Work history, economic resources, and women’s labour market withdrawal after the birth of the first grandchild

Abstract

Typically, grandmothers are actively involved in the lives of their grandchildren, most frequently as care providers. At the same time, these individuals become grandparents while still employed. These two roles-of active grandparent and worker-might conflict, since both demand time and energy. This study examines whether the birth of the first grandchild leads to labour market withdrawal for women, and whether there are differences between grandmothers according to their work history and household economic resources. We considered the work history of women both as a measure of work-family preferences and a source of opportunities and constraints to labour market behaviour later in life. Our analyses of data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) 2002-2017 using hybrid logistic models show that the probability of labour market withdrawal increases after the birth of the first grandchild. Women who had continuous working careers, or short employment interruptions, were more likely to withdraw from the labour market after the birth of the first grandchild than their counterparts with non-continuous careers, as well as women living in wealthy households. The explanation lies in the lower opportunity cost these women encounter in withdrawing from the labour market. Our findings relate to policies aimed at increasing retirement ages all over Europe, advocating that these measures could conflict with grandmothers' involvement in their grandchildren's lives.

The Role of Fertility in the Demography of Grandparenthood: Evidence from Italy

“…Supporting these women who might have to provide care for both their parents and their grandchildren while being in paid employment still remains a critical challenge. This is central and timely in both research and policy agendas given that becoming a grandparent increases early retirement and that grandchild care conflicts with both paid work and participation in social activities (Arpino and Bordone 2017;De Winter and Van Bavel 2013;Di Gessa et al 2016;Zanasi et al 2019).…”

Associations between paid and unpaid work among Norwegian seniors: competition, complementarity or continuity?

“…For example, Jacobs et al ( 2014 ) find that the number of hours of personal care provision is a predictor of leaving work, whereas Carr et al ( 2016 ) conclude that work exit is only likely to occur if the care provider and the care receiver live together. Similarly, grandparents seem to have difficulties in combining full-time paid work with regular grandchild care (Hank and Buber 2009 ; Lakomý and Kreidl 2015 ), and there is also evidence of older workers leaving paid employment when entering grandparenthood (Van Bavel and Le Winter 2013 ; Zanasi et al 2020 ).…”

Daily grandchild care and grandparents' employment: a comparison of four European child-care policy regimes

“…Together with previous literature these findings suggest that, while grandmothers are less likely to work than non-grandmothers (Backhaus and Barslund, 2019), there is little evidence that grandchild care, even when performed daily, is in conflict with grandmothers' employment in Europe. The differences in the probability of working between grandparents and nongrandparents found in previous European research (Frimmel et al, 2017;Kridahl, 2017;Backhaus and Barslund, 2019;Zanasi et al, 2020) may be explained by the fact that becoming a grandparent marks the acquisition of a new social role, and it is likely to change individuals' preferences towards work and family care (Mahne and Motel-Klingebiel, 2012). It may be such changes, rather than conflict with daily grandchild care, that lead grandparents (and grandmothers in particular) to have lower probabilities of working than non-grandparents.…”

“…They find that being a grandmother reduces women's probability of working by 20 percent, with no effect on men. Analyses of women in Austria (Frimmel, Halla, Schmidpeter, and Winter-Ebmer, 2017) and England (Zanasi, Sieben, and Uunk, 2020) find that the birth of the first grandchild is linked with an increase in the probability of leaving the labour market.…”

“…They find that being a grandmother reduces women's probability of working by 20 per cent, with no effect on men. Analyses of women in Austria (Frimmel et al, 2017) and England (Zanasi et al, 2020) find that the birth of the first grandchild is linked with an increase in the probability of leaving the labour market. Applying survival analysis to Swedish register data, Kridahl (2017) shows that grandparents of both sexes retire earlier than nongrandparents.…”