and evaluate six hypothesized cognitive emotional preconditions for resentment or expressed discontent. The sample consisted of 405 adults aged 25 to 40 years living in the Boston suburb of Newton, Massachusetts. The National Opinion Research Center occupational rating system was used to select participants in high or low prestige occupations. Among the employed men and women in the sample, half were in high prestige and half in low prestige occupations, and these groups were evenly divided among individuals who were single, married but childless, and married with children. Housewives were categorized according to the prestige of their husbands' jobs. Each respondent was interviewed at home by a professional interviewer. (Data were collected and coded by ABT Associates of Cambridge, Massachusetts.) The one-hour interview included demographic information, information about the job, questions about domestic arrangements and the division of labor at home, questions about attitudes toward the job situation of women, and Radloff's (1975) CES-D depression scale