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Castro-García, Carmen & Maria Pazos-Moran (2016): Parental leave policy and gender equality in Europe. In: Feminist economics, Jg. 22, H. 3, S. 51-73. DOI:10.1080/13545701.2015.1082033

Abstract

"This article uses data from 2008 - 10 to analyze parental leave policies in twenty-one European countries and their influence on men's behavior. It examines entitlement characteristics, such as nontransferability, duration, payment, compulsory period, and other policies to assess their effect on the proportion of leave men use out of the total parental leave in each country. The findings, which suggest that a large majority of men take nontransferable and highly paid leave, and a small minority take other types, provide the basis for developing the Parental Leave Equality Index (PLEI). PLEI ranks countries by the degree to which parental leave policies reinforce or diminish the gendered division of labor. Results indicate that although Iceland's parental leave policies do the most to advance gender equity, no country has equal, nontransferable, and well-paid leave for each parent. This policy arrangement would be a precondition to men's and women's equal participation in childcare." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Davaki, Konstantina (2016): Differences in men's and women's work, care and leisure time. Study for the FEMM committee. Brüssel, 63 S. DOI:10.2861/381996

Abstract

"The economic crisis has profoundly affected the labour market and private life of men and women. This study examines the interrelation of policies with the ways women and men allocate time to paid work, care and leisure and the gendered outcomes produced in different socio-economic and cultural settings. It shows that policies are powerful tools which can contribute to a better work-life balance and transform gender roles in accordance to the targets of EU2020 strategy and EU28 commitment to gender equality." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Feldman, Karie & Brian K. Gran (2016): Is what's best for dads best for families? Paternity leave policies and equity across forty-four nations. In: Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, Jg. 43, H. 1, S. 95-119.

Abstract

"In a global economy, paternity leave policies represent one of the most significant expansions of the welfare state that seek to help fathers respond to socio-economic pressures on their work and families. Policy makers who strongly promote socio-economic equity may respond to these global changes with new policy formulae meant to encourage involvement of fathers in their families. Nevertheless, scholars have limited understanding of who benefits from paternity leave policies and what these benefits mean to families. The present study is a comparative analysis of paternity leave policies across forty-four countries. This paper first presents a typology of paternity leave policies. This typology consists of seven criteria that range from duration of benefits to amount of benefits to employment security. This typology is then applied to forty-four countries. The present study demonstrates that a surprisingly small number of countries are devoted to family equity." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Gielen, Anne C., Jessica Holmes & Caitlin Myers (2016): Prenatal testosterone and the earnings of men and women. In: The Journal of Human Resources, Jg. 51, H. 1, S. 30-61. DOI:10.3368/jhr.51.1.30

Abstract

"Testosterone, which induces sexual differentiation of the male fetus, is believed to transfer from males to their littermates in placental mammals. Among humans, individuals with a male twin have been found to exhibit greater masculinization of sexually dimorphic attributes relative to those with a female twin. We therefore regard twinning as a plausible natural experiment to test the link between prenatal exposure to testosterone and labor market earnings. For men, the results suggest positive returns to testosterone exposure. For women, however, the results indicate that prenatal testosterone does not generate higher earnings and may even be associated with modest declines." (Author's abstract, © the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System) ((en))

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Dulk, Laura den (2016): Working time options over the life course. New regulations and empirical findings in five European countries. (WSI study 07), Düsseldorf, 136 S.

Abstract

"Sie stellt den aktuellen Stand der Regulierung von Arbeitszeitoptionen für eine lebensphasenorientierte Arbeitszeitgestaltung in fünf europäischen Ländern vor: Wissenschaftler/innen aus den Niederlanden, Schweden, Norwegen, Polen und der Tschechischen Republik gehen auf das Angebot an flexiblen Arbeitszeitarrangements per Gesetz und per Tarifvertrag ein und zeigen Zusammenhänge zur Geschlechtergleichstellung auf.
Zu finden sind die neuesten Daten zur Verfügbarkeit von Teilzeit, Elternzeit, Vaterschaftsurlaub und anderer Auszeiten. Die Wissenschaftler/innen stellen Forschungsergebnisse zur Nutzung der Optionen in den jeweiligen Ländern vor und behandeln die Veränderungen der letzten Jahre.
So gibt es in Ländern, in denen bisher feste Arbeitszeiten vorherrschten (Polen und Tschechische Republik) eine gewisse Zunahme von Arbeitszeitoptionen. Auch in diesen Ländern wird ein zunehmender Druck deutlich, das alte Arbeitszeitregime zu flexibilisieren.
In allen Ländern (Ausnahme: Schweden) zeigen sich Bestrebungen, flexible Arbeitszeiten (noch stärker) für wirtschaftliche Ziele nutzbar zu machen, das heißt, arbeitgeber- oder betriebsbezogene Flexibilität auszuweiten.
Die wenigen Studien, die zur Praxis der Nutzung von Arbeitszeitoptionen vorliegen, deuten darauf hin, dass in vielen Fällen die Einführung der Optionen nicht von einer Veränderung der betrieblichen Kultur begleitet war." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku)

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McDaniel, Anne (2016): The role of cultural contexts in explaining cross-national gender gaps in stem expectations. In: European Sociological Review, Jg. 32, H. 1, S. 122-133. DOI:10.1093/esr/jcv078

Abstract

"In recent decades, women have made impressive inroads in education and the labour market in most countries; yet, they often remain under-represented in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) professions. One way to understand women's under-representation in STEM is to examine how boys and girls develop their career expectations during adolescence, as this is a critical time when individuals begin to plan their futures. Prior cross-national research finds that gender stratification in education, work, and politics in a country affects the size of male-favourable gender gaps on math and science achievement tests for adolescents. Countries with more gender equality have smaller gender gaps in math and science. But, it is unknown how gender stratification or cultural ideologies impact the development of boys' and girls' STEM career expectations. Do countries with less gender equality have smaller male-favourable gender gaps in STEM career expectations? Do countries with less gender egalitarian have larger male-favourable gender gaps in STEM career expectations? Using data on student's occupational expectations from the 2006 Program for International Student Assessment and data on country-level gender stratification and genderegalitarian ideologies from the World Bank and European Values Survey, I study the gender gap in 15-year- olds' expectations to enter a STEM career across 24 countries." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Moilanen, Sanna, Vanessa May, Eija Räikkönen, Eija Sevón & Marja-Leena Laakso (2016): Mothers' non-standard working and childcare-related challenges. A comparison between lone and coupled mothers. In: The international journal of sociology and social policy, Jg. 36, H. 1/2, S. 36-52. DOI:10.1108/IJSSP-11-2014-0094

Abstract

"Purpose
- The purpose of this paper is to particularly focus on lone-mother families, comparing the childcare-related challenges experienced by working lone mothers and coupled mothers in three European countries in the context of a 24/7 economy and non-standard working hours (e.g. evening, night and weekend work).
Design/methodology/approach
- This study utilises survey data from Finnish, Dutch and British working mothers (n=1,106) collected as part of the 'Families 24/7' research project. Multivariate regression analysis is used to analyse the associations between childcare-related challenges, maternal non-standard working, lone motherhood and country of residence.
Findings
- The results indicated similar results across the three countries by showing that working lone mothers experience childcare-related challenges more often compared with coupled mothers. Furthermore, an increase in maternal non-standard working associated positively with increased childcare-related challenges in both lone mother and coupled families but lone motherhood did not moderate this association. The findings suggest that, regardless of family form, families in all three countries struggle with childcare arrangements when the mother works during non-standard hours. This possibly relates to the inadequate provision of state-subsidised and flexible formal childcare during non-standard hours and to the country-specific maternal work hours cultures.
Originality/value
- This study responds to the need for comparative research on the reconciliation of maternal non-standard working and childcare with self-collected data from three European welfare states. The importance of the study is further highlighted by the risks posed to the maintenance of maternal employment and family well-being when reconciliation of work and childcare is unsuccessful, especially in lone-mother families." (Author's abstract, © Emerald Group) ((en))

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Olivetti, Claudia & Barbara Petrongolo (2016): The evolution of gender gaps in industrialized countries. In: Annual review of economics, Jg. 8, S. 405-434. DOI:10.1146/annurev-economics-080614-115329

Abstract

"Women in developed economies have made major advancements in labor markets throughout the past century, but remaining gender differences in pay and employment seem remarkably persistent. This article documents long-run trends in female employment, working hours, and relative wages for a wide cross section of developed economies. It reviews existing work on the factors driving gender convergence, and novel perspectives on remaining gender gaps. Finally, the article emphasizes the interplay between gender trends and the evolution of the industry structure. Based on a shift-share decomposition, it shows that the growth in the service share can explain at least half of the overall variation in female hours, both over time and across countries." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Olivetti, Claudia & Barbara Petrongolo (2016): The evolution of gender gaps in industrialized countries. (IZA discussion paper 9659), Bonn, 47 S.

Abstract

"Women in developed economies have made major inroads in labor markets throughout the past century, but remaining gender differences in pay and employment seem remarkably persistent. This paper documents long-run trends in female employment, working hours and relative wages for a wide cross-section of developed economies. It reviews existing work on the factors driving gender convergence, and novel perspectives on remaining gender gaps. The paper finally emphasizes the interplay between gender trends and the evolution of the industry structure. Based on a shift-share decomposition, it shows that the growth in the service share can explain at least half of the overall variation in female hours, both over time and across countries." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Piasna, Agnieszka & Anke C. Plagnol (2016): Arbeitsplatzqualität und weibliche Erwerbsbeteiligung in Europa. In: WSI-Mitteilungen, Jg. 69, H. 4, S. 273-282. DOI:10.5771/0342-300X-2016-4-273

Abstract

"Zahlreiche Untersuchungen belegen, dass die Entscheidung zur beruflichen Weiterarbeit nach der Familiengründung einerseits von persönlichen Umständen abhängt, wie der Notwendigkeit, zum Haushaltseinkommen beizutragen, andererseits aber auch von institutionellen Einflussgrößen wie dem Angebot an erschwinglichen Kinderbetreuungsplätzen. Ergänzend hierzu untersuchen wir anhand von Daten des European Working Conditions Surveys, inwieweit die Qualität der Arbeitsplätze die Erwerbsbiografie von Frauen in den EU-27-Ländern beeinflusst. Unsere Analyse betrachtet drei Einzeldimensionen: Arbeitsplatzsicherheit, Arbeitszeitqualität und intrinsische Arbeitsqualität. Wir stellen fest, dass die Arbeitsplatzqualität von Müttern kleiner Kinder im Schnitt höher ist als die von Frauen ohne betreuungspflichtige Kinder, insbesondere hinsichtlich Arbeitszeit und Beschäftigungssicherheit. Die Untersuchungsergebnisse belegen für die gesamte EU-27 einen weitgehend einheitlichen Zusammenhang zwischen dem Status von Frauen als Mütter kleiner Kinder und der Arbeitsplatzqualität." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku)

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Pollmann-Schult, Matthias (2016): What mothers want: The impact of structural and cultural factors on mothers' preferred working hours in Western Europe. In: Advances in life course research, Jg. 29, H. September, S. 16-25. DOI:10.1016/j.alcr.2015.11.002

Abstract

"This study investigates how social policies, gender norms, and the national working time regime shape mothers' preferred working hours. Using data from the European Social Survey (ESS) for 15 countries across Western Europe, the study reveals that generous public child care and cultural support for gender equality are associated with smaller gaps in the preferred working hours between mothers and childless women. High levels of financial support for families, in contrast, predict larger gaps in preferred working hours. The analysis also indicates that a low prevalence of non-standard work and high levels of work-time flexibility reduce the differences in preferred employment hours between mothers and non-mothers. Individual characteristics such as education, gender ideology, and the partners' socioeconomic status greatly impact women's preferred employment hours; however, they do not modify the effect of motherhood. This study concludes that the impact of parenthood on women's employment hours is highly contingent upon various institutional and cultural factors." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku)

Abstract

"Time and time again it has been proven that more diverse organisations not only outperform those which are less diverse, but are also most likely to attract and retain the most talented professionals.
In addition, the link between women in the workplace and a country's economic growth is closely connected. Despite this, globally women are not paid or rewarded equally to their male colleagues and remain underrepresented in the workplace, as well as proportionally less represented in senior roles.
In compiling this report and recommendations, we spoke to over 11,500 women and men, asking their opinion and views on women in the world of work today.
While the findings vary by country and by sector, we have discovered common themes and sometimes surprising results about what can be done by business leaders today to ensure that women continue to advance in their careers and achieve better representation at senior levels. Our findings are also accompanied with insight from a number of successful women at the top of their professions, who share their experience from both a personal and professional perspective. Although gender diversity has improved and we have seen less of a disparity in the views and experiences between men and women, when compared to our 2015 report, our research shows that organisations can still do significantly more to narrow the gap. They hold the key to advancing women in the workplace and have an opportunity and responsibility to close the gender divide.
This report has been compiled using data gathered between November 2015 and January 2016. The findings of our gender diversity report are based on a survey of over 11,500 male and female respondents from across the world (57% female, 42% male and 1% preferring not to say).
We have used country specific data where there was a minimum of 100 responses per country: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Begall, Katia & Daniela Grunow (2015): Labour force transitions around first childbirth in the Netherlands. In: European Sociological Review, Jg. 31, H. 6, S. 697-712. DOI:10.1093/esr/jcv068

Abstract

"This study analyses labour market transitions of women in the time around first childbirth. Two employment decisions are considered: exiting the labour force and a reduction in work hours. We assess change in these transitions in the Netherlands between 1970 and 2008. We test whether policy changes, in particular the introduction of unpaid parental leave, have changed the opportunity costs of specific work - family arrangements for women and their partners. We use detailed life-history couple data and estimate multinomial logit models. Our results show that over time, new mothers became less likely to exit the labour market and more likely to reduce their working hours. Eligibility for parental leave and public sector employment reduced the probability of exiting the labour market, but had no effect on reducing working hours. In the 1990s and for those eligible for parental leave, the likelihood that a working hour reduction was associated with a lower job level or an employer change decreased. New mothers with an occupational status at least as high as that of their male partner were less likely to reduce their labour supply. Policy changes did not alter the importance of partners' relative occupational resources." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Bettendorf, Leon J. H., Egbert L. W. Jongen & Paul Muller (2015): Childcare subsidies and labour supply. Evidence from a large Dutch reform. In: Labour Economics, Jg. 36, H. October, S. 112-123. DOI:10.1016/j.labeco.2015.03.007

Abstract

"After the introduction of the Law on Childcare in 2005, childcare subsidies in the Netherlands became much more generous. Public spending on childcare increased from 1 to 3 billion euro over the period 2004-2009. Using a differences-in-differences strategy we find that, despite the substantial budgetary outlay, this reform had only a modest impact on employment. Furthermore, the rather small effects we find are likely confounded by a coincident increase in the EITC for parents with young children of 0.6 billion euro, which presumably also served to increase the labour supply of the group. The joint reform increased the maternal employment rate by 2.3 percentage points (3.0%) and maternal hours worked by 1.1 h per week (6.2%). The results further suggest that the reform slightly reduced hours worked by fathers." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Cascio, Elizabeth U., Steven J. Haider & Helena Skyt Nielsen (2015): The effectiveness of policies that promote labor force participation of women with children. A collection of national studies. In: Labour economics, Jg. 36, H. October, S. 64-71. DOI:10.1016/j.labeco.2015.08.002

Abstract

"Numerous countries have enacted policies to promote the labor force participation of women around the years of childbearing, and unsurprisingly, many research articles have been devoted to evaluating their effectiveness. Perhaps more surprisingly, however, six such articles were submitted independently over several months to Labour Economics and subsequently made it through the normal review process. These articles are collected in the Special Section that follows. This article provides additional background to facilitate the understanding of the policies that are evaluated in the Special Section articles and, more importantly, a discussion of what can be learned from the articles as a collection. Taken together, the articles are quite informative in demonstrating how the effectiveness of policies can vary across different national contexts and how this variation itself can be usefully examined with the standard theoretical framework." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Dieckhoff, Martina, Vanessa Gash & Nadia Steiber (2015): Measuring the effect of institutional change on gender inequality in the labour market. In: Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, Jg. 39, H. March, S. 59-75. DOI:10.1016/j.rssm.2014.12.001

Abstract

"This article examines the differential impact of labour market institutions on women and men. It carries out longitudinal analyses using repeat cross-sectional data from the EU Labour Force Survey 1992 - 2007 as well as time series data that measure institutional change over the same period. The results contribute to the literature on gendered employment, adding important insights into the impact of labour market institutions over and above family policies that have been the focus of most prior studies on the topic. We find differential effects of institutional change on male and female outcome. Our findings challenge the neo-classical literature on the topic. While our results suggest that men benefit more clearly than women from increases in employment protection, we do not find support for the neo-classical assertion that strong trade unions decrease female employment. Instead, increasing union strength is shown to have beneficial effects for both men's and women's likelihood of being employed on the standard employment contract. Furthermore, in line with other researchers, we find that rising levels of in kind state support to families improve women's employment opportunities." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Guetto, Raffaele, Ruud Luijkx & Stefani Scherer (2015): Religiosity, gender attitudes and women's labour market participation and fertility decisions in Europe. In: Acta sociologica, Jg. 58, H. 2, S. 155-172. DOI:10.1177/0001699315573335

Abstract

"The Second Demographic Transition (SDT) theory underlines the importance of changing values and attitudes to explain the trend toward low fertility and raising female labour market participation. We contribute to this debate comparing religiosity and gender attitudes over several European countries using three waves of the European Values Study (1990, 1999 and 2008). By dealing with the issues of measurement invariance and endogeneity between values and behaviour, our results support some critiques of the SDT theory. The pace of the process of sociocultural change has not been the same across European countries and the forerunners of the SDT, that is, the most secularized and gender-egalitarian societies, now have the highest female labour market participation rates and the highest fertility. We provide evidence for a 'macro - micro paradox' regarding the role of values on family behaviours. Religiosity is positively correlated with fertility and housewifery, while gender attitudes are only correlated with women's labour market decisions. These correlations are stronger in more traditional countries, even if aggregate fertility is lower. We stress the necessity to integrate cultural and structural explanations, suggesting the lack of family policies and the rigidity of the family formation process as possible mechanisms to unravel this paradox." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Khoudja, Yassine & Fenella Fleischmann (2015): Ethnic differences in female labour force participation in the Netherlands. Adding gender role attitudes and religiosity to the explanation. In: European Sociological Review, Jg. 31, H. 1, S. 91-102. DOI:10.1093/esr/jcu084

Abstract

"Female labour force participation varies greatly between different ethnic groups, but previous research on human capital and household conditions has not been able to fully explain these differences. Using large-scale representative survey data of four ethnic minority groups and the Dutch majority in the Netherlands, we add gender role attitudes and religiosity to the explanatory model. The results of heterogeneous choice models and interval regressions show that the predicted negative effects of traditional gender role attitudes and of religiosity contribute to the explanation of ethnic differences in female labour force participation, in addition to human capital and household conditions. These factors moreover partly explain differences between Dutch, Turkish, Moroccan, Surinamese, and Antillean women." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Abendroth, Anja-Kristin, Matt L. Huffman & Judith Treas (2014): The parity penalty in life course perspective. Motherhood and occupational status in 13 European countries. In: American Sociological Review, Jg. 79, H. 5, S. 993-1014. DOI:10.1177/0003122414545986

Abstract

"Research documents a wage penalty for mothers compared to childless women. We demonstrate there is also an occupational status penalty to motherhood. Interrogating supply- and demand-side explanations of the motherhood penalty from the life course perspective, we formulate and test original hypotheses about the short-term and long-run career implications of parity-specific births. We analyze longitudinal data from the European Community and Household Panel for 13 European countries and eight time points between 1994 and 2001. Our fixed-effects models show that status losses for a first birth are not just short-term but accumulate over the career. The timing of a birth in a woman's life course matters only for older women, who experience a significant penalty to third births. Although the personal strategies that women use to minimize the career costs of motherhood (e.g., having only one child) prove ineffective, our cross-national evidence shows that public policies are linked to the motherhood penalty in occupational status." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Blazquez-Cuesta, Maite & Julian Moral Carcedo (2014): Women's part-time jobs: "Flexirisky" employment in five European countries. In: International Labour Review, Jg. 150, H. 2, S. 269-292. DOI:10.1111/j.1564-913X.2014.00204.x

Abstract

"European countries currently have segmented labour markets with flexible but insecure - 'flexirisky' - jobs, resulting in significant inequality between different categories of workers. Part-time jobs are one example: their flexibility may help workers reconcile work and family life, and increase women's labour force participation, but part-time employment can also result in new forms of inequality, thereby undermining EU equal opportunity policies. Empirically analysing labour market transitions in Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, this article Shows part-timers - who are mostly women - to be at higher risk of unemployment. lt calls for strengthening equality between part-time and full-time workers in terms of employment stability." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))