Gender, Work and Health Inequalities

The aim of this chapter is to explore how gender, elements of the psychosocial work environment and their interaction can lead to inequalities in occupational health outcomes. We first look at whether a set of occupational health outcomes differs for male and female workers. Then, we explore how the interaction between gender and working conditions play a role in the explanation of the identified differences. We identify organisational justice, work-family conflict, and family responsibilities as key determinants in gender inequalities in health. We aid the discussion with relevant literature and evidence from Chile. Our results and discussion underline the role of gender as a social determinant of self-reported health outcomes. The better the perception of fairness at work, the lower the level of work-family conflict and, consequently, the lower the work-related stress for both, men and women. When family responsibilities are introduced (main provider and main responsible for domestic tasks), men tend to have more difficulties than women to balance work and family, while women suffer more from work-related stress. These findings complement the growing understanding of gender and the work environment as social determinants of health, and underline that the negative impacts of gender inequalities affect not only women, but also men.