Gender and Life Satisfaction in the UK

Abstract

This contribution analyzes the variations in reported life satisfaction for men and women in the United Kingdom. While average levels of life satisfaction are similar for men and women, the variations in life satisfaction are more marked for women. Analyzing the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) for 1996-2007, the paper finds that hours of paid work increase life satisfaction for both men and women, while housework hours are statistically significant only for retired men and women. Childcare (for children ages 3 to 4 years) and caring for adults affect women's life satisfaction negatively but are statistically insignificant for men. Some of these differences might be explained by the fact that women and men in the sample assign differing weights to satisfaction with different life dimensions. Job satisfaction, in particular, matters much more to men than to women.Gender, preferences, self-reported well-being, happiness,

The Intrinsic Value of Agency: The Case of Indonesia

“…Much of the existing literature on subjective well-being is focused on personal characteristics, microeconomic, and macroeconomic factors (such as income, hours worked, inflation and unemployment) and social relationships (Argyle, 2003;Clark, Knabe, & Ratzel, 2010;Diener, Ng, Harter, & Arora, 2010;Diener & Suh, 2000;Dolan, Peasgood, & White, 2008;Easterlin, 2001;Frey & Stutzer, 2002;Kahneman, Diener, & Schwarz, 2003;Kenny & Kenny, 2006;Layard, 2006;Stutzer & Frey, 2010;Tella, MacCulloch, & Oswald, 2003). Studies in Western market economies find that while hours of paid employment increase both men's and women's subjective well-being (Della Giusta et al, 2011), employment is more central to men's rather than women's well-being (Argyle, 2003), as is job satisfaction (Della Giusta et al, 2011). There is little overall difference in the impact of being married on men's and women's subjective well-being but a bad marriage has a greater negative impact on women than on men (Myers, 2003) while caring for dependents negatively affects women's but not men's subjective well-being (Della Giusta et al, 2011).…”

“…While policy makers and society at large clearly need to engage with the lack of agency, from the individual woman's perspective, the lack of subjective well-being is an important problem. Therefore, for an individual, both objective and subjective evaluations matter as they reflect a holistic continuum from resources to the capability to use these resources and then onto well-being (Della Giusta, Jewell, & Kambhampati, 2011). Our research here focuses on one element of this continuum -subjective wellbeing.…”

“…Studies in Western market economies find that while hours of paid employment increase both men's and women's subjective well-being (Della Giusta et al, 2011), employment is more central to men's rather than women's well-being (Argyle, 2003), as is job satisfaction (Della Giusta et al, 2011). There is little overall difference in the impact of being married on men's and women's subjective well-being but a bad marriage has a greater negative impact on women than on men (Myers, 2003) while caring for dependents negatively affects women's but not men's subjective well-being (Della Giusta et al, 2011). Thapan (2003), in a study of subjective well-being in India found that education, number and sex of children, social relationships, deprivation, and social norms for women are all significant determinants in India.…”

Who Settles for Less? Subjective Dispositions, Objective Circumstances, and Housing Satisfaction

“…Some studies find that women are happier or more satisfied with their lives than men (Easterlin 2003;Blanchflower & Oswald 2004), others find no gender difference (Kahneman & Krueger 2006;Della Giusta et al 2011), and yet others find that women are less happy or less satisfied with their lives (Mroczek & Kolarz 1998). What seems to be more certain is that variation in reported wellbeing is higher amongst women (Della Giusta et al 2011), as they have a higher tendency than men to report both being very happy and very unhappy (Frey & Stutzer 2002). It has been suggested that the relationship between gender and subjective wellbeing is moderated by age, with subjective wellbeing rising for men and declining for women over the adult life cycle (Marcelli & Easterlin 2005).…”

Family Trajectories and Life Satisfaction: The Swiss Case

“…In particular, Swiss women may gain more in happiness in expectation and right after a birth than Swiss men, but they may experience steeper drops the following years (Clark et al 2008). Part of the stronger dip may be due to a larger anticipation effect, but it may also be due to the fact that women are more socially isolated after childbirth, as they have often taken leave from the labour force and act as the primary caregiver, particularly when the child is young (Della Giusta et al 2011;Simon 1992).…”