Interactional Processes and Gender Workplace Inequalities

Ridgeway argues that we can increase our understanding of the creation and perpetuation of gender inequality in the workplace by applying micro-level theories of social psychological processes that operate in such settings. We go beyond her arguments to propose that the degree of mixed-sex interaction in the workplace be viewed as a factor that produces differences in gender workplace inequalities. Specifically, we hypothesize that when the collective task-directed behavior in a work group involves face-to-face mixed-sex interaction, gender workplace inequalities will be greater than in settings where such behavior involves women and men working largely independently of each other. This hypothesis is supported strongly by natural-setting data that compare gender workplace inequalities in agricultural research teams, where face-to-face interaction is present, with the same inequalities in agricultural extension settings, where there is little face-to-face interaction.