Occupation Specific Working Conditions as Determinants of Men’s Transitions into Part Time Employment

Abstract: Persisting working hour differences between men and women in paid work are an important indicator of gender inequality in the labour market. This becomes most evident in the case of part time work. Most part time workers are female and part time work is generally considered to be a strategy for women to reconcile family and job commitments. Hence men are only a marginal group among part timers in most countries of the world. Cross sectional studies have already shown that part time work substantially differs between women and men regarding e.g. age, household composition or the reasons for working part time. Up until now, our understanding of part time employment rests mainly on the insight research has gained on women’s part time employment. This insight may not necessarily apply to men who work part time. Moreover, occupations and their gendering effects for part time work have rarely been studied. In the German labour market, occupation-specific certificates strongly stratify the access to jobs and status positions. This stratification creates occupation-specific environments and norms about work hours and time use. Therefore it should be easier for men to work part time in some occupations than in others.

Agnieszka Althaber is a PhD candidate at Freie Universität Berlin and researcher at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center in the project group National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) where she is involved in the NEPS data collection on ‘Adult Education and Lifelong Learning’. Her current research focuses on gender inequalities in the labour market, especially on men’s part time employment, on occupation-specific working conditions, on work family interrelations, and on quantitative life course research and methodology

Presented by ANU Gender Institute