Job Satisfaction among Working Women

Abstract

The extent of job satisfaction among women is an important aspect of their labor market experience, for it may signify the degree to which they have made a successful accommodation to the world of work. The issue is especially important in the case of women in their thirties and forties, because the children of those in this age group are generally of school age, and decreasing home responsibilities allow considerable reentry into the work force. However, successful accommodation to the work force may be inhibited by special labor market problems that frequently confront such women: conflicting responsibilities at home and at work, obsolescence of skills, readjustment problems occasioned by long absences from the work force, or sex discrimination by employers. A clearer understanding of the forces that shape the job satisfaction of these women promises a better insight into the process of labor market accommodation among women, particularly as they reenter the work force. Such insight should help policymakers to design strategies to make social and economic institutions serve the needs of working women better. In addition to their value for the welfare of individuals, such policies are useful to employers and society as a whole.'