National work-family policies and the occupational segregation of women and mothers in European countries, 1999-2016

Abstract

Some scholars hypothesize that although work-family policies help incorporate women into the labour market, they do so by integrating women, and mothers specifically, into female-dominated occupations. Some suggest that although these policies are 'good' for lower educated women, they harm higher educated women by concentrating them in female-dominated professions. We revisit this debate using the highest quality data brought to bear on this question to date. We use the EU Labour Force Survey 1999-2016 (n = 21 countries, 235 country-years, 2.5 million men and women aged 20-44), combined with an original collection of country-year indicators. Specifically, we examine how the two most widely studied work-family policies-paid parental leave and early childhood education and care (ECEC)-and public sector size affect occupational segregation for men and women by educational attainment and parental status. We find no evidence that 'generous' welfare states promote segregation. Rather, a specific policy-parental leave in excess of 9 months-promotes segregation between men and women broadly, but most acutely for non-tertiary-educated mothers. Findings are generally null for paid leave of up to 9 months. ECEC is associated with greater integration, particularly for tertiary-educated women. Large public sectors are associated with segregation, with both tertiary-educated men and women more likely to work in feminized occupations. Public sector size, however, is not as tightly bundled with work-family policies as previous work suggests.