Projects
Project One: Changing Occupational Careers of Women and Men
Principal Investigator: Shirley Dex (Institute of
Education, London)
Principal Investigator: Heather Joshi (Institute of Education, London)
Aims
The main aims are (1) to compare and explain women's and men's
occupational mobility, upward and downward, during the lifecourse of
successive cohorts; (2) to relate mobility to family responsibilities,
organizational policies and other factors; (3) to examine the
determinants of career success, failure and recovery for men and women;
(4) to examine the gender pay differentials in the light of
occupational upgrading and downgrading.
Background
Women have made remarkable educational progress. The proportion of
women among the highly qualified has grown enormously in the last 20
years. However, while the ratio of women's to men's pay has improved,
remuneration is still unequal, and the British economy may still be
under-using valuable female skills, as argued in the Kingsmill
Review (2001). In post-war Britain, motherhood typically led to
part-time jobs, after a break, often at lower occupational levels than
before. Has such job downgrading changed? By the end of the century,
provisions for maternity and parental leave have improved. There have
been initiatives to facilitate combining work and family life. Child
care provision has increased . Employers have also attempted to improve
the retention of women employees by offering better deals to returners
(Dex and Smith 2002). It is important to chart careers longitudinally
to get a sense of the extent of change at key points in the lifecourse.
As the Kingsmill recommendations get implemented through British
organizations, future waves of British birth cohorts will show the
difference made to women's and men's occupational and organisational
careers, against the benchmark of earlier generations.
The project will address the following key research questions: How have women's and men's occupational trajectories changed over time? How do these changes relate to child bearing and family formation, employer practices, parents' choices, and public policy? How do the gendered contexts of selected occupations, (examples of traditionally female might be teaching, and nursing, and of traditionally male, IT, management) relate to the life-course outcomes revealed by quantitative analyses (eg. wages; occupational status; family building; mental health, and hours of work combinations of parents)? What are the main drivers of men's career success? Have there been penalties for men's breaks in employment in successive generations? Do women's and men's career paths differ in in public or private sector organizations, given sectoral differences in work flexibility and equal opportunities practice. Do women have more children or time births differently in conditions more favourable to combining work and family life? Has the implementation of the Part-time work Directive in Britain led to a decline in the part time pay penalty? Do the effects on subsequent employment and earnings from career interruptions differ according to the timing and length of the break?
The research intends to consider careers in terms of
both occupational status and earnings in the light of educational
attainment and social background. It will also explore, if possible,
the effects of geographical relocation, on individual careers.
Methods and Data
These questions are addressed using the detailed work and family
history data contained in the successive British birth cohorts from
1946 onwards. The 1946, 1958, 1970 and the Millennium cohorts offer a
large-scale and nationally representative window on the changing
experiences of women and men over the life course. Employment and
fertility histories in the earlier studies provide benchmark career
profiles, as necessary background for an examination of the effects of
the changing policy environment in the late 20th and 21st centuries.
Against this background, the evolving Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) data will reveal how
the latest generations of mothers' and fathers' careers vary from
earlier evidence on employment around parenthood. Over the life of this
Network, these MCS parents' employment experiences may be charted until
the child cohort member is age 5, and the careers of the 1958 and 1970
cohort will be updated in 2004. Our lifecourse framework of analysis
allows for influences on individuals' choices and experiences from
their background characteristics and experiences, their current
circumstances, organisational context and support, infrastructure
support and other resources including partners and wider family support.
The project will aim to map employment profiles for
men and women and analyse, using multivariate modelling, the
determinants of men's and women's career successes and failures in the
light of a wide range of life experiences, support, infrastructure and
constraints. The modelling will pay attention to period and cohort
differences in parents' experiences. Modelling of pay differentials
will follow well-established techniques (Joshi and Paci, 1998),
including a focus on part-time pay.
Project Contact
Professor Shirley Dex
Bedford Group for Lifecourse and Statistical Studies
Institute of Education
University of London
20 Bedford Way
London
WC1H 0AL
s.dex@ioe.ac.uk
+44 (0)20 7612 6231
