The Validation of the Women Workplace Culture Questionnaire: Gender-Related Stress and Health for Swedish Working Women

In this study, a preliminary Women Workplace Culture Questionnaire (WWC) was validated on new data sets (n = 446, including nine subgroups; response rate 72–97%) in terms of descriptive statistics, factor analysis, corrected item–total correlations, internal consistency reliability, and Pearson's correlation. Four factors called perceived burdens on women (coefficient α = .87), personally experienced burdens (coefficient α = .84) , sexual harassment (coefficient α = .80), and inadequate organizational support (coefficient α = .71) were acceptable. Normative data are presented. The standardized indices correlated significantly with self-reported ill health, psychological stress, and work satisfaction. The presented WWC (24 items) so far seems to be an adequate reliable and valid instrument, which can be used in research and evaluations of women's work environment with regard to psychosocial hindrances and microinequalities of importance for women's health.

[1]  Elaine Seymour.  The Role of Socialization in Shaping the Career‐Related Choices of Undergraduate Women in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Majors , 1999 .

[2]  Mats Fredrikson,et al.  Stress on and off the job as related to sex and occupational status in white‐collar workers , 1989 .

[3]  C. Piotrkowski.  Gender harassment, job satisfaction, and distress among employed white and minority women. , 1998, Journal of occupational health psychology.

[4]  L. Hallberg,et al.  Women in a Male-Dominated Industry: Factor Analysis of a Women Workplace Culture Questionnaire Based on a Grounded Theory Model , 2002 .

[5]  B. Bergman,et al.  Self-reported health in relation to medical health and gender-specific problems in women. , 2000, Journal of occupational and environmental medicine.

[6]  P. Kline.  Handbook of Psychological Testing , 2013 .

[7]  Robert Karasek,et al.  Healthy Work : Stress, Productivity, and the Reconstruction of Working Life , 1990 .

[8]  K. Orth-Gomér.  Keynote presentation at the sixth International congress of behavioral Medicine, Brisbane, Australia, November 15–18, 2000 , 2001 .

[9]  Rosalind C. Barnett,et al.  Learning in a Man's World: Examining the Perceptions of Undergraduate Women in Male-Dominated Academic Areas , 2002 .

[10]  M. Bender,et al.  Sexual harassment in nursing. , 1997, Journal of advanced nursing.

[11]  S. Pyke,et al.  A Scale To Assess Student Perceptions of Academic Climates. , 2000 .

[12]  Stress and Gender , 1996, European Review.

[13]  U. Lundberg,et al.  The total workload of male and female white collar workers as related to age, occupational level, and number of children. , 1994, Scandinavian journal of psychology.

[14]  Aspects of psychological work environment and health among male and female white‐collar and blue‐collar workers in a big Swedish industry , 1994 .

[15]  Shelley E. Taylor,et al.  Psychological resources, positive illusions, and health. , 2000, The American psychologist.

[16]  S. Pyke.  Education and the "Woman Question" , 1997 .

[17]  B. Bergman,et al.  Women's work experiences and health in a male-dominated industry. A longitudinal study. , 1996, Journal of occupational and environmental medicine.

[18]  C. Wennerås,et al.  Nepotism and sexism in peer-review , 1997, Nature.