Grandmothers and Non-grandmothers in the Polish Labor Market: The Role of Family Issues

Abstract

Drawing on the debates regarding work–family reconciliation in later life, we examine the extent to which the labor market position of grandmothers and nongrandmothers can be explained by their varied family situations. The data for this study comes from the Generations and Gender Survey for Poland and includes 5,999 women aged 45+ years. We use multinominal logistic regression models to explore the link between different family situations and labor market withdrawal into unemployment, sick/disability leave, and retirement. Our results indicate that neither caring for older parents nor living with children has significant effects on women’s labor activity. However, living with a disabled person reduces the chances for women’s employment significantly. In addition, women who have grandchildren have lower chances for being employed as compared with those without grandchildren. We discuss these findings in relation to work–family balance policies and research.

Being a Working Grandmother, Mother, and Daughter at the Same Time: A “Double Sandwich” in a Four-generation Family

“…Moreover, the high rates of young working mothers who rely on their parents, and especially on their mothers, for child care mean that contemporary grandmothers still in formal employment outside the home are likely to combine work with the duties of caring for their own grandchildren (Meyer, 2014). In the past decade, as researchers have realized that many grandmothers are still employed in the workforce, attention has turned to the question of how grandparents, and not just working mothers, manage the combined load of work responsibilities and commitments to caring for grandchildren (Hochman & Lewin-Epstein, 2013; Lakomy & Kreidl, 2015; Meyer, 2014; Wilinska et al, 2019). These studies have yielded inconsistent conclusions regarding the correlations between a grandmother’s salaried employment and her role as a caregiver.…”

“…The harm is not only financial but their leisure time and social lives also suffer due to these sacrifices. Wilinska and colleagues found that grandmothers have lower chances for being employed compared to women without grandchildren (Wilinska et al, 2019). Other studies, however, did not associate negative outcomes with the combining of work and caring for grandchildren (e.g., Silverstein & Marenco, 2001).…”

Does Transition to Retirement Promote Grandchild Care? Evidence From Europe

“…Most prior studies that considered the association between grandparents' employment status and grandchild care did not distinguish between retired grandparents and those who do not work for other reasons (such as unemployment or illness) (Aassve et al, 2012 ; Danielsbacka and Tanskanen, 2012 ; Di Gessa et al, 2016 ; Železna, 2018 ; Wilińska et al, 2019 ; Zamarro, 2020 ). In addition, prior studies have almost exclusively used cross-sectional data and compared two different groups of individuals, that is, they have compared the grandchild care of working grandparents with that of non-working grandparents.…”

Does Transition to Retirement Promote Grandchild Care? Results from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe

“…Most prior studies on the association between grandparents' employment status and provision of grandchild care mostly used cross-sectional data and have shown that employed grandparents tend to provide less child care to their grandchildren compared to those grandparents out of the labor market (i.e., retired, unemployed, permanently sick etc.) (Aassve, Meroni & Pronzato, 2012;Danielsbacka & Tanskanen, 2012;Zamarro, 2020) and retired grandparents provide more child care help than grandparents who are not retired (Di Gessa et al, 2016;Wilińska et al, 2019;Zelezna, 2018).…”