Vulnerable Workforce: Investigating Access to Decent Work Among African Career Women Through the Lens of Psychology of Working Theory

This study used the Psychology of Working Theory (PWT) as a social justice lens to examine how the contextual factor of patriarchal marginalization influences career adaptability, work volition, access to decent work, and the mediating role of career adaptability in the influence patriarchal marginalization has on access to decent work among Nigerian women. The study also assessed how career adaptability and work volition predict access to decent work among Nigerian career women in line with PWT. The quantitative data were collected from 488 Nigerian career women using a structured questionnaire. The study relied on an exclusively Nigerian sample, self-reported data, and a cross-sectional design; the resultant limitations are acknowledged. The profile of the respondents was analyzed with descriptive analysis, while the hypotheses were tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling. The findings revealed a mixed alignment with the PWT model. Consistent with the PWT, patriarchal marginalization negatively predicted work volition and access to decent work, while career adaptability positively predicted access to decent work. However, contrary to the model’s expectations, patriarchal marginalization did not negatively predict career adaptability, work volition did not positively predict access to decent work, and the mediating role of career adaptability between patriarchal marginalization and access to decent work was not supported. While testing the PWT model among the underexplored female population in the African work context significantly adds to the literature, the findings challenge some of the PWT propositions in the non-Western context, and this opens up new vistas for future research.