yet the job characteristics valued by women and men have repeatedly been shown to differ in particular higher levels of job satisfaction expressed by women may reflect job characteristics that are normally unmeasured by standard employment and earnings statistics on the other hand women are more likely than men to identify the flexibility of work schedule social relations at work and the significance of the task as the most important aspects of a job bender et al these differences in job preferences may result from womens desire to integrate work and family life garey