Women Changing Work

Women are changing work; the work force, the work place, the way we think of work, and how we work, according to this powerful new book which documents the experiences of over 200 women in jobs traditionally held by men. Patricia Lunneborg, retired professor of psychology, documents how the workplace is improved by greater numbers of women. She interviews women doctors, lawyers, engineers, landscape architects, brokers, state legislators, police, firefighters, carpenters, and electricians. The result is a stimulating and invigorating account of how women are not only contributing to the work force but are changing the very concept of work. In this book the women speak for themselves. They talk at length about how they approach their jobs differently than men and what strengths, as women, they are able to bring to their work. Lunneborg, using these interviews and a thorough review of the feminist literature, offers insight into how women are changing male-dominated work in four major ways: in service orientation to clients, with a nurturant approach to coworkers, through an insistence upon a balanced lifestyle of work and home, and by using power differently than men in managing others. Sure to be a controversial addition to the literature on work and working, Women Changing Work explains the differences between how men and women approach their jobs as early sex-role socialization. Thus, because women learn to be service-oriented, nurturant, balanced, and egalitarian, men can learn to be also. Indeed in the book's conclusion, Lunneborg offers documentation of how men have changed to be more like women in their work values, attitudes, and behaviors. Not just a book for the student or professional, Women Changing Work has a potent message for all working men and women.