No abstract

Previous research offers limited understanding as to why sickness absence is higher among women than among men, but attitudes and norms have been suggested as plausible explanations of this gender gap. The purpose of the present study is to examine whether the gender gap in sickness absence reflects gender differences in sickness absence attitudes or gendered norms of sickness absence in society. The analyses are based on data from a factorial survey experiment covering 1,800 male and female employed respondents in Norway in 2016. Each participant was asked to evaluate whether sick leave would be reasonable in six unique, hypothetical sickness absence scenarios (i.e. vignettes) in which occupation, gender and reason for sick leave varied. Sick leave judgments were regressed on respondent gender and vignette gender using binary logistic regressions across three cut points. Overall, we did not find a substantial gender difference in either attitudes towards sickness absence or sickness absence norms. However, further analyses indicated more tolerant social norms of sickness absence for employees in gender-dominated occupations than for employees in gender-integrated occupations. This pattern could be a result of the type of work attributed to these occupations rather than their gender composition. Contrary to popular belief, we conclude that widely held attitudes and norms of sickness absence are unlikely to be drivers of the gender gap in sickness absence. The results can be useful for policies and interventions aimed at safeguarding gender equality in the labour market.

The aim of the present study was to estimate spillover effects between the work and the family sphere in a sample of nurses (N = 2058). Hierarchical regression analyses investigated whether shift work schedules were associated with negative or positive spillover, both from family to work and vice versa, controlling for demographic factors, job demands and decision latitude. With daytime work as a reference group, all types of shift work (day and evening shift, night shift only and rotating 3 shift) were associated with higher negative work-to-family spillover. Night work was associated with significantly less negative family-to-work spillover. None of the different shift work schedules were related to any type of positive spillover. The results indicate that working outside of daytime hours is less compatible with workers' family lives, compared to working ordinary day shifts. On the other hand, working night shifts only was associated with reduced negative family-to-work spillover.

Aims: Women have much higher rates of sickness absence than men, but the causes of the difference are not well understood. This study examines whether managers have more lenient attitudes towards women’s than towards men’s absence, as this might contribute to higher rates of sickness absence among women. Differences between managers and other employees are also assessed. Methods: Vignettes were used to measure attitudes towards the legitimacy of sickness absence. The vignettes consisted of brief case descriptions of individuals considering asking their physicians for sick leave, with information about the medical condition (mainly taken from the descriptions in ICPC-2), occupation and gender. Respondents judged how appropriate sickness absence was in each case. Quota sampling was used, and the effective sample size was 899 managers and 1396 other employees, with each respondent evaluating either four or six vignettes. Generalised ordinal logistic regression was used. Results: The gender of the vignette person had no effect on the managers’ evaluations of the appropriateness of sickness absence. Irrespective of the gender of the vignette person, however, managers were generally more restrictive than non-managers. Conclusions: Different attitudes on the part of managers towards sickness absence in men and women do not seem to contribute to gender differences in sickness absence, but managers are generally more restrictive compared to non-managerial employees.