Working women work harder than men?

A new study has found that
women feel they have to work harder than men in a workplace.

Sociologists Elizabeth Gorman of the University of Virginia and Julie Kmec of Washington State University carried out five different surveys given in different years, to different groups of men and women in Britain and the United States.
They discovered that a gender gap persisted in ratings of the statement: "My job requires that I work very hard,” with women significantly more likely to say they strongly agreed.
“Between a man and a woman who hold the same job, shoulder the same burdens at home and have the same education and skills, the woman is likely to feel she must work harder,” Elizabeth said.
The paper, 'We (Have to) Try Harder: Gender and Required Work Effort in Britain and the United States' says, "We argue that the association between sex and reported required work effort is best interpreted as reflecting stricter performance standards imposed on women, even when women and men hold the same jobs."
"This is what women are up against. They have to prove themselves," Elizabeth added.
Controlling for physical and mental demands of the job and whether family responsibilities drained energy, Elizabeth and Julie found that neither group of factors explain the different findings about work effort. The only interpretation that held up was that women were held to higher performance standards.
In looking for another potential reason, the sociologists considered whether domestic responsibilities outside of work, including child care and housework, made women feel more fatigued and that they had to work harder to keep up, but that did not emerge as the answer either.
"Marriage and parenthood had the same effect on reports of required effort for women and men. In the U.S. sample, the researchers were able to match workers on the number of hours they spent on childcare and housework," Elizabeth Said.
Between men and women who performed the same amount of child care and housework, women were still more likely to say their jobs required them to work very hard,” Elizabeth added.
“We know that people give lower marks to an essay, a painting or a resume when it has a woman’s name on it. And when a man and a woman work together on a project, people assume the man contributed more than the woman did. In light of this previous research, it makes sense to conclude that women have to work harder to win their bosses’ approval,” she said.
See:: The Times of India