Doctoral Dissertation Research: Religious Expression at Work

宗教团体的成员有时会在工作中感受到敌意和歧视。了解这种工作经历的复杂性是很重要的，因为工作场所是社会群体同化和融合发生的主要场所。工作也是大多数人实现社会机会和向上流动的主要途径。一些员工通过着装和/或个人外表的其他方面来表明他们的宗教信仰。本项目研究宗教身份的可见性如何影响工作场所的职业女性和男性。这个项目有三个目标。首先，该项目将研究工作场所宗教表达的性别差异。其次，它将决定那些在工作中表达宗教信仰的人如何获得职业发展。第三，它将探讨这些工人用来适应/挑战可能受其宗教表达影响的工作场所期望的策略。这项研究的结果将有助于政策制定者和雇主制定公共政策和建设性的工作场所实践，以解决工作中基于宗教表达的不平等和歧视。因此，调查结果与1964年《民权法案》第七章的执行有关，该法案禁止在许多工作场所基于种族、宗教和性别等特征进行歧视。本项目使用60个定性访谈来比较三组从事专业工作的员工：20名在工作中表示宗教信仰的女性，20名在工作中不表示宗教信仰的女性和20名在工作中表示宗教信仰的男性。受访者将从各种专业领域中抽取，并通过个人接触和滚雪球抽样相结合的方式确定。面试问题包括教育背景、年龄、婚姻状况、平均工作时间、收入和工作经历。其他问题将探讨他们决定在工作中表明或不表明宗教身份背后的原因。访谈数据将进行开放式编码，以使用NVIVO管理转录本和数据分析，得出数据中存在的主题。研究结果将为与工作中的宗教表达有关的社会学理论以及专业人员在工作场所待遇的性别差异提供信息。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.