Title: The Influence of Gender on Perceptions of the Quality of Life
1The Influence of Gender on Perceptions of the
Quality of Life
- Jackie Scott Jane Nolan
- Anke Zimmermann
- University of Cambridge
2EU 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)
3Conceptual 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
4Perceptions 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)
6Gender, 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
7British 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.
8British 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?
9Quality 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
-
10Q 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
12Qualitative 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
13Mentions of family by gender, age whether or
not married/partnered
14Qualitative 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) -
15Qualitative 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)
16Family 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
17What 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
18Resources 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
19Conclusions
- 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
20ESRC Gender Equality Network
- Research Priority Network on Gender Inequalities
in Production Reproduction - www.genet.ac.uk