Taking another look at the gender/job-satisfaction paradox

Labour-market conditions are, in general, Less favourable for women than for men. It is therefore paradoxical that several studies (primarily for Great Britain and the United States) reveal that women are more satisfied at work than men. The aim of this paper is to analyse this paradox in an international setting. This aim is accomplished using the latest Work Orientations data set from the International Social Survey Program (ISSP). The survey was conducted in 1997 and in this paper, data for 21 countries are used. It is shown that this paradox does not exist in most of the countries analysed here, and in most cases, can be explained by the different endowments of work-role inputs (e.g., work time) and outputs (e.g., pay) between genders. In Great Britain, the United States, and Switzerland however, this paradoxical situation remains even after controlling for differences in work-role inputs and outputs.