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Kang, Ji Young (2021): The Effects of Skill Regimes and Family Policies on the Gender Employment Gap. In: Social Politics, Jg. 28, H. 2, S. 359-384. DOI:10.1093/sp/jxz054

Abstract

"Drawing on the literature of gendering varieties of capitalism, this study empirically tests whether skill regimes moderate the association between family policy and the gender employment gap. Using the Luxembourg Income Study for fifteen countries with multilevel analysis and various gender employment indicators, this study finds that general skill regimes are associated with a smaller gender employment gap in full-time jobs, high-skilled jobs, and in the private sector. The effects of parental leave vary significantly by skill regimes, suggesting that patterns of gender employment gap associated with parental leave differ by types of skill regimes." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Kowalewska, Helen & Agnese Vitali (2021): Breadwinning or on the breadline? Female breadwinners' economic characteristics across 20 welfare states. In: Journal of European Social Policy, Jg. 31, H. 2, S. 125-142. DOI:10.1177/0958928720971094

Abstract

"In analysing heterosexual couples’ work–family arrangements over time and space, the comparative social policy literature has settled on the framework of the ‘male-breadwinner’ versus the ‘dual-earner’ family. Yet, in assuming men in couple-families are (full-time) employed, this framework overlooks another work–family arrangement, which is the ‘female-breadwinner’ couple. Including female-breadwinner couples matters because of their growing prevalence and, as our analysis shows, greater economic vulnerability. We perform descriptive and regression analyses of Luxembourg Income Study microdata to compare household incomes for female-breadwinner couples and other couple-types across 20 industrialized countries. We then consider how labour earnings and benefit incomes vary for ‘pure’ breadwinner couples – comprising one wage-earner and one inactive/unemployed partner – according to the gender of the breadwinner. We find that pure female breadwinners have lower average individual earnings than male breadwinners, even after controlling for sociodemographic characteristics and occupational and working-time differences. Furthermore, welfare systems across most countries are not working hard enough to compensate for the female breadwinner earnings penalty, including in social-democratic countries. Once controls are included in our regression models, it never happens that pure female breadwinners have higher disposable household incomes than pure male breadwinners. Thus, our study adds to a growing body of evidence showing that female-breadwinner families sit at the intersection of multiple disadvantages. In turn, these couples offer comparative scholars of the welfare state an ‘acid test’ case study for how effectively families are protected from social risk. Our results additionally highlight how cross-national differences in the female breadwinner income disadvantage do not fit neatly with established welfare typologies, suggesting that other factors – in particular, labour market characteristics and the economic cycle – are also at play." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Bautista Lacambra, Sergio (2020): Household labor supply: Collective results for certain developed countries. (MPRA paper 101514), München, 29 S.

Abstract

"This paper shows some empirical results for the collective labor supply of households in thirteen developed countries (USA, UK, Australia, Canada, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Russia, Japan, and China). I have reviewed a significant number of papers in order to aggregate information for future investigations. Among the conclusions obtained are a gender differential in labor supply when the household includes a child, and a greater level of female household production. This analysis shows that gender differences observed in other literature persist throughout the consulted literature." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Mandel, Hadas, Amit Lazarus & Maayan Shaby (2020): Economic Exchange or Gender Identities? Housework Division and Wives' Economic Dependency in Different Contexts. In: European Sociological Review, Jg. 36, H. 6, S. 831-851. DOI:10.1093/esr/jcaa023

Abstract

"This paper explores cross-country variation in the relationship between division of housework and wives' relative economic contribution. Using ISSP 2012 data from 19 countries, we examined the effect of two contextual factors: women's employment rates, which we link to economic exchange theories; and gender ideology context, which we link to cultural theories. In line with economic-based theories, economic exchange between housework and paid work occurs in all countries—but only in households which follow normative gender roles. However, and consistent with the cultural-based theory of 'doing gender', wives undertake more housework than their spouses in all countries—even if they are the main or sole breadwinners. This universal gendered division of housework is significantly more salient in more conservative countries; as the context turns more conservative, the gender gap becomes more pronounced, and the relationship between paid and unpaid work further removed from the economic logic. In gender egalitarian societies, in contrast, women have more power in negotiating housework responsibilities in non-normative gender role households. In contrast to gender ideology, the cross-country variations in women's employment did not follow the expectations that derive from the economic exchange theory." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Foster, Gigi & Leslie S. Stratton (2019): What women want (their men to do): Housework and Satisfaction in Australian Households. In: Feminist economics, Jg. 25, H. 3, S. 23-47. DOI:10.1080/13545701.2019.1609692

Abstract

"The time allocated to household chores is substantial, with the burden falling disproportionately upon women. Social norms about how much housework men and women should do are likely to influence couples' housework allocation decisions and satisfaction. Using Australian data spanning 2001 - 14, this study employs a two-stage estimation procedure to examine how deviations from housework norms relate to couples' satisfaction. The study finds that satisfaction is negatively affected by predicted housework time and that women's satisfaction, but not men's, is robustly affected by their partners' residual housework time. When he exceeds housework norms, she is happier with housework allocations, but less happy in broader dimensions. The study suggests several reasons for the results, including that housework is more salient in women's lives than in men's, that housework generally is not a preferred activity, and that some degree of gender-norm conformity in regard to housework can positively affect women's life satisfaction." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Huppatz, Kate, Kate Sang & Jemina Napier (2019): 'If you put pressure on yourself to produce then that's your responsibility': Mothers' experiences of maternity leave and flexible work in the neoliberal university. In: Gender, work & organization, Jg. 26, H. 6, S. 772-788. DOI:10.1111/gwao.12314

Abstract

"Women remain underrepresented in senior positions within universities and report barriers to career progression. Drawing on the concepts of Foucault and Bourdieu, with an emphasis on technologies of the self, this article aims to understand mothers' academic career experiences. Interviews were conducted with 35 non-STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine) academics in Scotland and Australia, to reveal the gender dimensions of parents' academic careers, in neoliberal university contexts. The data suggest that there are tensions between organizational policies, such as maternity leave and flexible work, and the contemporary demands of academic labour. New managerial discourses which individualize and make use of moral systems are particularly effectual in driving women to take up marketized research activity and compromise leave entitlements." (Author's abstract, Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons) ((en))

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Cai, Lixin (2018): Dynamic labour supply of married Australian women. In: Labour, Jg. 32, H. 3, S. 427-450. DOI:10.1111/labr.12122

Abstract

"Using the first 13 waves of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey, this study investigates the determinants of labour supply of married Australian women, with a focus on whether and to what extent there is state dependence in their labour supply. It is found that both observed and unobserved individual heterogeneity contribute to the observed inter-temporal persistence of married Australian women's labour supply, but the persistence remains even after controlling for these factors. It is also found that non-labour income, age, education, health and the number and age of young dependent children have significant effects on married Australian women's labour supply." (Author's abstract, Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons) ((en))

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Foster, Gigi & Leslie S. Stratton (2018): Does female breadwinning make partnerships less healthy or less stable? (GLO discussion paper / Global Labor Organization 259), Maastricht, 13 S.

Abstract

"This paper addresses the directions to follow when designing new educational systems and school-lo-work transition regimes to adhere to the needs of Industry 4. 0. Although a high level of general education will be important for its training content to develop adaptability, it is not the only component to develop. What will be more and more important are work related skills, both the general ones and the ones which are job-specific and need, therefore, on-the-job training to develop. This will require important educational reforms to favour an ever-better integration between educational institution and the world of work. Young people and their families alone will not be able to adapt on their own to the new human capital requirements of industry 4.0 productions. A new framework for an integrated action by governments, firms, educational institutions and families is needed to smooth the school-to-work in the future. The duality principle is the basis for a strong diversification of the supply of education." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Hu, Yang & Deniz Yucel (2018): What Fairness? Gendered Division of Housework and Family Life Satisfaction across 30 Countries. In: European Sociological Review, Jg. 34, H. 1, S. 92-105. DOI:10.1093/esr/jcx085

Abstract

"This article sheds new light on the role played by perceived fairness in configuring the relationship between gendered housework division and women's family life satisfaction across 30 countries. This is achieved by distinguishing and comparing two major dimensions of women's fairness comparison -- inter-gender relational comparison between partners and intra-gender referential comparison with other women from the same society. Analysing data from the 2012 International Social Survey Programme, we find that women's family life satisfaction is adversely affected by both a lack of relational fairness and unfavourable referential comparison, which operate independently of each other. Supporting the 'self-serving' theory, women are found to rely more on one dimension of fairness comparison to assess their family life satisfaction when they compare unfavourably rather than favourably in the other dimension. Country-level gender equality positively predicts the strength of the association between relational fairness and family life satisfaction. However, it does not seem to moderate the influence of referential comparison on family life satisfaction. In light of these results, scholars are urged to consider the perceived fairness of housework division as a plural construct, and to promulgate gender equality in multiple dimensions -- addressing not just inter-gender (in)equity but also intra-gender (in)equality -- to move the gender revolution forward." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Stier, Haya, Noah Lewin-Epstein & Michael Braun (2018): Institutional change and women's work patterns along the family life course. In: Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, Jg. 57, H. October, S. 46-55. DOI:10.1016/j.rssm.2018.07.001

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Altintas, Evrim & Oriel Sullivan (2017): Trends in fathers' contribution to housework and childcare under different welfare policy regimes. In: Social Politics, Jg. 24, H. 1, S. 81-108. DOI:10.1093/sp/jxw007

Abstract

"This article brings up to date welfare regime differences in the time fathers spend on childcare and core housework, using Multinational Time Use Study data (1971 - 2010) from fifteen countries. Although Nordic fathers continue to set the bar, the results provide some support for the idea of a catch-up in core housework among Southern regime fathers. The results also suggest an increasing polarization in Liberal countries, whereby fathers who were meaningfully involved in family life were increasingly likely to spend more time doing core housework and, particularly, childcare. Fathers living in Corporatist countries have been least responsive to change." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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White, Linda A. (2017): Which ideas, whose norms? Comparing the relative influence of international organizations on paid maternity and parental leave policies in liberal welfare states. In: Social Politics, Jg. 24, H. 1, S. 55-80. DOI:10.1093/sp/jxw010

Abstract

"This article examines the adoption of paid maternity and parental leave policies in the liberal welfare states of Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom and investigates the domestic and international sources of policy ideas. Through comparative analysis using mainly qualitative techniques of analysis of primary and secondary sources and elite interviews, the article examines the decision-making processes in each of these jurisdictions. It finds the relative influence of international organizations to be rather limited in comparison to domestic sources of influence, including the election of leftist governments under sympathetic party leaders and in the context of human capital concerns." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Mahon, Rianne, Christina Bergqvist & Deborah Brennan (2016): Social policy change: work-family tensions in Sweden, Australia and Canada. In: Social policy and administration, Jg. 50, H. 2, S. 165-182. DOI:10.1111/spol.12209

Abstract

"The rise of the adult worker family norm across countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has created challenges for reconciling work and family life as the unpaid work of the female caregiver can no longer be assumed. The article compares childcare arrangements and maternity/parental leave programmes in Sweden, Australia and Canada that attempt to address these challenges. Sweden was an early innovator, establishing the 'gold standard' for such arrangements in the form of publicly funded, universally accessible, centre-based childcare and generously paid parental leave, including a 'daddy quota'. Yet policy development remains open to contestation and change even here. Australia and Canada have shown a preference for market-based solutions although each has taken steps towards Swedish style solutions. In particular, Canadian federalism has left space for such experiments at the provincial scale. The broader institutional arrangements embedded in each country have helped to shape the responses. Yet political contestation, enlivened by the transnational flow of ideas (and ideals), has played an important role in shaping the direction and velocity of change. In the first section we develop this argument, beginning with reflections on how to identify the significance of changes, then moving on to explore the role of institutions, actors and ideas in accounting for these developments. Subsequent sections examine developments first in Sweden then Australia and Canada." (Author's abstract, Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons) ((en))

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Andrienko, Yuri, Patricia Apps & Ray Rees (2015): Gender bias in tax systems based on household income. In: Annals of economics and statistics H. 117/118, S. 141-155. DOI:10.15609/annaeconstat2009.117-118.141

Abstract

"The assumption that household income is strongly and positively correlated with a household's real standard of living provides the basis for the joint taxation of families, which has the effect of discriminating against married women as second earners. This paper shows, in the context of a model of the household with young children present, that this assumption is not tenable. The fact that there is considerable heterogeneity in female labour supply which cannot be explained by wage rates and the number and ages of children requires us to look for other explanations, and we argue that these can be found in the variation of child care costs and productivities across households. When these are taken into account, we show, by theoretical modelling and numerical simulations based on survey data, that household income is a poor indicator of household well-being." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Kleider, Hanna (2015): Paid and unpaid work. The impact of social policies on the gender division of labour. In: Journal of European social policy, Jg. 25, H. 5, S. 505-520. DOI:10.1177/0958928715610996

Abstract

"The varieties of capitalism (VOC) literature has offered one of the most influential explanations for cross-national variation in the gender division of labour. It argues that labour markets, which privilege specific as opposed to general skills, have a negative effect on women's employment and impede an egalitarian division of household labour. This article revisits one of the most prominent VOC studies: Iversen and Rosenbluth's empirical analysis of the 1994 International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) survey on gender relations. I argue that a gendered welfare perspective provides an alternative and more compelling explanation for the same outcomes. In my empirical analysis, I re-analyse Iversen and Rosenbluth's study using the more recent 2002 ISSP survey on gender relations. The empirical results lend little support to the VOC approach and show that a gendered welfare state perspective, measured using a novel summary index of defamilialization, explains the observed outcomes better. The evidence in support for the VOC explanation disappears when controlling for defamilializing social policies. This suggests that a previous VOC work on the gender division of labour has suffered from omitting crucial social policy controls. This article substantiates earlier critiques of VOC that have questioned its usefulness as an explanatory framework for gender-relevant outcomes." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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McGinn, Kathleen L., Elizabeth Long Lingo & Mayra Ruiz Castro (2015): Mums the word! Cross-national effects of maternal employment on gender inequalities at work and at home. (Harvard Business School. Working paper 094), Boston, Mass., 43 S.

Abstract

"Our research considers how inequalities in public and the private spheres are affected by childhood exposure to non-traditional gender role models at home. We test the association between being raised by an employed mother and adult men's and women's outcomes at work and at home. Our analyses rely on national level archival data from multiple sources and individual level survey data collected as part of the International Social Survey Programme in 2002 and 2012 from nationally representative samples of men and women in 24 countries. Adult daughters of employed mothers are more likely to be employed, more likely to hold supervisory responsibility if employed, work more hours, and earn marginally higher wages than women whose mothers stayed home fulltime. The effects on labor market outcomes are non-significant for men. Maternal employment is also associated with adult outcomes at home. Sons raised by an employed mother spend more time caring for family members than men whose mothers stayed home fulltime, and daughters raised by an employed mother spend less time on housework than women whose mothers stayed home fulltime. Our findings reveal the potential for non-traditional gender role models to gradually erode gender inequality in homes and labor markets." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Carney, Tanya & Anne Junor (2014): How do occupational norms shape mothers' career and caring options? In: The journal of industrial relations, Jg. 56, H. 4, S. 465-487. DOI:10.1177/0022185614538442

Abstract

"Occupationally-differentiated patterns of paid work arrangements help shape the extent to which mothers of children under the age of 16 have access to both career and caring security (stable paid jobs with career prospects that also guarantee the ongoing capacity to provide and arrange high-quality care for children). Five sets of conditions critical to mothers' work and caring security are: contracts providing two-way mobility between full-time and part-time work; actual hours worked; work scheduling; work location; and contractual security. Occupations can be clustered into 'shapes', based on the relative mother-friendliness of different ways in which they combine these conditions. Some shapes provide both employment security and caring security; others involve types of 'flexibility focusing a trade-off between the two types of security. Data for 64 occupations, taken from early waves of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics of Australia (HILDA) Survey, were used to identify statistical norms for key aspects of each employment condition, and also the strength of these norms - that is, how flexible they were, for better or worse. These occupational norms and strengths were assumed to reflect regulatory standards or commonly accepted organisational practices. The 64 occupations could be grouped into five shapes that were associated with different concentrations of mothers. Occupational 'shapes' may thus act as barriers or enablers to mothers' labour market transitions. They may tend to exclude mothers by denying caring security; allow employment maintenance based on a trade between caring and career security; or enable full occupational integration by providing both forms of security. The concept of shapes aids theoretical understanding of the mechanisms of occupational segregation and labour market segmentation, and may aid the targeting of regulatory interventions to improve mothers' access to both career and caring security." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Guest, Ross & Nick Parr (2013): Family policy and couples' labour supply. An empirical assessment. In: Journal of population economics, Jg. 26, H. 4, S. 1631-1660. DOI:10.1007/s00148-012-0421-0

Abstract

"This paper empirically examines the effect on couples' labour supply of a universal at-birth cash benefit and a government subsidy equal to 50% of child care expenditure for working parents. The method is first to simulate the effects on labour supply over the adult lifecycle using a calibrated dynamic utility maximisation model of a representative couple, using data drawn from waves of a longitudinal survey for Australia. Then using the same data, the effect of family benefits and the child care subsidy on couples' hours worked is econometrically estimated. The 50% child care subsidy was found to increase the average couple's labour supply by the equivalent of 0.75 to 1 h per week whilst children are of pre-school age, and less on average over the couple's working lifetime. The cash benefit changes were found to have a negligible effect on labour supply." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Mavromaras, Kostas & Rong Zhu (2013): Labour force participation of mature age men in Australia. The role of spousal participation. (IZA discussion paper 7581), Bonn, 26 S.

Abstract

"In this paper we estimate the interdependence of labour force participation decisions made by Australian couples from 2001 to 2011. We focus on couples with a mature age husband, and estimate the interdependence of the participation decision of the couple. We find that the decision of a wife to work or not influences positively, and in a causal fashion, the decision of her husband to work or not. In our paper we use counterfactual analysis to estimate the impact of the increasing labour force participation of a wife on her husband's participation. We find that the increased labour force participation of married women observed between 2002 and 2011 has been responsible for about a 4 percentage points increase in the participation of their mature age husbands." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Craig, Lyn & Killian Mullan (2012): Australian fathers' work and family time in comparative and temporal perspective. In: Journal of family studies, Jg. 18, H. 2/3, S. 165-174. DOI:10.5172/jfs.2012.18.2-3.165

Abstract

"Expectations of fathers have moved from being financial providers to also taking an active, hands-on role in the care of children. What does this mean for contemporary Australian fathers' time commitments to work and family? This paper draws together studies using time use data from Australia, USA, France, Italy and Denmark to show change and continuity in Australian fathers' time over the period 1992 - 2006, and how they currently compare with fathers in the other countries. It discusses the policy context of each country, which may inform fathering norms and behavior, and looks at their employment time, their housework, the specific childcare activities they undertake, and how they share childcare with mothers in relative terms. The research shows gender disparities remain wide, but despite long work hours, Australian fathers are high care participants in world terms, their childcare time is going up, and they are increasing their repertoire of care activities." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))