Taking Another Look at the Gender/Job‐Satisfaction Paradox

Labour-market conditions are, in general, less favourable for women than for men. It is therefore paradoxical that several studies reveal that women are more satisfied at work than men. We analyse this paradox with microdata from 21 countries. It is shown that this paradox does not exist in most of the countries analysed here, and, in most cases, can be explained by the different endowments of work-role inputs (e.g., work time) and outputs (e.g., pay) between genders. In Great Britain, the United States, and Switzerland, however, this paradoxical situation remains even after controlling for differences in work-role inputs and outputs.