Educational Differentials and Mechanisms in Married Women’s Labor Force Transitions in Japan

This study examines several potential mechanisms underlying the recent emergence of positive relationship between educational attainment and married women’s labor force attachment in Japan. I use data from a longitudinal survey collected in the 1990s and early 2000s, a period of substantial change in the context of women’s work, to estimate discrete-time competing risk models for married women’s labor force transitions including labor force exit, transitions between standard and non-standard employment, and reentry to the labor market. Study results indicate that recently emerging educational differentials in married women’s labor force participation in Japan are mainly due to the fact that highly educated women are more likely to stay in the labor market (including standard and non-standard employment), not because they are more likely to return to the labor force. Study findings also show that it is those with the lowest educational attainment who are more likely to reenter the labor force usually in non-standard jobs with few benefits and little room for advancement. In addition, women’s own income, work orientation, and job characteristics such as occupation, firm size, and public sector employment play important roles in mediating relationships between education and labor force transitions.