<p>Existing career theories are largely based on a stable working environment and have focused excessively on men and single work roles. In the postindustrial era, however, women’s careers, characterized by the constant negotiation of multiple roles and more frequent job changes, have had implications on the changing nature of careers. The general purpose of this thesis is to increase knowledge about the process of career development of women. The focus is on two aspects: Life Career (characterized by multiple role constellations over the life course) and Occupational Career (characterized by different shapes of occupational movement over the life course). Three sets of questions addressed these two aspects of career: trajectory patterns, interrelationships, and antecedents and consequences. Career biographies covered ages 16 to 43. Antecedents reflecting individual agency (e.g., life role value, aspiration, and early experiences) were investigated. The impact of family context on occupational choice was also examined. Among the consequences examined were midlife work wellness and stress, health, and wellbeing.</p><p>Results showed that (1) Career patterns were highly diverse, including nine distinct life career patterns and ten occupational career patterns. (2) Occupational and life careers were significantly related, indicating that the paid work career is embedded in the overall life role structure throughout the life course. (3) Individual agency factors predicted life career. Occupational career was related to life career more than family context. (4) Occupational career did matter in work wellbeing. In terms of stress, health, and wellbeing at midlife, there was little difference among life career patterns, but more significant differences among occupational career patterns. The thesis indicates career theory can benefit from taking multiple roles and career development into account. Implications for career counseling, social policy, and organizations are discussed.</p>

Existing career theories are largely based on a stable working environment and have focused excessively on men and single work roles. In the postindustrial era, however, women’s careers, characterized by the constant negotiation of multiple roles and more frequent job changes, have had implications on the changing nature of careers. The general purpose of this thesis is to increase knowledge about the process of career development of women. The focus is on two aspects: Life Career (characterized by multiple role constellations over the life course) and Occupational Career (characterized by different shapes of occupational movement over the life course). Three sets of questions addressed these two aspects of career: trajectory patterns, interrelationships, and antecedents and consequences. Career biographies covered ages 16 to 43. Antecedents reflecting individual agency (e.g., life role value, aspiration, and early experiences) were investigated. The impact of family context on occupational choice was also examined. Among the consequences examined were midlife work wellness and stress, health, and wellbeing. Results showed that (1) Career patterns were highly diverse, including nine distinct life career patterns and ten occupational career patterns. (2) Occupational and life careers were significantly related, indicating that the paid work career is embedded in the overall life role structure throughout the life course. (3) Individual agency factors predicted life career. Occupational career was related to life career more than family context. (4) Occupational career did matter in work wellbeing. In terms of stress, health, and wellbeing at midlife, there was little difference among life career patterns, but more significant differences among occupational career patterns. The thesis indicates career theory can benefit from taking multiple roles and career development into account. Implications for career counseling, social policy, and organizations are discussed.

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Les inégalités genrées sont reliées à des trajectoires de maladies qui sont distinctes pour les hommes et les femmes. La mesure de ces inégalités est un défi, mais demeure essentielle pour mieux expliquer les différences individuelles en santé organisationnelle. L’objectif de cette étude exploratoire et rétrospective était d’investiguer les associations entre des couches s’étendant du niveau individuel (ex. rôles de genre) jusqu’au niveau macroscopique (ex. rôles de genre professionnels) en lien avec la charge allostatique (23 biomarqueurs), le stress au travail (demandes-contrôle-soutien, déséquilibre efforts-récompenses) et la santé mentale (dépression, d’épuisement professionnel, trauma) chez des travailleurs d’hôpital psychiatrique (N=192). Nous proposons une nouvelle approche pour mesurer les inégalités de genre dans le cadre d’analyses rétrospectives, mais qui pourrait aussi être incorporer dans de nouveaux devis expérimentaux. Nos résultats démontrent que le niveau de masculinité individuelle était associé positivement avec les demandes psychologiques et le soutien social perçu au travail. Le niveau de masculinité et de féminité associé à un emploi, quant à eux, étaient positivement associés avec le contrôle sur les tâches, ainsi que le surengagement au travail. Tant les niveaux de masculinité et de féminité individuel avaient des effets protecteurs sur les symptômes de dépression et d’épuisement professionnel, alors que seul le niveau de masculinité individuel avait des effets protecteurs sur les symptômes de trauma. Par contre, aucune association n’a été trouvée entre les rôles de genre individuel, professionnels et la charge allostatique. Au-delà des rôles de genre d’un individu, notre étude démontre l’utilité de mesurer les rôles de genre professionnels afin de mieux expliquer les associations entre le stress subjectif et ses conséquences sur la santé. / Gendered inequalities in workplace stress are linked to sex-specific health trajectories that are poorly understood. Measuring these gendered inequalities are challenging but an essential endeavor to better explain individual differences in occupational health. The aim of this exploratory, retrospective study was to investigate pathways linking layers of individual-level (e.g., sociocultural gender-roles) and macro-level (e.g., occupational gender-roles) gender factors to measures of allostatic load (23 biomarkers), workplace stress (e.g., job strain, effort-reward imbalance) and mental health (e.g., depressive symptoms, burnout symptoms, trauma symptoms) in a sample of psychiatric hospital workers (N=192). We propose a practical web-based survey approach to measure macro-level gendered occupational factors for retrospective analyses that could also be integrated in novel experimental designs. Our findings show that individual-level masculine gender-roles were positively associated with psychological demands and social support. Masculine and feminine occupational gender-roles were positively associated with decisional latitude and overcommitment. Both individual masculine and feminine gender-roles had protective effects on depressive symptoms and burnout symptoms but only individual masculine gender-roles had protective effects on trauma symptoms; however occupational gender-roles had no effects on mental health. No associations were found with allostatic load. Moving beyond an individual’s gender-roles, our study demonstrates the utility of measuring occupational gender-roles to delineate challenging associations between subjective stressors and health outcomes that should be applied in analyses for future studies of sex differences in occupational health.