Work-family and work-life issues

This study explored women’s career development after childbearing in the context of South Korea from an individual level perspective. Data used for analysis are from wave 1 to 10 of Korea Labor and Income Panel Study (KLIPS). A 3-staged study analysis was designed. Logistic and hazard regression models were estimated, respectively. The results showed that entitlement to the maternity leave stimulated eligible women’s immediate return to the labor force after the first birth, especially after the launch of the job-protected Maternity Protection Act in 2001. Long work experience, strong earning power and great human capital accumulation also fostered women’s job continuity. A V-shaped timing of return was discovered for women who took a timeout after childbirth. They preferred to return either sooner or at a later time. Women’s return intensity was especially pronounced during the aftermath of financial crisis (1998-2001). Women's urgent desire to resume employment at critical period to protect families against social insecurity was argued to have contributed to the pattern. The length of timeout reduced women's chance of upward occupational move upon return but increased their likelihood of downward occupational move. Downward move was especially salient during the recession period and thereafter.

This article assesses the impact of demographic events (union formation and childbirth) on individual living standard; the heterogeneity across education levels and gender is estimated taking into account educational homogamy. We aim at producing a dynamic analysis of this influence over the life-course that goes beyond the standard cross-section approach of child-cost estimates and the use of equivalence scale (like the OECD equivalence-scale). More specifically, we consider the timing of demographic events, and of the enrolment in formal education as well as wage profiles of the individual and his/her partner. Such an analysis theoretically requires a long panel dataset, which is unfortunately not available for France. For this reason, our research strategy consists in simulating the career and family formation of a given cohort, using microsimulation techniques. We simulate union formation and childbirth, using an innovative dynamic model that simulates the diversity of careers for a given generation and that takes into account the heterogeneity of the initial education level. This approach helps us to simulate the age of union, mate matching function, age of childbirth in a way that is extensively presented in the paper.

Women’s participation in labor force has been lower than that of men’s in many developing countries. The gender differences in labor participation are attributed mainly to prevailing social and cultural barriers that tend to affect women’s participation in workforce. With decline in fertility and consequent changes in the age structure of many developing countries there has been greater interest on the behavior of women’s work participation in view of the perceived demographic dividend from higher composition of working age population. Demographic transition brought through health and family planning (FP) programs is shown to induce change in women’s social and economic position, in turn, influencing their labor force participation. Acceptance of FP operation gives women greater freedom to use time and opportunity more efficiently by choosing to participate or not to in workforce as a consequence of curtailing childbearing. Evidently, NFHS-3 data suggest that female sterilization acceptors have had much higher work participation than that of non-acceptors among ever married women in the ages 15-49 years in India. The question is, does FP program benefit women in India in increasing their labor force participation, if yes among which sections of society or whom does it matter and where? This is important not only for old security

The three decades of the market-oriented reform since 1978 have redefined employment in rural China and brought profound gendered experiences. Both men and women have contributed to a massive employment transition from agriculture to off-farm sectors, including that of self-employment. However, given the general findings that men have taken a lead in the burgeoning economic sectors, previous studies have not paid enough attention to women’s participation in self-employment sectors. This study draws on life-history interviews from 27 women in a Chinese village, 9 of whom have participated in self-employed economic activities and 18 of whom have not. This study explores the determinants that facilitate or constrain women’s participation in self-employment sectors, either derived from increasingly market-dominated employment relationships, benefits and risks involved in conducting one’s own business, or family demands. Based on different driving forces underlying women’s increasing activeness in self-employment, women diverged in taking self-employment as an individual career, a side job, or a family venture, which helps to re-define their role in the family and in the labor force.

In the United States, women’s labor force participation increased dramatically over the second half of the twentieth century. Yet women’s occupational attainment and earnings lag behind men’s, in part because of continued inequality in family responsibilities. This paper uses nationally representative data on secondary school students from the Education Longitudinal Study: 2002 to examine whether gender differences in adult work-family configurations have antecedents in adolescents’ goals for work and family achievement. We compare the value placed on work and family achievement by high school girls and boys, using latent class analysis to identify distinct configurations of work and family goals. Results show high ambitions for both work and family goals among both boys and girls and minimal gender differences. Although girls are more likely than boys to report that marriage and family relationships are very important to them, differences are relatively small, and girls are also more likely to value success at work and getting a good job. Neither boys nor girls show a pattern of placing high value on family and low value on work.

Labor force participation of Mexican women has shown an accelerated and constant increase in recent decades. However, women often face limited opportunities and differentiated entry into the labor market because they need to combine work and family obligations. This paper will examine the role of the household workload, as an approach to family obligations, in a double selectivity process (the decision to work and if this job could be or not as a salaried worker) that could be present in the Mexican labor market. We use data from the National Survey of Occupation and Employment, 2009 (ENOE) a national representative sample of the women population aged 15 to 75 years old. We fit a bivariate probit model with sample selection. The results indicate that there is a double selection process in the labor market. Household workload has an important role in this process. Its effects are noticeably stronger in the labor market participation. For those women who cross the barrier imposed by household workload their participation in salaried work could be incentivized.

It is indicated that one of the major factors that make the difference between reality and desire for a large number of children in Japan is mothers’ employment, after controlling for demographic factors. Few studies have examined the relationship between mothers’ employment and the number of children in terms of the expenditure of child-rearing with the impact of macro factors such as government policy taken into consideration.
　
This paper aims to conduct a cross-national analysis of the impact of these macro factors on the relationship between mothers’ employment and the expenditure of child-rearing, using micro data from five developed countries.

A multiple regression analysis was conducted using pooled data from five countries as a preliminary analysis. Consequently, we found that child-rearing expenditure was the lowest in France regardless of the youngest child’s age and mother’s employment. In the U.S.A, Japan and Korea, the expenditure of rearing older children was higher when mothers were in paid employment. We will conduct further analysis to investigate the factors causing these results, taking account of the macro context such as the difference between countries in terms of tax systems, childcare services, education expenses in household budgets and price level.

This paper focuses on the association between ‘family and work’ and presents research-based evidence to address varying strategies of female migrants to deal with the paradoxical combination of family and work. In particular, this analysis aims to examine appropriate theoretical models regarding the association between family characteristics and female immigrants’ work outside the home in multicultural and multiethnic context. It highlights native-migrant differentials, and the differentials between migrants by ethnic origins with regard to the association between ‘family and work’. The multivariate results of this analysis support the key fact that the substantial effects of family on women’s work outside the home tend to persist beyond the influence of migration status and ethnic diversity. Further, the results confirm that the strategies of female migrants to deal with the paradoxical combination of family and work vary substantially in terms of their ethnic backgrounds.

Using a demographic approach, this paper presents research-based evidence to explain the dimensions and differentials associated with the representation of family, gender, and work in varying socio-cultural contexts. This paper is based on gender socialization theory in which educational system, particularly school education resources, is recognized as the first official agent of and the most powerful engine of socialization process. The fields of study are two countries which are substantially varying in terms of demographic characteristics and socio-cultural backgrounds: Iran and New Zealand. This cross-cultural analysis provides the opportunity to explain whether and to what extent the representations of family, work and gender through the educational system are associated with varying socio-demographic backgrounds. Using the method of content analysis, this paper highlights the main patterns and differentials associated with the representation of family, gender and work characteristics through school education resources of these two varying socio-demographic settings.

Poland enter the low fertility level (below 2,1 TFR) in 1988 (urban 1983, rural 1995). In this context the survey “Late fertility diagnosis – prospective cohort survey: demographic socio-economic and health determinants” was conducted in 2007/2008. Main goal of empirical research is identification of determinants: scale, range of changes in fertility level in Poland to very low fertility level, description of decision process including postponement decisions and demographic, socio-economic and health determinants of those decisions.
One of sections of the questionnaire was dedicated to evaluation of actual family Policy, forms of support to families, maternity and parental leaves, forms of taking care of children.
Summing up results of his survey: women as the most important reason of lower fertility level named: housing problems and lack of flexible working hours. Women in Poland living in big cities are not satisfied with actual family policy. Family Policy must be considered as the part of social policy to be effective. Only policies supporting social norms have chances to work well. Last changes in polish family policy go well with changes observed in other European countries. Governments pay more attention to supply families with good conditions for procreation decisions.