Professor’s article chosen as one of 20 best on work-family research

After a review some 2,000 articles in 75 leading English-language journals worldwide, an article co-written by York human resource management Professor Souha Ezzedeen was chosen as one of 20 official nominees for the 2009 Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for Excellence in Work-Family Research.

The annual award, presented last month, is named for Rosabeth Moss Kanter, who has influenced modern research literature on work and family, and is a partnership of the Center for Families at Purdue University and the Center for Work & Family at Boston College, and is sponsored by the Alliance of Work-Life Progress.

Ezzedeen’s article, “The Man Behind the Woman: A Qualitative Study of the Spousal Support Received and Valued by Executive Women”, appeared in the Journal of Family Issues and was based on a study she co-authored that found female executives were backed by emotionally supportive husbands more often than previous research would suggest (see YFile, Aug. 13, 2008).

A professor in the School of Human Resource Management in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, Ezzedeen interviewed 20 senior and executive-level women in the United States. The study, which began at the University of Penn State Harrisburg, looked at spousal behaviours that impacted the women’s ability to juggle the demands of career and family life.

Out of the 20 best articles of 2009, four were selected as finalists for the Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award, and from those, only one as the winner – a University of California, Irvine sociology professor’s article about career prioritizing and dual-earning couples.

Ezzedeen’s research interests focus on work-life balance and the advancement of women in organizations. She is a recipient of the George Washington University 2002-2003 Distinguished Teaching Assistant Award and the Harrisburg Chapter of Beta Gamma Sigma’s 2006 Professor of the Year Award.

The purpose of the Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award is to raise awareness of excellent work-family research, foster debate about quality research standards and identify the best of the best for future research.

For more information about the award, visit the Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award Web site.