Gender inequalities in job quality during the recession
| Date | 02 January 2018 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-07-2016-0139 |
| Pages | 2-22 |
| Published date | 02 January 2018 |
| Author | Pilar Ficapal-Cusí,Angel Díaz-Chao,Milagros Sainz-Ibáñez,Joan Torrent-Sellens |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law |
Gender inequalities in job quality
during the recession
Pilar Ficapal-Cusí
Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya,
Barcelona, Spain
Angel Díaz-Chao
Department of Applied Economics, Facultad de Ciencias Juridicas y Sociales,
Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain
Milagros Sainz-Ibáñez
Internet Interdisciplinary Institute, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya,
Barcelona, Spain, and
Joan Torrent-Sellens
Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya,
Barcelona, Spain
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to empirically analyse gender differences in job quality during the
first years of the economic crisis in Spain.
Design/methodology/approach –The paper uses microdata from the Quality of Working Life Survey.
A representative sample of 5,381 and 4,925 Spanish employees (men and women) in 2008 and 2010, and a
two-stage structural equation modelling (SEM) are empirically tested.
Findings –The study revealed three main results. First, the improvement in job quality was morefavourable
to men than it was to women. Second, the gender differences in the explanation of job quality increased
considerably in favour of men. Third, this increase in gender-related job inequality in favour of men is
explained by a worsening of 4 of the 5 explanatory dimensions thereof: intrinsic job quality; work
organisation and workplace relationships; working conditions, work intensity and health and safety at work;
and extrinsic rewards. Only inequality in the work-life balance dimension remained stable.
Research limitations/implications –The availability of more detailed microdata for other countries and
new statistical methods for analysing causal relationships, particularly SEM-PLS, would allow new
approaches to be taken.
Social implications –Public policy measures required to fight against gender inequalities are discussed.
Originality/value –The paper contributes t o enrich the understan ding of the multidime nsional and
gender-related dete rminants of job quality and, in particular , of studying the effects of the first years of th e
economic crisis.
Keywords Gender, Employee relations, Workplace, Women workers, Job satisfaction
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Recent studies acknowledge that job quality alludes to the level of objective and subjective
well-being that workers express, feel and have in their jobs (Davoine et al., 2008; Drobnic and
Guillén, 2011; Gallie et al., 2012; Guillén and Dahl, 2009; Kalleberg et al., 2007; Kalleberg,
2009). It is understood as an umbrella concept that links some core working life dimensions
with worker well-being (Hauff and Kirchner, 2014). Such well-being is not limited to job
characteristics; it has also effects on firms, on issues outside work (e.g. work-life balance)
and on the workers’future prospects. This standpoint that interprets job quality from the
worker’s well-being perspective suggests a clearly multidimensional delimitation (European
Commission, 2008), provided that it involves very broad working life explanatory
foundations and consequences that go beyond what happens in the workplace. In this
regard, literature has interpreted job quality as “an overall state of satisfaction that includes
Employee Relations
Vol. 40 No. 1, 2018
pp. 2-22
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-07-2016-0139
Received 16 July 2016
Revised 30 March 2017
23 May 2017
17 June 2017
Accepted 19 June 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0142-5455.htm
2
ER
40,1
objective aspects of material well-being, satisfactory relationships with the physical and
social environment, and objectively perceived health; and subjective aspects of physical,
psychological and social wellbeing”(Díaz-Chao et al., 2016, p. 618). This definition integrates
both a multidimensional (including jobs, workers and firms) and an interdisciplinary
(micro and macroeconomic, psychological and sociological) approach (Brown et al., 2012;
Findlay et al., 2013). Thus, job quality provides and promotes sustainable work and
economic growth in a reinforced competitive environment (Gallie, 2007; Green, 2006).
The onset and deepening of the economic crisis has done nothing but increase the tension
between job quantity and quality (Erhel et al., 2012; Leschke et al., 2012). In this context,
most recent research has noted the emergence of new problems associated with the labour
structural change (Osterman, 2013; Gallie, 2017), such as the existence of growing
inequalities in job quality (Green et al., 2013), especially the rise of gender inequalities
(Leschke and Watt, 2014), and the different effects of gender-related equality policies
depending on the socioeconomic position of women (Mandel, 2012).
Broadlyspeaking, gender equalityis achieved when menand women enjoy the samerights
and opportunities in every aspect of society, and when everyone’sbehaviours, aspirationsand
needs are equally valued and promoted, regardless of gender (Eurofound, 2013). Within this
context, the literature shows that gender equality is linkedto the attainment of higher rates of
female employment and fewer gender-based salary gaps (Fortin, 2005), with a more equitab le
division of household chores (Fuwa, 2004) and less gender segregation in terms of education
(Charles and Bradley, 2002). Low recognition of women’s work reinforces gender inequalities
through the emergence of various types of discrimination (Cloutier et al., 2009), such as
women’s unequal access to betterwages ( Johanssonet al., 2005; Mandel and Semyonov, 2005),
promotionpossibilities (Raley et al.,2006 ), oru neven distribution of domestic and professional
work (Tremblay, 2012). Even in the most egalitarian societies, where there is less contrast in
the attributesof jobs available to men and women,women do not have the same opportunities
to participate and progress as their male counterparts (Mühlau, 2011).
Linking gender disparities with some individual indicators of job quality, the literature
has begun to make significant contributions, especially when the effects of the recent
economic crisis have begun to be analysed (Mustosmäki et al., 2016). According to various
job quality indicators, like training, promotion opportunities, working conditions, wages,
and job autonomy or participation, notable gender gaps have been found (Gallie, 2013a;
Mandel, 2012). Nevertheless, these previous studies have several limitations. First, many of
the studies are restricted both to aggregate and cross-sectional data, or rather short time
perspective due to a lack of available data, and thus provide limited possibilities to make
conclusions about job quality trends before and during the recession. Second, most existing
research only analyses some partial indicators of job quality, and there is little evidence
about the multidimensional effects of job quality from a gender perspective. In this regard,
the main contribution of the present research revolves around the use of a multi-dimensional
and micro-level approach during the first years of the last economic crisis. This way, we
have been able to examine some gender gaps in the evolution of a whole set of explanatory
dimensions of job quality during this concrete period of time.
With the aim of providing new empirical evidence on gender inequalities in job quality,
this paper analyses Spanish workers’perception of the quality of their jobs during the first
period of the economic crisis (2008-2010). More specifically, we aim at identifying the main
gender disparities in explaining job quality and analyse their trends during the first years of
the economic crisis. For the analysis, we have used the microdata from the Spanish Quality
of Working Life Survey (2010 was the last year for which data were available). This source
of information provides very comprehensive data on the perceptions of working men and
women, taking into consideration the multiple dimensions of their job and family situation.
As a result of a broad set of explanatory dimensions that go beyond the workplace quality
3
Gender
inequalities
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