Abating inequalities? Job quality at the intersection of class and gender in Finland 1977–2013

Abstract

Globalization with its many side-effects on working life is seen to pose accentuated risks

The contextual role of subjective age in the chronological age/absenteeism relationship in blue and white collar teams

“…Now we extend this assumption, postulating that the job type of the team (white collar versus blue collar jobs) affects the interactive effect of average chronological and average subjective age on average short-term absenteeism because of the different job and career opportunities in these teams (Thomas, 1989). We build our hypothesis based on the idea that, compared with white collar jobs, blue collar jobs have, on average, less growth and development perspectives (Hackman & Oldham, 1976;Mustosmäki, Oinas, & Anttila, 2017) and less ambitions to develop their full potential (Lips-Wiersma, Wright, & Dik, 2016). We assume similar conditions in our sample, as the observed blue collar teams performed routine sorting and delivery tasks, with limited vertical career opportunities, whereas white collar teams had back-office and management tasks in a company's headquarters with multiple growth and career opportunities.…”

“…Third, we further fine-grained our empirical findings and conceptual contribution by extending our argumentation on subjectively younger versus older teams to the different task structure of teams. In particular, we assumed and found that, in jobs, where career and development opportunities are limited, i.e., blue collar teams (Lips-Wiersma et al, 2016;Mustosmäki et al, 2017), the interactive effect of average chronological and average subjective age on short-term absenteeism is not as strong (and even insignificant) as in white collar teams, which have more potential for development and career opportunities (Mustosmäki et al, 2017). In particular, only white collar teams, which are perceived to be older, demonstrated a positive relationship between average chronological age and short-term absenteeism behaviours; whereas, for white collar teams, who are perceived to be young, and all blue collar teams, the relationship between average chronological age and short-term absenteeism was non-significant.…”

Gender inequalities in job quality during the recession

“…Second, and in line with the latest research, public policy on gender equality should also address new problems associated with the accelerated changes at work (Gallie, 2017). In particular: 1) the different job quality problems between highly skilled and less skilled working men and women (Gallie, 2013b); 2) the link between the gender gap and occupations (Green et al, 2013;Stier and Yaish, 2014;Ruuskanen et al, 2016); 3) the need to consider the different institutional regimes and organized labour in order to overcome gender-related job inequalities (Cloutier, 2012;Holman, 2013); and 4) the need to explore differentiated approaches to reconciling work and family, in order to prevent that gender-related equality policies penalize highly skilled women while benefiting the less skilled (Mandel, 2012;Mustosmäki et al, 2016).…”

“…Among blue-collar workers, women reported lower levels of job security and job content quality. In a long run research carried out in Finland, Mustosmäki et al (2016) highlight clear gender disparities in explaining job quality by occupational class. Regarding white-collar workers, and as opposed to 1977, in 2013 upper white-collar women have attained the same level of job quality as their male counterparts.…”

Working-hour Trends in the Nordic Countries: Convergence or Divergence?

“…As the hypothesized developments of country and gender differences in working time and part-time work take-up reflect a simple strengthening or weakening of these differences, we used survey year as a linear period effect in regression models, making the results easily interpretable (Mustosmäki et al 2017). Significant period effects indicate, depending on the intercept (initial status in 1996), either strengthening or weakening of differences between countries or genders.…”