Explaining gendered informality: how family policies shape women's participation in unregistered employment in Europe

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop a typology of different family policy systems in Europe and evaluate their impact on the employment strategy of mothers with care responsibilities for dependent children.Design/methodology/approachThe paper outlines a typology of family policy regimes in Europe – covering the 26 countries. A typology based on a cluster analysis of macro indicators of family policy – coverage of childcare, effective parental leave and spending on family policies. The cluster analysis is based on data from OECD family data base. Then follows an analysis of the impact of the different family policy regimes on mothers' employment strategies when they return into gainful employment, based on data from the European Social Survey, 2008.FindingsThe authors have identified four different family policy models: extensive family policy, long parental leave, family care, and cash for care. For each of the models, different strategies are found for take up of employment for mothers with dependent children.Originality/valueThe paper includes 26 European countries, thereby covering the East and Central Europe, which is not the case in most welfare typologies. Furthermore, the authors distinguish clearly in the analyses between the institutional dimension and the outcome – mothers' employment strategies.

This study addresses the conceptual ambiguity surrounding family policy (FP) literature, while also filling a knowledge gap related to the geographic and gender aspects of scholarly authorship. Employing a semi-systematic literature review and a mixed-methods approach, we analysed 232 peer-reviewed articles published in leading scientific journals indexed in the Web of Science – Current Contents Connect database during the period 2012 to 2022. The study applied text content analysis to examine how FP is conceptualised and to investigate who contributes to this academic field – considering authors’ gender, institutional affiliations, and the geographic scope of their research. The findings confirm the presence of significant conceptual ambiguity, reflected in a wide range of FP conceptualisation types. In addition, the study supports the hypothesis of geographic bias, with a marked predominance of authors affiliated with institutions in the United States and, unexpectedly, Sweden – a pattern that may reflect long-standing national traditions of comprehensive family and social policy. Contrary to expectations, female scholars were found to constitute a majority among authors contributing to the FP literature in the analysed sample. This study helps to address existing gaps in the literature by offering new empirical insights into the conceptual, gender and geographic landscape of FP research. Its originality lies in its interdisciplinary positioning at the intersection of conceptual analysis, gender studies, and geographic mapping. The findings also open several avenues for future research, including the exploration of conceptual linkages between FP broader social policy, and gender equality frameworks, as well as further investigation into the notable prevalence of female authors in this field.

We examine factors contributing to the gender gap in employment in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) among men and women with bachelor’s degrees in computer science and engineering, the two largest and most male-dominated STEM fields. Data come from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data System (SESTAT) from 1995 to 2008. Different factors are associated with persistence in STEM jobs among computer science and engineering degree holders. Conditional on receiving a degree in computer science, women are 14 percentage points less likely to work in STEM than their male counterparts. Controlling for demographic and family characteristics did little to change this gender gap. Women with degrees in engineering are approximately 8 percentage points less likely to work in STEM than men, although about half of this gap is explained by observed differences between men and women. We document a widening gender gap in STEM employment in computer science, but this gender gap narrows across college cohorts among those with degrees in engineering. Among recent computer science graduates, the gender gap in STEM employment for white, Hispanic, and black women relative to white men is even larger than for older graduates. Gender and race gaps in STEM employment for recent cohorts of engineering graduates are generally small, though younger Asian women and men no longer have an employment advantage relative to white men. Our results suggest that a one-size-fits-all approach to increasing women’s representation in the most male-dominated STEM fields may not work.

Labour force participation among women in India shows high inter-state variation, raising important questions that will be addressed by considering political governance, public policy, and socio-economic context in determining women's employment outcomes. Some states, especially those in southern/ western India, exhibit comparatively better participation rates; the political ideology is often overexplained without adequately breaking down the underlying processes. The research paper presents a comparative analysis, using a systematic approach, of the impact of political context, policy measures, and structural factors on women's labour force participation, with specific reference to Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Gujarat. A synthesis of empirical research based on large-scale academic databases reveals that political positions do not have a direct or independent effect on women's labour force participation. Rather, increased participation rates are a more reliable indicator, coupled with the existence and efficient operation of policy mechanisms such as employment guarantee programmes, the representation of women in politics, women's participation in self-help groupbased livelihood efforts, and services that promote mobility. Institutional capacity, labour market conditions, and complementary social infrastructure are the strong moderators of the effectiveness of such interventions. Competing lines of evidence also point to the overriding contribution of more globalised structural processes, such as economic diversification, household income dynamics, education-employment fit, and current gender norms, which can be viewed using comparisons of state-level developments. The findings highlight the need to go beyond ideology-based descriptions and to pursue an integrative analysis model that acknowledges how governance and policy design, in combination with socio-economic structures, influence women's participation in India's labour markets

This longitudinal evaluation of gender inequalities and economic growth addresses key questions in the evolving debate over the character of gender differentiation and the goals of womens empowerment. These questions include: 1) whether the impact of strategies of economic growth served to enhance or undermine the status of women; 2) whether changes in the status of women were accompanied by significant changes in gender inequality; and 3) the implications for existing debates. Section I reviews several sets of literature pertinent to the questions using three general approaches: modernization-neoclassical women in development and gender and development. Section II presents the data and methods used in the evaluation. The research assessed the contending interpretations reviewed in the first section by combining another set of cross-sectional and longitudinal data on womens status and inequalities between men and women with other existing indicators. Section III discusses the results in the following order: 1) cross-sectional patterns in womens status; 2) trends in womens status; 3) cross-sectional patterns in inequality between men and women; 4) trends in inequality between men and women; and 5) conclusion. Finally section IV presents an overall discussion of the findings of the whole longitudinal evaluation.

Background: Women often reduce their working hours after childbirth, or, in some cases, exit the workforce altogether. This adjustment affects their immediate economic independence, with implications for their career trajectory and long-term financial stability. We aim to study the patterns of women's work resumption in the first year after childbirth, including the role of sick leave during pregnancy. We further aim to identify the key factors contributing to women's economic independence one year after childbirth. Methods: Drawing on data from Statistics Netherlands and the Dutch Perinatal Registry, we used descriptive analysis to examine the working hour patterns from onset of pregnancy to one year after childbirth. Additionally, multinomial logistic regression assessed how individual and work-related factors related to having employment with economic independence, having employment without economic independence, or having exited the workforce one year after childbirth. Results: Data on 114,722 Dutch employed women who delivered in 2016 showed a notable shift in employment patterns one year after birth: over half reduced their working hours, with 12.2% leaving the workforce entirely. These patterns were particularly pronounced among women with sick leave during pregnancy. Furthermore, factors such as lower education, fewer working hours, and not cohabiting with a partner were associated with being employed but not economically independent after childbirth. Conclusions: Pregnancy and delivery have a durable impact on women's workforce participation, which affects their economic independence. Strategic workplace and family policies might support retaining employment after childbirth and mitigate adverse economic effects, particularly for those with sick leave during pregnancy.

The nature and direction of the relationship between wives' income and marital quality are investigated in this research. Competing hypotheses are tested using panel data for a nationally representative sample of 771 married women and men (not couples) and structural equation modeling. The results indicate that increases in wives' income do not significantly affect either husband,s' or wives' perceptions of marital discord. Instead, increases in marital discord contribute significantly to increases in wives' income. Further, increases in marital discord contribute to increases in wives' income by increasing the likelihood that nonemployed wives will enter the labor force. Key Words: marital quality, wives' income, work. The complex association between women's growing economic independence and marital quality and stability is an important part of the debate over whether marriage is declining as an institution (Cherlin, 1992; Coontz, 1997; Hood, 1983; Oppenheimer, 1997; Ruggles, 1997; Scanzoni, 1972, 1978). Some observers have pointed to the parallel increase in rates of women's participation in the labor force and rates of divorce during this century (Cherlin, 1992; Ruggles, 1997). There is substantial research on the relationship between married women's changing economic opportunities and the quality and stability of marriage, but conclusions remain both controversial and equivocal. In particular, the direction of the association-whether increases in wives' participation in the labor force and increases in wives' income primarily affect marital quality or whether declines in marital quality primarily affect wives' laborforce behavior and income-remains unclear. There is support in previous research for both directional relationships. Some observers claim that wives' income affects the quality of marriage and the likelihood of divorce. Previous thinking on this topic suggests both positive effects on marriage (Conger et al., 1990; Hood, 1983; Scanzoni, 1972, 1978), as well as detrimental effects on marriage (Becker, 1981; Booth, Johnson, White, & Edwards, 1984; Hiedemann, Suhomlinova, & O'Rand, 1998; Treas, 1993). An opposing perspective suggests that declines in marital quality affect wives' behavior in the labor force and their income. This possibility has been addressed less frequently. Some observers emphasize that economic resources lessen women's dependence on marriage at both the aggregate and individual levels (Cherlin, 1992; Johnson & Skinner, 1986; Ruggles, 1997), and others emphasize the contributions that employment and income make to the well-being of both women and men, regardless of marital status (Hochschild, 1997; Hood, 1983; Scanzoni, 1978). The goal of the research presented here is to extend previous work by clarifying the nature and direction of the association between wives' income and marital quality. Past research has been unable to address this question due to the limitations of cross-sectional data and the use of statistical techniques that permit the investigation of only one path at a time. The present research overcomes these limitations by investigating reciprocal paths between wives' income and marital quality using longitudinal data and structural equation modeling. This approach makes it possible to investigate both of the hypothesized directional relationships and to test the relative strength of each. ECONOMIC CHANGES AND WIVES INCOME Data come from 1980-1988, the years when most of the dramatic transformations in married women's employment and earnings became particularly visible. Substantial gender differences persist between married women and married men in their employment outcomes and responsibility for paid work and family work (Blair & Lichter, 1991; Brayfield, 1995; Thompson & Walker, 1989). However, there have been important changes in married women's attachment to the labor force and in their earnings. …

Following 1945, that is the Second World War, Europe faced a huge demographic increase in the number of births, known as baby-boom. Encouraged by the improvement of the living conditions after the devastating war, the return of the optimism, opening of the employment opportunities and the renewal of the idea about the family, this demographic trend entailed the so-called familism tide. In the mid 1960-ies however, demographic indicators in almost all European countries began to change suddenly. Massive development of contraception, increased birth control and family planning, as well as higher employment of women and their integration in the labour market, took place. As a result of these trends, in the 1970-ties European countries faced a considerable drop in fertility rates. This trend reached its peak during 1970-1980-ties when a dramatic drop in fertility rates took place, known as baby-bust. As a consequence, almost everywhere in Europe, the fertility rate dropped below the level needed for simple population reproduction or below 2.1 children per woman. Several related trends also contributed to the change in the demographic picture of Europe, such as: dropping birthrates, shrinking of the population, delay in births (increase in the age of birth of the first child), increase in the number of one-child families, as well as growth in the number of couples without children (universality of births is no longer present – at least 1 child per family). Similar trends are evidenced in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CIE), with one considerable difference – they took place around a decade later compared to the developed European countries. One common characteristic which shaped the demographic changes in CIE countries was the fact that they occurred simultaneously with the radical changes of the societal system from socialism towards democracy in the 1990-ties. Due to this, demographic changes in CIE countries gain in weight, are furthermore under the influence of the transitional processes and thus differ considerably compared to those in the developed countries. The differences are heavily attributable to two sets of factors: a) different institutional settings, especially in the family policies related to employment of women and child raising; and b) different effects of these family policies upon fertility rates and participation of women in the labour market. Given the above demographic trends, welfare states in Europe, adjust accordingly, predominantly through the policies and measures of family policy as one of the social policy domains. Following a detailed statistical analysis of demographic indicators in Europe, this paper will produce an analysis of the family policy responses to demographic trends based on the Esping-Andersens’ classification of welfare states: universal welfare states (Nordic countries); conservative welfare states (Continental European countries); liberal social states (Anglo-Saxon countries) and South-European social states (Mediterranean countries). A specific focus in the paper will be also given to the demographic trends and corresponding family policy developments in the Republic of Macedonia, as a country of South Europe. Cross-cutting issues in the analysis of the family policy models will be: the extent to which family policies are gender-neutral or gender-specific (are they women-friendly and do they promote active fatherhood?), measures for harmonization of work and family life (are women appropriately supported in performing their roles of mothers and active participants in the labour market at the same time) and the scope in which family policy is being designed to serve the purposes of population policy (how the concern and the interest of the state to increase fertility rates shapes family policy?).

It has long been recognized that consumption behavior represents mainly joint household or family decisions rather than separate decisions of family members. Accordingly, the observational units in consumption surveys are "consumer units," that is, households in which income is largely pooled and consumption largely shared. More recent is the recognition that an individual's use of time, and particularly the allocation of time between market and nonmarket activities, is also best understood within the context of the family as a matter of interdependence with needs, activities, and characteristics of other family members. More generally, the family is viewed as an economic unit which shares consumption and allocates production at home and in the market as well as the investments in physical and human capital of its members. In this view, the behavior of the family unit implies a division of labor within it. Broadly speaking, this division of labor or "differentiation of roles" emerges because the attempts to promote family life are necessarily constrained by complementarity and substitution relations in the household production process and by comparative

Introduction: Work and Family Policy: International Comparative Perspectives Stephen Sweet 1. The impact of work-family policies on women's employment: a review of research from OECD countries Ariane Hegewisch & Janet C. Gornick 2. Work-family policies and the effects of children on women's employment hours and wages Joya Misra, Michelle Budig & Irene Boeckmann 3. Rethinking the paradox: tradeoffs in work-family policy and patterns of gender inequality Hadas Mandel 4. Fathers' rights to paid parental leave in the Nordic countries: consequences for the gendered division of leave Linda Haas & Tine Rostgaard 5. Family policies in developed countries: a 'fertility-booster' with side-effects Olivier Thevenon & Anne H. Gauthier 6. Differences in women's employment patterns and family policies: eastern and western Germany Birgit Pfau-Effinger & Maike Smidt 7. 'It was just too hard to come back': unintended policy impacts on work-family balance in the Australian and Canadian non-profit social services Donna Baines 8. Flexibility implementation to a global workforce: a case study of Merck and Company, Inc. Lori A. Muse

The article reviews the available quantitative evidence on the relationship between explicit family policy and women's employment outcomes in 45 high‐income countries between 1980 and 2016. At the methodological level, we gathered 238 papers through a four‐stage systematic qualitative review. We included articles published in English in international journals or by leading research institutes. Despite the accrued importance of the field, comparative works and national case studies do not sufficiently engage one another for methodological and disciplinary reasons. Our contribution is to integrate the findings from both streams of the literature in two ways. First, we chart systematically the debate describing its evolution over four decades, the disciplines involved (demography, economics, politics, social policy, sociology, and interdisciplinary work), and the geographical and policy breadth of the empirical contributions. Second, we provide a rich guide for scholars in the field by exploring how national case studies fit (or not) the broad trends captured in comparative research and discussing key and controversial debates in the field. In conclusion, we point out also important gaps in the literature and propose new avenues for future research. An exhaustive set of tables provides information on each comparative and national case study and on the databases and variables employed in the literature.

This paper examines the complex landscape of Indian women's participation in the workforce, highlighting both the challenges they face and the opportunities for advancement. Rapid technological advancements, such as automation and artificial intelligence, present opportunities for increased productivity and raise concerns about job displacement, particularly affecting women. Bridging the digital gender gap through digital literacy and skills training is crucial to preparing women for the evolving job market. The coronavirus disease-19 pandemic has accelerated remote work adoption, providing flexibility and highlighting challenges in maintaining work-life balance, especially for women with caregiving responsibilities. Adapting policies to address the unique challenges faced by diverse groups of women, including those from marginalized communities, promotes equality and diversity in the workforce. Economic empowerment through access to credit, entrepreneurship training, and market opportunities is pivotal for women's economic independence. Family-friendly policies, such as subsidized childcare and parental leave support working parents, alleviating the burden of caregiving responsibilities, are some measures that can reduce gender gap and provide conducive work environment at workplace. Strengthening legal mechanisms and raising awareness about women's rights are essential for combatting discrimination and harassment in the workplace. Promoting diversity in recruitment, policies, and culture fosters a more equitable and empowering work environment. Collaborative efforts are needed to create inclusive workplaces where women have equal opportunities to thrive and contribute to sustainable economic growth and development in India. . KEYWORDS :Women workforce, Employment, Gender, Equality, Women participation

In this study, Sweden and China's family policies, with a specific focus on their effect on gender equality, are compared. We describe the different goals and objectives of parental/maternity leave and childcare policies. The effect of family policies on gender equality, indicated by equal employment opportunities for women and the gender division of labour in the family in the two countries, is also discussed. A systematic comparison revealed that both countries included the promotion of gender equality in their policy agendas, but they varied in design and implementation. Swedish family policies assume childcare is a public concern, and women's participation in the labour market and men's involvement in childcare are considered to be crucial to achieving gender equality. In contrast, China's family policies emphasize women's participation in the labour market, but overlook the gender division of household work and childcare at home.

The financial emancipation of women is crucial for female empowerment and economic growth. Participation of women in the labour force equips them better to combat socio-economic issues while simultaneously boosting economic activity and GDP at the macro level(Buterin et al., 2023). Despite this, even in the 21st century, women's participation in the workforce is less than 47% compared to 72% for men(The Gender Gap in Employment: What’s Holding Women Back?, n.d.). The reasons for this disparity include both demand-side (opportunities for women to work) and supply-side (availability for women to work) factors. This paper explores women's labour force participation in India and the factors influencing it. It evaluates the impact of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 as a demand-side policy intervention to improve women’s labour market participation using secondary data. The results of this research indicate that the policy has helped improve the income, employment and decision-making power of women. Yet, the research indicates that the programme faces several structural constraints in providing employment and fails to address the long-term supply-side issue of low female labour market participation.

Previous studies highlight gender differences in job-related training participation, particularly in countries with few family policies supporting maternal employment. This study examines whether higher levels of state-subsidized childcare provision are positively linked to mothers’ participation in job-related training. It combines individual-level data from the National Educational Panel Study for Germany (NEPS-SC6 adult cohort, N = 5504, 2008–20) with annual administrative records on county-level childcare coverage. Results from fixed effects models provide evidence that higher childcare levels reduce the negative impact of childbirth on mothers’ job-related training participation. Nevertheless, motherhood training penalties exist even in contexts with higher childcare coverage levels, especially in West Germany. The findings highlight the importance of supporting family policies to reduce motherhood training penalties and associated gender inequalities in the labour market.