Gender, Job Satisfaction and Quits: A Generational Comparison

Abstract

Job satisfaction has a significant and negative impact on voluntary job quits that may vary in size by gender. If women are more likely than men to quit dissatisfying jobs and therefore interrupt their careers, then gender gaps in earnings, labor force participation and leadership roles may persist. However, the improvement of these gender gaps over time may reflect a convergence between genders in how job satisfaction affects quit decisions. Using panel data comprised of two cohorts of similarly aged workers in the US, women’s quit behavior in the past was significantly more responsive to job satisfaction than men’s quit behavior. Yet, this gender difference vanished over time. Fixed effects estimations and robustness checks confirm these results.