Background: Gender inequalities in the exposure to work-related psychosocial hazards are well established. However, little is known about how welfare state regimes influence these inequalities.
Objectives: To examine the relationship between welfare state regimes and gender inequalities in the exposure to work-related psychosocial hazards in Europe, considering occupational social class.
Methods: We used a sample of 27, 465 workers from 28 European countries. Dependent variables were high strain, iso-strain, and effort-reward imbalance, and the independent was gender. We calculated the prevalence and prevalence ratio separately for each welfare state regime and occupational social class, using multivariate logistic regression models.
Results: More female than male managers/professionals were exposed to: high strain, iso-strain, and effort-reward imbalance in Scandinavian [adjusted prevalence ratio (aPR) = 2·26; 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 1·87-2·75; 2·12: 1·72-2·61; 1·41: 1·15-1·74; respectively] and Continental regimes (1·43: 1·23-1·54; 1·51: 1·23-1·84; 1·40: 1·17-1·67); and to high strain and iso-strain in Anglo-Saxon (1·92: 1·40-2·63; 1·85: 1·30-2·64; respectively), Southern (1·43: 1·14-1·79; 1·60: 1·18-2·18), and Eastern regimes (1·56: 1·35-1·81; 1·53: 1·28-1·83).
Conclusion: Gender inequalities in the exposure to work-related psychosocial hazards were not lower in those welfare state regimes with higher levels of universal social protection policies.