The very nature of the gig economy lends itself to the so-called “portfolio career”, whereby freelancers have various strings to their bow. This affords them greater opportunities to earn in different ways, while the diversity also hedges against any risks of economic downturns.
A recent study from Michigan State University suggests that such diversification is not always readily available to female freelancers, thus affording them fewer opportunities to grow their expertise.
“In the Great Resignation, people are looking for new opportunities outside the traditional career. We need to be thinking about how we can fight against these biases and level the playing field so everyone has an opportunity to grow,” the researchers explain.
Career expansion
The researchers wanted to explore how men and women are assessed when they look to expand their careers. After analyzing creative freelancers in both the United States and Korea, they found that women were often viewed as less committed and competent when they spread their wings than their male peers.
“When women engage in lateral role expansion within professional careers, they face a glass wall, an invisible barrier that limits their work opportunities due to a gendered evaluation of role expansion … and such difference undermines the perceived competence and commitment of female freelancers,” the authors explain.
For instance, when Korean songwriters were compared, it was far more common for women to be typecast as a particular profession, such as a composer or a lyricist than it was for them to have the opportunity to fulfill both roles.
Multiple hats
This is problematic, as the ability to perform a number of tasks is often a key facet of a successful freelance career so it can be extremely harmful to be pigeonholed into just one.
Similar findings emerged when the researchers looked at the film industry, with women often pigeonholed as, for instance, a cinematographer and therefore only ever offered these roles. Men seldom had such problems, and would also take on roles in production design in some projects and maintain their cinematographer work on other projects.
When the resumes of a sample of freelancers were shown to volunteers, who were asked to rate the competence, authority, and commitment of each freelancer, it emerged that when female freelancers had taken on a number of roles, it was usually viewed negatively. This wasn’t the case for the male freelancers.
Central to this was the agency freelancers deployed. This was found to be central to their perceived commitment and competence. When women took on a variety of roles, they were perceived as having less agency than men who did the same.
“The bottom line is you may make a good living as a specialist. But opportunities are far greater for generalists, who can expand their roles and generate more revenue streams,” the researchers explain.
Gender norms
The researchers believe that these differences are likely to be due to the various gender stereotypes that underpin how we perceive men and women, especially in a professional context.
“Women are perceived to be communal and are less likely to take charge than men,” they explain. “Women are also considered to be more emotional than men, which gives the impression that they are more irrational, unreliable, and lacking self-control.”
The study also revealed the ongoing stereotype that women are more likely to be committed to their family than to their work. This is important for freelancers as clients demand total commitment from them out of fear that anything less can derail the project.
The researchers believe that one possible way around this is to trade under the name of an incorporated organization so one’s affairs become more gender-neutral. They also urge hiring managers to be aware of this bias so that they find the best freelancers.
“As opposed to traditional career paths where one advances by climbing up the corporate ladder, people pursuing these new forms of work can advance their career independent of organizations, allowing them to not only move across firms, but also remain outside of organizations so that they can shape their own career paths,” they conclude.
