National work–family policies and the occupational segregation of women and mothers in European countries, 1999–2016

Abstract

Some scholars hypothesize that although work–family policies help incorporate women into the labour market, they do so by integrating women, and mothers specifically, into female-dominated occupations. Some suggest that although these policies are ‘good’ for lower educated women, they harm higher educated women by concentrating them in female-dominated professions. We revisit this debate using the highest quality data brought to bear on this question to date. We use the EU Labour Force Survey 1999–2016 (n = 21 countries, 235 country-years, 2.5 million men and women aged 20–44), combined with an original collection of country-year indicators. Specifically, we examine how the two most widely studied work–family policies—paid parental leave and early childhood education and care (ECEC)—and public sector size affect occupational segregation for men and women by educational attainment and parental status. We find no evidence that ‘generous’ welfare states promote segregation. Rather, a specific policy—parental leave in excess of 9 months—promotes segregation between men and women broadly, but most acutely for non-tertiary-educated mothers. Findings are generally null for paid leave of up to 9 months. ECEC is associated with greater integration, particularly for tertiary-educated women. Large public sectors are associated with segregation, with both tertiary-educated men and women more likely to work in feminized occupations. Public sector size, however, is not as tightly bundled with work–family policies as previous work suggests.

Explicating Women’s Career Transitions: Propositions and a Conceptual Model

“…Women face many barriers to their career development and transitions, which requires specific interventions to sustain their careers (Taparia & Lenka, 2022). Globally, women are subjected to inequitable work conditions (e.g., gender pay gaps; Greer & Carden, 2021), gendered job placements, and discrimination in the workplace for reasons related to their perceived femininities and familial responsibilities (Andersson et al, 2020; Hook et al, 2023; Pocock et al, 2013). Yet, many women are living in multi-earner households or single-earner households (Snell, 2017) in which being able to build and sustain a career is paramount for her health and well-being.…”

Association Between Gendered Workplaces and the Length of Childcare Leave

“…In addition, longer childcare leaves tend to harm careers more than shorter ones (Burgess et al 2008;Pronzato 2009;Olivetti and Petrongolo 2017). However, childcare leaves shorter than nine months do not seem to have any effect on the mothers' career development (Hook et al 2023). So why do some mothers choose shorter while others use longer childcare leaves?…”

Cultural religion and infertility in South Africa with particular focus on amaXhosa

“…In the same vein and observing the earlier assertions, the pressure to conceive and fulfil societal expectations surrounding procreation can be particularly intense for women. For instance, amaXhosa women are assigned the primary role of motherhood and are expected to bear children to continue the family ancestry (Hook et al 2023). In this context, the inability to conceive can have far-reaching implications for their identity, social status and relationships within the community.…”