Do working conditions contribute differently to gender gaps in self-rated health within different occupational classes? Evidence from the Swedish Level of Living Survey.

Sara Kjellsson,Sergio A Useche

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0253119

Sara Kjellsson, Sergio A Useche

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0253119

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Journal: PloS one	Publication Date: Jun 15, 2021
Citations: 3	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Swedish Institute, Stockholm University

Abstract

Socioeconomic inequality in health among women is often referred to as smaller than health inequality among men. However, we know less about differences in health between men and women within the same socioeconomic groups. In this article the lack of attention to potential socioeconomic variation in gender health inequality is argued as unfortunate, as it can obscure how mechanisms, such as e.g. working conditions, affect gendered health within specific groups. Drawing on the nationally representative Swedish Level of Living survey (LNU), class/gender interactions as well as class-separate linear probability models are estimated to explore relationships between working conditions and health among men and women with the same occupational class positions. Results show that, although class is not a large explanatory factor for general gender differences in health, there are varying within-class differences between men and women in working conditions, that can contribute to the understanding of within-class gender differences in health. This highlights that, when targeting causes of gender health inequality, it is important to consider not only what class means for women as well as for men, but also what gender means within specific classes.

Highlights

According to previous research, inequality in health based on socioeconomic position (SEP) is larger among men than among women [1,2]
The gender difference in physically demanding working conditions varies between the classes
Given the combination of both vertical and horizontal gender segregation, as e.g. on the labour market, the drivers of gender differences in health may vary depending on the socioeconomic context

Summary

Introduction

Inequality in health based on socioeconomic position (SEP) is larger among men than among women [1,2]. As previous research mainly has paid attention to gender differences in the relationship between SEP and health, less is known about whether the relationship between gender and health varies by SEP [7,8, see 9,10]. The lack of attention to a potential SEP variation in gender health inequality is argued as unfortunate. When we expect gender differences to be general (over SEP), there is a risk that we overlook specific mechanisms that are of importance for differences between men and women within a specific SEP.

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion