MENS AND WOMENS DEFINITIONS OF GOOD JOBS - SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BY AGE AND ACROSS TIME

Whether and to what extent men and women hold differing preferences fo r particular job attributes remains the subject of debate, with a siza ble number of empirical studies producing conflicting results. These c onflicts may have temporal sources-historical changes in men's and wom en's preferences for particular job attributes, as well as changes in preferences that commonly occur over individuals' life cycle. Most pre vious research has neglected the effects of time on gender differences . Using data from national surveys of workers over a 22-year period, t his study focuses explicitly on changes by age over time in men's and women's preferences for five key attributes of jobs-short hours, high income, meaningful work, chances for promotion, and job security. The results suggest that gender differences in preferences have been both stable and limited, although there is some evidence that the gender ga p in preferences has actually widened among younger workers in recent years.