Are women really that happy at work? Australian evidence on the ‘contented female’

Paradox Lost: The Disappearing Female Job Satisfaction Premium

“…As column 2 shows, the resulting conditional gap of 0.242 matches very closely to Clark's similar single equation estimate of 0.240. Having established an approximate replication of Clark's results, we now take the , 1991, 2008 and 2012-2014 (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) I 1991II 1991III 2008IV 2008V 2012-2014VI 2012-2014 Female 0.301 *** 0.242 *** 0.189 *** 0.108 *** 0.005 0.027 (0.0343) (0.045) (0.0316) (0.039) (0.043) (0.051) Age -0.050 *** -0.024 ** -0.004 (0.012) (0.0107) (0.017) Age 2 0.0007 *** 0.0003 ** 9.21e-05 Note: Model 2, 4 and 6 include controls for occupation, industry, firm size, temporary contracts. Robust standard errors in parentheses ***p < 0.01, **p < 0.05, *p < 0.1. same specification to 2008, the last year of the original BHPS.…”

“…10. The same cut-points have been used previously in the literature, see for instance Long (2005) and Kifle et al (2014). 11.…”

“…; Kifle et al . ; Kristensen and Johansson ; Mumford and Smith ; Sloane and Williams ). As Carleton and Clain (: 331) put it, ‘the common approach to the issue has been to search for some previous overlooked factor, that once included in the analysis, causes the gender difference to disappear’.…”

“…The large subsequent literature on female job satisfaction has often taken as given the original 'paradox of the contented female worker' and seeks explanations for its existence (Bender et al 2005;Kifle et al 2014;Kristensen and Johansson 2008;Mumford and Smith 2015;Sloane and Williams 2000). As Carleton and Clain (2012: 331) put it, 'the common approach to the issue has been to search for some previous overlooked factor, that once included in the analysis, causes the gender difference to disappear'.…”

Four Dimensions of Quality in Australian Jobs

“…In Australia, women have higher rates of casual employment (Wilkins & Wooden, 2014), and they devote more time to unpaid household work and childcare (Sayer et al, 2009). Despite these differences, women report higher job satisfaction than men (Clark, 1997;Kifle et al, 2014) and fewer work-family job strains (Blunch et al, 2020). This evidence suggests that women and men may perceive and report job quality differently.…”