Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/20455 
Year of Publication: 
2004
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 1202
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Women earn less than men but are not less satisfied with life. This paper argues that norms on the appropriate pay for women compared to men explain these findings. We take citizens? approval of an equal rights amendment to the Swiss constitution as a proxy for the norm that ?women and men shall have the right to equal pay for work of equal value?. We find that the gender wage gap narrows by one fifth due to an increase by one standard deviation in the approval. Rejecting an explanation in terms of discrimination, we find that employed women are less (not more) satisfied with life in liberal communities where the gender wage gap is smaller.
Subjects: 
equal rights
gender discrimination
gender wage gap
social norms
subjective well-being
JEL: 
Z13
J70
J16
I31
J31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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