Women's Work and Working Women

Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, 1999

We examine the effect of industrialization on female labor force participation for 62 countries. Two hypotheses are tested: the emancipation hypothesis and the U-shaped hypothesis. Our results support the U-shaped hypothesis insofar as shifts in the distribution of occupations in early industrialization decrease female labor force participation by removing women from agriculture while excluding them from occupations in manufacturing and management. We further suggest that different paths to industrialization may have different effects on female labor force participation.

1982

An examination was made of what determined women's opportunitieb to participate, in the United States-labor force from-1940 to 1978. Using a model draiin from edblogical and competition theoiy, the data examined suggest that the expansion of the economy, the relative prdportion of women in the population, lemile tertiary education,,and governmental involvement in the economy operate to increase women's opportunities in the labor force. Unionization and fertility.operate to decrease women's opportunities. Empirical results from time-series analysis indicate that most of these factors are significant and have the predicted effects with ihe exception of the nonsignificant effects 'if fertility. Also, some labor force differences by female age groups are fodnd. Directions for future research should include the more direct.specification of female and male competition in the labor force and the suitability of this'model for cross-national analysis of female labor force participation.

Although a consistent body of research has demonstrated that occupational segregation is highly consequential for women’s economic standing, we know little about the processes that contribute to changes in levels of sex segregation. In this study, we examine those factors that contribute to changes in the percent of women in detailed occupational categories in the United States. Since we are most concerned with the economic consequences of this type of segregation, we analyze a group of high-paying, male-dominated occupations that, if better integrated, would contribute most to earnings equality. We find that occupation to which relatively high percentages of women aspired and occupations that are growing have been experiencing above-average increases in the percentage of women, while occupations characterized by male-stereotyped task profiles have been witnessing below average increases. Additionally, our results suggest the presence of a ceiling effect: it is easier for women to break into male-dominated occupations initially than to sustain growth. Our analysis suggests that both supply and demand-side explanations provide insight into the processes contributing to increases in the occupations that we examine, although it can be very difficult to distinguish between supply and demand-side elements; indeed they may occur simultaneously.

2020

Conference Series;[Proceedings], 2004

Annual Review of Sociology, 1987

Because the wives of highly paid men participate less in the labor force, the earnings of working wives make the distribution of pretax, money income more equal for families than it might otherwise be. Although there is considerable speculation that future developments in women's labor force participation may foster greater inequality, the empirical results are mixed. To assess the impact of women's labor force participation on the distribution of well-being, future research will need to consider the implications of taxes, job-related expenses, fringe benefits, and the value of homemaker services. Future research would also benefit from linking empirical research to an implicit sociological theory of family income-getting—one that recognizes the motivational structure of household decision-making as well as the changing environment that families face. Rising housing costs, poorer economic prospects of young men, and women's higher wage rates, for example, make wives'...

Social Science Research, 1978

Beliefs and attitudes about the appropriate activities and behavior for men and women in our society have changed greatly during the last decade. Apparently this shift in sex-role attitudes has not been restricted to select subgroups of the population; women from all walks of life have undergone similar changes in beliefs since the mid-1960s (Mason, Czajka, and Arber, 1976). Increasing acceptance of nontraditional, and especially nonfamilial, roles for women has been credited with causing, or at least facilitating, the rapid rise in female labor force participation over the last 5 to 10 years, since the less traditional a woman's outlook the more likely she is to be currently employed and to have a history of labor force activity. If changing attitudes do indeed result in more female workers, then knowledge about this relationship may be of use in projecting employment of women during the next several decades. Projections of female labor force participation done by the Bureau of Labor Statistics have consistently underestimated growth in the female work force (Johnson, 1973). Inclusion of a wider range of variables than currently used in making these projections may improve their accuracy. Since women's sex-role attitudes appear to have a strong association with their market activity, such attitudes should be assessed for their possible usefulness, along with other economic, social, and demographic variables, in projecting female labor force behavior. In this paper evidence on the causal connection between sex-role attitudes and employment of bornen is presented and evaluated. The effects of sex-role attitudes

The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2008

This paper will look at the extent of convergence between the labour market trajectories of young American women and men since the 1970. Results will include an estimation of the gender gap in labour market attachment for each cohort and a description of the links between certain demographic events and labour market activity across the cohorts. Participation rates in USA have been rising up till the 1990s, especially for married women and women with young children. Yet the country is home both of the quiet gender revolution and the discourses of stalled revolution. Changes across life course and intra-cohort heterogeneity are still key characteristics of women’s labour market trajectories. I will map out the gender convergence in labour market attachment since the pioneering cohorts using three different National Longitudinal Surveys. Observing three cohorts at the same ages captures the cohort effects and allows to quantify the gender gap for each of them. I’ll use sequence analysis to reveal change across life course and intra-cohort heterogeneity. I expect to find substantial gender and cohort effects. There should be evidence of a narrowing gender gap across the cohorts. I foresee that the regression analysis will confirm that the extent to which gender is a strong predictor of a labor market attachment track is fading out with subsequent birth cohorts. However, I expect the direction of change skewed towards women adopting male-typical trajectories. And childbearing, especially when in marriage, will still have a strong pull towards less attached labour market activity trajectories. Yet the effects will most probably vary with education and income. Women with least education and those with most have the strongest incentives to maintain the attachment to the labour force, although in very different jobs and working conditions.

2013

The low labor force participation of women in North Cyprus is an interesting and controversial issue. Since the de facto partition of the island as North and South Cyprus, North Cyprus economy has been suffering shortage of labor. However, women who make up half of the population stay or are held out of the labor force. Although the governments came up with policies of overcoming the shortage by inviting labor to migrate from abroad, specifically from Turkey, they never came up with policies to increase women's participation. Increasing participation of women may not bring an ultimate solution to the labor shortage problem due to the small size of the population but it is definite that it would help. In 2010, still around 60 percent of working age women population is out of the labor force. The studies on female labor force participation in North Cyprus suggest gender segregation and gender pay gap, that is to say women's concentration in low-paying occupations as the most important explanation for the continuing low labor force participation of women. Therefore, this paper aims at investigating the presence, extent and the patterns of occupational gender segregation in North Cyprus labor market for the period 2004-2010. To investigate the presence, extent and patterns of occupational segregation the D-Index, is computed for 7 years for 9 broad occupational categories for nationwide and across rural and urban regions. Study employs Household Employment Surveys data. Preliminary results show that total occupational gender segregation increased by %3.5 over the period (2004-2010). Decomposition calculations of the segregation index show that the main reason of the increase in the level of segregation is the increase in the gender composition of individual occupations. Although the occupational structure of the labor force is more integrated in 2010 compared to 2004, due increasing concentration of women in certain occupations total occupational gender segregation increase. Results also indicate differences in occupational gender segregation through time and across urban and rural regions. In the urban areas occupational gender segregation indices shows that occupational gender segregation decreased by %8.6 over the period. The individual occupations and the occupational structure of the labor force become more integrated in the urban areas and this decrease the occupational segregation in the urban areas. However, in the rural areas occupational gender segregation indices show that occupational gender segregation increased by %62.8 over the period. In rural areas both, the gender composition of individual occupations and occupational structure of the labor force become more segregated.

Growth and Change, 1987

Historically, the female unemployment rate in the U.S. has been higher than the male rate, but recently this unemployment rate differential has narrowed. This study looks at the reasons behind this phenomenon, and finds that relative declines in male-dominated industries such as durable manufacturing and construction increase the male unemployment rate relative to the female rate. If male-dominated industries continue to decline, the female unemployment rate is likely to fall below the male rate in the near future and remain lower in both recessions and expansions. The results reported here also indicate that increases in the female labor force participation rate are associated with relatively lower female unemployment rates after the mid-l970s, contrasting with the positive relationship in the 1950s and 1960s. URING THE 1950-81 PERIOD the unemployment rate for women was higher than the rate for men in every year but one. In recent years, however, a dramatic and unanticipated narrowing of the male-female unemployment rate differential has occurred (see Figure 1). In 1982 and 1983 the female rate was less than the male rate, and since 1984 the female rate has exceeded the male rate by a historically small amount. The relatively high female unemployment rate has been taken as evidence of the disadvantages women face in the job market, or of their relatively weak attachment to the labor force. Since the narrowing of the male-female rate differential could indicate a change in these underlying factors, a new examination of the determinants of the male-female unemployment differential seems appropriate.' Past research on relative male-female unemployment rates has focused on the female labor force participation (FLFP) rate and the business cycle. Niemi (1977) found that rising female labor force participation explained D

International Journal of Computer Vision - IJCV, 2006

Employment patterns are gender-driven, yet analyses of women’s employment often fail to recognize the heterogeneous patterns evident within women’s labour market participation itself. This article examines the variation in women’s labour market participation in light of Hakim’s heterogeneity argument. It focuses on the effects of individual differences in educational level, marital status, motherhood and cohorts in the Netherlands, Germany and the UK for the period 1992-2002, disregarding Hakim’s focus on individual attitudes and preferences as the cause of this heterogeneity. Results from a quantitative study using panel data show that women’s labour market participation patterns vary greatly, and that educational level and motherhood are the strongest determinants of this variation. At the same time, cross-country variation is evident. Not only do the results of this study confirm the variation in women’s employment patterns, they raise questions about the theoretical understandin...

Social Forces, 2009

Occupations with a greater share of females pay less than those with a lower share, controlling for education and skill. This association is explained by two dominant views: devaluation and queuing. The former views the pay offered in an occupation to affect its female proportion, due to employers' preference for men-a gendered labor queue. The latter argues that the proportion of females in an occupation affects pay, owing to devaluation of work done by women. Only a few past studies used longitudinal data, which is needed to test the theories. We use fixed-effects models, thus controlling for stable characteristics of occupations, and U.S. Census data from 1950 through 2000. We find substantial evidence for the devaluation view, but only scant evidence for the queuing view.

Social Forces, 1986

Recently, several researchers hypothesized that female labor force participation rate exhibits a U-shape during the process of economic development. This paper provides time series evidence on female labor force participation rates in Turkey and considers its cross-provincial ...

2013