In the first instance coming up to the apex of women job satisfaction the meaning of this broadly studied term should come in focus, accordingly, Job satisfaction has been emphasized as a pleasurable emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job; an affective reaction to one’s job and an attitude towards one’s job. Though there is lot controversy with regard to different dimensions of job satisfaction however the basic concept and meaning in the mind of every scientist and researcher is same. It has been argued that job satisfaction is an attitude but points out that researchers should clearly distinguish the objects of cognitive evaluation which are effect (emotion), beliefs and behaviors. This definition suggests that we form attitudes towards our jobs by taking into account feelings, beliefs and behaviors.
In short, Job satisfaction describes how content an individual is with his or her job. It is a relatively recent term since in previous centuries the jobs available to a particular person were often predetermined by the occupation of that person's parent. There are a variety of factors that can influence a person's level of job satisfaction; some of these factors include the level of pay and benefits, the perceived fairness of the promotion system within a company, the quality of the working conditions, leadership and social relationships, and the job itself (the variety of tasks involved, the interest and challenge the job generates, and the clarity of the job description/requirements.
Now let us come to the actual concern of this paper i.e. job satisfaction among women, in the light of research accomplished average levels of job satisfaction among women workers have been falling for 15 years, despite greater equality in the workplace and flexible working laws. Research based on about 25,000 British women employees; shows that women workers used to have significantly higher levels of job satisfaction than men in the UK, but now they have almost the same level as male workers.
Job satisfaction is widely studied sphere particularly this research has been done in developed countries, however it would be unfair to say this is common only in developed countries rather this trend has spread all over the world and hardly there would be any famous country where this research is not known and effort not made to know the facts of job satisfaction; especially with regard to the job satisfaction of women i.e. gender for example a study conducted in Australia; Long (2005) investigated issues of job satisfaction and gender with findings that women are significantly more satisfied (happier) in work than men.
Different researches on job satisfaction have come up with the results women in most of the fields of job are more satisfied than men; for instance in research in the academic labor market drawing upon a particularly detailed data set of 900 academics from five traditional Scottish Universities when compared with recent studies reveal that in the labor force as whole women generally express themselves as more satisfied with their jobs than men. Results show that reports of overall job satisfaction do not vary widely by gender. This result is explained through the nature of dataset, limited as it is to a highly educated workforce, in which female workers are likely to have job expectations comparable to their male counterparts. Ordered probity analysis is used to analyze the determinants of an academic’s overall satisfaction at work as well as satisfaction with promotion prospects, job security and salary. Comparison salary is found to be an important influence on academics’ overall job satisfaction although evidence suggests that academics place a lower emphasis on economic relative to non-economic aspects of work than other sectors of the workforce.
Causes of job satisfaction among women is of utmost significance with regard to job satisfaction among women, accordingly diverse causes can be focused while thinking rationally. In most of the cultures in most of the countries of the world, in the set of roles of women a women is always supposed to be a good wife; for this a women is never expected to make equal with men; rather looking after husband is more important compared with job particularly in South East Asia, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, all the Middle East Countries, Arab countries, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan etc. a women is always supposed to be a good mother which is house inside duty rather than any sort of outside work or job, even starting from wife till the end of life of a women she is never expected to make equally with men; all these factors are linked to the expectations of a women to be happy with their job because they don’t have social pressure for the job to make a lot and to be extremely progressive in the job achieving too much, however in cases where women are expected pace with men they are not satisfied with their job e.g. according to APA Database Record 2010 a research conducted where a forced-choice questionnaire and unstructured interview were administered to 2159 female workers and 236 female ex-workers associated with electronics firms to investigate their attitudes to various aspects of their jobs. 21% of the present workers and 36% of the ex-workers expressed overall dissatisfaction with their jobs, which were of a highly rationalized type. Analyses of responses indicate the overriding importance of the actual work done as a determinant of job dissatisfaction. Analyses of reasons for leaving given by the ex-workers indicate that voluntary labor turnover resulted mainly from job dissatisfaction. If overall analysis is considered this is clear just 21% and 36% are not happy; there is high probability regarding these women they would have family pressure or social pressure where they became dissatisfied with their work on the contrary 79% and 64% were even happy with their work.
Besides, women are quite happy with their work where they don’t face workplace environmental factors and competition among other employees, on the contrary they are stressed, this is also indicator women are always happy with their work as they don’t work under any pressure; they mostly work on their choice apart from some western countries which comprise just 13% of the world population which is negligible compared to rest of 87% world population huge size, while men always have to irrespective of any choice or desire, it was showed in one study that assessed the impact of differential levels of job satisfaction on stress among nurses i.e. mostly women, hypothesizing that higher levels of job satisfaction predict lower levels of stress. Study used the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) to measure emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment. The job satisfaction scale of Katzell et al was used to measure overall job satisfaction. Statistical tests for significance used were Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Structural Equation Modeling and the χ2 statistic, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation, Goodness of Fit Index, and Comparative Fit Index. The findings showed that job satisfaction has a significant direct negative effect on emotional exhaustion, whereas emotional exhaustion has a direct positive effect on depersonalization. A significant indirect effect was seen of job satisfaction on depersonalization via exhaustion. The path coefficient showed that job satisfaction has both direct and indirect effects on burnout, confirming job satisfaction as a significant predictor of burnout. Some factors were also clear from this study that Social environmental factors of the workplace arising from organizational restructuring cost containment strategies, diminishing resources, and increasing responsibilities, cause highly stressed, burned out nurses i.e. mostly women professionals to leave the profession. However there are some points to learn from this research that collaborative efforts between nurses, administrators, and educators to research and test practical models to improve job satisfaction may work as an antidote to burnout.
At the moment when the perspective of Ukrainian women is there, should there be any sort of different approach towards their job satisfaction; where it can be considered they are happy in their work because of other factors as there may be family pressure on a women owing to big number of women compared to men, so when they enter the arena of married life they have to take responsibilities. Yes this is true; however whenever a women is married her state of mind is lot different from men as social pressure, cultural expectations, set of role regarding responsibility men are always considered to be the bread winner and women a good mother and a good teacher of their kids to learn them multitude of their socialization, etiquettes etc.
Conclusion and Future Articles
In a nutshell women are in most of the cases happy with their job due to the aforesaid factors where less social pressure, family expectations etc. are more important however as women have to work under pressure there is high probability for them to become dissatisfied with their job if the requirement what they work for is not met. However their level of satisfaction has been decreasing for a couple of decades nevertheless this is because now in some societies where they were not expected to work; they are now owing to the changing roles in the structure of societies internationally. Even then, overall satisfaction of women is lot more compared to men.
In future, emphasis can be put on the relationship between different variables and job satisfaction for example age, education, income etc.
Research paper in Psychology OP/IOP/WP
By: Zahid Nawab
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