Do professional women have lower job satisfaction than professional men? Lawyers as a case study

Sex Roles: A Journal of Research,  April, 1998  by Charlotte Chiu

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Another question which may be raised is whether my findings applies to lawyers not in private practice. As noted earlier, Hirsch (1989) found that job satisfaction was virtually equal among female and male lawyers who worked as corporate counsel. (16% of women were dissatisfied vs. 14% of men.) Lawyers who work in corporations are unusual in that they are the lawyers with the highest career satisfaction (Fisk 1990). Presumably they benefit from stable, comfortably high salaries combined with regular hours without high pressure, a combination of circumstances that is rare for lawyers working for the government, non-profit organizations, or private firms. In 1991, 9% of lawyers worked for private industry (Curran 1995). I am not asserting that in every setting of every profession women are less satisfied than men. My argument is that professional women tend to have high job expectations, similar to those for men, and the presence of inequality would produce lower job satisfaction for female professionals.

Another possible objection to the results is that I have no objective measurements of influence or advancement opportunities. The scale is based on self-reported variables. Nonetheless, my findings are in accord with findings about blocked opportunities, and unequal treatment for female lawyers (Hagan and Kay 1995; Lentz and Laband 1995; Epstein 1993; Harvard Women's Law Association 1995). Moreover, my argument focuses on the finding that professional women's lower job satisfaction cannot be attributed to low expectations.

Based on my review and analysis, I propose a "gender gap (in job satisfaction) varies by occupational level" hypothesis. Two studies hinted at this in a simple form, but I would like to make an explicit and more complex statement. Among lower occupational levels, women tend to have lower or equal job satisfaction compared with men when mean satisfaction is compared. However, if control variables are used, then women will tend to have equal or higher job satisfaction. Among higher occupational levels, women will tend to have lower job satisfaction than men. When control variables are used, women will tend to have lower or equal satisfaction. We are unlikely to find that these women have higher job satisfaction, and lesser promotional opportunities will be a particularly important part of their lower job satisfaction. Nonetheless, women in higher occupational levels are more satisfied than women or men in lower occupational levels.

My study can be cast in terms of the old debate about human capital versus discrimination. According to the neoclassical theory of human capital, women's lower occupational attainments are due to women's different choices about employment because of women's responsibilities in the household (Becker 1985, 1981). One variation of human capital theory may argue that, if professional women have lower job satisfaction than men, it is because of exhaustion from juggling home responsibilities with paid work.(7) In opposition, the discrimination thesis would attribute women's lower job satisfaction to unequal opportunity.