Job Satisfaction and Women’s Spheres of Work

Job satisfaction for women workers is traditionally researched from the job-gender model in which sex roles generate the research framework. Women employed in the labor market are viewed as responding primarily to the confines of sex roles, as opposed to the structural rewards and constraints of the labor market itself. We reexamined earlier studies that found no effect of the labor market on job satisfaction for women. Reanalysis of the 1972-1973 Quality of Employment national survey revealed significantly different levels of job satisfaction, which are in part structured by the characteristics of the labor market sectors in which women and men work. Women working in labor market sectors that are predominantly male or have a balanced proportion of male and female workers jobs have high job satisfaction. This job satisfaction is predicted almost exclusively by their perceptions of fewer income problems, flexibility of hours, and use of job skills. Factors related to maternity benefits and leaves are related only marginally to job satisfaction for women workers in either labor market sector. Women in predominantly female sectors of the labor market have similarly high job satisfaction scores, but these are related to a wider cluster of factors, including fewer perceived income problems, skills, and challenge factors, as well as the socioemotional rewards of their work. This pattern is most similar to males who work in predominantly male sectors. In contrast, males who work in predominantly female or gender-proportionate jobs have significantly lower job satisfaction scores, even after controlling for income issues and other benefits. Labor market sectors and the rewards available within them are important structural dimensions of job satisfaction for women and men employees. He l e n A. Mo o r e i n Se x Ro l e S 13 (1985) 664 To date, studies of women’s work have focused on the amount of female labor force participation and on comparisons of men’s and women’s income, motivation, and job satisfaction. This research indicates that although women receive fewer economic rewards than men for similar types of work, women’s self-esteem, job satisfaction, and motivation to work are as high or even higher than men’s (Walshok & Walshok, 1978). Why do women who obtain fewer rewards for their work have positive attitudes toward their jobs? Or are we asking the questions about women and their paid labor in a way that clouds the outcome? To answer these questions, researchers have contrasted job satisfaction for men and women in the general labor force. Several studies suggest that, overall, women seek different rewards from work than do men, which may account for differences in job satisfaction (O’Leary, 1981). “Men seem to value economic rewards, management of others, recognition, independence and prestige more” (Gold, 1971). In contrast, support from co-workers, job content, and socioemotional factors are most often cited as the important determinants of job satisfaction for women (Andrisani, 1978). The notion that the nature of rewards sought determines job satisfaction differences between men and women has focused attention on the social roles for women and men that affect their jobs. The research preoccupation with sex-role socialization has reinforced a job-gender model in the sociology of work which omits those structural factors that channel or reinforce labor market discrimination (Feldberg & Glenn, 1982). Andrisani (1978) investigated the effects of women’s traditional household responsibilities on satisfaction perceived from work outside the home. His findings indicate that women with greater home and child care demands have lower job satisfaction. O’Leary (1981) points to home pressures as the most important contributors to role conflict and low satisfaction for employed married women since these activities generate considerable conflicts in time and self-esteem. Employment factors are seen as products of unique female motivations and considerations rather than the structure of the labor market itself. Another explanation for the high levels of job satisfaction among women asserts that women workers are not as concerned with the traditional rewards of high pay and economic mobility because any paid labor represents an improvement over domestic /unpaid labor (Walshok & Walshok, 1978). These studies assume that women and men bring to the job values and dispositions that are generated primarily by sex-role expectations. Women, accordingly, prefer jobs that produce little conflict with their primary home-care concerns. They prefer jobs with flexibility in respect to home and child-care demands Jo b SA t i S f A c t i o n & Wo M e n’S Sp H e r e S o f Wo r k 665 and are less concerned about economic rewards, autonomy, and prestige (Gold, 1971). Sex-role models do not take into account the reward structure of different work environments as a factor influencing job satisfaction or other paid labor correlates (Kanter, 1977; 1982). Research by Bielby and Bielby (1984) demonstrated that labor market and domestic responsibilities explain employment activity itself (full-time work or graduate study) and that these activities are not affected directly by sex-role attitudes. A fruitful approach to explaining job satisfaction for women workers should incorporate segmented labor market theories that emphasize structural factors. Segmented labor market theories assert that jobs are structured, defined, and rewarded differently for men and women, minority and majority group members, across sectors in the labor force (Bonacich, 1973; Doeringer & Piore, 1971). That is, opportunities for entry into the labor force, for on-the-job training, for utilization of skills, and for access to full time, steady work, and high economic rewards are not available to men and women at the same rate (Treiman & Hartmann, 1981). Particularly significant to the issue of job satisfaction is the finding that women in predominantly female occupations are working in labor markets that structurally produce high turnover rates, greater numbers of part-time positions, and high rates of movement in and out of the wage-labor market (Blau & Jusenius, 1976). The primary household and child-care responsibilities of women suggest that this secondary market creates a more flexible environment. Experimental research by Christopher Orpen (1981) indicates that clerical workers (all female) show significant increases in job satisfaction when working on flex time. However, Nieva and Gutek (1981) conclude that the workplace for women is not really designed to fit around family responsibilities and that men in managerial and professional occupations have greater structural access to job flexibility and good hours. In addition, women workers generally are found at lower occupational levels where opportunities for promotion and challenge are limited (Blau, 1977). The structural model suggests that women’s satisfaction and rewards may actually be low because “their work structure provides little real opportunity.” Women experience structural limitations along with “other groups who do not control the operations of the work organizations” (Nieva & Gutek, 1981, p. 117). Quinn and Shepard (1973) document that women’s paid jobs generally provide fewer social and intrinsic rewards than those held by men. Thus, occupational sectors may provide differing rewards, which may in turn affect job satisfaction (England, 1979;O’Farrell & Harlan, 1980). The fact that women and men work He l e n A. Mo o r e i n Se x Ro l e S 13 (1985) 666 in predominantly sex-segregated spheres of work and that segregation is increasing (U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 1978) highlights the importance of investigating these structures and their effects. Andrisani (1978) did draw upon labor market factors to explain job satisfaction outcomes, but he found no significant effects of a market structure. This could well be due to the measurement process: He treated job segmentation (percentage female in an occupation) as a continuous variable. This linear model may mask effects. There may be a tipping point in the impact of percentage female for women and/or men workers which that procedure could not detect. The problem of measuring occupational structures for women has been raised repeatedly in this area of research (England, 1979). In the following analysis, job satisfaction determinants are examined at differing levels of sex segmentation for women and men wage workers.