Doctoral Dissertation Research: Religious Expression at Work

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Member of religious groups sometimes perceive and experience hostility and discrimination at work. It is important to understand the complexities of such work experiences because the workplace is a primary setting in which social group assimilation and integration occur. Work also is the primary vehicle through which most people realize social opportunity and upward mobility. Some workers make their religious affiliations visible through clothing and/or other aspects of personal appearance. This project examines how the visibility of religious identities affects professional women and men in the workplace. This project has three goals. First, the project will examine gendered differences in religious expression within the workplace. Second, it will determine how those who signify religious expression at work navigate career advancement. Third, it will explore the strategies such workers use to accommodate/challenge workplace expectations that may be affected by their religious expression. Findings from this research will help policy makers and employers create public policy and constructive workplace practices to address inequalities and discrimination based upon religious expression at work. As such, findings are relevant to enforcement of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that prohibits discrimination at many workplaces based on characteristics such as race, religion and sex. This project uses 60 qualitative interviews to compare three sets of employees in professional jobs: 20 women who signify religious affiliation at work, 20 women who do not signify religious affiliation at work, and 20 men who signify religious affiliation at work. Respondents will be drawn from a variety of professional fields, and identified through a combination of personal contacts and snowball sampling. Interview questions include educational background, age, marital status, average hours worked, income, and work history. Additional questions will probe for reasons behind their decisions to either signify or not signify religious identity at work. Interview data will be subjected to open coding to derive themes present in the data using NVIVO to manage transcripts and data analysis. Findings will inform sociological theory related to religious expression at work, as well as gender differences in workplace treatment among professionals.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.