Deviation from the ideal worker norm and lower career success expectations: A “men's issue” too?

Career expectations of women and men have been documented extensively in both the career and the work-family literature, albeit very often focusing on women. This paper proposes to complement the existing work by shifting attention to men. Based on a French national survey and using multiple linear regression models with moderations, we examine the differential of career success expectations (CSE) — as measured by the perceived chances of promotion or wage increase — between men and women who face work-family conflict and use flexible work arrangements (teleworking and part-time work). We show that work-family conflict has a stronger negative influence on men's CSE than on women's, teleworking has a stronger positive influence on women's CSE than on men's, and part-time work has the same negative influence on both men's and women's CSE. This allows us to discuss the impact of the ideal worker norm on career success expectations and to show that a deviation from this norm has different effects on men's and women's career success expectations. •This article aims at integrating the work-family and career literature streams.•It focuses on career success expectations, and contributes to the supply-side approach in understanding gender inequalities.•We show that expected career penalties related to work-family conflict are also a men's issue and not only a women's one.•However, our study suggests that men do not internalize the expected impact of deviation when they use part-time work.•Our study is based on an extensive survey representative of French employees