Stereotypically Satisfied: The Gendered Well-Being Contributions of Job and Family Satisfaction | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Stereotypically Satisfied: The Gendered Well-Being Contributions of Job and Family Satisfaction Leonie C. Steckermeier, Stephanie Hess This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6370087/v2 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 2 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Show more versions Abstract This study examines gender differences in how job and family satisfaction affect life satisfaction in Europe. The social production function suggests that social needs are met through affection, status, and behavioral confirmation. Women are thought to be more adept at satisfying affection needs, while men are better at meeting status needs. Behavioral confirmation reinforces these roles, leading to gender-specific pathways to life satisfaction. We hypothesize that women’s life satisfaction is more influenced by family satisfaction, while men’s depends more on job satisfaction. Using European Quality of Life Survey data (2003–2016) from more than 50,000 working individuals (18–65 years) across 28 countries, we test these gender differences. To control for unobserved cultural and temporal factors, we apply country and time fixed effects linear regression models. Our results show that family satisfaction has a stronger impact on women’s life satisfaction than on men’s, while job satisfaction has a stronger association with men’s life satisfaction. Comparing gender-specific effect strengths, we find that family satisfaction influences women’s life satisfaction significantly more strongly than job satisfaction. For men, both life domain satisfactions contribute equally to life satisfaction. These findings emphasize the need for gender-sensitive well-being research, and policies promoting a work–life balance across Europe. Sociology gender differences life satisfaction job satisfaction family satisfaction social needs social production function cross-national analysis Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Supplementary Files SupplementaryMaterialpreprint.xlsx Supplementary Material Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 2 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Show more versions Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. 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