Gender equality in sickness absence tolerance: Attitudes and norms of sickness absence are not different for men and women

Abstract

Previous research offers limited understanding as to why sickness absence is higher among women than among men, but attitudes and norms have been suggested as plausible explanations of this gender gap. The purpose of the present study is to examine whether the gender gap in sickness absence reflects gender differences in sickness absence attitudes or gendered norms of sickness absence in society. The analyses are based on data from a factorial survey experiment covering 1,800 male and female employed respondents in Norway in 2016. Each participant was asked to evaluate whether sick leave would be reasonable in six unique, hypothetical sickness absence scenarios (i.e. vignettes) in which occupation, gender and reason for sick leave varied. Sick leave judgments were regressed on respondent gender and vignette gender using binary logistic regressions across three cut points. Overall, we did not find a substantial gender difference in either attitudes towards sickness absence or sickness absence norms. However, further analyses indicated more tolerant social norms of sickness absence for employees in gender-dominated occupations than for employees in gender-integrated occupations. This pattern could be a result of the type of work attributed to these occupations rather than their gender composition. Contrary to popular belief, we conclude that widely held attitudes and norms of sickness absence are unlikely to be drivers of the gender gap in sickness absence. The results can be useful for policies and interventions aimed at safeguarding gender equality in the labour market.

Gender difference in sickness absence: Do managers evaluate men and women differently with regard to the appropriateness of sickness absence?

“…In a previous article, we found that respondents were equally lenient or restrictive with regard to sickness absence irrespective of whether the person described in a vignette was female or male [15]. Similar results based on direct survey questions rather than case descriptions were reported in a study of employees in social security offices [14]. The results above show that this conclusion holds even for a broad sample of managers in Norwegian establishments.…”

“…Less is known about the importance of attitudinal and cultural factors, such as a possibly greater social acceptance of women's than men's sickness absence [11]. A small number of empirical studies have compared men's and women's attitudes, largely indicating that women are not more inclined than men to accept absence taking in various situations [12][13][14]. A couple of studies have also addressed the related issue of whether the social norms with regard to absence taking are gendered and possibly less restrictive for women than for men, indicating that this is not the case, but the evidence is too limited to draw any conclusions [13,14].…”

“…A small number of empirical studies have compared men's and women's attitudes, largely indicating that women are not more inclined than men to accept absence taking in various situations [12][13][14]. A couple of studies have also addressed the related issue of whether the social norms with regard to absence taking are gendered and possibly less restrictive for women than for men, indicating that this is not the case, but the evidence is too limited to draw any conclusions [13,14]. Also, these studies have been concerned with the norms found in the general population or among ordinary employees, and have not considered the possibility that groups with more influence on absence taking may feel differently about men's and women's absence, possibly being more lenient with regard to the latter.…”

General practitioners’ management of patients with psychological stress: audit results from Denmark

“…Concordantly, the found sex-difference regarding sick leave was only found if the GP was a woman. A recent Norwegian study on attitudes towards sick leave found that sick leave was more tolerated in workplaces heavily dominated by either one of the sexes [26]. Stressed women in general and in this study are often employed in the women-dominated service and health sectors while stressed men are less often employed in male-dominated workplaces [22].…”

Kan det godtas å være hjemme fra jobben selv om en strengt tatt er frisk nok til å gå?

“…Undersøkelsesdesignet gjorde det videre mulig å se på om synet på sykefravaer varierte avhengig av om personen som ble beskrevet var en kvinne eller en mann, det vil si om kvinner og menn ser ut til å møte ulike forventninger fra omgivelsene. Dette var det ikke tegn til (Løset, Dale-Olsen, Hellevik, Mastekaasa, von Soest & Østbakken 2018).…”