The Glass Wall and the Gendered Evaluation of Role Expansion in Freelancing Careers

People pursuing careers outside organizations often face a career progression paradox: they must develop expertise to find new work opportunities, but such expertise is largely acquired through accumulating work experience to which they seldom have access. Research has proposed that progressive role expansion-starting one's career specialized in a single work role and later expanding into new work roles-would be helpful to navigate this challenge. However, we propose that 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. Specifically, role expansion by female (vs. male) freelancers is seen as less agentic, and such difference undermines female freelancers' perceived competence and commitment. Three studies using different methods (archival data and experiment), industries (music and film), and samples (Korean and American) show that female (vs. male) freelancers who expand into new work roles are seen as less agentic and have less chance of finding new work opportunities. Although women who pursue careers outside of organizations may become unshackled from gender biases embedded within traditional organizational hierarchies, we suggest that they still face obstacles in the new forms of work.