The Combined Impact of Family Policies on Fertility and Female Labor Force Participation in 21 OECD Countries

From the end of the 1990’s and the beginning of the 2000’s, Latin American region experienced the largest female labor force participation growth in the world. Recent literature (Camou, 2015; Chioda, 2016; Gasparini & Marchionni, 2015; Klasen, 2018; Serrano, Gasparini, Marchionni, & Gluzmann, 2018) conclude that marriage and fertility trends, economic growth and education as important determinants, but agree to the need to analyze women preferences and social factors also as contributing elements. This study contributes to the literature by studying these two factors in the region, from the viewpoint of Akerlof & Kranton’s (2000) Identity Economic Theory, and Welzel’s (2013b) Emancipative Values Theory. Exploiting World Values Survey data and European Values Study, this investigation developed a probabilistic regression model where women’s preference towards egalitarian views as workingwoman is analyzed as Women’s Identity, and social constraints upon gender equality is analyzed integrating a Women’s Emancipative Values indicator. This work also compares Latin American countries results with OECD countries to note differences between the groups. We conclude that Women’s Identity and Women’s Emancipative Value are strong positive statistically significant determinants of FLFP. When compared with OECD countries, we also conclude that women in the two groups of countries share similar self views as workingwoman, but Latin America still has social constraints at play that are limiting FLFP in the region.

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Family policies and fertility

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy ◽

10.1108/ijssp-04-2018-0052 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 38 (11/12) ◽

pp. 1057-1070 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Katharina Wesolowski ◽

Tommy Ferrarini

Keyword(s):

Labor Force ◽

Labor Force Participation ◽

Family Policy ◽

Female Labor Force Participation ◽

Fertility Rates ◽

Family Policies ◽

Female Labor ◽

Content Type ◽

Traditional Family ◽

Carer Support

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the link between two different family policy dimensions – one supporting the combination of work and parenthood and one supporting stay-at-home mothers – and fertility rates between 1995 and 2011 in 33 industrialized countries. Design/methodology/approach Total fertility rates were regressed on the two policy dimensions, earner–carer support and traditional–family support, using pooled time-series analysis with country fixed effects and stepwise control for female labor force participation, unemployment rates and GDP. Findings The analyses show that earner–carer support is linked to higher fertility, while traditional–family support is not. Also, higher female labor force participation is linked to higher fertility before GDP is included. Conversely, higher unemployment is correlated with lower fertility levels. Sensitivity analyses with and without day care enrollment on a smaller set of countries show no influence of day care on the results for family policy. Originality/value The results give weight to the argument that family policies supporting the combination of work and parenthood could increase fertility in low-fertility countries, probably mediated in part by female labor force participation. Earnings-related earner–carer support incentivizes women to enter the labor force before parenthood and to return to work after time off with their newborn child, thus supporting a combination of work and parenthood.

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Women’s earnings and household inequality in OECD countries, 1973–2013

Acta Sociologica ◽

10.1177/0001699316654528 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 60 (1) ◽

pp. 3-20 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Rense Nieuwenhuis ◽

Henk van der Kolk ◽

Ariana Need

Keyword(s):

Labor Force ◽

Labor Force Participation ◽

Oecd Countries ◽

Female Labor Force Participation ◽

Women's Employment ◽

Female Labor ◽

Women’S Employment ◽

Household Inequality ◽

History Of ◽

Women's Earnings

This article shows that women’s rising earnings contributed to reducing inequality in household earnings, with respect to couples. We use data from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) on 1,148,762 coupled households, covering 18 OECD countries and the period from 1973 to 2013. In this period, women’s share of household earnings grew, spouses’ earnings became more strongly and positively correlated in various countries, and inequality in women’s earnings was reduced. Inequality in household earnings increased due to the rising correlation between spouses’ earnings, but was reduced more by the decline of inequality in women’s earnings. Had women’s earnings remained unchanged since the 1970s and 1980s, inequality in household earnings would have been higher around 2010 in all observed OECD countries. Household inequality was reduced least by trends in women’s earnings in countries with a long history of high female labor-force participation, such as Finland (3% reduction) and Sweden (5%), and most in countries that observed a stronger increase in female labor-force participation in recent decades such as Spain (31%) and the Netherlands (41%). As more countries are reaching a plateau in the growth of women’s employment and earnings, the potential for further stimulating women’s employment and earnings to counter both women’s and household inequality seems to be increasingly limited.

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Women's Labour In Turkey: A Comparasıon Wıth Selected Oecd Countrıes 49

European Scientific Journal ESJ ◽

10.19044/esj.2016.v12n8p142 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 12 (8) ◽

pp. 142

Author(s):

Ebubekir Karacayir ◽

Sinem Yapar Sacik

Keyword(s):

Labor Force ◽

Labor Force Participation ◽

Gender Inequality ◽

Participation Rate ◽

Oecd Countries ◽

Female Labor Force Participation ◽

Female Labor ◽

Development Goals ◽

Gender Based ◽

Shed Light

Gender inequality that exists in every area of a society is experienced at an intense level in employment area in Turkey. This inequality, though has been decreasing, goes on in every aspect of employment such as female labor force participation rate, unemployment rate, underemployment rate, informal employment, salaries etc., and slows down the process of enhancement of women’s position in the society. Evaluating Turkey with regards to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals 2015, it is clearly observed that no significant progress could be achieved in reduction of social gender inequality. One of the important goals in the development process in the world is to enhance welfare in countries by increasing woman employment. As a consequence of expansion in services sectors in the last two decades, female labor force participation has approached to but it is still lower than that of males labor force. It is of necessity to present women’s labour through a comparison of data from various countries in order to shed light to the problem of gender-based inequality women live through in Turkey. Therefore, in this study, women’s labour has been evaluated through a comparative analysis of Turkey and preselected OECD countries. The findings of the study have reached several different features of Turkey and have defined similarities between Turkey and these countries.

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