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Structure of the presentation

Flexibility in the Labour market – Some Gender Issues Professor Dr Ronald McQuaid Employment Research Institute, Napier University, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK Presented at Matera, Basilicata, Italy 22-23 May 2008. Structure of the presentation. Background – Gender and Employment

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Structure of the presentation

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  1. Flexibility in the Labour market – Some Gender Issues Professor Dr Ronald McQuaidEmployment Research Institute, Napier University, Edinburgh, Scotland, UKPresented at Matera, Basilicata, Italy 22-23 May 2008

  2. Structure of the presentation • Background – Gender and Employment • Not so much female - male as ‘Mothers versus the rest’ • Employer Attitudes • Conclusions

  3. Male-Female labour market differences • The ‘family gap’ - differences in behaviour and labour market disadvantage are connected to the presence, and ages, of children of parents • Male and female FT wages converging in UK but part-time wages diverging (e.g. Paull; Booth and van Ours). • Hourly earnings of part-time females are 25% below those of full-time females (due nearly all to occupational segregation Manning and Petrongolo (2008). • Part-time work especially linked to children for women

  4. Females across EU have lower activity rates Economic activity rates (%) by gender, EU25, 2001 EA rate (male) 78.5 EA rate (female) 60.7 EA rate (total) 69.3 Source: Eurostat Regio database table UN3WPOP

  5. Why parents work part-time or not at all? • Is this a supply and/or demand phenomenon? • Supply-side influences - parents wishing to remain with their children when young, cost of childcare etc. • Demand-side influences –discrimination or employer preferences

  6. Questions and methodology • How to determine if employers are biased against those with childcare responsibilities, gender, age? • Possible methodological problems if ask them: unconscious biases, respondents confounding various potential employee characteristics, social or legal pressures on not appearing biased • So there are empirical and theoretical questions

  7. Research Methodology • Stated preference methods have been used extensively to investigate the value of non-market goods or services • Hardly been used in Labour Markets (e.g. pensions/ retirement) • Advantages – ‘measures’ preferences of employers, controls for ‘other’ key variables (using scenarios), including perhaps some unobserved heterogeneity

  8. Choices for employers • - gender (male/female) • - childcareresponsibilities for: children aged under 5 years; children aged 5 to 11; or no childcare responsibilities at all, i.e. no children under 12 • - age: 25 or less; 25 to 39; 40 to 49; or 50+ • Combining these characteristic together gives 24 unique applicant profiles which were paired and presented in 11 choice cards.

  9. Summary of results • Employer preferences were found to favour those who are: between the ages of 25 and 39; with no childcare responsibilities; and women. • Employer preferences against those: having childcare responsibilities for children under 5 years old; and being over 50 years old. • Stated Preference techniques for such labour market research proved very useful in identifying attitudes towards potential recruits.

  10. Working for Families – Some differences between parents • 4 year policy 2004-08 • 25,000 disadvantaged parents (lone parents, low income, living in an area of multiple deprivation). • Over 15,000 moved into, or improved, work, training, education • 80% females. • 71% lone parents (compared to 7% in Scotland).

  11. Working for Families • More likely to move into work, major training or education if: • the person has qualifications (SVQ level 2 or above). • being in either part time or full time education • having English as their first language, • being a lone parent

  12. Working for Families • Less likely to move into work, major training or education if: • pregnant, • having more than two children; • being over 45 years old; • being unemployed over 2 months; • having other forms of stress (such as drug dependency); • living in accommodation that is not owner occupied (esp. if in hostel or supported care).

  13. Conclusions • The Tyranny of Aggregation – for equality we must separate policies to support the most disadvantaged – i.e. generally mothers of young children, rather than treating all females the same (although this is not to deny that some discrimination still takes place). • Even among mothers however, in terms of employment there seem to be some groups that are particularly disadvantaged.

  14. Thank you for listening r.mcquaid@napier.ac.uk www2.napier.ac.uk/depts/eri/home.htm

  15. Illustration: Example of a Choice Card presented to respondents

  16. Random parameters logit model. 52 respondents, N = 572. McFadden Psuedo-R2 = 0.18.

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