By Diane Bergeron
Center for Creative Leadership
Summary
Despite making up nearly half of the global workforce, women remain underrepresented in executive roles across industries and countries. While various reasons have been documented for gender disparities in career outcomes—such as unconscious bias, stereotypes, and greater domestic responsibilities—one less explored factor is women’s higher engagement in workplace helping behaviors. These behaviors, known as organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), go beyond job requirements and contribute to the organization. Examples include orienting new employees, assisting others, offering ideas and suggestions, and managing the social environment. These actions positively impact group and organizational performance in a wide variety of ways. However, too much time on OCB can lead to less time on job behaviors that are more directly linked to rewards and career advancement.
Research shows that women are expected to engage in more communal, time-consuming OCB than men, receiving more requests for help and being “volunteered” for low-promotability tasks. Women of color face an additional racial burden, known as cultural taxation, where they are expected to engage in helping behaviors that support others of the same race, further impacting their career outcomes. Despite performing these behaviors, women often receive fewer rewards and are penalized for not engaging in OCB. This results in women taking on necessary but often invisible activities that keep organizations functioning smoothly, limiting their ability to focus on tasks that are more rewarded and can advance their careers.
The paper highlights the need to reevaluate organizational structures and cultures that perpetuate these inequities, urging a shift from focusing on “fixing” women to addressing systemic issues. It calls on organizations and leaders to recognize the value of OCB while ensuring that such work is distributed fairly, paving the way for a more equitable workplace. Specific strategies for changing gendered cultures, processes and norms are offered for leaders at different levels, including organizational leaders, people leaders and individual contributors. Changing organizational systems will enable women to make more meaningful contributions and advocate for organizational and societal changes, ultimately increasing their influence in global decision-making.
Citation
Bergeron, D. M. (2025). “Organizational wives” – The career costs of helping. Center for Creative Leadership.
