Workplace Identities of Women in the US Labor Market

In this paper, I examine the effects of gender and race/ethnicity on American workers ’ workplace identi-ties. Literature on gender, work, and occupation suggests that gender and race are significant predictors of workers ’ workplace identities. Literature also posits that self-perceived competency and reflected ap-praisals from others in workplaces also contribute considerably to workers ’ workplace identities. How-ever, there exists hardly any empirical study that explores the impacts of gender, race, workers ’ self-per-ceived competency, and their reflected appraisals altogether on their workplace identities. That is what I accomplished in this study. Deriving the data from the National Study of Changing Workforce (NSCW: 2008) I ask: 1) Do women and men workers in America differ in their perceptions of workplace identities; 2) Do non-white and white workers in America differ in their perceptions of workplace identities; and 3) Do gender and race of the workers impact their workplace identities when self-perceived competency and reflected appraisals enter the equation? Analyses are based on quantitative methods. Results show that workers ’ self-perceived competency and their reflected appraisals are more significant predictors of their workplace identities than gender or race