This study explores the role played by the welfare state in affecting women's labor force participation and occupational achievement. Using data from 22 industrialized countries, the authors examine the consequences of state interventions for both women's employment patterns and gender inequality in occupational attainment. The findings reveal a twofold effect: developed welfare states facilitate women's access into the labor force but not into powerful and desirable positions. Specifically, nations characterized by progressive and developed welfare policies and by a large public service sector tend to have high levels of female labor force participation, along with a high concentration of women in female-typed occupations and low female representation in managerial occupations. The findings provide insights into the social mechanisms underlying the relations between welfare states' benefits to working mothers and women's participation and achievements in the labor market.In recent decades, an increasing number of researchers have begun studying the role played by the state in affecting women's economic activities and labor market positions. The growing research on this topic points to the role of the state as legislator and implementer of social and family services, as well as to the role of the welfare state as an employer. These two bodies of literature operate under the premise that the welfare state, whether as a legislator or as an employer, strongly affects women's participation rates and economic opportunities. More specifically, researchers 1 We would like to thank

This study uncovers an unexpected effect of family-friendly policies on women's economic attainments. Using hierarchical linear models, the analysis combines individual-level data (obtained from the Luxembourg Income Study) with country-level data (obtained from secondary sources) to evaluate the effects of family policies on gender earnings inequality across 20 advanced societies. The analysis shows that gender earnings disparities are less pronounced in countries with developed family policies. However, the findings also show that if cross-country differences in the wage structure are controlled, the underlying effect of family policy on the gender gap is exposed. Although “mother-friendly” policies enable more women to become economically active, they exacerbate gender occupational inequality. The authors therefore conclude that the lower earnings differentials between men and women in developed welfare states should be attributed to their more egalitarian wage structures rather than to their family policies. The paradoxical implications of policies intended to reconcile paid and unpaid work as well as the mechanisms that cause these policies to widen the gender earnings gap are discussed and evaluated in light of sociological theories on the role of family policy and wage determination institutions in contemporary societies.

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may AbstractCross-national studies of the impact of welfare states on gender inequality tend to overlook socioeconomic divisions among women. This paper challenges the implicit assumption that welfare states have uniform effects on the labour market attainments of all women, arguing that the impact of state intervention is necessarily conditioned by women's relative advantage or disadvantage in the labour market. Based on micro-datasets from 21 advanced countries, the findings suggest that welfare state policies interact with socioeconomic position in determining women's economic rewards, tending to penalize highly skilled women while benefiting the less-skilled. Highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of social policies in light of the particular groups they benefit, as well as their implications for other groups, the paper concludes that more research is needed to explore differentiated approaches to reconciling work and family, rather than addressing universal work-family tensions.1 Winners and Losers: The Contradictory Consequences of Welfare State Policies for Gender Wage InequalityThis study stresses the importance of class differences for cross-country comparisons of gender inequality in general, and for understanding the effect of welfare state policies on gender earnings inequality in particular. Acknowledging the role of class divisions among women, the study draws on insights from the feminist notion of intersectionality, which has become a major theme in feminist studies. While stimulating researchers to study the different life experience of doubly disadvantaged groups (e.g., Browne and Misra, 2003;Collins, 1999; hooks, 1984;, intersectionality has yet to be sufficiently translated into empirical studies that compare different groups of women across the class spectrum The notion of intersectionality has mainly been concerned with the unique experience of black (as opposed to white) women (e.g., Browne and Misra, 2003;Collins, 1999), whereas the literature on the welfare state and gender has focused mainly on comparing the situation of women (as opposed to men) in different institutional contexts. In emphasizing inequality on the basis of gender per se, this literature has primarily highlighted elements that unite, rather than split, women. As women of all societies and social groups share the universal tension between work and family, public policies aimed at easing women's access to independent sour...

Using data from the IPUMS-USA, the present research focuses on trends in the gender earnings gap in the United States between 1970 and 2010. The major goal of this article is to understand the sources of the convergence in men's and women's earnings in the public and private sectors as well as the stagnation of this trend in the new millennium. For this purpose, we delineate temporal changes in the role played by major sources of the gap. Several components are identified: the portion of the gap attributed to gender differences in human-capital resources; labor supply; sociodemographic attributes; occupational segregation; and the unexplained portion of the gap. The findings reveal a substantial reduction in the gross gender earnings gap in both sectors of the economy. Most of the decline is attributed to the reduction in the unexplained portion of the gap, implying a significant decline in economic discrimination against women. In contrast to discrimination, the role played by human capital and personal attributes in explaining the gender pay gap is relatively small in both sectors. Differences between the two sectors are not only in the size and pace of the reduction but also in the significance of the two major sources of the gap. Working hours have become the most important factor with respect to gender pay inequality in both sectors, although much more dominantly in the private sector. The declining gender segregation may explain the decreased impact of occupations on the gender pay gap in the private sector. In the public sector, by contrast, gender segregation still accounts for a substantial portion of the gap. The findings are discussed in light of the theoretical literature on sources of gender economic inequality and in light of the recent stagnation of the trend.

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