Author: Thomas W. Buchanan

Publisher:

Published: 2002

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

Women hold jobs in which they consistently experience fewer rewards, poorer working conditions, less autonomy, and less authority than men. Despite these differences in job characteristics, studies show that women are just as satisfied with their jobs as men. The disparity between objective working conditions and reported job satisfaction has been referred to as "the paradox of the contented female worker" (Crosby, 1982). There are five competing perspectives in existence that attempt to explain this phenomenon. One of the existing explanations (the own-gender referents perspective) has not been tested against competing perspectives with appropriately specified measures. The own-gender referents perspective argues that women report higher relative levels of job satisfaction because they refer to other women when evaluating their jobs. Because other women are also in positions of lower rewards and opportunity, their job satisfaction is not impacted negatively. Also, former tests of these perspectives have used samples from male-dominated occupations. The paradox has not been examined in predominantly female work settings. Using data collected from a 518 employees of a large, human services organization in a Midwestern city, the existence of the gender paradox is examined. Using multiple regression techniques, the competing perspectives of the gender paradox are tested against each other. A paradox does not exist for organizational commitment. Findings support the own-gender referents perspective for job satisfaction. Women using other women for comparison in evaluation of their jobs are more satisfied than those using both males and females. With the inclusion of the referent choice in the analysis, there is no longer a gender paradox for job satisfaction for these human services workers. The differential job values perspective is also supported, but the interpretation of the findings is speculative. The effect of hourly wage on job satisfaction is different for men and women. Pay is negatively related to satisfaction for males. For women, higher status positions and pay are positively related to job satisfaction. Possible explanations of this finding are explored.