Female Labor Participation Rate Research Articles

Paving the way and passing the torch: mentors’ motivation and experience of supporting women in optical engineering

The phenomenon of women's underrepresentation in engineering is well known. However, the slow progress in achieving better gender equality here compared with other domains has accentuated the ‘numbers’ issue, while the quality aspects have been largely ignored. This study aims to shed light on both these aspects via the lens of mentors, who are at the coalface of guiding female engineers through their education and subsequent careers. Based on data collected from 25 mentors (8 men and 17 women from 8 countries), the paper explores their experiences of being mentors, as well as their views on recommended actions for nurturing female engineers. The findings reveal that the primary motivation for becoming a mentor was personal for men and women. Many mentors from countries with relatively lower female labour participation rates perceive their roles as guarantors of their mentees’ successful future career paths, and a similar trend can be found in mentors in academia. The study underscores the need for invigorating mentors’ roles in order to secure a more equitable future for engineering education.

Female Labor Supply: Why Is the United States Falling Behind?

In 1990, the US had the sixth highest female labor participation rate among 22 OECD countries. By 2010 its rank had fallen to seventeenth. We find that the expansion of “family-friendly” policies, including parental leave and part-time work entitlements in other OECD countries, explains 29 percent of the decrease in US women's labor force participation relative to these other countries. However, these policies also appear to encourage part-time work and employment in lower level positions: US women are more likely than women in other countries to have full time jobs and to work as managers or professionals.

From Successful Family Planning to the Lowest of Low Fertility Levels: Taiwan’s Dilemma

Since the implementation of family planning in the 1960s, Taiwan’s fertility rate has rapidly decreased. This was praised as a family planning achievement. However, in the 21st century Taiwan has become one of the lowest of low fertility countries like European countries [Kohler, H. P., Billari, F. C., & Ortega, J. A. (2002). Population and Development Review, 28(4), 641–80]. The government has begun to worry that these extremely low birthrates will result in rapid population aging and bring about other negative socio‐economic effects. Thus, in its Mega Warmth Social Welfare Program (MWSWP) of 2006, the Taiwanese government targeted the issue of low birthrates. Based on secondary data analysis, we found that the reasons for rapid decrease in Taiwanese birthrates are: (i) a declining marriage rate; (ii) later marriage; (iii) changing attitudes towards child bearing; (iv) the burdens of child care; and (v) an increase in female labour participation rates. The MWSWP includes maternity leave benefits, parental leave benefits, a childcare subsidy system and early children education and care (ECEC). First, this article presents a chronological understanding of the demography in Taiwan. Second, we attempt to evaluate the reasons contributing to the low birthrates. The policy response to this is discussed next. Finally, the article provides a careful conclusion: that the extent to which these policies can significantly stop the population from declining requires further observation.

Sexual Issues: The Analysis of Female Role Portrayal Preferences in Taiwanese Print Ads

For a long time, female endorsers in advertising have been doing product information promotion in the market. However, with more and more highly educated women participating in the labor force, the conception of feminist depictions in advertising have become a perplexing issue. The traditional female role portrayals or stereotypes of the past are not able to totally reflect the expectations, behavior, attitudes, and beliefs of contemporary women. The author collected print ads as data from three types of the highest circulation magazines: foreign women’s magazines (Chinese edition), domestic women’s magazines, and domestic management magazines subscribed to in Taiwan to investigate what were the favorite feminine patterns and feminist depictions in a traditionally masculine society. The results showed classical beauty and girl-next-door images were “acceptable” gender-role behavior exposed highly in domestic magazines, which might contribute to conservative Confucian beliefs. On the other hand, being trendy was a significantly high preference for contemporary feminist depictions in foreign women's magazines; it might be considered as being due to the increased educational level of women and female labor participation rate in the work place as well as upgrading of social status.

A cohort analysis of female labor participation rates in the U.S. and Japan

Aggregate data of female labor participation rates in U.S. and Japan, classified by period and by age, are decomposed into age, period, and cohort effects using innovative Bayesian cohort models that were developed to overcome the identification problem in cohort analysis. The main findings are that in both countries, age effects are the largest and period effects are the smallest; in both countries, age effects are roughly consistent with life-cycle movements expected by labor economics, but the negative effects of marriage and/or childbearing on women?’s labor supply in Japan are much larger than those observed in the U.S.; and in both countries, upward movements of cohort effects during 1930s–1960s were found. However, cohort effects are larger for the U.S. than for Japan. All the cohort results are roughly consistent with the marriage squeeze hypothesis and the Easterlin hypothesis.

Work and the household in the inter-war Soviet Union

The article examines patterns of work and employment in urban households of the inter-war Soviet Union. Drawing on population censuses and time-budget surveys, it analyses trends in labour participation and gainful employment for men, women and different age-groups from the mid-1920s to the late 1930s. Particular attention is devoted to the division of labour within the household. The single most important change over this period was a substantial increase in labour participation rates, in particular among women. This was a direct result of the state-led industrialization drive of the 1930s, which simultaneously caused a booming demand for labour and a rapid decline of real wages. Households reacted to this challenge by increasing the number of working members per household. Self-employment, targeted by state repression from the late 1920s, practically disappeared, leaving paid employment as the only viable form of gainful employment. Within the household, the increase in female labour participation rates put a heavy strain on women, who came to face a double burden of employment and household duties, including child-care. In three-generation extended households, which were the norm at the time, this resulted in a division of labour between the generations, with the household members of working age concentrating on paid employment and the elderly members of the household on child-care and subsidiary agriculture.

Income inequality, unemployment, and suicide: a panel data analysis of 15 European countries

Most panel data studies have employed overall suicide rates (male and female) to identify the determinants of suicide. This research has also neglected the use of country specific linear time trends. Neglecting these factors may confound the empirical estimates of socio-economic variables due to the impact of unobserved country specific determinants of suicide that are time-varying. Empirical results from 15 European countries between 1970 and 1998 support this hypothesis. Specifically, economic growth, fertility rate, and alcohol consumption seem to have a significant impact on male and female suicide rates after the inclusion of country specific linear trends. Contrary to prior studies, suicide rates were not sensitive to income levels, female labour participation rates and unemployment. In addition, the effect of divorce rate is specific to gender. Finally, the results also illustrate the importance of employing age-specific suicide rates compared to what has been traditionally used, in trying to evaluate the factors responsible for suicide mortality. In particular, the impact of socio-economic factors is not equal across age groups, and policies aimed at the prevention of suicide should take this into account.

Commuting and Residential Strategies in the Île-de-France: Individual Behaviour and Spatial Constraints

Like most European and North American metropolitan regions, that of Paris has for several decades been subject to a set of transformations. These have concerned urban spatial structures (population deconcentration, dispersion of employment, and the growth of new economic poles in the peripheral area), but also the sociodemographic structure of the population (rise in female labour participation rates, increasing importance of a highly qualified high-earning population, etc), and individual behaviour (desire for homeownership as well as the renewed interest of affluent groups for city-centre living, etc). Increased daily mobility in general and commuting in particular cannot be explained without reference to these different phenomena operating at both the microlevel and the macrolevel. For example, the sociodemographic characteristics of individuals have a considerable influence on the probability of the individuals being able to work near their home (or to live near their workplace). Account also has to be taken of the residential strategies of individuals, which are in turn linked to social position and life-cycle stage: choosing a place of residence in the urban periphery, in particular, has an impact on commuting patterns. But we can only understand the effects of residential strategies on commuting by analyzing the structures of the Île-de-France region (and in particular the housing market and sociogeographical pattern of employment).

Konsumstruktur und Auslagerung von Haushaltsproduktion in ausgewählten Ländern der OECD / Consumption Structure and Monetization of Homeproduction in Selected OECD-Countries

Zusammenfassung Aufbauend auf einer früheren Analyse für Westdeutschland untersucht die vorliegende Arbeit die Auswirkungen zunehmender Frauenerwerbstätigkeit auf Veränderungen der Konsumstruktur im internationalen Vergleich. Auf der Basis eines mikroökonomischen Zeitallokationsmodells für den privaten Haushalt wird ein für alle untersuchten Länder einheitliches makroökonomisches Erklärungsmodell für die aggregierten Nachfragekomponenten (Dienstleistungen, Ge- und Verbrauchsgüter) entwickelt. Dieses Modell separiert den traditionell betrachteten Einkommenseffekt von dem durch die zunehmende Frauenerwerbstätigkeit induzierten Auslagerungseffekt und ermöglicht so eine Abschätzung desjenigen Teils der Nachfrage, der lediglich aus einer Umschichtung von bisher eigenerstellten Gütern und Diensten hin zu marktbestimmten Produkten und Leistungen resultiert. Die empirischen Ergebnisse für zehn ausgewählte Länder der OECD weisen auf erhebliche Unterschiede der Neigung der Haushalte hin, Haushaltsproduktion auszulagern.

Structural Determinants of the Divorce Rate: A Cross-Societal Analysis

Data for a sample of 66 countries are analyzed to investigate the societal-level correlates of the divorce rate. On the basis of theoretical precedence four major factors are considered as predictors of divorce rates at the societal level: socioeconomic development the female labor participation rate the sex ratio and dominant religion. Regression analyses reveal that all factors except religion have a significant effect on the crude divorce rate....Theoretical interpretations [of the findings] are discussed. (EXCERPT)

Prevention of cardiovascular disease

Work-related stress is a significant occupational health concern. There have been a growing number of studies examining policy-level responses to work-related stress but most of them were from high income-countries. While welfare state characteristics are known to influence the formulation of health policy, their influences on policy responses concerning stress-related health risks at work have rarely been explored. This study compared selected indicators of social and employment-related welfare state characteristics of Taiwan with other countries. Policy level interventions undertaken in Taiwan were also reviewed. Findings show that social and employment conditions of Taiwan are characterized by low level of public social expenditure, low unionization rate, low level of collective bargaining power of workers, low female and old-age labor participation rates and substantially long working hours. Since the early 1990s, the government of Taiwan has undertaken various types of policy actions. However, most of the interventions are individual oriented and focus on tertiary level. In recent years the function of labor inspection has been strengthened but still limited in implementation capacity. While international experiences are informative, a comprehensive understanding of sociopolitical context of any given country is essential for developing effective policy actions toward work-related stress.

A Simultaneous Equation Model of Birth Rates in the United States

IN a recent paper on population policy, Glen G. Cain concludes that the . . feasibility of attaining a benign rate of population growth ... rests on limited scientific evidence. 1 In this paper, we attempt to add to our store of knowledge concerning population growth by estimating a simultaneous equation model of birth rates in the United States. Our model is based on time-series data for the United States covering the 1910 to 1968 period and consists of four separate equations: a birth rate equation, a permanent income equation, an infant mortality equation, and a female labor participation rate equation. Two variants of the total model are reported; the first is based on the two-stage regression procedure and the second variant is based on three-stage least squares. In both cases, elasticity multipliers are computed as a guide to policy decision making. In general, the two approaches yield quite similar results; nevertheless, there are some differences therefore, the dual approach. Our data are generally unadjusted and should therefore reflect both secular and cyclical patterns. The major exception to this rule is our use of permanent rather than measured income for reasons outlined below.