1,721,165 research outputs found
Within-Couple Inequality in Earnings and the Relative Motherhood Penalty : a Cross-National Study of European Countries
Full text linkWhile much research has focused on the difference in earnings between childless women and men and mothers and fathers, somewhat less is known on the difference in earnings between women and their partners, in particular in the transition to parenthood. This article fills this void by investigating within-couple earnings inequality in the event of a childbirth in different institutional settings. Two research questions are addressed: (i) Does a childbirth lead to a reduction in women's earned income relative to their partner? (ii) Can mothers compensate the loss of labour-related income through alternative sources of income? Fixed effects panel models on EU-SILC (2004-2008) data from eight European countries show that having a child negatively affects women's share of earned income in the majority of countries. However, cross-national differences in the results suggest that in countries where income support for parents is higher, mothers can rely on non-labour sources of income, such as payments from parental leave benefits, to compensate the reduction of relative earned income. In other words, the results indicate a relative motherhood penalty in earnings that is not, ultimately, a relative motherhood penalty in income, at least in the short run. In countries where income support for parents is lower, by contrast, the negative effect of a childbirth on the mothers' earnings is smallest, indicating that women privilege remaining in the work force around childbirth
Undoing Gender in Housework? Participation in Domestic Chores by Italian Fathers and Children of Different Ages
Full text linkThe present article questions whether and to what
extent daughters and sons learn how to Bdo gender^ in housework
in Italy, a country with low levels of societal gender
equality. Using nationally representative time use survey data
from Italy (Italian National Institute of Statistics, 2014, waves
2002–2003 and 2008–2009), where daily time use diaries are
collected for entire households, logistic models investigate to
what extent children (age 6–12), teenagers (age 13–19), and
young adults (ages 20–25) participate in domestic chores and
whether paternal involvement in housework (controlling for
parental education and employment status) is positively associated
with children’s participation in domestic chores. The
results indicate that daughters are more likely to engage in
domestic chores than are sons at all ages and that the gender
gap is wider among young adults and teenagers than among
children. Moreover, although both sons and daughters are
more likely to engage in housework if their father does so,
the effect of paternal involvement is much stronger for sons
than daughters. These patterns suggest that the learning of
housework is a gendered process—a finding that has important
implications for the reproduction of gender inequalities in
Italy and possibly elsewhere
Men's Employment Hours and Time on Domestic Chores in European Countries
No full textOver the past decades, the gender gap in housework has become smaller and
scholars have called on changing structural conditions and on the diffusion of
egalitarian gender roles to explain why. In particular, women’s presence in
the public sphere is found to be associated with a more egalitarian division
of chores between partners. However, despite the large presence of women
in the public sphere in many countries, the gender gap in housework has
not disappeared. This article asks whether the widespread presence of men
in the public sphere is slowing the diffusion of more egalitarian practices of
housework division. Using multilevel models on European Social Survey data
(2010), the article shows that in countries where men work long standard
hours, women perform relatively more housework and men relatively
less, highlighting the importance of men’s aggregate behavior in explaining
partners’ relative time on housework
The economic crisis and changes in work-family arrangements in six European countries
Full text linkOver the past decades, there has been a substantial increase in female labour force participation, and the
number of dual-earner and female-earner households has risen throughout western countries. However,
the recent economic crisis has caused large losses in employment for both women and men, potentially
yielding unexpected consequences for the evolution of work–family arrangements. This article carries
out a comparative analysis of the relationship between the 2008/2009 economic crisis and work–family
arrangements in Europe. Using data for six countries from the European Union Statistics on Income and
Living Conditions, this article fills a gap in the literature by addressing three issues: (1) whether work–family
arrangements have changed from before to after the beginning of the economic downturn in countries with
different gender and welfare regimes (Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Sweden and the United Kingdom),
(2) whether changes in work–family arrangements have occurred at different levels of the social strata and
(3) whether couples have moved from dual-earner to male- or female-breadwinner. The results indicate
changes in work–family arrangements in those countries worst hit by the economic crisis, Greece and
Spain, where dual-earner and male-breadwinner households have decreased and no-earner and femalemain-
earner households have increased. Moreover, the results show that in these two countries, all social
strata – proxied through women’s level of education – have been affected by the crisis. In contrast, only
moderate changes in work–family arrangements among all women can be observed in countries less hit
by the economic downturn. The findings for the two southern European countries are troubling, as the
increases in no-earner and female-breadwinner households point to worsening economic conditions
throughout the population and to a halt in the process that for several decades had been leading to more
equality in the distribution of employment between gender
Maternal employment : enabling factors in context
Full text linkMaternal employment is still below the overall EU recommended level of 60% in many European
countries. Understanding the individual, household and contextual circumstances under which
mothers of children of different ages are likely to be employed is crucial to develop strategies
capable of increasing maternal employment. This article takes a comparative approach to
investigating the characteristics associated with maternal employment in the presence of children
aged 0–2, 3–5, 6–9 and 10–12 years. We model the probability of being employed full-time, parttime
or being a homemaker using EU-SILC data (2004 to 2007) from Germany, Italy, Norway
and the United Kingdom – four countries belonging to different gender and welfare regimes. The
results indicate that individual and household characteristics are more relevant in determining
mothers’ employment in countries where the state is less supportive towards maternal
employment: Italy and to a lesser extent Germany and the UK – for the period observed
The Relationship Between the Civic Engagement of Parents and Children : a Cross-National Analysis of 18 European Countries
Full text linkAlthough previous research has suggested the existence of a positive association
between the political activities of parents and children, little is known about
other forms of civic engagement. In particular, the literature lacks an international
comparative study on the intergenerational transmission of civic involvement. Using
Bayesian multilevel models on data from the European Union Statistics on Income
and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) 2006 special module on social participation, this
article tests hypotheses on the patterns of civic engagement of parents and children
in 18 European countries with different political legacies. Our results show a positive
association between the participation in associational activities of parents and
children in all the considered countries, above and beyond individual and contextual
characteristics. In particular, we do not find an evident East–West gap in the
socialization process, suggesting that the Communist past of Eastern and Central
European countries has little influence on what can be considered a basic mechanism
of civic learning
The Best Is Yet to Come? Attitudes towards gender roles among adolescents in 36 countries
Full text linkIn the present article, we look at attitudes toward
gender roles among young women and men in 36 countries
with different levels of societal gender inequality. By applying
multilevel models to data from the International Civic and
Citizenship Education Study 2009, the study contributes to
our understanding of gender inequality by showing that (a)
both young women and young men (in 8th grade;
Mage = 14.39 years) display more gender-egalitarian attitudes
in countries with higher levels of societal gender equality; (b)
young women in all countries have more egalitarian attitudes
toward gender roles than young men do, but (c) the gender gap
in attitudes is more evident in more egalitarian contexts; and
(d) a higher level of maternal education is associated with
more gender-egalitarian attitudes among young women. In
contrast, no statistically significant association emerges between
maternal employment and young men’s attitudes.
Overall, the findings suggest that adolescents in different contexts
are influenced by the dominant societal discourse on
gender inequality, which they interiorize and display through
their own attitudes toward gender roles. However, the findings
also indicate that young women are more responsive to external
cues than young men are. This result, coupled with the fact
that young men in egalitarian contexts have not adopted
gender-egalitarian attitudes to the same extent as young women,
is concerning because it suggests a slowdown in the
achievement of societal gender equality that is still far from
being reache
Increasingly unequal? The economic crisis, social inequalities and trust in the European Parliament in 20 European countries
Full text linkThe 2008/2009 economic crisis has been identified as an important element contributing to
declining trust in institutions in Europe and worldwide. However, it is unclear whether this decline in trust
is distributed homogenously among citizens or whether there are differences across social strata.This article
applies multilevel models to six waves of European Social Survey (ESS) data to analyse changes in trust in
the European Parliament (EP) from 2002 to 2012 in 20 European Union countries.Moreover, it investigates
whether individuals with different socioeconomic backgrounds experienced different reductions in trust.
The results indicate that trust in the EP declined the most in the peripheral European countries hit hardest
by the economic crisis: Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Cyprus, Greece and Spain. Furthermore, the results suggest
that the decline in trust was more pronounced among subjects with lower social status. The tightening of
the link between social and political inequalities is especially preoccupying considering the importance of
trust in institutions for citizens to actively participate in society, voice their needs and demand their place at
the table. Hence, the worsening economic conditions, combined with declining levels of trust, are not only
troublesome for the functioning of democracies as a whole, but they are also problematic at the individual
level as they are likely to perpetuate the divide among subjects at different ends of the social ladder
O tutti o nessuno? Differenze regionali e di genere nella partecipazione politica e sociale intrafamigliare in Italia
No full textAlthough family ties are very important to understand political socialization, few studies have focused on the transmission of political and social participation from parents to children. By using the Multiscopo survey "Aspetti della vita quotidiana" (Istat), this article investigates the association between parents and children's political and social participation, with particular attention to gender and regional differences. Multilevel models indicate, first of all, the presence of regional differences in the levels of participation and, secondly, a strong tendency of intrafamiliar political and social "co-participation". In other words, sons and daughters have higher probabilities of being politically and socially active when both parents are active as well, regardless of their region of residence. Moreover, analyzing the children's behavior compared to their mothers and fathers' separately we find that mothers' participation has a stronger effect than fathers'. This difference in the effect of parents' participation is indeed small, yet geographically homogeneous. Put differently, having a politically and socially active mother increases the probability of children's participation more than having a politically and socially active father in all Italian regions. This result is particularly interesting in the Italian context where mothers are largely absent in the public sphere while they play a very important role within households
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