RESEARCH_FILE
Jennifer L. Berdahl
University of British Columbia
Known for:Author of 'Work as a Masculinity Contest' — the framework identifying the four contest-culture norms that predict harm for men, women, and organizations, and the researcher establishing that contest-culture environments produce worse, not better, organizational performance
SEE THE PRACTICE
Turn a thought this research explains into one clear move.
THE THOUGHT
“If I stop, everything falls apart”
YOUR RECORDED RESPONSE
“Rest is maintenance, not a prize.”
ONE PRIVATE MOVE
Choose one small, harmless task you would usually finish automatically—leave a folded item on the chair, pause a load of laundry mid-cycle, or let a notebook stay open. Set a 10-minute timer and do nothing to correct it.
Key findings
- 2018
Berdahl and colleagues identified four specific masculinity contest culture norms — show no weakness, strength and stamina, dog-eat-dog competition, and put work first — and demonstrated that each independently predicted worse job satisfaction, higher burnout, and worse organizational health for men and women alike. Work as a Masculinity Contest ↗