THE MEANING OF WORK FOR WOMEN

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CHAPTER 2 : LITERATURE REVIEW

The aim of this chapter is to review literature pertaining to the meaning ascribed to work. This review will be completed to provide a framework against which to explore the problem statement articulated in chapter one and background to the phenomenological study. This framework will provide a more detailed understanding of the meaning that women attribute to work.
Firstly, this chapter will review general literature on the phenomenon under discussion, that is the meaning ascribed to work. In so doing, this phenomenon will be conceptualised. Secondly, in this broader context, literature on the meaning that women ascribed will be examined. Particular reference will be made to literature that has focused on the specific and unique meaning that women ascribe to work. The following domains of the meaning of work for women will be specifically reviewed:

• instrumental, economic and material ;
• sense of identity and self-worth;
• social connectedness and relatedness;
• intrinsic satisfaction;
• contributing to and serving society;
• impacting on and shaping the world through the exercise of power and authority.

THE EXPERIENCE AND MEANING OF WORK

The discussion of the experience and meaning of work will start with definitions of central concepts, that is, “work” and “meaning”. Against this broad framework, the primary adult activities of working and ascribing meaning to work will be explained. A literature review will then be presented outlining various domains that describe the meaning of work.

Defining “work”

Work has been defined as an activity that produces goods and services of value to others (Chester & Grossman, 1990; Natale et al., 1995). Ransome (1996) has also asserted that work has four elements, namely, performance of an activity, payment, exertion of physical or mental energy and usefulness or expediency. These definitions, while providing some clarification, have explicit limitations that need to be explained because “one of the obvious limitations to understanding the nature and meaning of work lies in the narrow definition of what constitutes work” (Chester & Grossman, 1990, p .2).
Firstly, these definitions do not specifically address the issue of unpaid work, which is a critical issue with regard to work performed by women, whose work has historically been devalued since much of it has been unpaid. This study’s focus is on the feminisation of paid employment. As such, whilst an important issue, it is not within the ambit of this study to specifically address the issue of unpaid women’s work. In line with Ransome’s (1996) definition, then, for the purposes of this study, work is defined as paid work.
Secondly, these definitions do not include any description of the experience, emotions and meaning pertaining to work. As a phenomenological study, the subjective and personal criteria which people apply to work are central concerns, as is gaining an insight into the realm of meaning attribution and subjective interpretation (Ransome, 1996). The definitions cited above are, at best, only of pragmatic value in providing broad boundaries for the phenomenon under discussion. It is important to mention at this stage that the concept of work is both a loaded and intricate one. This is emphasised below, in descriptions of work that highlight it as a multifaceted and complex phenomenon – an activity, a place, a product and part of wider social systems.
Hollenbach (as cited in Kelly, 1995, p. 146) explained the difficulty of defining work as follows:
Work is not like a piece of pie that someone gives me, or like a pay check that I take home with me. A job is not a consumer good. It is something I go to, something I engage in with many others in a highly complex, structured activity that is linked with a vast interlocking system.
Ciulla (2000, p. 28) said much the same about the difficulty of defining work in: Work is an extraordinary word … we do work and we go to a place called work. Work is something we have, something we own, and something we make … the word work is both a verb and noun, an activity and a product that comes from that activity.
Finally, Fraser (cited in Ransome, 1996, p. 33) emphasised the private and public components of work as follows:
Work, the capacity of acting humanely on the world, is a shared experience; for the majority of us it is done on common with others, for every one of us it is done, however, privately for others.
Throughout this study cognisance will be taken of the fact that whilst significant reference is made to work, problems of definition are inherent, because the phenomenon is multifaceted and loaded. This research will adopt the broad boundaries provided by Chester and Grossman (1990) and Ransome (1996) who asserted work as a paid activity that produces a product or service of some value or use. At the same time this study will emphasise that work has social, subjective and psychological components, and is both public and private, noun and verb, which make it a complex phenomenon. In fact, a deeper understanding of the meaning of work is one of the articulated aims of this study.

Defining “meaning”

Berger and Luckmann(1966,cited in Keightley, 1995) defined meaning as “the (rendering explicit) of subjective processes by which the intersubjective commonsense world is constructed”. According to Brah (1993,cited in Ullah, 1996, p. 103), meaning was “a practice of making sense symbolically and narratively” These definitions will be used to delineate the concept of “meaning” in this study. Whilst the concept of meaning is complex, it is central to this study. The above definition is useful in that it succinctly captures the essence of meaning, in its articulation and rendering explicit the subjective and individual constructs used to order and value one’s personal world. According to Kruger (1988, p. 38) this is aligned with the research goal of a phenomenological study, namely, to;
Find out things about people of which we cannot possibly know and rather tr(y) to get people to describe and explicate the … structures of our lives and behaviours, in other words to articulate what is thus disclosed.

The primary human activities of working and ascribing meaning

Working as a primary adult activity

Work has been reported to be one of the most critical life roles (MOW International Research Team, 1987) and the primary activity of adult life. The ability to work has been seen as one component of a functional adult (Freud cited in Astin, 1984; Gilligan, 1997). Whilst work has been defined as central to adult life, cognisance is taken of the fact that this assertion relates to contemporary culture and psychological paradigms. The significance of work is somewhat influenced by a culture’s philosophical assumptions about what is real, how the world works and how much control people have over their lives (Ciulla, 2000). Work takes on a greater importance in a context in which people believe they can master the material world and shape their own destinies. In line with this, work is also regarded as significant because it promises insight into the wider philosophical meanings and significance of the human condition (Ciulla, 2000). Work offers a context in which human beings locate their adult lives, and, as such has been described as “the laboratory in which we live out our life project” (Natale et al., 1995, p. 20).

Ascribing meaning as a primary adult activity

According to Frankl (1960) the desire for meaning is the primary force for humans. Humans are regarded as seekers of meaning, trying to make sense of the world, and assign significance to their experiences. Jung (as cited in Thompson 2000, p.31) elaborated on this as follows:
Meaninglessness inhibits the fullness of life and can, therefore, be equated with illness; meaningfulness makes a great many things endurable, perhaps everything.
Since work has been described as the primary activity of adults, and with the search for meaning being central to any human activity, it seems clear that individuals will seek meaning and assign significance to the activity of work. In other words, individuals are the structurers of the experience and meaning of work, attaching significance, beliefs, definitions and value to this major stream of human activity (MOW International Research Team, 1987). In the discussion to follow, the meaning of work will be analysed and its subjectivity and fluidity discussed. The meaning of work will be explained in some detail, by reviewing the literature on this topic.

CHAPTER 1 : INTRODUCTION AND ORIENTATION TO THE STUDY 
1.1 BACKGROUND AND MOTIVATION
1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT
1.3 AIMS
1.4 PARADIGM PERSPECTIVE
1.5 RESEARCH DESIGN
1.6 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
1.7 CHAPTER DIVISION
1.8 CHAPTER SUMMARY
CHAPTER 2 : LITERATURE REVIEW 
2.1 THE EXPERIENCE AND MEANING OF WORK
2.2 THE MEANING OF WORK FOR WOMEN
2.3 CHAPTER SUMMARY
CHAPTER 3 : PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY 
3.1 REQUIREMENTS FOR A SOUND QUALITATIVE STUDY
3.2 SAMPLE AND POPULATION
3.3 DEVELOPING THE MEASURING INSTRUMENT
3.4 CONDUCTING THE DATA GATHERING
3.5 DATA PROCESSING
3.6 ASSESSMENT OF THE SCIENTIFIC RIGOUR, RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF THE PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY
3.7 CHAPTER SUMMARY
CHAPTER 4 : RESULTS
4.1 DESCRIPTION OF RESULTS
4.2 INTEGRATION OF THE RESULTS AND LITERATURE
4.3 CHAPTER SUMMARY
CHAPTER 5 : CONCLUSIONS, LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 155
5.1 CONCLUSIONS
5.2 LIMITATIONS
5.3 RECOMMENDATIONS
5.4 CHAPTER SUMMARY
REFERENCES
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