Are step families’ couples more egalitarian? Gender gap in labor market participation in Spain...

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Are step families’ couples more egalitarian? Gender gap in labor market participation in Spain Jordi Gumà [email protected] Iñaki Permanyer [email protected] Rocio Treviño [email protected] This work is part of the research project “Hogares de familias reconstituidas y equidad de género : ¿nuevas paradojas?” and should be considered as a product of the Spanish R+D project 2008-2011. (Ref. CSO2008- 00654). European Network for the Sociological and Demographic Studies of Divorce

Transcript of Are step families’ couples more egalitarian? Gender gap in labor market participation in Spain...

Are step families’ couples more egalitarian? Gender gap in labor market

participation in Spain

Jordi Gumà [email protected]ñaki Permanyer [email protected]

Rocio Treviño [email protected]

This work is part of the research project “Hogares de familias reconstituidas y equidad de género : ¿nuevas paradojas?” and should be considered as a product of the Spanish R+D project 2008-2011. (Ref. CSO2008-00654).

European Network for the Sociological and Demographic Studies of Divorce

A Basic definition

• A step family (or reconstituted family) is a married or cohabiting couple living in the same household in which one or both members of the couple have children from a previous relationship.

Main goals

• Study and compare the socio-demographic profile of reconstituted vs non-reconstituted families.

• Study gender inequality patterns within reconstituted couples and compare them w.r.t. non-reconstituted ones.– Labor market participation.– Domestic work

• Cross national comparisons.

Motivation

• The emergence of step families is an increasingly widespread phenomenon.

• Children’s well-being.

In this presentation

• Study and compare the socio-demographic profile of reconstituted vs non-reconstituted families.

• Study gender inequality patterns within reconstituted couples and compare them w.r.t. non-reconstituted ones.– Labor market participation.– Domestic work

• Cross national comparisons.

Cross-national comparisons:Identification problems

• Most countries’ censuses do not have explicit questions to identify reconstituted families.

• For those countries with explicit questions (Italy, Portugal, US) we don’t get reliable results either.

• Main Problem: Step families are hard to identify, highly heterogeneous, making international comparisons particularly difficult.

The Spanish case

• Data Sources: – 2001 Census Round. – EPA (Encuesta de Población Activa: Spanish

Labour force survey)

• Other surveys have too small samples

Socio-demographic profile

• Absolute and relative number of reconstituted families in Spain according to different variables:– Who brings the children – Marriage vs consensual union– Civil status – Age– Education– Nationality– Labor market participation

Percent of reconstituted families over biparental families with children, Spain 1999-2009

Authors’ calculations based on EPA data

Profiles (I)155.220 71.440 6.500

126.300

82.580 38.940 4.780

106.860

72.640 32.500 1.720

Authors’ calculations based on 2001 Census data

Profiles (II)Reconstituted families distribution according to who brings the children from a previous relationship. Authors’ calculations using Spanish 2001 Census microdata.

Percentage of reconstituted families with common children according to who brings the children from a previous relationship.Authors’ calculations using Spanish 2001 Census microdata.

Profiles (III)

Authors’ calculations based on EPA data

Consensual Union levels

Authors’ calculations based on EPA data

Civil Status

Authors’ calculations based on EPA data

Age distribution (I)

Authors’ calculations based on 2009 EPA data

Age distribution (II)

Authors’ calculations based on 2009 EPA data

Age heterogamy

Authors’ calculations based on 2009 EPA data

Education

Authors’ calculations based on 2009 EPA data

Nationality

Authors’ calculations based on 2009 EPA data

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10

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70

80

90

100

20--24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60-64

Reconstituidas

No reconstituidas

Authors’ calculations using Spanish 2001 Census microdata.

Women’s activity rates (I)

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60

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80

90

100

20--24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60-64

Mujer aporta hijos

Hombre Aporta hijos

Ambos aportan hijos

Authors’ calculations using Spanish 2001 Census microdata.

Women’s activity rates (II)

Conclusions and Future research (I)

• Reconstituted families have heterogeneous sociodemographic profiles, so they can not be treated as a single entity.

• This heterogeneity might be due to the many ways in which reconstituted families can be constructed. In the future, it would be desirable to use biographical analysis.

Conclusions and Future research (II)

• Cross sectional analysis shows that women bringing their children to a reconstituted family have lower social capital (in terms of education and labour market participation) than their monoparental counterparts.

• Women in reconstituted families have a higher labour market participation than women with children in non-reconstituted families.

• Future research: explore gender differences between reconstituted and non-reconstituted families w.r.t. domestic work.

Are step families’ couples more egalitarian? Gender gap in labor market

participation in Spain

Jordi Gumà [email protected]ñaki Permanyer [email protected]

Rocio Treviño [email protected]

This work is part of the research project “Hogares de familias reconstituidas y equidad de género : ¿nuevas paradojas?” and should be considered as a product of the Spanish R+D project 2008-2011. (Ref. CSO2008-00654).

European Network for the Sociological and Demographic Studies of Divorce