She Works Hard for the Money: Household Responsibilities and the Allocation of Work Effort

Abstract

Recent developments in human capital theory suggest that men and women differ in how they allocate effort to work activities. This paper uses the 1973 and 1977 Quality of Employment Surveys to test the assumption that women allocate less effort to work because of their family and household responsibilities. Regression and ordered probit analyses show that, on average, women allocate more effort to work than do men. Further, the sex difference is substantial when men and women with comparable family situations and market human capital are compared. The paper discusses how experiments on sex differences in standards of "personal entitlement" and research on sex-segregated workplaces provide an alternative to the economists' perspective. Finally, the paper argues for an integration of human capital models, research on social equity, and structural theories of work organization in order to provide a more complete explanation of men's and women's orientations toward work and family. ARE MEN BETTER OFF AT WORK BECAUSE THEY WORK HARDER?Over the past several decades, discrepancies between men and women in certain "human capital" investments have decreased. Women, for example, increasingly train for and compete in male-dominated professions,

The Timing and Flexibility of Housework and Men and Women's Wages

“…Compared to the US studies by Bielby and Bielby (1988), Hersch (1991a,b) and Hersch and Stratton (1997) and Stratton(2001), which do not find negative effects of housework for men but only for women, our results for Denmark are more mixed. 12 Looking at the other variables of the wage function, it is found, with a few exceptions, that women receive a lower remuneration of their human capital, education and experience and market work hours, at all points of the conditional wage distribution.…”

“…It could be that individuals, who derive utility from their job and devote a lot of effort to the job, also devote more effort at home. Or the other way around, that some individuals who spend many hours on housework activities, spend few hours on passive leisure activities, for instance watching television, may devote more effort to their job, see Bielby and Bielby (1988) and Stratton (2001). Thus, if the amount of effort is not exogenously given, the implications of the Becker model become less unambiguous.…”

The Impact of Ostracism on Work Effort: A Comparison between Turkish and Azerbaijani Employees

“…It also represents a different construct than the skills, abilities or experiences that, an employee depend on while doing a specific job. Based on the literature; effort can be considered either as the actual amount of energy an employee consumes on the job or as the level of energy needed to successfully accomplish that job (Bielby, Bielby, 1988: 1032,1036. In this study -effort‖ is addressed independent of the demands of the job, only referring to the total amount of energy put forth by employees in order to complete their jobs.…”

Halbe Kraft voraus? Arbeitseinsatz, berufliche Segregation und Löhne von Frauen auf dem Schweizer Arbeitsmarkt

“…2 Die Annahme der ungleichen Arbeitsmühe steht allerdings im Gegensatz zu älteren Versionen der Humankapitaltheorie, in der Einkommensdifferenzen nur auf ungleiche Ausstattungen in der Schul-und Berufsausbildung zurückgeführt wurden (Becker [1964(Becker [ ] 1993 Mehr als fünfzehn Jahre nach Erscheinen der Studie gilt -bis auf diese Ausnahme -noch immer: "The assertion that women seek less demanding jobs and exert less effort on the job is simply a widely held but untested assumption of human capital models" (Bielby/Bielby 1988, S.1033. Weder die Arbeiten von Becker (1985; …”

“…auf eine Replikation der Studie von Bielby/Bielby (1988) ausgerichtet war. ("lehne stark ab" bis "stimme stark zu"), 2) "Wie viel körperliche Anstrengung erfordert Ihre Arbeit im Allgemeinen?"…”