Abstract
Women are often found to be in inferior jobs with lower wages and lower job quality, but to report higher job satisfaction. This gender-job satisfaction paradox is documented for high-income countries and is explained by gender inequality in job quality and expectations. In this paper we document this paradox for a developing country. We explore the complex relationship between gender, job quality and job satisfaction among agro-industry workers in Senegal, using primary data from a comprehensive worker survey. We use a multiple mediation model to disentangle direct and indirect pathways through which gender relates to job satisfaction. We find that women’s job satisfaction is higher, despite earning lower wages, receiving fewer nonwage benefits, being more in casual employment, and working fewer hours than men. Moreover, job satisfaction varies more strongly with gender than with worker education, wages or other job quality characteristics. We find that gender inequality in job quality mitigates the positive relationship between gender and job satisfaction, with wage and nonwage benefits as major mediating variables. Our findings imply opposing direct and indirect gender effects on job satisfaction, and bring some nuance in the debate on how reducing gender inequality in job quality may affect women’s job satisfaction.
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Notes
We tested the model including squares of age, wage and hours; yet as none of the squared terms are statistically significant this is not reported.
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Funding was provided by Cgiar Research Program on Policies, Institutions and Markets (Grant number 2018X044.KUL).
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Appendix
Appendix
1.1 Appendix 1: OLS regression results
Linear model 1 | Linear model 2 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Unst. coef | St. coef | Unst. coef | St. coef | |
Women | 0.18** | 0.09** | 0.41*** | 0.21*** |
(0.12) | (0.06) | (0.12) | (0.05) | |
Job characteristics | ||||
Log (wage) | 0.65*** | 0.26*** | 0.47*** | 0.19*** |
(0.19) | (0.07) | (0.16) | (0.07) | |
Nonwage benefits | 0.07 | 0.08 | 0.12*** | 0.14*** |
(0.06) | (0.06) | (0.05) | (0.05) | |
Employment status (Casual) | 0.28 | 0.14 | 0.06 | 0.03 |
(0.16) | (0.07) | (0.14) | (0.07) | |
Working hours | 0.00 | 0.04 | −0.00 | −0.06 |
(0.01) | (0.06) | (0.01) | (0.06) | |
Demographic characteristics | ||||
Age | 0.15 | 0.02 | ||
(0.63) | (0.07) | |||
Married | 0.12 | 0.06 | ||
(0.11) | (0.05) | |||
Oulof | 0.01 | 0.01 | ||
(0.09) | (0.04) | |||
Years of schooling | −0.03*** | −0.16*** | ||
(0.01) | (0.05) | |||
Total children | −0.09*** | −0.23*** | ||
(0.03) | (0.07) | |||
Health | 0.26*** | 0.41*** | ||
(0.03) | (0.04) | |||
1.2 Appendix 2: Results from single mediation models
Wage | Non-wage benefits | Employment status | Working hours | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unst. coef | St. coef | Unst. coef | St. coef | Unst. coef | St. coef | Unst. coef | St. coef | |
Women | 0.43*** | 0.21*** | 0.37*** | 0.18*** | 0.40*** | 0.20*** | 0.30*** | 0.15*** |
(0.11) | (0.05) | (0.11) | (0.05) | (0.11) | (0.06) | (0.11) | (0.05) | |
Job characteristics | ||||||||
Log (wage) | 0.51*** | 0.20*** | ||||||
(0.13) | (0.05) | |||||||
Nonwage benefits | 0.15*** | 0.17*** | ||||||
(0.05) | (0.05) | |||||||
Employment status (Casual) | −0.21* | −0.10* | ||||||
(0.11) | (0.06) | |||||||
Working hours | −0.01* | −0.10* | ||||||
(0.00) | (0.05) | |||||||
Demographic characteristics | ||||||||
Age | 0.18 | 0.02 | 0.31 | 0.04 | 0.33 | 0.04 | 0.49 | 0.06 |
(0.61) | (0.07) | (0.61) | (0.07) | (0.62) | (0.07) | (0.62) | (0.07) | |
Married | 0.08 | 0.04 | 0.14 | 0.07 | 0.09 | 0.05 | 0.12 | 0.06 |
(0.10) | (0.05) | (0.10) | (0.05) | (0.11) | (0.05) | (0.10) | (0.05) | |
Oulof | 0.01 | 0.01 | 0.04 | 0.02 | 0.03 | 0.01 | 0.03 | 0.01 |
(0.09) | (0.04) | (0.09) | (0.05) | (0.09) | (0.05) | (0.09) | (0.05) | |
Years of schooling | −0.03*** | −0.14*** | −0.02** | −0.12** | −0.02** | −0.12** | −0.02** | −0.11** |
(0.01) | (0.05) | (0.01) | (0.05) | (0.01) | (0.05) | (0.01) | (0.05) | |
Total children | −0.09*** | −0.22*** | −0.09*** | −0.23*** | −0.09*** | −0.22*** | −0.10*** | −0.24*** |
(0.03) | (0.07) | (0.03) | (0.07) | (0.03) | (0.07) | (0.03) | (0.07) | |
Health | 0.25*** | 0.40*** | 0.27*** | 0.42*** | 0.26*** | 0.41*** | 0.27*** | 0.42*** |
(0.03) | (0.04) | (0.03) | (0.04) | (0.03) | (0.04) | (0.03) | (0.04) | |
1.3 Appendix 3: OLS regression results with gender interaction terms
Baseline (Gender = 0: Men) | Interaction effect (Gender = 1: Women) | |
|---|---|---|
Job characteristics | ||
Log (wage) | 0.40 | 0.06 |
(0.26) | (0.37) | |
Nonwage benefits | 0.07 | 0.13 |
(0.07) | (0.11) | |
Employment status (Casual) | −0.09 | 0.35 |
(0.21) | (0.31) | |
Working hours | −0.01 | 0.00 |
(0.01) | (0.01) | |
Demographic characteristics | ||
Age | −0.10 | 0.19 |
(1.03) | (1.40) | |
Married | 0.19 | −0.10 |
(0.16) | (0.23) | |
Oulof | −0.00 | 0.06 |
(0.13) | (0.20) | |
Years of schooling | −0.03** | 0.00 |
(0.01) | (0.02) | |
Total children | −0.09** | 0.01 |
(0.04) | (0.06) | |
Health | 0.23*** | 0.05 |
(0.05) | (0.07) | |
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Fabry, A., Van den Broeck, G. & Maertens, M. Gender Inequality and Job Satisfaction in Senegal: A Multiple Mediation Model. J Happiness Stud 23, 2291–2311 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-022-00498-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-022-00498-2