Journal of European Social Policy
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Gender differences in subjective well-being in Central and Eastern Europe
Sylke Viola Schnepf
Journal of European Social Policy 2010 20: 74
DOI: 10.1177/0958928709352542
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Article
Gender differences in subjective well-being in
Central and Eastern Europe
Sylke Viola Schnepf, *
University of Southampton, UK
Summary The literature suggests that the transition process from centrally planned to market
economies in Central and Eastern Europe increased the gender gap in poverty. Evidence for women s
higher poverty risk is scarce, given that most analyses use household-level data and assume equal
sharing of income within households, an assumption that has been questioned in recent literature.
This article uses individual data on subjective well-being to examine the extent of gender differences
in welfare in transition countries. OECD countries serve for benchmarking results. Findings show
that the gender gap in subjective well-being is more predominant in post-communist than in OECD
countries. Relatively little of the gender gap can be attributed to gender differences in socio-economic
position in transition countries, but certain attributes, such as higher education and unemployment,
impact differently on reported well-being for women and men.
Key words Central and Eastern Europe, gender inequality, poverty, subjective well-being
received growing attention in recent years and
Introduction
provide an alternative approach for measuring
The transition process from centrally planned to
poverty. Since subjective well-being is measured at
market economies in Central and Eastern Europe
the individual level, it is not dependent on assump-
(CEE) led to an extreme rise of serious poverty
tions related to allocation of household resources.
throughout the 1990s. Some literature suggests that
The first aim of the article is to examine the extent
the costs of transition were not evenly distributed
of the gender gap in subjective well-being in transi-
among the population, but that women were more
tion countries. Results will be benchmarked using a
likely to fall into poverty than men (Fodor, 2002;
group of pre-1990 OECD countries (those countries
Gal and Kligman, 2000). However, evidence for
that were already members of the OECD before
women s higher poverty risk in the region is scarce
1990). A second step of the analysis investigates
and problematic. The cross-national objective poverty
whether gender differences in well-being can be
results available are based on household-level data
explained by compositional differences between
and assume equal sharing of income within house-
women and men. For example, women might report
holds. This assumption has been questioned in lit-
lower well-being than men because they experience
erature that finds that women and children are likely
more frequently characteristics generally associated
to receive a smaller share of household resources
with poverty like higher age and single parenthood.
than men (Haddad and Kanbur, 1990).
A third aim is to examine whether key variables asso-
This article examines gender differences in subjec-
ciated with poverty impact differently on subjec-
tive well-being. Subjective well-being measures have
tive well-being for men and women. The following
*Author to whom correspondence should be sent: Sylke Viola Schnepf, School of Social Sciences, Southampton Statistical
Sciences Research Institute, S3RI, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK. [email: svs@soton.ac.uk]
© The Author(s), 2009. Reprints and permissions: http://www.sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav Journal of European Social Policy,
© The Author(s), 2010. Reprints and permissions: http://www.sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav Journal of European Social Policy,
0958-9287; Vol. 20(1): 74 85; 352542; DOI:10.1177/0958928709352542 http://esp.sagepub.com
0958-9287; Vol. 19(5): 74 14; 344247; DOI:10.1177/0958928709XXXXXX http://esp.sagepub.com
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Gender differences in subjective well-being in Central and Eastern Europe 75
questions will be answered: does higher education Given these gender differences in composition
improve subjective well-being equally for men and and labour market success, we would expect that
women? Does age have a different effect on well- women s poverty incidence is considerably higher
being for men and women? than that of men in post-communist countries.
Data from the World Value Survey (WVS) and the As will be discussed in the next section, the answer
International Social Survey Program (ISSP) provide to any question on poverty incidence and the com-
information on subjective well-being of individuals in position of the poor will depend on the poverty
17 transition and 23 OECD countries. Data refer to measure used (Atkinson, 1998). Currently, the most
the end of the 1990s, a time when poverty incidence informative source on gender differentials in poverty
in CEE reached a peak (World Bank, 2000; 2005). incidence in CEE derives from the World Bank
(2000).1 This source uses a relative poverty measure:
poor households are defined to be households whose
Background
members experience consumption2 levels below
The transition process led to a severe fall in GDP, 50% of the median consumption in the country. The
which did not recover to pre-transitional levels in micro data used in World Bank (2000) derives from
most of the countries until the end of the 1990s. generally large3 nationally representative house-
Real wages plummeted and income inequality hold-level surveys that collect information on a
greatly increased, leading to a severe rise in poverty. similar set of consumption expenditures in each
Between 1988 and 1998, absolute poverty rates country. Poverty indicators have been standardized
increased from 2 to 21% (World Bank, 2000: 31). across countries, but differences remain (World
Since then, poverty incidence has declined in almost Bank, 2000: 378). As a consequence, results might
all transition countries (World Bank, 2005). not be directly comparable between countries.4
Some literature suggests that the increase in Table 1 presents the percentage of poor house-
poverty was not gender-neutral. One reason might holds for households with gender specific character-
be that women experience more frequently those istics. It confirms that female-headed households
characteristics that are generally associated with have a higher poverty incidence than male-headed
poverty. For example, more women than men live in households in transition countries (Milanovic, 1998).
single adult households that are generally poorer. In Russia, about one-quarter of female-headed
The prevalence of these household types (including households are poor in comparison with one-sixth
single-mother families) has increased, indicating of male-headed households. In the Czech Republic,
rising poverty among women (Lokshin et al., 2000; households headed by women are two and a half
Philipov, 2005). times more likely to be poor than male-headed
Also, some economic indicators, such as women s households.
higher proportion among the long-term unemployed The literature shows some evidence that retired
(Heyns, 2005) and gender differences in activity women in single households are more likely to be
rates and occupational segregation indicate women s poor than men (Grootaert and Braithwaite, 1998;
disadvantage in transition countries (Paci, 2002). Milanovic, 1998). Table 1 confirms this pattern for
Women declare finding an acceptable job to be more about two-thirds of all transition countries.
difficult than men (Schnepf, 2007: 29-37). This
might be due to traditional family values, which are
Measurement of poverty and subjective
much more common in post-communist than in
well-being indicators used
Western industrialized countries. Related to this
might be the results of recent literature that suggest
Measurement of poverty
an increase in the gender pay gap during transition
The definition of poverty used for deriving figures
(Domanski, 2002). Returns to education (that is, the
for Table 1 reflects an established approach for
individual gain from investing in more education)
measuring poverty that is adopted by a majority of
are also generally lower for women than for men,
research comparing poverty incidence across devel-
even though women have gained from increasing
oped countries (Atkinson, 1998): the poor fall
educational returns relatively more than men during
below a specific income (or consumption) level,
transition (Newell and Reilly, 1999).
Journal of European Social Policy 2010 20 (1)
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76 Schnepf
Table 1 Percentage of poor households, by gender-specific characteristics, in transition countries, 1990sa
Household head Households with children Single elderly households
Male Female Diff. Single parent Others Diff. Male Female Diff.
Central Europe
Czech 2.2 7.4 5.2 21.1 2.1 19.0 2.4 1.0 -1.4
Slovenia 6.2 7.0 0.8 7.4 6.2 1.2 7.4 7.1 -0.3
Poland 10.7 11.1 0.4 21.3 14.0 7.3 2.9 3.6 0.7
Hungary 6.1 6.0 -0.1 10.5 9.2 1.3 4.0 4.7 0.7
Former Yugoslavia
Croatia 6.3 9.6 3.3 4.4 5.2 -0.8 10.8 21.0 10.2
Macedonia 17.6 9.5 -8.1 15.3 19.5 -4.2 16.2 1.9 -14.3
Baltic States
Estonia 9.4 9.9 0.5
Latvia 10.0 12.1 2.1 13.2 13.7 -0.5 9.5 9.3 -0.2
Lithuania 8.0 13.1 5.1 21.0 11.9 9.1 8.0 14.3 6.3
Southeastern Europe
Albania 4.1 7.9 3.8 13.0 5.3 7.7 0.0 7.6 7.6
Bulgaria 10.7 15.9 5.2 11.5 12.1 -0.6 15.3 21.2 5.9
Romania 7.1 10.8 3.7 15.3 10.1 5.2 6.9 8.9 2.0
Western CIS
Belarus 5.3 7.0 1.7 11.7 6.7 5.0 6.9 12.5 5.6
Moldova 14.0 14.4 0.4 13.1 15.1 -2.0 6.8 19.2 12.4
Russia 17.0 27.4 10.4 28.1 17.6 10.5 13.4 30.6 17.2
Ukraine 9.2 14.8 5.6 9.1 11.2 -2.1 21.1 25.8 4.7
Caucasus
Armenia 9.2 12.5 3.3 18.8 10.6 8.2 5.9 14.9 9.0
Azerbaijan 11.7 18.7 7.0 14.9 13.5 1.4
Georgia 14.8 22.5 7.7 23.4 18.8 4.6 24.6 16.8 -7.8
Central Asia
Kazakhstan 15.0 13.4 -1.6 17.6 15.5 2.1 33.3 18.3 -15.0
Kyrgyzstan 16.6 18.7 2.1 11.7 18.2 -6.5 7.1 14.5 7.4
Tajikistan 10.0 15.8 5.8 24.5 10.9 13.6 0.0 0.0 0.0
Turkmenistan 18.2 13.7 -4.5 4.7 18.5 -13.8 0.0 3.1 3.1
Notes: aPoor households are defined to have consumption levels that are lower than 50% of the median consumption in
a country. Data refer to the following years: 1999 for Armenia (also 1998), Azerbaijan, Belarus, Lithuania and Tajikistan;
1998 for Croatia, Estonia, Latvia (also 1997), Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovenia (also 1997) and Turkmenistan; 1997 for
Bulgaria, Georgia (also 1996), Hungary, Moldova and Kyrgyz Republic; 1996 for Albania, Czech Republic, Kazakhstan,
Macedonia and Ukraine.
Source: World Bank (2000: 480 524).
which is called the poverty line. This poverty concept children who are likely to receive a smaller share of
is uni-dimensional, since income is regarded to be household resources (Haddad and Kanbur, 1990;
the only measure describing the situation of poverty. Lundberg et al., 1997; Baschieri and Falkingham,
In addition, the poverty concept is called objective 2009). As a consequence, researchers who are inter-
since the poverty line is objectively fixed by experts. ested in gender differences in objective poverty inci-
Objective poverty analysis uses information on dence try to avoid the use of the unitary household
economic resources at the household level, assuming assumption. A general approach for doing so is to
that all individuals in one single household are restrict the focus to those households whose gender-
equally poor or rich. It is now widely accepted that specific characteristics are known. This was done in
this unitary household assumption is wrong since the subsection before that focused on e.g. female-
it underestimates poverty incidence of women and versus male-headed households or single elderly
Journal of European Social Policy 2010 20 (1)
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Gender differences in subjective well-being in Central and Eastern Europe 77
male and female households. However, in an ideal studies examine the robustness of results obtained
world, we would like to compare poverty incidence by different poverty measures. Across countries,
of all women with that of all men in a population income and subjective well-being are positively
and not only of households for which gender-specific related indicating agreement between both meas-
attributes are known. ures. However, over time, an increase in income
The subjective well-being (sometimes also called within a country does not necessary lead to an
subjective poverty ) measure (Frey and Stutzer, increase in well-being as we might expect (Frey and
2002; Clark et al., 2008; Layard, 2005; van Praag Stutzer, 2002). In addition, there is a lack of knowl-
and Ferrer-i-Carbonell, 2009) defines poverty edge whether the characteristics of the objective and
according to individuals evaluation and therefore the subjective poor are similar (van Praag and
provides individual-level data needed to examine Ferrer-i-Carbonell, 2009).
gender differences in the entire population. The uni-
dimensional subjective poverty approach focuses on
Subjective well-being measures used
individuals evaluation of their financial situation
(Ferrer-i-Carbonell, 2002: 17). The growing recent This article utilizes two subjective well-being meas-
contributions measure subjective poverty using a ures. The first measure on subjective economic well-
multi-dimensional concept of well-being. The multi- being derives from the WVS. Respondents are
dimensional concept argues that income is too crude shown a card with a horizontal scale ranging from
a measure to describe poverty (Sen, 1985). Multi- 1 to 10. Then they are asked:
dimensional subjective poverty approaches use many
different areas of life to measure poverty, such as How satisfied are you with the financial situa-
individuals happiness, their health and their general tion of your household? If 1 means you are
satisfaction with life (for a more detailed discussion completely dissatisfied on this scale, and 10
of different subjective well-being measures, see Frey means you are completely satisfied, where would
and Stutzer, 2002). In general, respondents evaluate you put your satisfaction with your household s
their well-being by choosing one number of an financial situation?
ordinal scale, which for example can range from 1
(very good) to 10 (very bad). This question refers to a uni-dimensional concept of
A common objection to subjective poverty analy- poverty since it aims at measuring satisfaction with
sis is that respondents might attribute different the financial situation only. A limitation of this
meanings to this ordinal scale so that interpersonal measure is that it is not clear whether women and
comparisons of responses are problematic (Ferrer-i- men consider the financial situation of their house-
Carbonell, 2002). However, the fast-growing research hold or the share of household resources they have
on subjective well-being shows consistent results access to for answering the question.5 The WVS pro-
regarding the relation of variables such as age, mar- vides data for 17 transition and 16 OECD countries
riage, health, religious beliefs, income and employ- and results pertain to the 1995-1997 wave of the
ment with individuals subjective satisfaction level survey.6 The sample size ranges between 466
(Senik, 2004). As a consequence, subjective well- (Slovakia) and 2811 (Ukraine) with a mean sample
being is increasingly discussed in different subject size of 1400 across the post-communist countries.7
areas like economics (Frey and Stutzer, 2002), psy- The second measure on societal position derives
chology (Diener et al., 1999) and sociology from the International Social Survey Program (ISSP).
(Veenhoven, 2008). It is also argued that equality of Respondents are shown a vertical scale ranging
well-being is a more desirable objective for poverty from the numbers 1, called top , to 10, called
policies than equality of income (van Praag and bottom . Then they are asked:
Ferrer-i-Carbonell, 2009).
Objective and subjective poverty measures are In our society, there are groups which tend to be
conceptually different. The estimation of the per- towards the top and groups which tend to be
centage and the characteristics of the poor might towards the bottom. Below is a scale that runs
therefore differ considerably depending on which from top to bottom. Where would you put your-
concept we apply. However, only a small number of self on this scale?
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78 Schnepf
It is quite unclear which factors individuals consider Differences between transition countries are
for answering this question. Financial status is an large in terms of reported subjective well-being and
important explanation for people s estimation of its gender differences. 60% of women in Moldova,
their societal position. However, additionally, social Georgia and the Ukraine but only 24% in Slovenia
class, education and profession are likely to impact express low financial satisfaction. While men do
upon response behaviour. This question therefore not fare significantly worse than women regarding
covers what could be considered as a multi- their financial well-being in any of the countries,
dimensional concept of subjective well-being. The women do so in 10 out of 17 transition countries.
data of the ISSP pertain to the 1999 wave and In Latvia, Moldova and Georgia, the gender gap in
provide information for 8 post-communist and 11 economic well-being is large with around 9%.
pre-1990 OECD benchmark countries. Gender inequality appears not to be a pure func-
For the following analysis, and in line with other tion of a country s economic development since
research on subjective well-being (Ferrer-i-Carbonell some countries with low GDP per capita (e.g.
and Van Praag, 2001), the subjective poor are defined Azerbaijan and Armenia) do not show significant
to be those who position themselves at the lower third gender differences.
of a scale. As a consequence, respondents choosing While both subjective well-being measures agree
numbers 8 to 10 of the societal group scale are defined in terms of the percentage of all people with low
to have a low societal position. Financial satisfaction subjective well-being across countries, they disagree
levels below 4 indicate low financial well-being.8 once gender differences are concerned. For example,
Agreement between both subjective well-being in Slovakia, gender differences in financial well-
measures is high: the correlation coefficient of the being are high, while women and men do not differ
share of the people with low societal position and in terms of low societal position. For the Czech
with low financial satisfaction is 0.85, based on a Republic, the picture is reversed. This disagreement
sample of 19 transition and OECD countries which between measures highlights the importance of the
are covered in both surveys. choice of measure for the conclusions drawn.
It is important to note that we aim to measure Women might judge their societal position to be low
gender differences in experienced well-being. It due to, for example, long-term unemployment, but
might be, however, that even if both genders experi- they might still have adequate access to household
ence the same level of well-being one gender per- resources. Not surprisingly, also the correlation
ceives and reports better well-being than the other coefficients of gender inequality between objective
on average. As a consequence, we need to be aware (Table 1) and subjective well-being measures (Table 2)
that gender differences found can derive from both are relatively low for the small number of countries
gender differences in experienced and in perceived covered (not shown). This indicates the need to
well-being. However, analysis of the data (results examine gender differences in poverty and well-
not presented) shows that once women and men being in a multi-dimensional framework using and
have similar household income they report compa- comparing a variety of measures.
rable levels of well-being. This indicates that gender Up to now, the focus has been on gender differ-
differences are likely to reflect differences in experi- ences of well-being between transition countries.
ences and not in perceptions of well-being.9 How does the region fare as a whole? The last two
rows of Table 2 present the percentage of people
with low subjective well-being in CEE and OECD
Is women s subjective well-being lower
countries. Gender differences are twice as high in
than that of men in CEE countries?
transition countries compared with OECD coun-
tries: in post-communist countries, around 5%, and
Gender gap in subjective well-being
in OECD countries, around 2%.
Table 2 presents the percentage of people with low
financial satisfaction and societal position by gender,
Net gender gap in subjective well-being
country and region. Emboldened figures indicate
that gender and subjective well-being are signifi- As discussed above, women are more likely to be
cantly associated at the 5% level.
associated with the population characteristics that
Journal of European Social Policy 2010 20 (1)
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Gender differences in subjective well-being in Central and Eastern Europe 79
Table 2 Low subjective well-being, by gender, country, and region (%)a
Percent low financial satisfaction Percent low societal position
Women Men Difference Women Men Difference
Latvia 57.3 47.3 10.1 47.1 43.3 3.8
Moldova 68.2 59.1 9.1
Georgia 65.6 56.5 9.0
Ukraine 69.0 61.3 7.8
Slovakia 40.8 33.0 7.7 33.0 33.9 -0.9
Belarus 62.4 55.5 6.9
Russia 62.1 56.2 5.9 55.9 49.6 6.3
Hungary 29.7 24.1 5.6 44.6 35.8 8.8
Poland 41.5 35.9 5.6 33.9 29.5 4.3
Slovenia 24.2 19.3 4.9 19.2 18.1 1.1
Macedonia 35.5 32.9 2.6
Armenia 53.5 51.4 2.1
Lithuania 48.9 47.0 1.9
Estonia 48.3 46.4 1.8
Czech Republic 27.6 26.6 1.0 31.7 22.6 9.1
Azerbaijan 31.7 31.5 0.2
Bulgaria 53.2 53.7 -0.5 57.5 55.2 2.4
CEE countries 48.2 43.4 4.8 40.4 36.0 4.4
OECD countries 12.9 11.6 1.3 14.4 12.5 1.9
Notes: aCountries are ordered by gender differences in low financial satisfaction. Figures in boldface indicate a significant
association between gender and low subjective well-being at the 5% level. OECD countries for the financial satisfaction
measure are Australia, Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Spain, Sweden,
Switzerland, and the USA. For societal position data, OECD countries are Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany,
Great Britain, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the USA.
Source: ISSP (1999), WVS (1995 97).
are related to poverty incidence. Subjective well-being methodological question arises whether we should
data from the ISSP confirm this pattern for post- control for compositional differences between
communist countries. 55% of the elderly compared women and men for estimating a net gender gap
with 36% of younger people report a low societal (Ravallion, 1996; Falkingham, 2000). For example,
position. This difference in well-being affects women we could calculate a net gender gap by controlling
more who constituted 60% of the elderly. for inactivity rates. If inactivity rates are higher for
More elderly women (51%) than elderly men women due to discrimination (and not due to
(21%) live in single adult households, which are women s choice), the net gender gap disguises
more frequently associated with low societal posi- underlying mechanisms that lead to low subjective
tion (54%) than other households (38%). In addi- well-being (women s lower opportunity to access
tion, 27% of men but 42% of women are inactive in the labour market). Conversely, the net gender gap
the labour market. Single parenthood is another can reveal underlying poverty. Falkingham (2000)
factor associated with low subjective well-being: found only a significant relation between female
9% of women but only 1% of men are single parents household heads and poverty in Central Asia once
and live with children in the household. However, she controlled for factors that are associated with
the percentage of women with tertiary education female-headed households but also with a lower risk
(19%) and those unemployed (10%) is similar to of poverty, like living in urban areas.
that of men. To estimate the net gender gap, two logistic
Do women still report lower subjective well-being regression models10 are run for both subjective
than men once these compositional differences are measures and for the group of transition and OECD
controlled for? Or in other words, is there a net countries separately. The dependent variable is binary,
gender gap in subjective well-being in CEE? The taking the value 1 if the person reports low subjective
Journal of European Social Policy 2010 20 (1)
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80 Schnepf
well-being and 0 otherwise. The first model uses background characteristics are not controlled for.
only gender as an explanatory variable (a dummy For example, assuming a probability of low eco-
variable taking the value 1 for women and 0 for nomic well-being of 0.5 (similar to the situation in
men). The coefficient of the gender dummy presents transition countries), the gender gap can be calcu-
the unconditional gender gap in subjective well- lated by dividing the gender coefficient by 4: 0.20 /
being. In the second model, the following control 4 = 0.05. Unconditional on background characteris-
variables are added: age and age squared, marital tics, 5% more women than men report low well-
status (married/cohabiting, divorced/separated, being (as already presented in Table 2).
widowed, reference group single), religious affilia- What is the net gender gap in CEE? Women still
tion (a dummy variable being equal to 1 if the person have about a 4% (0.16 / 4 = 0.04) higher probability
attends religious service often, 0 otherwise), educa- of reporting low financial satisfaction and a 3% higher
tion (secondary and tertiary, reference group risk of low societal position than men with similar
primary education), profession (professional or background characteristics. These gender differences
skilled, reference group manual worker), labour are significant at the 1% and 5% levels, respectively.
force participation (retired, others not in the labour Hence women s disadvantage persists, even if compo-
force, unemployed or part-time employed, reference sitional differences between genders are eliminated.
group full-time employed), area (dummy variable However, this result is unique for transition countries.
that is equal to 1 if respondent lives in rural area) Both measures show consistently no significant net
and country fixed effects. The coefficient of the gender gap in well-being in OECD countries.
gender dummy of this second model presents the An identification of single adult households is
net gender gap in subjective well-being. only possible for ISSP data that provide the societal
As an aid to judging the importance of the esti- position measure. Once a dummy variable indicat-
mated coefficient, it is important to appreciate that ing a person living in a single adult household (with
the estimated effect on the predicted probability of or without children) is added to the control varia-
a unit change in a continuous variable, or a turning bles, the net gender gap does not change. The same
Ć
of a dummy variable, is approximately equal to ²j/4 is true if an interaction variable of gender and single
Ć
Ć
if p = 0.5(whereby ²j refers to the estimated coeffi- adult household is introduced.12 This indicates that
Ć
cient j and p refers to the predicted probability of the gender gap in societal position is not driven by a
low subjective well-being).11 lower well-being of women in single adult house-
Table 3 displays the logistic regression results. holds in transition countries.
Only results for the gender dummy are presented, the
remainder of the results can be obtained from the
Gender differences in the impact of key
author (the impact of control variables on reporting
variables on low subjective well-being
low well-being can be seen in Tables 5 and 6).
Women are subjectively poorer than men for both If compositional differences can only partially
measures of well-being in both regions if individuals explain the gender gap in subjective well-being in
Table 3 Logistic regression models for probability of low subjective well-being: coefficient of women onlya
Low financial satisfaction Low societal position
OECD countries CEE countries OECD countries CEE countries
No controls included 0.10** 0.20*** 0.15** 0.23***
Controls included -0.03 0.16*** 0.06 0.13**
Notes: a *denotes significance at the 10; **significance at the 5, and ***significance at the 1% level. The first set of results
is from models with no other variables included besides country fixed effects. The second set is from models controlling
for age and age squared, marital status, religious affiliation, education, profession, labour force participation, and rural
area. Countries included in CEE and OECD country group for both measures are the same as those given in the note to
Table 2 (except that Romania and Hungary are not included in the financial satisfaction measure estimate due to missing
data on family background).
Source: ISSP (1999), WVS (1995 97).
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Gender differences in subjective well-being in Central and Eastern Europe 81
Table 4 Low subjective well-being, by individual characteristics and gender (%)a
Low financial satisfaction
CEE OECD
Women Men Difference Women Men Difference
All 48.2 43.4 4.8 12.9 11.6 1.3
Married/cohabiting 46.9 44.1 2.7 10.6 10.1 0.5
Elderly 56.3 47.4 8.9 9.7 8.8 0.9
Tertiary educated 44.5 34.4 10.1 11.1 5.7 5.4
Low societal position
CEE OECD
Women Men Difference Women Men Difference
All 40.4 36.0 4.4 14.4 12.5 1.9
Married/cohabiting 36.1 35.7 0.4 12.2 11.2 1.0
Elderly 57.4 52.4 5.0 19.3 14.9 4.4
Tertiary educated 22.5 17.9 4.6 3.6 4.1 -0.5
Single adult households 57.7 49.4 8.2 21.1 19.3 1.8
Elderly single adult 65.7 55.7 10.0 24.2 27.5 -3.2
Single mother household 51.0 21.9
Notes: aThe table presents the percentage of people below scale four of the subjective well-being measures. Figures in boldface
indicate that the difference in subjective well-being between women and men is statistically significant at the 1% level. See
note of Table 3 to know which countries are included in the CEE and OECD country groups.
Source: ISSP (1999), WVS (1995 97).
CEE, what else might drive women s higher reporting the financial satisfaction measure only. More single
of low well-being? Are women s returns to educa- mothers report low well-being than all women, but
tion lower than that of men? Is higher age more they still seem to be better off than elderly women
detrimental for women s than for men s well-being? living alone.
Table 4 provides a first answer to these questions. Observed gender differences given in Table 4
If household resources are not equally shared might be due to compositional gender differences
between women and men living together in one within the groups. For example, a gender gap in sub-
household, then women s subjective well-being is jective well-being between elderly men and women
likely to be lower than that of men. Table 4 shows might be due to different educational attainment of
that, on average, the same share of married and men and women in this group. Do age and education
cohabiting women report a low societal position deteriorate or improve well-being differently for
than their male counterparts in CEE (about 36%). women and men if other characteristics are held con-
In contrast, women judge the financial situation of stant? To examine the impact of individual charac-
the household to be worse than men, which might teristics on reported well-being by gender, a logistic
indicate unequal sharing of household resources regression model is run separately for women and
between genders. Results for OECD countries indi- men. Tables 5 and 6 present the results of the regres-
cate no significant gender gap for married and sion analyses for all explanatory variables in the
cohabiting people for both measures. In transition model (excluding country fixed effects). For most of
countries the average gender gap in subjective well- the variables, gender differences in the coefficients
being is large for the elderly and huge for those are not significant (those significant are presented in
elderly living alone. In addition, tertiary educated the column difference ). This is quite surprising for
women report lower subjective well-being than some of the characteristics, especially age and retire-
men. This might indicate gender differences in edu- ment. As was discussed before, elderly women report
cational returns in CEE. A similar but less pro- more frequently low subjective well-being than men
nounced trend can be found in OECD countries for in CEE. One explanation for this gender gap could
Journal of European Social Policy 2010 20 (1)
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82 Schnepf
Table 5 Logistic regression models predicting likelihood of low financial satisfaction, by gender and regiona
Low financial satisfaction
CEE OECD
Men Women Difference Men Women Difference
Age 0.05*** 0.06*** 0.09*** 0.05***
Age2/100 -0.05*** -0.06*** -0.11*** -0.06*** 0.05*
Married 0.17** -0.08 -0.25*** -0.23** -0.47***
Divorced/separated 0.58*** 0.35*** 0.80*** 0.81***
Widow/widower 0.54*** 0.19* -0.36* 0.39* 0.13
Religious -0.16* -0.17** -0.32** -0.15
Secondary education -0.49*** -0.38*** -0.28** 0.05 0.34**
Tertiary education -0.89*** -0.54*** 0.35*** -0.60*** 0.03 0.63***
Professional -0.29*** -0.29*** -0.37*** -0.02 0.36**
Skilled worker -0.05 -0.09 -0.22** -0.20**
Retired 0.33*** 0.19** 0.76*** 0.52***
Other inactive -0.19 -0.06 0.63*** 0.39***
Unemployed 0.90*** 0.53*** -0.37*** 1.26*** 0.96***
Part-time employed 0.05 -0.02 0.43** 0.17
Rural area 0.03 0.06 0.03 -0.16** -0.20*
Constant -1.22*** -1.39*** -3.27*** -2.59***
Observations 9113 10872 8476 8921
Pseudo R2 0.08 0.08 0.06 0.06
Log-lklhd -5712 -6907 -2761 -3160
Notes: a *denotes significance at the 10, **significance at the 5, and ***significance at the 1% level. Column on differences
presents the difference in the coefficients between genders if significant. See note in Table 3 to know which countries are
included in the CEE and OECD country groups.
Source: ISSP (1999), WVS (1995 97).
have been that women experience more hardship more unsatisfied with their economic and societal
than men with increasing age. However, age and position than women. In addition, it is likely that
retirement have a similar impact on subjective well- more unemployed and inactive women than men can
being for both genders once it is controlled for other benefit from financial support from other income
background characteristics. The same is true for sources in the household.
divorce and religious affiliation. However, results for A puzzling result is that, compared with single
both subjective measures indicate that unemploy- men, married men are more or equally likely to
ment has worse effects for men than for women in report low well-being in CEE. The same is true for
post-communist countries. Compared with full-time women. This stands in contrast to OECD coun-
employed men, unemployed men have a 30% higher tries, where marriage decreases the risk of low sub-
risk to report a low societal position and a 25% jective well-being significantly for both genders
higher risk of low financial satisfaction. This compares and measures.
with only 20 and 15%, respectively, for women. A What is notable is that higher education helps men
similar gender difference in the impact of unemploy- considerably more to improve their well-being than
ment does not appear in OECD countries. One it helps women. Tertiary education reduces men s
explanation might be the high prevalence of patriar- reporting of low financial satisfaction by about 20%
chal family values in CEE compared with OECD compared with the benchmark person (some primary
countries. In transition countries, there is a general education) but only by 13% for women in CEE.
belief that men should be the main breadwinner Women s returns to education might therefore be
while women are responsible for the household lower than that of men, conditional on other factors
(Schnepf, 2007). If men cannot fulfil this family related to education such as profession. Surprisingly,
value due to unemployment, they might feel much in OECD countries neither higher education nor being
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Gender differences in subjective well-being in Central and Eastern Europe 83
Table 6 Logistic regression models predicting likelihood of low societal position, by gender and region
Low societal position
CEE OECD
Men Women Difference Men Women Difference
Age 0.05*** 0.08*** 0.03 0.03*
Age2/100 -0.03* -0.06*** -0.04* -0.03*
Married -0.11 -0.09 -0.40*** -0.39***
Divorced/separated 0.25 0.54*** 0.07 0.44**
Widow/widower 0.16 0.40*** -0.07 0.02
Religious -0.05 -0.08 0.07 -0.22** -0.27*
Secondary education -0.52*** -0.39*** -0.73*** -0.72***
Tertiary education -1.05*** -0.86*** -1.57*** -1.78***
Professional -0.86*** -0.77*** -1.33*** -1.14***
Skilled worker -0.34*** -0.30*** -0.47*** -0.54***
Retired 0.45*** 0.40*** 0.29* 0.40**
Other inactive 0.15 0.17 0.59*** 0.53***
Unemployed 1.34*** 0.81*** -0.54*** 0.93*** 0.69***
Part-time employed 0.43** 0.03 0.71*** -0.01
Rural area 0.38*** 0.14* -0.24*** 0.38*** 0.46***
Constant -2.01*** -2.47*** -1.69*** -1.39***
Observations 4481 5276 6244 6050
Pseudo R2 0.16 0.15 0.15 0.13
Log-lklhd -2447 -3051 -2033 -2137
Notes: *denotes significance at the 10, **significance at the 5, and ***significance at the 1% level. The column on differ-
ences presents the difference in the coefficients between genders if significant. See note in Table 3 to know which countries
are included in the CEE and OECD country groups.
Source: ISSP (1999), WVS (1995 97).
a professional has a significant impact on financial background (such as education, age and labour
satisfaction for women, while these characteristics market status). In contrast, the gender gap is low
improve well-being considerably for men. with 1-2% in OECD countries and disappears once
differences in respondents characteristics are taken
into account.
Conclusion
Socio-economic background factors impact
This article examined gender differences in subjec- differently on well-being for women and men.
tive well-being in transition countries at the end of Unemployment increases the risk of low subjective
the 1990s. Results were benchmarked with gender well-being much more for men than for women in
differentials of well-being in OECD countries. CEE. A similar pattern does not appear for OECD
Both well-being measures come to the same con- countries. Conversely, higher education reduces
clusion regarding countries rank on observed sub- men s reports on low well-being considerably more
jective well-being. Results of the measures differ, than that of women, even after controlling for a per-
however, once country ranks of gender gaps in sub- son s profession. However, this is not a transitional
jective well-being are considered. Nevertheless, for phenomenon since a similar pattern is found for the
all transition countries and both measures, men are benchmark group of OECD countries once the soci-
never worse off than women, but women s subjec- etal position measure is concerned. Results for age
tive well-being is often significantly worse than that indicate that more elderly women than men report
of men. Taking post-communist countries together, low subjective well-being. However, regression
about 5% more women than men report low sub- results suggest that the impact of ageing on well-
jective well-being. This gender gap cannot be being is similar for genders once it is controlled for
explained by gender differences in socio-economic socio-economic status.
Journal of European Social Policy 2010 20 (1)
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84 Schnepf
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