When we talk about the gender gap, we’re most often talking about the fact that women don’t get equal pay for equal work. But it’s much more than that.
A new study about the gender gap in industrialized nations found that women lag behind when when it comes to job quality, in addition to income.
“This result runs counter to the expectation that women’s occupations compensate for their low wages and limited opportunities for promotion by providing better employment conditions,” said study researchers Haya Stier, of Tel Aviv University, and Meir Yaish, of the University of Haifa in Israel.
In fact, the only area where women came out ahead was physical job conditions: men were more likely to have physically tough or dangerous jobs.
Women have less income and fewer advancement opportunities, are more stressed, and less autonomous than men, according to the study. Women rated their income and advancement opportunities eight percent lower than men; however, women rated their work-related stress and exhaustion five percent higher than men.
Women rated their autonomy at work (how they organized their schedule, whether they took time off at work, etc.) 15 percent lower than men. The study also found that women had less flexibility and job security than men.
The good news? The gender gap in job quality narrows as women close the employment gap, which means getting more women into non-traditional or male-dominated careers is key.