THE STRUCTURE OF THE WORK NEEDS OF FEMALE WORKERS
| Author | Ray Wild,C. C. Ridgeway |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.1970.tb00574.x |
| Date | 01 March 1970 |
| Published date | 01 March 1970 |
RESEARCH NOTE
THE STRUCTURE
OF
THE
WORK NEEDS OF
FEMALE WORKERS
RAY WILD*
AND
c.
c.
RIDGEWAYt
INTRODUCTION
COMPARATIVELY
little is actually known about the structure of work related
needs for female workers, but a great deal is usually assumed.
For example, it is often argued that women work principally for financial
and social reasons and, consequently, the nature of the work that they are asked
to do is unimportant. Alternatively, it is argued that workers in general, women
included, will react unfavourably to highly rationalized repetitive work, since
this is incapable of satisfying basic human needs.
The proportion of women in the working population has increased sub-
stantially in recent years, due in part to economic, social and domestic change,
in fact 31 per cent of the total working population in Britain is now female,’
66
per cent of the increase in the total working population of Great Britain since
1950
being accounted for by additional women entering the labour market.
Furthermore, recent predictions indicate that the proportion of women in the
labour force will continue to increase.
In
view of this evident importance
of
women to the national economy, it
is
surely no longer reasonable to accept,
without proof, traditional assumptions about them.
Although the evidence available is by no means conclusive, several studies
a
have shown labour turnover and/or absenteeism to be related
to
the sex of the
operative. Many studies have also shown labour turnover and absenteeism to be
a
function of job satisfaction, although even in this area the evidence
is
not
concl~sive.~
If
job
satisfaction can be regarded as resulting from the fulfillment
of
operative needs,‘ an increased knowledge of the work needs of female operatives
may
lead to
a
better understanding of work satisfaction and help to solve the
costly problems of labour turnover and absenteeism.
Motivation
to
work appears to have been studied almost exclusively in
terms of specific motives. McClelland and others5 have studied the need for
*
Senior Research Fellow
t
Research Assistant
Members of a team at The Management Centre of the University of Bradford which, for the
past few years, has been investigating certain aspects
of
Job Design and Productivity. The other
member
of
the team is Mr A. B. Hill.
l
Ministry
of
Lobour
Gazette,
June 1967
For example see H. Meltzer
and
H.
Mann, ‘Employee Attitudes and Absences’,
Psrsonn~l
a
V.
H. Vroom,
Motivation to
Work,
Wiley, 1964, Chapter 6;
F.
Hcrzberg
et al.,
Job
Attitudes-
‘
N.
C. Morse,
Satisfaction in the White
Collar
Job,
Institute for Social Research, Survey
e.g.
E.
Burnstein, ‘Fear of Failure, Achievement Motivation and Aspiring to Prestigeful
Psycholo&y,
VOl.
4,
pp. 467485
Review
of
Research
and
Opinion,
Psychological Services of Pittsburgh, 1957
Research Centre, 1953
Occupations’,
Jouml
of
Social PsycholoD,
1967, pp. 189-193
94
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