Publication type
Thesis/Degree/Other Honours
Author
Publication date
June 1, 1998
Abstract:
Using British Household Panel Survey and Danish Longitudinal Data-base data, the thesis shows that the aggregate figures of part-time employment rates disguise important differences in women's experiences of part-time work in the two countries. Relative to full-time jobs, part-time jobs are of lower status, are more poorly paid and of shorter hours in Britain than they are in Denmark. Furthermore, part-time work plays a different part in British and Danish women's lives. In Britain, part-time jobs are taken by women to help them combine the two roles of mother and paid workers. In Denmark, part-time jobs are used by women to support their caring role too, but part-time jobs are as often used as routes in or out of the labour market at the start and end of women's labour market careers. Yet women's typical work patterns change over time. Younger cohorts of women in both Britain and Denmark are adopting new and similar patterns of full-time labour market participation which may result in some convergence between women's experiences in the two countries.
This British and Danish comparison provides the details of women's labour market experiences which lie behind the similar part-time employment rates. There are different reasons why British and Danish women work part-time, there are different implications of working part-time in the two countries and the reasons that women work part-time change over time. In Britain and Denmark, although women's roles have been changing - more women have been entering the labour market and entering full-time jobs - gender inequality, women's double burdens and men's breadwinner roles persist. It is concluded that unless men's roles change too, then women's dual workload is not just left unquestioned, it is intensified.
Subject
Notes
not held in Res Lib - bibliographic reference only
#508473