Job satisfaction: Impact of gender, race, worker qualifications, and work context

Abstract

While women's labor force participation has increased, their positions vary in prestige, authority, autonomy, and segregation in comparison with men's. Earlier research in which they evaluate their job quality, however, finds women's job satisfaction to be the same or higher than men's, and nonwhites' job satisfaction lower than whites'. The present research examines perceived job satisfaction for a large national sample in 2002. In a model that includes human capital and work context variables, race continues to significantly impact job satisfaction. Sex and race segregation do not impact job satisfaction, but having supportive coworkers does. Such support is more characteristic of women's than men's work relationships in these data and may help account for women's comparable job satisfaction.