Are women and men equally happy at work? Evidence from PhD holders working at the university. The case of Uruguay

The present study focuses on gender differences in job satisfaction as reported by highly educated professors who hold a doctorate at the public university in Uruguay. The data allows us to distinguish between fourteen areas of job satisfaction: wage, benefits, security, location, labor conditions, autonomy, promotion opportunities, intellectual challenge, responsibility, management and administrative support tasks, working environment, contribution to society, social status, infrastructure, as well as overall job satisfaction. After controlling for selection by sector of activity, an issue not commonly addressed in previous studies, our findings stress that female PhD holders report a lower satisfaction with some aspects of their job. For five of the ten areas in which gender disparities were observed, dissatisfaction can be explained by differences in observable characteristics: wages, intellectual challenge, labor conditions, infrastructure, and responsibility, as well as overall job satisfaction. For five other satisfaction domains, i.e. autonomy, promotion opportunities, administrative tasks, security, and contribution to society, we are unable to explain the lower satisfaction levels among women, although plausible explanations point to unobservable characteristics. This is surprising given the nature of the sample, i.e. doctorate holders working at the public university.