Keywords: Women – Social and professional category – Social representations – Work – Women
Words I have Learned :
– central core theory : théorie du noyau central
– social representation : représentation sociale
The interest of this thesis is to analyze the different women’s representations by the latter, according to two distinct socio-professional categories: manager vs employee. Indeed, there is a strong professional segregation between men and women at work. Some trades are more occupied by men and others by women. Similarly, women are more likely to be part-time than men. Thus, it is interesting to observe one of the causes of this segregation. It is therefore necessary to consider here whether two socio-professional categories can generate two distinct representations of women, two representations that would therefore justify different choices and ambitions in terms of life and careers. Faced with this problem, we assume that the social representation of women differs according to the socio-professional category to which they belong. With the underlying idea that women managers would define women more as a free, strong and autonomous person in their lives, like a modern woman, and conversely employed women would define women by their role as mothers.
This notion of modern woman was developed by Marianne Weber, who distinguishes her from the woman of yesteryear. For a long time women were placed at the rank of housewives, traditionally delegating the power to men to define and conceive the thoughts of public life, under penalty of being judged non-women by the men and women of yesteryear (like fifties for example). The modern woman claims her freedom, her autonomy, her power over her life and her personal development. These distinctions, which are always present in common thought, can disrupt women’s careers, blocking high-ranking positions or even promoting precarious employment. It seemed interesting to study this phenomenon using social representations to see how one representation can differ from another, and the consequences that this can have. “social representation is a form of knowledge, socially elaborated and shared, with a practical aim and contributing to the construction of a reality common to a social whole” (Jodelet, 1984). Social representation has 4 functions: knowledge function, identity function, orientation function and justification function. Social representation therefore makes it possible to orient and organize behaviours and communications.
Given the objective, the qualitative approach seemed the most relevant. As the main subject of this research, it seemed more appropriate to interview only women in order to have their own social representation and to perceive the professional impact that this entails. The sample therefore consisted of 51 women aged 30 to 55, manager or employee. In order to measure their representation of women, a free association questionnaire was created. The objective of this one was to evoke the first 5 to 8 words that came to mind following the mention of the word woman. On the basis of these evocations, a prototype analysis and a categorical analysis were carried out in order to reveal the social representation of women as well as the central themes raised. In addition, socio-demographic questions were proposed in order to learn more about the respondent, such as his professional (manager/employee) and family (married/single/divorced…) status, but also the presence of children and working time (full-time/part-time).
The first results obtained thanks to prototypical analysis show a different social representation of women depending on whether the respondent is an executive or an employee. Women managers define women more as “independent”, “strong”, “free” or “versatile”, while employed women report terms such as “mother”, “caring”, “organization”. The categorical analysis makes it possible to highlight the central themes mentioned by women. With regard to managers, the categories relating to the determination and characteristics typical of modern women are the most evocative. Conversely, employed women use more terms related to the categories of caring, the family sphere but also negative feelings.
These initial results are therefore in conformity with our general hypothesis that women’s social representation may diverge according to their socio-professional categories. Indeed, employed women have a representation of women that is more closely linked to their role as mothers. They therefore attach less importance to their careers and commit themselves more to professions that are closer to their role, such as personal assistance or part-time jobs in order to reconcile private and professional life. In response, women managers have a representation of women that is more oriented towards modern women, giving greater importance to their work and personal development. It is therefore possible to say that the same social object, women, can have two distinct representations depending on the category of individuals interviewed.