The Impact of Gender and Inequality Perception on Subjective Well-being——An Empirical Study Based on World Values Survey

Abstract

Based on micro-data from the World Values Survey, this paper investigates the effects of gender and perceptions of gender inequality on subjective well-being using ordinal logistic regression, and tests the robustness of the findings using OLS regression and other methods. It is found that men have higher perceptions of gender inequality than women, and China has the highest perception of gender inequality compared to Japan, Germany and the USA. The regression results suggest that even though perceptions of gender inequality have a positive effect on subjective well-being, Chinese men’s subjective well-being is still significantly lower than women, and this difference may be due to the social pressures and expectations faced by men. In a society with a low perception of gender equality, both men and women are victims.