Marital Status and Occupational Structures in the Ile-de-France Region

Abstract

A comparison of socio-occupational structures of married, single, widowed and divorced women, between 21 and 50 years of age, living in the Ile-de-France region is developed. The latter hold more frequently privileged jobs but the sharpest contrasts are observed between married women and single heads of household (most of them live alone). They work more often in liberal professions and top-level and middle-level management. Moreover, the rate of celibacy among working women according to socio-occupational categories moves in an opposite direction from that of working men: the rate is higher in the higher occupational groups. An analysis of the spatial distribution of residence of married and single women in relation to the distribution of female jobs leads to a paradoxical situation. From the point of view of proximity and access to jobs, single women are favoured in relation to married women. Commuting constraints more frequently weigh heavily on them than on those less taken up with domestic and family activities.