This study examines factors that explain gender differences in occupational life and working styles. Specifically, I analyze how gender differences in occupational distribution (gender occupational segregation) can explain gender differences in working hours. Men generally work longer hours than women, potentially because the occupational distribution of men is skewed toward occupations with longer working hours. Previous studies have indicated that working hours tend to be longer in jobs that are interpersonal and non-manual, and the proportion of long working hours may differ by occupation. This study analyzes the association between gender differences in long working hours and gender occupational segregation using the DiNardo–Fortin–Lemieux decomposition method. This method estimates outcome values in a counterfactual situation in which the distribution of the independent variable in the group of interest is the same as the distribution in the other group.
The results show that 1) the distributional effect of the independent variables on the gender difference in long working hours is sufficiently large that it is important to consider differences in socio-demographic attributes and work-related variables in the labor market. 2) Occupation contribution is larger than industry, firm size, and length of service. Moreover, the gender occupational segregation explains the gender difference in long working hours. 3) However, men's occupational distribution characteristics are not clearly biased toward occupations with long working hours, and the job characteristics of "interpersonal and non-manual" are not related to the gender difference in long working hours. Thus, occupation type has an essential role concerning gender inequality in work style.

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