Exploring Job Resources for Female Employees’ Job Strain: The Case of U.S. Federal Employees

Abstract

It becomes critical to the success of organiza­tions to figure out how to effectively remedy female employees’ stress, given the sheer number of female employees in most organizations. The present study aimed to enhance our understanding of female employees’ strain, and suggest job resources to re­duce their stressful feelings at work. With a sample of U.S. federal employees, female employees were compared with male counterparts in terms of their satisfaction about diverse work environments and the effects of work environment on stressful feel­ings. According to the findings, the strain of female employees was significantly higher than that of male counterparts. Work-life balance became a signifi­cant job resource for both male and female employ­ees. Some work environment factors, such as public support and relationship with outside organizations, showed different effect on job strain, depending on the gender.

Keywords

• female employees
• job resources
• strain
• employee stress
• gender
• stressful feelings.