A Job of One’s Own. Does Women’s Labor Market Participation Influence the Economic Insecurity of Households?

Abstract

Background: The article investigates the phenomenon of economic insecurity from a feminist perspective, assessing the role of women's labour market participation in predicting the phenomenon. It draws on the work of Trifiletti (1999) to analyse women's role in providing welfare for the entire family. Methods: Stemming from a cross-sectional analysis of European Union statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) 2013, logistic regression models (for women in a couple and for single women) are provided for six countries. Results: The descriptive analysis shows that economic insecurity affects single women more than single men, while couples fare better in all countries considered. Transversal factors that explain the phenomenon in logistic regressions are household type and wealth of the family, while the role of women's labour market participation and economic dependency from partners or from a welfare system varies across countries. Conclusions: Empirical results show that countries only partially comply with the theoretical model proposed by Trifiletti (1999), which proceeded from the welfare regime debate. Italy and Spain show more difference than similarity. The results for Italy and the United Kingdom confirm those of previous investigations that indicate their similarity, while France and Spain are closer to the Mediterranean archetype. The results for the Czech Republic confirm its proximity to the breadwinner model, as Denmark epitomises the heuristic capacity of the Universalist model in Northern European countries.

Localizing new social risks

“…The tertiarization of economy is the outcome of several trends: firstly, the technological transformation has automatized the most routinely jobs in manufacture reducing the weight of industrial employment in the total employment; secondly, part of the previously in-house support activities have been outsourced to specialised companies; thirdly, the expansion of state intervention created new jobs in education, health and social services. While higher availability of non-standard jobs favoured the increased participation of social categories previously excluded from the labour market (women and the young), the price of the de-standardisation was the loosening capacity of employment to protect from economic insecurity (Maestripieri, 2018) and the diffusion of in-work poverty across European societies (Saraceno, 2015). As many authors have recently pointed out (Hacker 2008), the diffusion of financial strain and temporary poverty is one of the main effects of increasing temporary insertion into the labour market and retrenchment of welfare policies.…”

Certain Aspects of Family Policy Incentives for Childbearing—A Hungarian Study with an International Outlook

“…The economic theories of fertility decline [31] have added the time and opportunity cost variables, as well as the mother's income and labour market participation [32] to the models of childbearing. Within the economics of households, the available resources of labour, capital, and time are allocated to childbearing as well, in accordance with its utility measures [33,34].…”