Gender, work and family (2)

This article assesses the micro and macro social factors that explain changes in the transition to the first birth and the entry into labour market in a Latin-American country with a peculiar demographic evolution: Uruguay. First, we examine the timing of the first birth and the timing of entry into the first full-time job of several female cohorts. We take into account the endogeneity of the decision-making process in the reproductive and productive spheres by estimating the mutual effects of reproductive and labour-market transitions on one another. Secondly, we study the interactions between the socio-economic context and the individual biographical characteristics, in a context of increasing female activity rates and higher levels of societal risks in the region. We evaluate the responses in the productive and reproductive behaviour to the changes in market and economic conditions. We focus on the characteristics that are more critical in determining the levels of social risk, most importantly unemployment rates and economic growth, seeking to establish the presence of pro-cyclical or anti-cyclical effects in individual reproductive trajectories—mediated by the labour market trajectories as well as the cohort, social origins and educational attainment levels. We use longitudinal survey data (2001 and 2008).

Reallocation of economic resources between generations has important consequences for economic growth and inequality. This study provides estimates of time transfers between generations and genders, and complements existing literature on monetary transfers. We use data from the Multinational Time Use Study (MTUS) to estimate age- and sex-specific profiles of time allocated to unpaid productive activities for a number of countries. The unpaid working time is then distributed, with a statistical model, to those age groups that benefit from it, in order to estimate age-specific consumption profiles of time. We observe large transfers of time from females to males, and from adults to children and the elderly. Life course trajectories are qualitatively similar across countries, but with significant variations in levels. Differences in profiles by household structure allow us to evaluate the the extent of incentives and disincentives for particular fertility choices in different social and institutional settings.

In developed countries, there has been large progress towards gender equality in many fields, in particular employment. However, gender inequalities are still huge in the domestic sphere. In particular women still perform the bulk of domestic and parental tasks in spite of the dramatic increase in the number of dual-earner couples. The aim of this study is twofold. First it intends to describe the long term evolution of male and female involvement in housework and parenting. Second, it aims at disentangle factors that plays in favor of an increasing or a decreasing of gender gap in housework, i.e. technical progress, changes in family structure, social changes and changes of norms. The three last French time-use surveys provide a unique tool to analyze the evolution and the determinants of gender gap in housework during the last 25 years. We show that male involvement evolves extremely slowly while that of women decreases. Using Oaxaca decomposition techniques, we conclude that changes in family structure, the level of female education and labor market participation and in domestic equipment explain the decrease of gender gap in housework but the persistence of traditional roles of men and women acts as a brake on these changes.

Two decades after reunification, the contrast between eastern and western Germany offers a natural experiment for studying the change in the employment patterns of parents. Historically both parts of Germany had different family and labor market policies: East Germany supported high female labor force participation whereas in West Germany the male breadwinner model was the norm. Hence, the question is: To what degree are these patterns of employment behavior persistent to this day? And beyond this, how do the changes in parental employment in Germany compare to international developments?
A second aim of this paper is to examine the impact of employment patterns on parents well being. In West Germany labor force participation and the responsibility for the family were usually seen as a “double burden“ for women whereas in East Germany parents became accustomed to full time employment of both partners. In light of different cultural and infrastructural backgrounds, how comfortable do parents feel with their working arrangements and their family life in both parts of Germany?
Data from the German Microcenses 1991 to 2009 and from the representative survey AID:A (Growing up in Germany) conducted in 2009 are used.

contact:
toelke@dji.de
heike.wirth@gesis.org