Female breadwinner – Erwerbsentscheidungen von Frauen im Haushaltskontext
Nach wie vor ist die ungleiche Verteilung von Erwerbs- und Familienarbeit zwischen den Partnern der Regelfall. Traditionelle familiäre Arrangements werden dabei durch institutionelle Rahmenbedingungen bevorzugt. Die Folge ist, dass Frauen immer noch beruflich zurückstecken - auch wenn sie den Hauptteil des Haushaltseinkommens erarbeiten und damit die Rolle der Familienernährerin übernehmen.
Diese Infoplattform widmet sich den Bedingungen und Auswirkungen der Erwerbsentscheidung von Frauen sowie empirischen Studien, die sich mit der Arbeitsteilung der Partner im Haushaltskontext befassen.
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Literaturhinweis
Einfluss der Elternzeit von Vätern auf die familiale Arbeitsteilung im internationalen Vergleich (2011)
Zitatform
Boll, Christina, Julian Leppin & Nora Reich (2011): Einfluss der Elternzeit von Vätern auf die familiale Arbeitsteilung im internationalen Vergleich. (HWWI policy paper 59), Hamburg, 136 S.
Abstract
"Die Arbeitsteilung von Müttern und Vätern in Familie und Beruf hat sich in den letzten Jahrzehnten in den meisten Ländern verschoben. Mütter gehen zunehmend einer bezahlten Erwerbstätigkeit nach, und immer mehr Väter wollen Verantwortung für Familienaufgaben übernehmen. Es stellt sich daher die Frage, inwiefern diese Trends in der Zeitverwendung die traditionelle geschlechtsspezifische Rollenteilung verändert haben und ob Metavariablen auf der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Ebene wie die Frauenerwerbsquote oder aber auch familienpolitische Faktoren wie Regelungen zum Elterngeld die individuelle Zeitverwendung der Eltern beeinflusst haben." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku)
Weiterführende Informationen
Kurzfassung -
Literaturhinweis
Trading off or having it all?: completed fertility and mid-career earnings of Swedish men and women (2011)
Boschini, Anne; Sjögren, Anna; Hakanson, Christina; Rosen, Asa;Zitatform
Boschini, Anne, Christina Hakanson, Asa Rosen & Anna Sjögren (2011): Trading off or having it all? Completed fertility and mid-career earnings of Swedish men and women. (Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation. Working paper 2011,15), Uppsala, 47 S.
Abstract
"Earnings in mid-career and children are two fundamental outcomes of the life-choices of men and women. Both require time and other resources and reflect the accumulated priorities of individuals and couples. We explore how these outcomes have changed for Swedish men and women born 1945-1962 by documenting changes in education, assortative mating patterns, completed fertility and mid-career earnings. We find an overall increasing inequality in career and family outcomes of men, reflecting a rise in the family-career complementarity. For women, the family-career trade-off has eased for non-professionals, and there appears to be a convergence in the life-choices of women across education groups. Despite these different developments for men and women, we find that within-family specialization, measured by the average spousal earnings contribution, is remarkably stable through the period." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Child care availability, quality and affordability: are local problems related to labour supply? (2011)
Breunig, Robert; Weiss, Andrew; Mercante, Joseph; Yamauchi, Chikako; Gong, Xiaodong;Zitatform
Breunig, Robert, Andrew Weiss, Chikako Yamauchi, Xiaodong Gong & Joseph Mercante (2011): Child care availability, quality and affordability: are local problems related to labour supply? In: The Economic Record, Jg. 87, H. 276, S. 109-124. DOI:10.1111/j.1475-4932.2010.00707.x
Abstract
"We examine whether responses to survey questions about child care availability, quality and cost, aggregated at the local geographical level, have any explanatory power in models of partnered female and lone parent labour supply. We find evidence that partnered women and lone parents who live in areas with more reports of lack of availability, low quality or costly child care work fewer hours and are less likely to work than women in areas with fewer reported difficulties with child care." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Does housework lower wages?: evidence for Britain (2011)
Zitatform
Bryan, Mark L. & Almudena Sevilla-Sanz (2011): Does housework lower wages? Evidence for Britain. In: Oxford economic papers, Jg. 63, H. 1, S. 187-210. DOI:10.1093/oep/gpq011
Abstract
"This paper uses the British Household Panel Survey to present the first estimates of the housework-wage relationship in Britain. Controlling for permanent unobserved heterogeneity, we find that housework has a negative impact on the wages of men and women, both married and single, who work full-time. Among women working part-time, only single women suffer a housework penalty. The housework penalty is uniform across occupations within full-time jobs but some part-time jobs appear to be more compatible with housework than others. We find tentative evidence that the housework penalty is larger when there are children present." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Employer-provided health insurance and labor supply of married women (2011)
Cebi, Merve;Zitatform
Cebi, Merve (2011): Employer-provided health insurance and labor supply of married women. (Upjohn Institute working paper 171), Kalamazoo, MI, 31 S.
Abstract
"This work presents new evidence on the effect of husbands' health insurance on wives' labor supply. Previous cross-sectional studies have estimated a significant negative effect of spousal coverage on wives' labor supply. However, these estimates potentially suffer from bias due to the simultaneity of wives' labor supply and the health insurance status of their husbands. This paper attempts to obtain consistent estimates by using several panel data methods. In particular, the likely correlation between unobserved personal characteristics of husbands and wives - such as preferences for work - and potential joint job choice decisions can be controlled by using panel data on intact marriages. The findings, using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and the Current Population Survey, suggest that the negative effect of spousal coverage on labor supply found in cross-sections results mainly from spousal sorting and selection. Once unobserved heterogeneity is controlled for, a relatively smaller estimated effect of spousal coverage on wives' labor supply remains." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Family proximity, childcare, and women's labor force attachment (2011)
Compton, Janice; Pollak, Robert A.;Zitatform
Compton, Janice & Robert A. Pollak (2011): Family proximity, childcare, and women's labor force attachment. (NBER working paper 17678), Cambridge, Mass., 46 S. DOI:10.3386/w17678
Abstract
"We show that close geographical proximity to mothers or mothers-in-law has a substantial positive effect on the labor supply of married women with young children. We argue that the mechanism through which proximity increases labor supply is the availability of childcare. We interpret availability broadly enough to include not only regular scheduled childcare during work hours but also an insurance aspect of proximity (e.g., a mother or mother-in-law who can provide irregular or unanticipated childcare). Using two large datasets, the National Survey of Families and Households and the public use files of the U.S. Census, we find that the predicted probability of employment and labor force participation is 4-10 percentage points higher for married women with young children living in close proximity to their mothers or their mothers-in-law compared with those living further away." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Low-skilled immigration and the labor supply of highly skilled women (2011)
Cortés, Patricia; Tessada, José;Zitatform
Cortés, Patricia & José Tessada (2011): Low-skilled immigration and the labor supply of highly skilled women. In: American Economic Journal. Applied Economics, Jg. 3, H. 3, S. 88-123. DOI:10.1257/app.3.3.88
Abstract
"Low-skilled immigrants represent a significant fraction of employment in services that are close substitutes of household production. This paper studies whether the increased supply of low-skilled immigrants has led high-skilled women, who have the highest opportunity cost of time, to change their time-use decisions. Exploiting cross-city variation in immigrant concentration, we find that low-skilled immigration increases average hours of market work and the probability of working long hours of women at the top quartile of the wage distribution. Consistently, we find that women in this group decrease the time they spend in household work and increase expenditures on housekeeping services." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
How mothers and fathers share childcare: a cross-national time-use comparison (2011)
Zitatform
Craig, Lyn & Killian Mullan (2011): How mothers and fathers share childcare. A cross-national time-use comparison. In: American Sociological Review, Jg. 76, H. 6, S. 834-861. DOI:10.1177/0003122411427673
Abstract
"In most families today, childcare remains divided unequally between fathers and mothers. Scholars argue that persistence of the gendered division of childcare is due to multiple causes, including values about gender and family, disparities in paid work, class, and social context. It is likely that all of these factors interact, but to date researchers have not explored such interactions. To address this gap, we analyze nationally representative time-use data from Australia, Denmark, France, and Italy. These countries have different employment patterns, social and family policies, and cultural attitudes toward parenting and gender equality. Using data from matched married couples, we conduct a cross-national study of mothers' and fathers' relative time in childcare, divided along dimensions of task (i.e., routine versus non-routine activities) and co-presence (i.e., caring for children together as a couple versus caring solo). Results show that mothers' and fathers' work arrangements and education relate modestly to shares of childcare, and this relationship differs across countries. We find cross-national variation in whether more equal shares result from the behavior of mothers, fathers, or both spouses. Results illustrate the relevance of social context in accentuating or minimizing the impact of individual- and household-level characteristics." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
What adult worker model?: a critical look at recent social policy reform in Europe from a gender and family perspective (2011)
Zitatform
Daly, Mary (2011): What adult worker model? A critical look at recent social policy reform in Europe from a gender and family perspective. In: Social Politics, Jg. 18, H. 1, S. 1-23. DOI:10.1093/sp/jxr002
Abstract
"Analyses regularly feature claims that European welfare states are in the process of creating an adult worker model. The theoretical and empirical basis of this argument is examined here by looking first at the conceptual foundations of the adult worker model formulation and then at the extent to which social policy reform in western Europe fits with the argument. It is suggested that the adult worker formulation is under-specified. A framework incorporating four dimensions - the treatment of individuals vis-a -vis their family role and status for the purposes of social rights, the treatment of care, the treatment of the family as a social institution, and the extent to which gender inequality is problematized - is developed and then applied. The empirical analysis reveals a strong move towards individualization as social policy promotes and valorizes individual agency and self-sufficiency and shifts some childcare from the family. Yet evidence is also found of continued (albeit changed) familism. Rather than an unequivocal move to an individualized worker model then, a dual earner gender-specialized, family arrangement is being promoted. The latter is the middle way between the old dependencies and the new 'independence.' This makes for complexity and even ambiguity in policy, a manifestation of which is that reform within countries involves concurrent moves in several directions." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Dimensionen der Kinderlosigkeit in Deutschland (2011)
Dorbritz, Jürgen;Zitatform
Dorbritz, Jürgen (2011): Dimensionen der Kinderlosigkeit in Deutschland. In: Bevölkerungsforschung aktuell, Jg. 32, H. 3, S. 2-6.
Abstract
"Die Kinderlosigkeit in Deutschland erreicht - insbesondere in Westdeutschland - ein außerordentlich hohes Niveau. Beschränkten sich bisherige Analysen zur Kinderlosigkeit vor allem darauf, Größenordnungen und Trends in Deutschland abzubilden und Erklärungsansätze zu finden, so liegen nun mit dem Mikrozensus 2008 Daten vor, nach denen sich die tatsächlichen Größenordnungen der Kinderlosigkeit gut darstellen lassen. Erstmals wurde hier auch die Frage nach den tatsächlich geborenen Kindern aufgenommen, so dass weiterführende differentielle Analysen möglich geworden sind. Vor diesem Hintergrund stellt der Beitrag die Frage, welche Unterschiede in der sozialstrukturell differenzierten Analyse bei der Kinderlosigkeit aufgefunden werden und durch welche strukturellen Bedingungen sie erklärbar sind. Dabei werden die Merkmale Lebensform, Bildung, paarspezifische Erwerbskonstellation, Migrationshintergrund beziehungsweise -erfahrung, die Einkommenssituation sowie West-Ost-Unterschiede betrachtet. Es zeigt sich in der Analyse, dass sich ein genaues Bild der Kinderlosigkeit in Deutschland nur zeichnen lässt, wenn die Vielzahl dieser Einflussfaktoren beachtet wird. So entsteht beispielsweise die niedrigere Kinderlosigkeit im Osten durch das Zusammenwirken von strukturellen und kulturellen Faktoren, während im Westen Umstände gegeben sind - wie etwa noch stärker traditionelle Orientierungen beim Bild der Hausfrauenehe - die das Entstehen von Kinderlosigkeit begünstigen. Insgesamt scheint es eine Tatsache zu sein, dass sich der steigende Trend zu einem Leben ohne Kinder hin zu den jüngeren Geburtskohorten fortsetzt" (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku)
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Literaturhinweis
What would they do?: childcare under parental leave and reduced hour options (2011)
Drago, Robert;Zitatform
Drago, Robert (2011): What would they do? Childcare under parental leave and reduced hour options. In: Industrial relations, Jg. 50, H. 4, S. 610-628. DOI:10.1111/j.1468-232X.2011.00659.x
Abstract
"Time diary data are used to simulate the effects of parental leave and reduced hours arrangements on childcare time among parents of infants. Estimates suggest that coupled fathers would apply approximately 70 percent of working time reductions under leave or reduced hours to childcare. Both coupled and single mothers translate working time reductions into childcare at higher rates. The analysis highlights inequalities across lines of gender, marital status, and socioeconomic status associated with existing policies and suggests policy innovations to both raise parental investments in childcare time and reduce levels of inequality." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Do changing institutional settings matter?: educational attainment and family related employment interruptions in Germany (2011)
Zitatform
Drasch, Katrin (2011): Do changing institutional settings matter? Educational attainment and family related employment interruptions in Germany. (IAB-Discussion Paper 13/2011), Nürnberg, 33 S.
Abstract
"Auf Basis von Analysen mit Querschnittdaten wurde festgestellt, dass sich die Arbeitsmarktpartizipation von Frauen in Westdeutschland nach deren Bildungsgrad unterscheidet. In diesem Papier untersuche ich einen potentiellen, zugrundeliegenden Mechanismus: den Wiedereintritt von Müttern in den Arbeitsmarkt nach einer Inaktivitätsphase. Ich argumentiere, dass neben gesellschaftlichen Veränderungen die Reformen in der Gesetzgebung zu Erziehungszeiten für die bildungsspezifische Ungleichheitsentwicklung verantwortlich sein könnten. Die Ableitung der Hypothesen erfolgt aus der Humankapitaltheorie und der Arbeitsangebotstheorie. Hier wird eine rationale Handlungsweise der Frauen unterstellt. Mittels retrospektiver Lebensverlaufsdaten der IAB-ALWA Studie wird festgestellt, dass Frauen mit unterschiedlichem Bildungsniveau auch unter Berücksichtigung des Bildungsniveaus des Partners unterschiedliche Wiedereinstiegsmuster aufweisen. Schließlich spielen Regelungen zu Erziehungszeiten eine entscheidende Rolle für den Wiedereinstieg. Zudem gibt es Anzeichen für eine bildungsspezifische Polarisierung des Wiedereinstiegsverhaltens nach dem Jahr 2000." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku)
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Literaturhinweis
Schulergänzende Betreuung für Kinder: Status Quo und Beschäftigungswirkung. Expertise für die Geschäftsstelle des Zukunftsrats Familie (2011)
Eichhorst, Werner; Tobsch, Verena; Marx, Paul;Zitatform
Eichhorst, Werner, Paul Marx & Verena Tobsch (2011): Schulergänzende Betreuung für Kinder. Status Quo und Beschäftigungswirkung. Expertise für die Geschäftsstelle des Zukunftsrats Familie. (IZA research report 37), Bonn, 71 S.
Abstract
"Die vorliegende Studie zeigt, dass eine ausgebaute Mittags- und Nachmittagsbetreuung mit höherer Erwerbstätigkeit und längeren Arbeitszeiten der Mütter einhergeht. Die ganztägige Betreuung von Schulkindern ist damit ein wichtiger Baustein für die Vereinbarkeit von Familie und Beruf. Schulische und schulergänzende Ganztagsangebote vor allem im Grundschulalter sind erforderlich, um eine durchgängige Betreuung und damit kontinuierliche Erwerbsverläufe der Mütter zu erreichen. Dies verkürzt Erwerbsunterbrechungen und verhindert Einbußen beim Einkommen und die Entwertung von beruflich nutzbaren Qualifikationen. Der Ausbau der Ganztagsschulen ist deshalb nicht nur bildungspolitisch richtig, sondern auch unter dem Aspekt einer verstärkten Arbeitsmarktintegration von Müttern. Damit kann auch der Fachkräftemangel gelindert werden. Unsere Abschätzung des zusätzlichen Arbeitsangebots bei einer verlässlichen Mittags- und Nachmittagsbetreuung von Schulkindern zeigt vor allem Wirkungen auf bislang nicht erwerbstätige Mütter. Weniger bedeutend sind die marginalen Wirkungen auf die Arbeitszeit von bereits beschäftigten Müttern. Die Effekte sind überwiegend auf Westdeutschland beschränkt, wo die Betreuungssituation wesentlich stärker eingeschränkt ist als in Ostdeutschland." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku)
Weiterführende Informationen
Kurzfassung -
Literaturhinweis
Fertility, female labor supply, and family policy (2011)
Fehr, Hans; Ujhelyiova, Daniela;Zitatform
Fehr, Hans & Daniela Ujhelyiova (2011): Fertility, female labor supply, and family policy. (CESifo working paper 3455), München, 28 S.
Abstract
"The present paper develops a general equilibrium model with overlapping generations and endogenous fertility in order to analyze the interaction between public policy and household labor supply and fertility decisions. The model's benchmark equilibrium reflects the current family policy consisting of joint taxation of married couples, monetary transfers and in-kind benefits which reduce the time cost of children. Then we simulate alternative reforms of the tax and the child benefit system and analyze the long-run impact on fertility and female labor supply. Our simulations indicate three central results: First, policies which simply increase the family budget either via higher transfers (direct or in-kind) or via family splitting increase fertility but reduce female employment. Second, increasing tax revenues due to the introduction of individual taxation would increase female employment but reduce fertility. Third, revenue neutral policies such as a reform of the benefit structure or a move towards individual taxation combined with an increase in in-kind benefits may achieve both goals and therefore yield significant welfare gains." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Time for children: trends in the employment patterns of parents, 1967-2009 (2011)
Zitatform
Fox, Liana E., Wen-Jui Han, Christopher Ruhm & Jane Waldfogel (2011): Time for children. Trends in the employment patterns of parents, 1967-2009. (NBER working paper 17135), Cambridge, Mass., 37 S. DOI:10.3386/w17135
Abstract
"Utilizing data from the 1967-2009 years of the March Current Population Surveys, we examine two important resources for children's well-being: time and money. We document trends in parental employment, from the perspective of children, and show what underlies these trends. We find that increases in family work hours mainly reflect movements into jobs by parents who, in prior decades, would have remained at home. This increase in market work has raised incomes for children in the typical two-parent family but not for those in lone-parent households. Time use data from 1975 and 2003-2008 reveal that working parents spend less time engaged in primary childcare than their counterparts without jobs but more than employed peers in previous cohorts. Analysis of 2004 work schedule data suggests that non-daytime work provides an alternative method of coordinating employment schedules for some dual-earner families." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
Ähnliche Treffer
auch erschienen als: IZA discussion paper , 5761 -
Literaturhinweis
Times are changing: gender and generation at work and at home (2011)
Galinsky, Ellen; Bond, James T.; Aumann, Kerstin;Zitatform
Galinsky, Ellen, Kerstin Aumann & James T. Bond (2011): Times are changing. Gender and generation at work and at home. New York, NY, 24 S.
Abstract
"This is the first study released using data from the 2008 National Study of the Changing Workforce. The report reveals two striking trends about gender and generation when the study is compared to data from 1992. First, for the first time since questions about responsibility in the workplace have been asked, women and men under 29 years old did not differ in their desire for jobs with more responsibility. Second, the study demonstrates that long-term demographic changes are the driving force behind gender and generational trends at work and at home." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Not just maternalism: marriage and fatherhood in American welfare policy (2011)
Geva, Dorit;Zitatform
Geva, Dorit (2011): Not just maternalism. Marriage and fatherhood in American welfare policy. In: Social Politics, Jg. 18, H. 1, S. 24-51. DOI:10.1093/sp/jxr003
Abstract
"The United States' 1996 welfare reforms are often interpreted as a historical break in transitioning from supporting motherhood to commodifiying women's labor. However, this cannot account for welfare reform's emphasis upon heterosexual marriage and fatherhood promotion. The paper traces continuities and shifts in over a century of familial regulation through American welfare policy, specifying the place of marriage promotion within welfare policy. Up until 1996, families were key sites of intervention through which the American welfare state was erected, especially through single women as mothers - not wives. However, as of the 1960s, concern with African American men's 'failed' familial commitments turned policymakers toward concern over marriage promotion for women and men. While marriage 'disincentives' for aid recipients were lifted in the 1960s, the 1996 reforms structured a new form of nuclear family governance actively promoting marriage rooted in, but distinct from, the previous. Given the historical absence of welfare policies available to poor men, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families' (TANF) marriage promotion policies have positioned poor women as nodes connecting the state to poor men, simultaneously structuring poor women as breadwinners, mothers, and wives. Recent welfare reform has also started to target poor men directly, especially in fatherhood and marriage promotion initiatives. The article highlights how, in addition to workfare policies, marriage promotion is a neoliberal policy shifting risk to the shoulders of the poor, aiming to produce 'strong families' for the purposes of social security" (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Worktime regulations and spousal labour supply (2011)
Goux, Dominique; Petrongolo, Barbara; Maurin, Eric;Zitatform
Goux, Dominique, Eric Maurin & Barbara Petrongolo (2011): Worktime regulations and spousal labour supply. (IZA discussion paper 5639), Bonn, 43 S.
Abstract
"We investigate spillovers in spousal labour supply exploiting independent variation in hours worked generated by the introduction of the shorter workweek in France in the late 1990s. We find that female and male employees treated by the shorter legal workweek reduce their weekly labour supply by about 2 hours, and do not experience any reduction in their monthly earnings. While wives of treated men do not seem to adjust their working time at either the intensive or extensive margins, husbands of treated wives respond by cutting their workweek by about half an hour to one hour, according to specifications and samples. In particular, managers and professionals respond much more strongly to the shorter legal workweek in their wives' firms than men in lower occupations. These effects are consistent with the presence of significant cross-hour effects on labour supply for husbands, though not for wives." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Worktime regulations and spousal labor supply (2011)
Goux, Dominique; Maurin, Eric; Petrongolo, Barbara;Zitatform
Goux, Dominique, Eric Maurin & Barbara Petrongolo (2011): Worktime regulations and spousal labor supply. (CEP discussion paper 1096), London, 56 S.
Abstract
"We investigate cross-hour effects in spousal labor supply exploiting independent variation in hours worked generated by the introduction of the short workweek in France in the late 1990s. We find that female and male employees treated by the shorter legal workweek reduce their weekly labor supply by about 2 hours, and do not experience any reduction in their monthly earnings. While wives of treated men do not seem to adjust their working time at either the intensive or extensive margins, husbands of treated wives respond by cutting their labor supply by about half an hour to one hour per week, according to specifications and samples. Further tests reveal that husbands' labor supply response did not entail the renegotiation of usual hours with employers or changes in earnings, but involved instead a reduction in (unpaid) work involvement, whether within a given day, or through an increase in the take-up rate of paid vacation and/or sick leave. These margins of adjustment are shown to have no detrimental impact on men's (current) earnings. The estimated cross-hour effects are consistent with the presence of spousal leisure complementarity for husbands, though not for wives." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
The employment effects of recession on couples in the UK: women's and household employment prospects and partners' job loss (2011)
Harkness, Susan; Evans, Martin;Zitatform
Harkness, Susan & Martin Evans (2011): The employment effects of recession on couples in the UK. Women's and household employment prospects and partners' job loss. In: Journal of social policy, Jg. 40, H. 4, S. 675-693. DOI:10.1017/S0047279411000201
Abstract
"The effect that the 2008/09 recession has had on unemployment and, in particular, on the distribution of job losses across households is of key concern to policymakers. During the 1991 recession rising male unemployment was associated with a sharp increase in the number of workless households, with this polarisation of work between 'work-rich' and 'work-poor' persisting many years later. Part of the reason for this polarisation was that the design of the tax and benefit system produced weak work incentives for women partnered to unemployed men, particularly if the jobs open to them were either part time or low paid. Since 1999, the United Kingdom has undertaken reform of employment and transfer programmes, with a particular focus on boosting incomes and work incentives for families with children. The resulting literature focussed on the impact that these reforms had on women'smovements into employment. Since the economy entered recession in 2008, an increasingly important question is how have these reforms affected women's decisions to remain in employment (or enter into work) if their partner becomes unemployed. This paper uses Labour Force Survey data to assess the effect of male job loss on their partners' employment and to examine the implications for the distribution of jobs across households. Results suggest that working women whose partners lost their jobs in the 2008/09 recession were more likely to remain in work than before and this has helped to mediate the growth in workless couple households." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))