The Influence of Gender on Perceptions of the Quality of Life

1
The Influence of Gender on Perceptions of the
Quality of Life

• Jackie Scott Jane Nolan
• Anke Zimmermann
• University of Cambridge

2
EU Interest in Wellbeing and QoL

• European Social Survey (ESS) seeks to develop
  measures that will allow us to assess EU aim of
  promoting.. the wellbeing of its people
• Distinction between objective subjective
  wellbeing
• Distinction between personal vs social or
  relational wellbeing
• Distinction between having (feeling) doing
  (functioning) eudaimonic/hedonistic (Aristotle)

3
Conceptual developments

• Sen and capability (persons life combines doing
  and beings i.e. functionings
• capabilities refer to various combinations of
  functionings that a person can choose to have).
  Realisable opportunity
• Not utility based
• Not individualistic

Veenhovens
Four Qualities of Life
Outer Life chances Livability of environment Inner Life chances Life-ability Of person
Life results Utility of life Life results Appreciation of life
4
Perceptions of Q o L

• Quality of life is both an experience distant
  and experience near concept (Clifford Geertz)
• According to recent THES/Halifax City 23rd
  Cambridge 28th Leeds 84th (labour, housing,
  urban environ, physical environ, health,
  education university environment)
• Peoples own views of Q o L important
• Perceptions matter what people perceive as
  real has real consequences (W I Thomas)

5
(No Transcript)
6
Gender, Life Course, Class, and Q o L

• Relational focus - gender differences (Gilligan)
  women more other focused than men
• Gendered division of labour different things
  may matter to men and women
• Timing matters (life course) what matters will
  change with different life ( family) stages
• Resources matter class (occupational status,
  income, and education) help shape expectations
  experiences

7
British Household Panel

• The British Household Panel Survey began in 1991
  and is a multi-purpose study whose unique value
  resides in the fact that
• It follows the same representative sample of
  individuals - the panel - over a period of years
  
• It is household-based, interviewing every adult
  member of sampled households
• It contains sufficient cases for meaningful
  analysis of certain groups such as the elderly or
  lone parent families
• The wave 1 panel consists of some 5,500
  households and 10,300 individuals drawn from 250
  postal areas of Great Britain.

8
British Household Panel Study (1997 2001)
Open-Ended Measure of Quality of Life

• The final question asks you to think about things
  that are important to you. There is a lot of
  discussion these days about quality of life, yet
  that means different things to different people.
  Would you take a moment to think about what
  quality of life means to you, and tell me what
  things you consider are important for your own
  quality of life
• (For each mention) In what way is that important
  to you?

9
Quality of Life Main Codings

• POSITIVE MENTIONS
• Personal characteristics
• good health
• freedom/independence
• happiness/peace of mind
• safety
• Time for self
• other personal
• Material characteristics
• Finances
• Consumption
• Home comforts
• Employment
• Car, transport
• Education
• Other material
• Leisure ..

• Spiritual/Moral/Community Aspects
• .
• Other People including pets
• ..
• Aspects of Locality and Environment
• NEGATIVE MENTIONS
• Need better personal characteristics, less worry,
  better health
• Need better material characteristics.. More
  money, better job .
• More leisure/recreation
• More morality/spiritual/community spirit
• . etc .
• Other negative mentions

10
Q of Life Main mentions ( of sample who
mention)

• Health 53
• Family 40
• Finance/standard of living 38
• Being happy 28
• Friends 20
• Home comforts 16
• Leisure/travel 15
• Employment 14
• Freedom 7
• Time for self 7
• Other material benefits 7
• Environment, community 7
• Other personal 6
• Spiritual, moral 5
• Negative mentions 5
• Miscel Others 7
• Dont know 1

11
Mentions of health by age gender
12
Qualitative difference in health mentions by
age gender

• Younger people (under 50) give generic health
  mentions e.g. if you havent got your health
  you cant do anything
• Older people (50) mention specific ailments or
  declines importance of marbles and mobility
• Older people mention significant others health
  having direct bearing on own wellbeing e.g. I
  havent got any QoL at moment, as my husband has
  Alzheimers
• Younger people also cite relational aspect of
  health emphasising that their own QoL is bound
  up with health of immediate family

13
Mentions of family by gender, age whether or
not married/partnered
14
Qualitative difference in family mentions by age
gender

• Women more likely than men to mention family at
  all age groups
• Mentions of family highest for people through to
  mid adulthood (under age 46)
• Young people mention dependence on families for
  moral financial support
• Gender role differences in caring vs breadwinning
  role, women emphasise importance of kids
  wellbeing men secure job in order to provide
  for family needs
• If theyre happy I am happy characteristic
  female response (although some men too)
• Work-life balance issues often coincide with
  family mentions, but what balance means is
  gendered
• For men balance tends to be where the heavy
  burdens of work are off-set by time with family
  e.g. Im always stressed at work its nice to
  turn off and relax at home
• For women, greater variation in how balance
  regarded (Hakim, but with resource constraints,
  work skills, education, child care etc)

15
Qualitative difference in finance mentions by
age gender

• In general, finance mentions concern having
  sufficient money not to worry and to be fairly
  comfortable
• Rampant materialism and consumerism is notable by
  its absence
• Men more likely than women to emphasise
  breadwinner role ie earning decent wage to
  support family
• Relatively few older people (65) mention finance
  (nb very few people mention negative code qual
  of life has positive nuance)

16
Family formation Changing evaluations of Q o L

• Importance of well being of others for Q o L
• Other orientation varies depending on life-stage
• Family formation key transition
• Sub-sample - single under age 40 in 1997 with
  kid in 2002

Women (N 69) 2001 work status Women (N 69) 2001 work status Women (N 69) 2001 work status Women (N 69) 2001 work status Men (N82) 2001 work status Men (N82) 2001 work status Men (N82) 2001 work status
employed Family care (incl maternity) Other (unempl) employed Family care Other (unempl)
Employed 1997 28 20 2 70 1 2
Other (incl student) 1997 4 12 3 5 0 4
17
What matters before after kids

• Eleanor - giving up smoking, health generally,
  expanding my career, making myself money, my
  future generally.. (1997)
• - my son and a good family life
  thats all thats important to me (2002)
• Mary - happiness and standard of living (1997)
  
• - health of my child and family,
  theyre my whole life, what would I do without
  them (2002)
• Carol - good friends and a steady income (1997)
• - being with family, see baby grow up
  and being with partner (2002)
• Exceptions family mentions across both waves
  or in neither, but for most women clear shift in
  priorities

• Andrew - go out and enjoy myself (aged 26,
  partly skilled manual 1997)
• - to be comfortable, not struggling as we do at
  moment. If I could get a better job everything
  would be fine (unskilled manual aged 31)
• Billy - comfortable income, nice food,
  nice place to live, nice clothes and spending
  time with my girlfriend (aged 23 managerial and
  technical work 1997)
• - making a living to keep us all
  happy
• Ian - being able to go out and enjoy
  yourself (aged 29, 1997)
• - being with my family they keep
  me happy and make me laugh (aged 34, 2001)
• Exceptions some make no reference to others in
  responses after acquiring a family, but most men,
  like women emphasise wellbeing of others more
  when have family of their own

18
Resources Mentions of Q o L(provisional
results from pooled logit, includes both waves)
health family finance happiness friends
R G Class lower class - lower class - Lower
Female more more
Female RG Females lower class Female Lower class
Education less educ higher educ
Age older older - older - older
Age2 U shape U shape Upturned U Upturned U
Income quintile higher higher higher - higher
Year 2002 more - Less - less
R2 (Pseudo) 0.02 0.02 0.01 0.01 0.02
N7996
19
Conclusions

• Quality of life is perceived differently for men
  and women
• How far women are more other focused than men
  is unclear
• Womens and mens focus on others can take
  different forms e.g. financial support versus
  personal caring
• Men and women have different conceptions of
  balance of work and family
• Men and women both become more focused on
  others, through transition to forming families of
  their own
• Need to consider QoL as relational lives in
  convoy
• People more concerned with intimate lives rather
  than community/society (may reflect personal
  emphasis of question)
• QoL process not state, need to examine stability
  change over life course
• Resources matter - peoples perceptions,
  aspirations experiences are influenced by their
  occupation, education income

20
ESRC Gender Equality Network

• Research Priority Network on Gender Inequalities
  in Production Reproduction
• www.genet.ac.uk