Part-time by Gender, Not Choice: The Gender Gap in Involuntary Part-time Work

2020 ◽  
pp. 073112142093774
Author(s):  
Corey Pech ◽  
Elizabeth Klainot-Hess ◽  
Davon Norris
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Occupational Segregation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Care Work ◽  
Current Population Survey Data ◽  
Time Work ◽  
Part Time ◽  
Part Time Work

Gender inequality in the labor market is a key focus of stratification research. Increasingly, variation in hours worked separates men and women’s employment experiences. Though women often voluntarily work part-time at higher rates than men, involuntary part-time work is both analytically distinct from voluntary part-time work and leaves workers economically precarious. To date, researchers have not systematically investigated gender disparities in involuntary part-time work in the United States. Utilizing Current Population Survey data, we test for a gender gap in involuntary part-time work and evaluate two potential mechanisms: occupational segregation and penalties for care work. We find that women are much more likely than men to work in involuntary part-time positions. Occupational segregation and a care work penalty partially, but not fully, explain this gap. Findings extend existing theories of gender inequality in the workforce and show how an underresearched dimension of job quality creates gender stratification in the United States.

The Politics of Part-Time Work: Gender, Employment Status, and Preferences for Redistribution

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-38
Author(s):  
David S. Pedulla ◽  
Michael J. Donnelly
Keyword(s):  
Employment Status ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
The United States ◽  
Limited Attention ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Preferences For Redistribution ◽  
Time Work ◽  
Part Time ◽  
Part Time Work

Abstract The social and economic forces that shape attitudes toward the welfare state are of central concern to social scientists. Scholarship in this area has paid limited attention to how working part-time, the employment status of nearly 20% of the U.S. workforce, affects redistribution preferences. In this article, we theoretically develop and empirically test an argument about the ways that part-time work, and its relationship to gender, shape redistribution preferences. We articulate two gender-differentiated pathways—one material and one about threats to social status—through which part-time work and gender may jointly shape individuals’ preferences for redistribution. We test our argument using cross-sectional and panel data from the General Social Survey in the United States. We find that the positive relationship between part-time employment, compared to full-time employment, and redistribution preferences is stronger for men than for women. Indeed, we do not detect a relationship between part-time work and redistribution preferences among women. Our results provide support for a gendered relationship between part-time employment and redistribution preferences and demonstrate that both material and status-based mechanisms shape this association.

Wishing to work: New perspectives on how adolescents’ part-time work intensity is linked to educational disengagement, substance use, and other problem behaviours

2003 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 301-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerald G. Bachman ◽  
Deborah J. Safron ◽  
Susan Rogala Sy ◽  
John E. Schulenberg
Keyword(s):  
Substance Use ◽  
The United States ◽  
Work Intensity ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
School Year ◽  
Problem Behaviours ◽  
Time Work ◽  
Educational Engagement ◽  
Part Time ◽  
Part Time Work

This study examines interrelations among students’ educational engagement, desired and actual school-year employment, substance use, and other problem behaviours. Cross-sectional findings from representative samples of 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-grade students in the United States, totalling over 300,000 respondents surveyed during the years 1992–1998, include the following: Large majorities of adolescents wish to work part-time during the school year, although most in earlier grades are not actually employed. Those who desire to work long hours tend to have low grades and low college aspirations; they are also more likely than average to use cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana. Students’ preferences for part-time work emerge at younger ages (i.e., earlier grades) than actual work, and the preferences show equal or stronger correlations with educational disengagement and problem behaviours.

scholarly journals Working-hour Trends in the Nordic Countries: Convergence or Divergence?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aart-Jan Riekhoff ◽  
Oxana Krutova ◽  
Jouko Nätti
Keyword(s):  
Gender Gap ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Annual Data ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Time Work ◽  
Part Time ◽  
Part Time Work ◽  
Working Hour

In this article, we investigate changes in usual working hours and part-time work in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden in recent decades. We analyze whether convergence or divergence occurred between countries, between men and women, and between men and women in each country. We use annual data from the European Labor Force Survey to identify trends between 1996 and 2016 (N = 730,133), while controlling for a set of structural factors. The findings suggest a degree of divergence between countries: usual working hours and the incidence of part-time work were relatively stable in Finland and Sweden, while working hours decreased in Denmark and Norway. The latter is partly driven by a decline among the 15–29 age group. The gender gap in working hours and part-time work was closed somewhat, in particular due to a rise in part-time work among men and a decline among women in Norway and Sweden.

Gender Pay Gap

Sociology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
JooHee Han ◽  
Michelle Budig
Keyword(s):  
Gender Gap ◽  
White Women ◽  
The United States ◽  
Gender Segregation ◽  
Hourly Wage ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Gender Pay Gap ◽  
Pay Gap ◽  
Time Work ◽  
Part Time

The “gender pay gap” refers to the average difference in men’s and women’s earnings, and is typically adjusted for hours worked. The gender pay gap can refer to differences in mean or median annual earnings, weekly earnings, or hourly wage. Because women tend to work part-time at higher rates than do men, and because part-time work tends to pay lower hourly wages relative to full-time work, the size of the gender pay gap is affected by whether full- and part-time, full-year or seasonal, and very young and very old workers are included in the estimates. Among full-time, year-round American workers aged sixteen and above in 2017, the gender pay gap (median weekly earnings) was 18.2 percent, meaning that women earned 81.8 cents of every man’s dollar. In the United States, women of color earn less relative to white men than white women do, owing to racial gaps in pay among women; moreover, within-race gender pay gaps are often smaller among racial/ethnic minorities, reflecting the low earnings of minority men. The gender gap has narrowed considerably since the early 20th century, yet disparities in women’s and men’s earnings persist. Moreover, this narrowing has not proceeded in a linear fashion and the gap has occasionally increased. This entry first introduces important literatures on historic and contemporary trends in the gender pay gap and then discusses the various explanations for the persistence of, and changes in, the gap. These explanations highlight the role of occupational gender segregation; the devaluation of female-typed work; gender differences in experience; family structure, care responsibilities, and the gendered impact of parenthood; workplace structures of inequality; glass ceilings and glass escalators. This entry concludes with a discussion of narrowing the gap and what it will take to close the gap.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document