Zitatform

Tocchioni, Valentina, Anna Rybińska, Monika Mynarska, Anna Matysiak & Daniele Vignoli (2022): Life-Course Trajectories of Childless Women: Country-Specific or Universal? In: European Journal of Population, Jg. 38, H. 5, S. 1315-1332. DOI:10.1007/s10680-022-09624-5

Abstract

"While existing research has documented complexities in biographies of childless women, few studies to date have systematically examined the life-course pathways of the childless from a comparative, cross-country perspective. In this paper, we analyse biographies of childless women in four countries - Germany, Italy, Poland, and the United States - in order to investigate whether pathways into childlessness are country-specific or commonly shared across institutional, cultural, and geographical settings. Partnership, education, and employment histories are examined using sequence analysis with dynamic Hamming distance and cluster analysis. Discrepancy analysis indicates a country-effect in women’s biographies although life-course patterns identified in each country share similarities. Overall, seven life-course trajectories have been identified, with the most numerous cluster comprising single, working women who completed their education at a relatively young age. The results highlight a marked variation in the life-courses of childless women. Put together, these findings provide descriptive evidence for both country-specificity and cross-country similarity in the pathways to childlessness." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © Springer-Verlag) ((en))

Zitatform

Tomlin, Bryan (2022): Maternity breaks: Unemployment spells or relevant experience? In: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Jg. 198, S. 673-681. DOI:10.1016/j.jebo.2022.04.015

Abstract

"A correspondence study is used to determine how taking a maternity break from the labor force to raise a child affects a mother's ability to get an administrative job relative to mothers who did not take such a break. Relative to mothers who did not take a maternity break, those who did were about half as likely to receive a response to their application, as were those who spent the same time working as a nanny. Listing “stay-at-home mother” as relevant experience on one's resumé does nothing to shrink this gap. These results are consistent with the effect of unemployment on call-back rates as identified by previous research, suggesting that employers view maternity breaks as a form of unemployment rather than relevant experience." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2022 Elsevier) ((en))

Zitatform

Torre, Margarita (2022): The Scarring Effect of "Women’s Work". The Determinants of Women’s Attrition from Male-dominated Occupations. (OSF preprints), 47 S.

Abstract

"Women's entry into formerly male-dominated occupations has increased in recent decades, yet a significant outflow remains. This study examines the determinants of women's exits from male-dominated occupations, focusing on the effect of previous occupational trajectories. In particular, it hypothesizes that occupational trajectories in female-dominated occupations are often imbued with meanings and beliefs about the (in)appropriateness of the worker, which adversely affect women's integration and chances when they enter the male sector. Using the NLSY79 data set, the study analyzes the job histories of women employed in the United States between 1979 and 2006. The results reveal a disproportionate risk of exit among newcomers from female-dominated occupations. Also, women who reenter the male field are more likely to leave it again. Altogether, the findings challenge explanations based on deficiencies in the information available to women at the moment of hiring. The evidence points to the existence of a “scar effect” of previous work in the female field, which hinders women's opportunities in the male sector and ends up increasing the likelihood of exit." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Zitatform

Winkler, Anne E. (2022): Women's labor force participation. Family-friendly policies increase women's labor force participation, benefiting them, their families, and society at large. (IZA world of labor 289), Bonn, 11 S. DOI:10.15185/izawol.289.v2

Abstract

"Die Arbeitsmarktaktivitäten von Frauen steigern deren „wirtschaftlichen Wert“ für die Familie und die Gesellschaft. Während die weibliche Erwerbsbeteiligung weltweit zugenommen hat, bleibt sie in einigen Ländern und Regionen nach wie vor niedrig. In den USA sind die Frauenerwerbsquoten seit den 1990er Jahren weitgehend konstant geblieben, im Vergleich zu anderen Staaten jedoch gefallen. Angesichts der gesamtgesellschaftlichen Vorteile sollte die Politik ein starkes Interesse daran haben, Maßnahmen zur Förderung der weiblichen Erwerbsbeteiligung durchzusetzen. Elternzeit und subventionierte Kinderbetreuung sind zwei Schritte in die richtige Richtung." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku)

Abstract

"The health sector, with its high potential for decent jobs growth, and with 67% of wage employees being women, has a key role to play in women’s economic empowerment and the broader SDG5 agenda. This report co-developed by ILO and WHO, is the first ever global sectoral gender pay gap report. Analyzing the gender pay gaps in the health and care sector and using this evidence to achieve equal pay for equal work across the sector is a critical step to attracting and retaining all workers in health and care. This is critical if we are to address the global shortfall of health and care workers and achieve Universal Health Coverage. The high degree of feminization in the health and care sector is a key factor behind the lower earnings for both women and men within the sector. It contributes to the overall prevailing gender pay gap in the economy. The results of this groundbreaking report suggest that once age, education, occupational category, and other such factors are considered, globally women face a 24 percentage point pay gap compared to men across the health and care sector. Furthermore, among women in the health and care sector there is evidence of a motherhood gap. Much of the gender pay gap in health and care is unexplained by labour market attributes that should be the sole factors determining wages. The report assesses gender wage gaps over time and finds a particular persistence in this unexplained portion of the gender pay gap. In addition, evidence indicates that the employment impact of COVID-19 in the sector disproportionately affected workers at the low end of the pay scale, most of whom are women. The evidence in the report shows significant variation in gender pay gaps in health and care across countries, suggesting that targeted action to close gender pay gaps is both possible and effective. The path forward includes: - improving the collection and analysis of targeted gender-disaggregated wage data for the health and care sector; - investing in decent jobs in the sector; - social dialogue; - promoting science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers for young women; - attracting more men into middle occupation categories and more women to the top; - pay transparency and legal instruments against pay discrimination; - policies to redress the motherhood pay gap; - facilitating the transition of workers from the informal to the formal economy." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Zitatform

Ahrsjö, Ulrika, René Karadakic & Joachim Kahr Rasmussen (2021): Intergenerational Mobility Trends and the Changing Role of Female Labor. (CEBI working paper series 2021,19), Copenhagen, 54 S.

Abstract

"We present new evidence on the existence and drivers of trends in intergenerational income mobility using administrative income data from Scandinavia along with survey data from the United States. Harmonizing the data from Sweden, Denmark and Norway, we first find that intergenerational rank associations in income have increased uniformly across Scandinavia for cohorts of children born between 1951 and 1979. These trends are robust to a large set of empirical specifications that are common in the associated literature. However, splitting the trends by gender, we find that father-son mobility has been stable in all three countries, while correlations involving females display substantial trends. Similar patterns are confirmed in the US data, albeit with slightly different timing. Utilizing information about individual occupation, education and income in the Scandinavian data, we find that intergenerational mobility in latent economic status has remained relatively constant for all gender combinations. This suggests that a gradual reduction in gender-specific labor market segregation, increased female labor force participation and increased female access to higher education has strengthened the signal value that maternal income carries about productivity passed on to children. Based on these results, we argue that the observed decline in intergenerational mobility in Scandinavia is consistent with a socially desirable development where female skills are increasingly valued at the labor market, and that the same is likely to be true also in the US." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Zitatform

Barth, Erling, Sari Pekkala Kerr & Claudia Olivetti (2021): The dynamics of gender earnings differentials. Evidence from establishment data. In: European Economic Review, Jg. 134. DOI:10.1016/j.euroecorev.2021.103713

Abstract

"Despite dramatic workforce gains by women in recent decades, a substantial gender earnings gap persists and widens over the course of men's and women's careers. Since there are earnings differences across establishments, a key question is whether the widening of the gender pay gap arises from differences in career advances within the same establishment or from differential gains from job-to-job moves across establishments. Using a unique match between the 2000 Decennial Census of the United States and the Longitudinal Employer Household Dynamics (LEHD) data, we find that both channels are important and affect workers differently by education. For the college educated, the increasing gap is for the most part due to differential earnings growth within establishment. The establishment component explains only 27% of the widening of the total gender pay gap for this group. For workers without college degree, the establishment component is the main driver of the, relatively small, widening of the gender earnings gap. For both education groups, marriage plays a crucial role in the establishment component of the increasing earnings gap." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2021 Elsevier) ((en))

Zitatform

Behera, Sarthak & Divya Sadana (2021): Differing Labor Supply: A Study on the Role of Culture. (MPRA paper / University Library of Munich 110753), München, 41 S.

Abstract

"In this paper, we study the role of peoples' attitudes on their labor market behavior. Focusing within a household, we estimate how one's labor market decisions are dependent on their partner's labor market outcomes, and how these decisions are driven by their culture component. Historically, man has been associated as the primary earner in a family. We argue that culture might play a role in determining a person's labor market outcomes as it induces an aversion to the situation of when the wife earns more than the husband. We find that husbands increase their participation in the labor market if their wives earn more and this effect is even more prominent if they are from a country where people have the traditional view that man should be the primary bread-winner for the family. However, wives do not exhibit any such behavior. We argue that this irregularity is explained by the role that culture plays on forming labor market decisions. This result is important as it might contribute to the explanation of the slowdown in the convergence of the gender gap in the recent past." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Zitatform

Bernstein, David H. & Andrew B. Martinez (2021): Jointly Modeling Male and Female Labor Participation and Unemployment. (Working paper series / H. O. Stekler Research Program On Forecasting 2021,6), Washington, DC, 23 S.

Abstract

"The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the most abrupt changes in U.S. labor force participation and unemployment since the Second World War, and with different consequences for men and women. This paper models the U.S. labor market to help interpret the pandemic's effects. After replicating and extending Emerson's (2011) model of the labor market, we formulate a joint model of male and female unemployment and labor force participation rates for 1980-2019 and use it to forecast into the pandemic to understand the pandemic's labor-market consequences. Gender-specific differences were particularly large at the pandemic's outset; lower labor force participation persists." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Zitatform

Blau, Francine D., Lawrence M. Kahn, Nikolai Boboshko & Matthew Comey (2021): The Impact of Selection into the Labor Force on the Gender Wage Gap. (DIW-Diskussionspapiere 1946), Berlin, 73 S.

Abstract

"We study the impact of selection bias on estimates of the gender pay gap, focusing on whether the gender pay gap has fallen since 1981. Previous research has found divergent results across techniques, identification strategies, data sets, and time periods. Using Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics data and a number of different identification strategies, we find robust evidence that, after controlling for selection, there were large declines in the raw and the unexplained gender wage gaps over the 1981-2015 period. Under our preferred method of accounting for selection, we find that the raw median wage gap declined by 0.378 log points, while the median unexplained gap declined by a more modest but still substantial 0.204 log points. These declines are larger than estimates that do not account for selection. Our results suggest that women's relative wage offers have increased over this period, even after controlling for their measured covariates, including education and actual labor market experience. However, we note that substantial gender wage gaps remain. In 2015, at the median, the selectivity-corrected gaps were 0.242 log points (raw gap) and 0.206 log points (unexplained gap)." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Zitatform

Calarco, Jessica McCrory, Emily Meanwell, Elizabeth M. Anderson & Amelia S. Knopf (2021): By Default: How Mothers in Different-Sex Dual-Earner Couples Account for Inequalities in Pandemic Parenting. In: Socius, Jg. 7, S. 1-15. DOI:10.1177/23780231211038783

Abstract

"Mothers did a disproportionate share of the child care during the COVID-19 pandemic—an arrangement that negatively impacted their careers, relationships, and well-being. How did mothers account for these unequal roles? Through interviews and surveys with 55 mothers (and 14 fathers) in different-sex, prepandemic dual-earner couples, we found that mothers (and fathers) justified unequal parenting arrangements based on gendered structural and cultural conditions that made mothers’ disproportionate labor seem “practical” and “natural.” These justifications allowed couples to rely on mothers by default rather than through active negotiation. As a result, many mothers did not feel entitled to seek support with child care from fathers or nonparental caregivers and experienced guilt if they did so. These findings help explain why many mothers have not reentered the workforce, why fathers’ involvement at home waned as the pandemic progressed, and why the pandemic led to growing preferences for inegalitarian divisions of domestic and paid labor." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Carlson, Daniel L. & Richard J. Petts (2021): US Parents' Domestic Labor Over the Course of the COVID-19 Pandemic. (SocArXiv papers), 38 S. DOI:10.31235/osf.io/uwdz6

Abstract

"Objective: This study assesses changes in parents’ divisions of housework and childcare over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Background: Assessing the long-term consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for gender equality requires understanding how and why labor arrangements shifted as the pandemic progressed. Yet, we know little about US parents’ domestic arrangements beyond the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic or how simultaneous changes in men’s and women’s employment, earnings, telework, gender ideologies, and access to care supports may have altered domestic labor arrangements. Method: This study assesses change in parents’ domestic labor using fixed-effects regression on data from a longitudinal panel of 700 different-sex partnered US parents collected at three time points: March 2020, April 2020, and November 2020. Results: Partnered parents’ divisions of housework and childcare became more equal in the early days of the pandemic, but reverted toward pre-pandemic levels by the fall of 2020. Changes in parents’ divisions of domestic labor were largely driven by changes in parents’ labor force conditions, and especially by fathers’ labor force conditions. Decreases in fathers’ labor force participation and increases in telecommuting in April portended increases in partnered fathers’ shares of domestic tasks. As fathers increased time in paid work and returned to in-person work by fall, their shares of domestic labor fell. Conclusion: Overall, results suggest that promoting full-time employment among mothers and greater time at home for fathers are key in facilitating a more equal division of domestic labor within families post-pandemic" (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Cubas, German, Chinhui Juhn & Pedro Silos (2021): Work-Care Balance over the Day and the Gender Wage Gap. In: AEA papers and proceedings, Jg. 111, S. 149-153. DOI:10.1257/pandp.20211021

Abstract

"We focus on the timing of labor supplied during the day and its interaction with home care responsibilities. Using the American Time Use Survey, we measure the incidence of household care activities between 8 AM and 5 PM (the prime time of the day). Women experience more work interruptions during that time. These work interruptions imply wages that are about 9 percent lower. This result is consistent with occupations offering more flexibility but also a lower wage. We offer suggestive evidence that missing work due to household demands has a larger penalty in occupations with more coordinated work schedules." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Dey, Matthew, Mark A. Loewenstein & Hugette Sun (2021): A look at the new job-task information in the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth. In: Monthly labor review, Jg. 144, H. May. DOI:10.21916/mlr.2021.10

Abstract

"Using data from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth 1979 and 1997, this article examines how the skill level and task content of U.S. jobs vary among workers born during the 1957–1964 and 1980–1984 periods. This article presents data on how job attributes vary by sex, race, Hispanic origin, and educational attainment as well as by performance on the Armed Forces Qualifying Test and type of occupation. It also examines the relationship between job attributes and wages." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Zitatform

Fernández-Kranz, Daniel & Jennifer Louise Roff (2021): The Effect of Alimony Reform on Married Women's Labor Supply: Evidence from the American Time Use Survey. (IZA discussion paper 14949), Bonn, 41 S.

Abstract

"Reforms that reduce alimony can affect married couples in two different ways. First, reduced alimony lowers the bargaining power of the payee, usually the wife. Second, reduced alimony lowers the incentives of wives to engage in the traditional male breadwinner model of household specialization. Using the American Time Use Survey and exploiting a series of recent reforms in several US states that reduced the entitlements of eligible spouses, we find that wives surprised by the reforms reacted by moving away from the traditional male breadwinner model of household specialization. We also find that highly educated women substituted work for time devoted to housework and childcare, while less educated wives substituted work for leisure and personal time. We find no effects for men. The fact that the reforms reduced fertility only among women with higher education suggests that the difference between them and less educated wives in the response to reduced alimony is due, at least in part, to differences in their preferences and costs for children. The estimated effects are larger among couples with a large difference in the earnings potential of spouses and are robust to several sensitivity tests." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Furman, Jason, Melissa Schettini Kearney & Wilson Powell (2021): The Role of Childcare Challenges in the US Jobs Market Recovery During the COVID-19 Pandemic. (NBER working paper 28934), Cambridge, MA, 26 S. DOI:10.3386/w28934

Abstract

"We examine how much of the overall decline in employment between the beginning of 2020 and 2021 can be explained by excess job loss among parents of young children, and mothers specifically. Using data from the Current Population Survey (CPS), we confirm that, in general, mothers with young children have experienced a larger decline in employment, as compared (unconditionally) with other adults, including fathers. This excess job loss is driven by mothers without a four-year college (bachelor's) degree. The main point of the paper is to build off this observation and examine how much of the aggregate employment deficit in early 2021 can be explained by parent-specific issues, such as childcare struggles. To examine this question, we construct counterfactual employment rates and labor force participation rates that assign to mothers of young children the percent change in employment and labor force participation rates experienced by comparable women without young children. We consider multiple definition, sample, and counterfactual specification alternatives. Our analysis yields robust evidence that differential job loss among mothers of young children accounts for a negligible share of the ongoing aggregate employment deficit. The result is even stronger (and flips signs) if we consider all parents, since fathers with young children experienced less job loss than other men. The practical implication of these findings is that nearly all of the aggregate ongoing employment deficit is explained by factors that affect workers more broadly, as opposed to challenges specific to working parents." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Zitatform

Giménez-Nadal, José Ignacio, José Alberto Molina & Almudena Sevilla (2021): Temporal Flexibility, Breaks at Work, and the Motherhood Wage Gap. (IZA discussion paper 14578), Bonn, 27 S.

Abstract

"We analyze the relationship between temporal flexibility at work (i.e., the ability to vary or change the time of beginning or ending work) and the motherhood wage gap of working parents, in the US. To that end, we first characterize temporal flexibility at work using the 2017-2018 Leave and Job Flexibilities (LJF) Module of the American Time Use Survey, which contains self-reported information on temporal flexibility at work. We find cross-occupation differences in the ability to vary or change work-times, with more than 70% of full-time workers having flexibility, in occupations such as computer and mathematical science, management, architecture, and engineering. Less than 40% of full-time workers in construction and extraction, education, training and library, or production have temporal flexibility at work. We examine the temporal flexibility of the gender gap among full-time working parents, using the American Time Use Survey for the years 2003-2019. Our analysis reveals that temporal flexibility has a U-shaped relationship with the wage rates of both fathers and mothers, and that temporal flexibility has a concave relationship with the motherhood wage gap, with a maximum being reached at the level of 55% of temporal flexibility. Our analysis of the structure of work hours reveals that temporal flexibility is reflected in how work hours are structured throughout the working day, and also serves as evidence that our measure of temporal flexibility captures the technologies of production, rather than the characteristics or motivations of a given company policy. This paper posits temporal flexibility as a factor affecting the motherhood wage gap." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Zitatform

Goldin, Claudia (2021): Journey Across a Century of Women. In: The Milken Institute review, Jg. 23, H. 2, S. 36-45.

Abstract

"This article will take us on a 120-year odyssey of generations of college-graduate women from a time when they were only able to have either a family or a career, to now, when they anticipate having both a family and a career. More women than ever before are within striking distance of these goals. Fully 45 percent of young American women today will earn bachelor’s degrees, and more than 20 percent of them will eventually obtain an advanced degree above a master’s. In addition, more than 80 percent of 45-yearold college-graduate women have children, either biological or adopted. More women than men now graduate from college, and there is greater similarity in their ambitions and achievements than ever before. This should all make for a very pleasant ending to the journey. But that happy ending doesn’t seem to be happening." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Zitatform

Gornick, Janet & Eva Sierminska (2021): Wealth Accumulation and Retirement Preparedness in Cross-National Perspective: A Gendered Analysis of Outcomes among Single Adults. (IZA policy paper 181), Bonn, 30 S.

Abstract

"Wealth is an increasingly important dimension of economic well-being and is attracting rising attention in discussions of social inequality. In this paper, we compare – within and across countries – wealth outcomes, and link those to both employment-related factors and policy solutions that have the potential to improve wealth creation and retirement security for women. By constructing country-specific portraits of wealth outcomes and "retirement preparedness," we reveal extensive cross-national variation in multiple facets of wealth. Our regression analysis finds a statistically significant and positive effect of work experience on wealth, with that effect, in general, increasing over time. The effect of work experience for single women is greater than for single men, suggesting that, among men, other, stronger forces are at work in creating wealth. The retirement preparedness outcomes indicate that single women in all three countries are in a precarious position at retirement, with much lower expected annual wealth levels than single men. The second preparedness indicator, which links expected annual wealth to income, demonstrates that men have the potential to cover 1larger shares of their income at retirement – and thus are more able, than their female counterparts, to maintain standards of living achieved earlier in life. Our policy discussion indicates that employment remains a viable option for ultimately bolstering women's wealth accumulation. Many scholars, gender equality advocates, and policymakers have argued for raising women's employment rates – for a multitude of reasons – but few, if any, have made the case for strengthening women's employment in order to ultimately bolster women's wealth building. We hope to help reduce the gap in the literature on policy supports for women's employment and re-open the discussion on how women can create more wealth." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Zitatform

Hotchkiss, Julie L., Robert E. Moore & Fernando Rios-Avila (2021): Impact of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act on Labor Supply and Welfare of Married Households. (Working papers / Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta 2021,18), Atlanta, Ga., 55 S. DOI:10.29338/wp2021-18

Abstract

"This paper calculates the change in optimal labor supply and total family welfare resulting from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA). We estimate labor supply elasticities for married families in the Current Population Survey from 2015 to 2017, using a joint family utility model. These elasticities are then used to simulate changes in optimal labor supply and resulting change in welfare among families with different characteristics under the new TCJA tax code. We find that optimal hours are lower post-TCJA, relative to before. However, there are differences across family members and family types. Both men's and women's optimal hours decline with income starting in the second quintile, but the decline is more dramatic for men. Overall, all families' welfare increased post-TCJA, with the gains in welfare disproportionately benefiting the wealthy; families with any self-employment income; families with children; and families renting, versus owning, their home." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))