| Abstract: |
Through a representative sample of 5,381 (3,079 men and 2,302 women) and 4,925
(2,719 men and 2,206 women) employees in 2008 and 2010, and a using two-stage
structural equation model, this article empirically analyses the
multi-dimensional determinants (direct effects) of gender-related job quality
in Spain. The research revealed four main results. First, despite the economic
crisis, job quality in Spain had improved over the analysis period. Second,
the improvement in job quality during the crisis was more favourable to men
than it was to women. Third, the gender differences in the explanation of job
quality during the crisis increased considerably in favour of men. Fourth,
this increase in gender difference in job quality in favour of men is
explained by a worsening of 4 of the 5 explanatory dimensions thereof:
intrinsic job quality; work organisation and workplace relationships; working
conditions, work intensity and health and safety at work; and extrinsic
rewards. Only inequality in the work-life balance dimension remained stable
from 2008 to 2010. In terms of employment and gender equality public policy
our research results suggest two important conclusions. In the first place,
the importance of paying much greater attention to working environment and
social relation dimensions in gender-related employment public policies.
Second, gender equality public policy should also address new problems
associated with the accelerated changes at work. In particular, the different
job quality problems between highly skilled and less skilled working men and
women, the link between gender gap and occupations, and the need to consider
the different institutional regimes and organised labour to overcome
gender-related job inequalities. |