IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v22y2008i4p655-674.html

Preference or constraint? Part-time workers' transitions in Denmark, France and the United Kingdom

Author

Listed:
  • Vanessa Gash

    (University of Manchester, vanessa.gash@manchester.ac.uk)

Abstract

This article investigates whether women work part-time through preference or constraint and argues that different countries provide different opportunities for preference attainment. It argues that women with family responsibilities are unlikely to have their working preferences met without national policies supportive of maternal employment. Using event history analysis the article tracks part-time workers' transitions to both full-time employment and to labour market drop-out.The article compares the outcome of workers in the UK, a country with little support for maternal employment, relative to Denmark and France, two countries with a long history of facilitating workers' engagement in both paid employment and family life. It finds evidence of part-time constraint in the UK relative to the other two countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Vanessa Gash, 2008. "Preference or constraint? Part-time workers' transitions in Denmark, France and the United Kingdom," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 22(4), pages 655-674, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:22:y:2008:i:4:p:655-674
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017008096741
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950017008096741
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0950017008096741?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Herbert A. Simon, 1955. "A Behavioral Model of Rational Choice," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 69(1), pages 99-118.
    2. Barbara Petrongolo, 2004. "Gender Segregation in Employment Contracts," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 2(2-3), pages 331-345, 04/05.
    3. Jill Rubery & Mark Smith & Dominique Anxo & Lennart Flood, 2001. "The Future European Labor Supply: The Critical Role of the Family," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(3), pages 33-69.
    4. Florence Jaumotte, 2003. "Female Labour Force Participation: Past Trends and Main Determinants in OECD Countries," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 376, OECD Publishing.
    5. Jacqueline O'Reilly & Silke Bothfeld, 2002. "What happens after working part time? Integration, maintenance or exclusionary transitions in Britain and western Germany," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 26(4), pages 409-439, July.
    6. Bardasi, Elena & C. Gornick, Janet, 2000. "Women and part-time employment: workers’ ‘choices’ and wage penalties in five industrialized countries," ISER Working Paper Series 2000-11, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    7. Tarja K. Viitanen, 2005. "Cost of Childcare and Female Employment in the UK," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 19(s1), pages 149-170, December.
    8. René Böheim & Mark P. Taylor, 2004. "Actual and Preferred Working Hours," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 42(1), pages 149-166, March.
    9. Philip J. O'Connell & Vanessa Gash, 2003. "The Effects of Working Time, Segmentation and Labour Market Mobility on Wages and Pensions in Ireland," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 41(1), pages 71-95, March.
    10. Nicole M Fortin, 2005. "Gender Role Attitudes and the Labour-market Outcomes of Women across OECD Countries," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 21(3), pages 416-438, Autumn.
    11. Elena Bardasi, 2000. "Women and Part-Time Employment: Workers ""Choices"" and Wage Penalties in Five Industrialized Countries," LIS Working papers 223, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    12. Bénédicte Galtier, 1999. "Les temps partiels : entre emplois choisis et emplois "faute de mieux"," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 321(1), pages 57-77.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fernández-Kranz, Daniel & Rodríguez-Planas, Núria, 2011. "The part-time pay penalty in a segmented labor market," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 591-606, October.
    2. Alpaslan Akay & Olivier B. Bargain & H. Xavier Jara, 2023. "Experienced versus decision utility: large‐scale comparison for income–leisure preferences," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 125(4), pages 823-859, October.
    3. Frédéric SALLADARRÉ & Stéphane HLAIMI, 2014. "Women and part-time work in Europe," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 153(2), pages 293-310, June.
    4. Vanessa Gash, 2009. "Sacrificing Their Careers for Their Families? An Analysis of the Penalty to Motherhood in Europe," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 93(3), pages 569-586, September.
    5. Peter Muehlau, 2010. "Gender Inequality and Job quality in Europe," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp345, IIIS.
    6. Síle O'Dorchai & Robert Plasman & François Rycx, 2007. "The part‐time wage penalty in European countries: how large is it for men?," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 28(7), pages 571-603, October.
    7. Colella, Fabrizio, 2014. "Women's Part-Time - Full-Time Wage Differentials in Europe: an Endogenous Switching Model," MPRA Paper 55287, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Alpaslan Akay & Olivier Bargain & H. Xavier Jara, 2020. "‘Fair’ welfare comparisons with heterogeneous tastes: subjective versus revealed preferences," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 55(1), pages 51-84, June.
    9. Wolf, Elke, 2010. "Lohndifferenziale zwischen Vollzeit- und Teilzeitbeschäftigten in Ost- und Westdeutschland," WSI Working Papers 174, The Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI), Hans Böckler Foundation.
    10. Daniela Del Boca & Silvia Pasqua & Chiara Pronzato, 2005. "Fertility and Employment in Italy, France, and the UK," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 19(s1), pages 51-77, December.
    11. Angela Cipollone & Carlo D'Ippoliti, 2009. "Women's Employment: Beyond Individual Characteristics vs. Contextual Factors Explanations," Working Papers CELEG 0901, Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza, LUISS Guido Carli.
    12. Wendy Sigle-Rushton & Jane Waldfogel, 2007. "Motherhood and women's earnings in Anglo-American, Continental European, and Nordic Countries," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(2), pages 55-91.
    13. Alena Bičáková, 2016. "Gender unemployment gaps in the EU: blame the family," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-31, December.
    14. Aleksandra Matuszewska-Janica & Dorota Witkowska, 2021. "Differences between determinants of men and women monthly wages across fourteen European Union states," Equilibrium. Quarterly Journal of Economics and Economic Policy, Institute of Economic Research, vol. 16(3), pages 503-531, September.
    15. HU Yongjian & TIJDENS Kea, 2003. "Choices for part-time jobs and the impacts on the wage differentials. A comparative study for Great Britain and the Netherlands," IRISS Working Paper Series 2003-05, IRISS at CEPS/INSTEAD.
    16. Manning, Alan & Petrongolo, Barbara, 2005. "The part-time pay penalty," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 4614, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    17. Ulrike Huemer & Kristina Budimir & Rainer Eppel, 2010. "Soziale Sicherungssysteme und Arbeitsmarktperformanz in der EU. Mikroökonometrische Analyse," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 41154.
    18. Wolf, Elke, 2002. "Lower wage rates for fewer hours? A simultaneous wage-hours model for Germany," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(5), pages 643-663, November.
    19. Anna Matysiak & Dorota Węziak-Białowolska, 2016. "Country-Specific Conditions for Work and Family Reconciliation: An Attempt at Quantification," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 32(4), pages 475-510, October.
    20. Hielke Buddelmeyer & Gilles Mourre & Melanie Ward, 2008. "Why Europeans work part-time? A cross-country panel analysis," Research in Labor Economics, in: Work, Earnings and Other Aspects of the Employment Relation, pages 81-139, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:22:y:2008:i:4:p:655-674. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.