Women and manual workers have least job satisfaction

A recently published report examines the trends in the Swedish working environment from an occupational-level and gender perspective. The report is based on a Labour Force Survey and uses a so-called staircase methodology to analyse the results. It shows that blue-collar workers and women experience less job satisfaction than white-collar workers and men. The data also reveal a steady deterioration in working environment quality.

In November 2008, the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (Landsorganisationen i Sverige, LO) published a report entitled ‘Trends in the working environment 2007 – class and gender’ (Trender i arbetsmiljön 2007 – klass och kön (in Swedish, 332Kb PDF)). The study examines the changes in the working environment from 1991 to 2007 for female and male blue-collar workers, white-collar workers and senior white-collar workers.

About the survey

Statistics Sweden (Statistiska Centralbyrån, SCB) has, since 1989, conducted surveys on the Swedish working environment as part of the broader Labour Force Survey. The surveys cover a wide range of areas including working time, access to training, opportunities to influence the work situation and the level of physical and psychological strains at work. The LO report compares the results from the surveys in 2003 and 2007. Potential changes are then contrasted with the results from the survey carried out in 1991 in order to track long-term trends in the working environment.

Methodology

The survey questions include a variety of working environment-related subjects and the LO study uses a so-called staircase methodology to characterise and analyse the results. Two ‘staircases’ are devised measuring gender and occupational level or class, based on existing power relations in society. Thus, the class staircase is based on structural power relations positioning white-collar workers above blue-collar workers, while the gender staircase reflects societal structures by positioning men above women (Figure 1).

These staircases are then put together to create two new analytical staircases. The first one is a ‘class and gender’ staircase, where women are positioned below men of the same class; the second is a ‘gender and class’ staircase, where women of a higher class stand below men of a lower class. The survey results are measured against these staircases in order to indicate general class and gender relations in terms of the working environment.

Figure 1: Staircase methodology, by gender and occupational level (class)

Source: Gellerstedt, S., Trends in the working environment 2007 – class and gender, LO, 2008

Staircase methodology, by gender and occupational level (class)

Comparative results

The LO study shows that the working environment usually follows the class and gender staircase, where female blue-collar workers find their general working environment to be least satisfying, followed by male blue-collar workers. On the third stair are female white-collar workers and, next, male white-collar workers. At the top, senior white-collar workers experience the highest level of satisfaction with their working environment. In this group too, women report less job satisfaction than men.

The class and gender staircase is applicable to every survey from 1991 to 2007 and the trend is a steady deterioration in the general working environment. The only group that experienced a somewhat improved working environment was that of female blue-collar workers although, in the last survey, they were most sceptical about their work situation.

Overall, the report covers as many as 20 aspects of the working environment, only a few of which can be reviewed here. The most relevant results are nevertheless presented below.

Increase in repetitive work

In all groups, the amount of repetitive work has increased since 1991 (Figure 2). Female blue-collar workers fare the worst in this regard. Among this group, repetitive work has increased by 9% since the last survey in 2003. These results closely follow the class and gender staircase.

Figure 2: Workers repeating the same task more than half the time in one work hour (%)

Note: The survey question was: How often during a work hour do you repeat the same task over and over again? Response categories: 1. Almost the entire time, 2. About 3/4 of the time, 3. Half of the time, 4. About 1/4 of the time, 5. Some of the time (maybe 1/10 of the time), 6. Never.

Source: Gellerstedt, 2008

Workers repeating the same task more than half the time in one work hour (%)

Less opportunity to take a break

The possibility of taking a short break to talk to colleagues, which is a measure of the work rate, has decreased in all groups. Some 72% of female blue-collar workers, for example, experience limited opportunities to take short breaks in 2007, compared with 60% in 1991 (Figure 3). In this regard, the pattern among the different groups follows that of the gender and class staircase: women in the class above experience fewer opportunities to take a short break than men in the class below. For example, 69% of female white-collar workers have limited opportunities to take a short break, compared with 52% of male blue-collar workers.

Figure 3: Workers who can take short conversation breaks during half their working time or less often (%)

Note: The survey question was: How often during your work hours do you have the opportunity to take a short break for conversation with colleagues? Response categories: 1. Almost the entire time, 2. About 3/4 of the time, 3. Half of the time, 4. About 1/4 of the time, 5. Some of the time (maybe 1/10 of the time), 6. Never.

Source: Gellerstedt, 2008

Workers who can take short conversation breaks during half their working time or less often (%)

Less access to occupational healthcare

With regard to long-term trends, the survey results clearly show that access to occupational healthcare – that is, the opportunity to receive medical consultation during working hours – has been restricted since 1991. Female blue-collar workers in the private sector receive the least amount of occupational healthcare: for this group, the proportion of workers receiving such care decreased from 74% to 54% between 1995 and 2007 (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Workers having access to occupational healthcare (%)

Notes: The survey question was: Do you have access to healthcare through your work? Response categories: 1. Totally agree, 2. Partly agree, 3. Neither agree nor disagree, 4. Partly disagree, 5. Totally disagree. No data from 2001 are available.

Source: Gellerstedt, 2008

Workers having access to occupational healthcare (%)

Increase in musculoskeletal disorders

An increasing proportion of respondents answer that they experience aches in their arms and shoulders every week, except for the female blue-collar and white-collar worker groups, where the share has been stable since 2003. Up until 2003, however, a distinct increase was noted in female blue-collar workers reporting aches in their arms and shoulders. Indeed, this group still tops the list of employees experiencing such discomfort, with some 45% of these workers experiencing aches in arms and shoulder every week (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Workers experiencing aches in arms and shoulders every week (%)

Note: The survey question was: How often do you experience aches in your arms and/or shoulders? Response categories: 1. Every day, 2. A couple of days a week (1 out of 2), 3. One day a week (1 out of 5), 4. A couple of days a month (1 out of 10), 5. Never/rarely in the last three months.

Source: Gellerstedt, 2008

Workers experiencing aches in arms and shoulders every week (%)

Conclusion

To summarise, it is primarily the workers’ physical working environment that appears to have deteriorated in Sweden. Both repetitive work and aches in arms and shoulders have increased since 1991. Furthermore, the work rate seems to have increased, implying greater psychological strain on workers (SE0810019I, SE0804019I). Finally, the opportunity to receive healthcare at the expense of the employer has decreased over time.

The analysis also shows that the class and gender staircase is most often followed in terms of the working environment. In some cases, however, the gender and class staircase is followed instead, such as in the case of being able to take short breaks while working. These results confirm the structural differences between men and women, as well as between occupational levels.

Further information

Previous studies in Sweden have highlighted the increasing number of health problems in the workplace. These studies have also identified that occupational level, background and gender are factors influencing the health of workers (SE0502NU01). Moreover, other research has confirmed that women report lower psychosocial well-being than men do, and has argued that this is partly linked to women’s roles and tasks outside of work (SE0509NU01).

More information at European level on gender issues is available on the Eurofound website.

Karolin Lovén, Oxford Research