Full Citation
Title: Womens Work Pathways Across the Life Course
Citation Type: Journal Article
Publication Year: 2016
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Abstract: Despite numerous changes in womens employment in the latter half of the twentieth century, womens employment continues to be uneven and stalled. Drawing from data on womens weekly work hours in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79), we identify significant inequality in womens labor force experiences across adulthood. We find two pathways of stable full-time work for women, three pathways of part-time employment, and a pathway of unpaid labor. A majority of women follow one of the two full-time work pathways, while fewer than 10 % follow a pathway of unpaid labor. Our findings provide evidence of the lasting influence of workfamily conflict and early socioeconomic advantages and disadvantages on womens work pathways. Indeed, race, poverty, educational attainment, and early family characteristics significantly shaped womens work careers. Workfamily opportunities and constraints also were related to womens work hours, as were a womans gendered beliefs and expectations. We conclude that womens employment pathways are a product of both their resources and changing social environment as well as individual agency. Significantly, we point to social stratification, gender ideologies, and workfamily constraints, all working in concert, as key explanations for how women are tracked onto work pathways from an early age.
Url: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13524-016-0464-z/fulltext.html
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Authors: Damaske, Sarah; Frech, Adrianne
Periodical (Full): Demography
Issue: 2
Volume: 53
Pages: 365-390
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Gender, Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Other
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