Gender and job satisfaction in urban China: The early post-Mao period

Objective. Though job satisfaction is one of the most widely studied measures of the quality of work life, there is very little information about what leads to job satisfaction in transitional socialist societies. China offers a particularly rich context in which to examine gender patterns in job satisfaction, since it has a unique employment structure supported by its gender ideology. Methods. This study investigates gender patterns in both levels and determinants of job satisfaction using survey data collected in 1985 by Nan Lin and the Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences. We analyze data from 871 employees from the nine urbanized districts of Tianjin, China. Results. The results indicate that Chinese women are less satisfied with their jobs than are men, contrary to much research on other countries. Like results in other countries, however, there are few sender differences ill the impact of specific determinants of job satisfaction. The gender differences in satisfaction that do emerge reflect women's economic disadvantage; men's satisfaction, however, is more closely tied to individual features, such as education and age. Conclusions. These findings illuminate how the structure of work and a country's gender ideology combine to shape women's and men's work experiences.