Contextualizing the Education Effect on Women's Employment: A Cross‐National Comparative Analysis

Abstract

The study examines how and why the effect of education on women's employment varies crossnationally. First, we present a theoretical model that (a) outlines the micro-level mechanisms underlying education effects on women's employment in the couple context and (b) proposes contextual moderators at the country level. Second, we test the theoretical model against survey data from the United Nations Generations and Gender Programme for five European countries (Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, and Norway). The data comprise 10,048 educationally homogamous heterosexual couples involving a woman aged 20-45. Our results indicate that more highly educated couples are more likely to have dual-earner arrangements in each country, yet the strength of education effects varies substantially between countries and across the family life-cycle. In contrast to prior work, we find that education effects are not generally smaller in countries that are supportive of women's employment. This relation only holds for later childrearing phases.Keywords: education, gender, couple employment, dual-earner, cross-national comparisons 3 More highly educated women are more strongly involved in the labor market. This general pattern has been confirmed by numerous studies covering different parts of the world (e.g., England, Garcia-Beaulieu, & Ross, 2004;England, Gornick, & Shafer, 2012;Evertsson, England, Hermsen, & Cotter, 2007;Evertsson, England, Mooi-Reci, Hermsen, de Bruin, & Cotter, 2009;Nieuwenhuis, Need, & van der Kolk, 2012;Rubery, Smith, & Fagan, 1999; Author, 2014). It is consistent with human capital theory and the logic of opportunity costs: the more highly educated have a greater wage potential and therefore it is relatively more costly for them not to work.Moreover, higher education tends to be associated with more egalitarian gender-role attitudes and better labor market opportunities. It has in fact become a truism -in the academic community and beyond -that women's employment is higher at higher levels of educational attainment.Yet, the literature shows interesting variations across countries in the strength of education effects on women's employment (e.g., England et al., 2012;Evertsson et al., 2009;Kenjoh, 2005) which warrant closer examination and explanation. The central aim of the present study is to foster our understanding of how and why education effects on women's employment vary crossnationally.To this end, we first present a comprehensive theoretical model that (a) outlines the micro-level mechanisms commonly argued to underlie education effects on couple's employment arrangements and (b) lays out the contextual conditions at the country level under which we may expect the different micro-level mechanisms to be of greater or lesser relevance. Second, we use international survey data to test hypotheses derived from the theoretical model. The focus of the investigation is on educationally homogamous couples that represent the majority of couples in the countries analyzed. We examine education effects on cou...

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