Approval of Equal Rights and Gender Differences in Well-Being

Arbeitspapier

Women earn less than men but are not less satisfied with life. This paper argues that norms on the appropriate pay for women compared to men explain these findings. We take citizens? approval of an equal rights amendment to the Swiss constitution as a proxy for the norm that ?women and men shall have the right to equal pay for work of equal value?. We find that the gender wage gap narrows by one fifth due to an increase by one standard deviation in the approval. Rejecting an explanation in terms of discrimination, we find that employed women are less (not more) satisfied with life in liberal communities where the gender wage gap is smaller.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 1202

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification ; Labor Discrimination: General ; Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination ; General Welfare; Well-Being ; Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
• Subject: equal rights ; gender discrimination ; gender wage gap ; social norms ; subjective well-being ; Lohndifferenzierung ; Geschlechterdiskriminierung ; Soziale Werte ; Lebensqualität ; Frauen ; Schweiz ; Lebenszufriedenheit

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Lalive, Rafael ; Stutzer, Alois
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2004

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/20455
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET