Prof Satoshi Araki publishes an article on income, well-being, ill-being, and gender inequality in Social Indicators Research.
3 July 2024
Professor Araki's new paper (co-authored with Francisco Olivos) "Low Income, Ill-being, and Gender Inequality: Explaining Cross-National Variation in the Gendered Risk of Suffering Among the Poor" has been published in Social Indicators Research (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-024-03358-z). This article investigates (1) how low income is linked to ill-being among women and men; and (2) how their association varies depending on societal-level gender (in)equality. Using data from the European Social Survey and the joint European Values Study-World Values Survey data, Profs Araki and Olivos confirm that low-income individuals, regardless of gender, are more likely than their affluent counterparts to suffer from subjective ill-being (SIB) in many countries. Nevertheless, they also find that the SIB risk significantly differs depending on the degree of gender inequality in that (1) both women and men face a higher likelihood of SIB in gender-inegalitarian societies, and (2) the psychological penalty for the poor is intensified under such gendered circumstances, especially among men. Based on these results, Profs Araki and Olivos argue that gender inequality not merely induces women’s ill-being but punishes low-income men possibly by exacerbating pressure as a breadwinner and imposing stigmas when they cannot meet gendered social expectations.