ABSTRACT
Interaction in the Workplace | By the 1990s, it had become received opinion among social scientists that sex differentials in attitudes to employment had faded away. One after the other, research reports and Hterature reviews asserted confidently that any differences in work-related values that may have existed in the past had now disappeared. As Eagly (1995: 145) points out, some went further, to argue that all sex differences were disappearing, and that none should be studied or reported, in case they supported gender stereotypes. This view has been offered in Britain, in other European countries and in the USA. It was never challenged, and sometimes regarded as ideologically suspect to do so. Like many other myths about women's employment (Hakim, 1995a), the constant repetition of this claim has required selective and one-eyed presentation of the research evidence. Fortunately, social scientists are now beginning to recognise that sex differences still remain in social identity and aspirations that can be crucial to careers and work histories.
