Rense Nieuwenhuis » Journal of Marriage and Family

Prize Winning Research: Do children keep their mother from working?

Rense Nieuwenhuis — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 17:15:17 +0000

“Do children keep their mother from working?” I used this title for a poster presented at a PhD conference, two years ago. The intentionally provocative title spurred some discussion about the world being a little more complex than it suggested. Of course it is, I know. But it got the attention of many: Just a couple of weeks ago, I was approached by someone who still remembered the title. She was interested in my research, which is about the extent to which family policies facilitate or impede the degree to which women can combine motherhood and employment.

In the end, I won the best poster prize. An updated of that poster (with a slightly modified title) is available here.

In the meantime, the research this poster was based on was published in the Journal of Marriage of Family, as:

Rense Nieuwenhuis, Ariana Need, & Henk van der Kolk (2012). Institutional and Demographic Explanations of Women’s Employment in 18 OECD Countries, 1975-1999 Journal of Marriage and Family, 74 (June), 614-630

Today, with this study, I was honored to receive the best research of 2012 award, given by the School of Management and Governance of the University of Twente. I’m very excited about the recognition our study receives, and the amount of attention it attracts.

So, please bear with me as I run you through some of our findings.

In our study we set out to describe the degree to which mothers in industrialized societies between 1975 to 1999 were less likely to be employed than women without children. We found that in no country mothers were more likely to be employed than women without children. Over time, women were increasingly likely to combine motherhood and employment in many, but not all, countries. Both mothers and women without children were more likely to be employed in societies with a large service sector and low unemployment. As you might expect, but has not been tested often, the employment of women without children was generally unaffected by family policies. Mothers were more likely to be employed in societies with extensive reconciliation policies and limited family allowances.

Interesting, right? If you want to know more (or don’t have access to the publication linked above), please don’t hesitate to contact me.

PS: this is the award!

Poster: Institutional and Demographic Explanations of Women’s Employment in 18 OECD countries, 1975-1999

Rense Nieuwenhuis — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 15:41:43 +0000

A poster version of my article “Institutional and Demographic Explanations of Women’s Employment in 18 OECD countries, 1975-1999” is now available from my website. Please click this link to get the poster (.PDF, 400Kb). The poster is called: “Combining Motherhood and Employment? Where, When, and Why” and summarizes our main findings.

The citation of the published version of our article is:

Nieuwenhuis, R., Need, A., & Van der Kolk, H. (2012). Institutional and Demographic Explanations of Women’ s Employment in 18 OECD Countries. Journal of Marriage and Family, 74(June), 614-630. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2012.00965.x

The abstract of our article reads:

This study combined demographic and institutional explanations of women’s employment, describing and explaining the degree to which mothers in industrialized societies are less likely to be employed than women without children. A large number of cross-sectional surveys were pooled, covering 18 Organisa- tion for Economic Co-Operation and Development countries, 192,484 observations, and 305 country-years between 1975 and 1999. These data were merged with measures of institutional context and analyzed with multilevel logistic regression. The results indicate that, over time, women were increasingly likely to combine motherhood and employment in many, but not all, countries. Both mothers and women with- out children were more likely to be employed in societies with a large service sector and low unemployment. The employment of women without children was generally unaffected by family policies. Mothers were more likely to be employed in societies with extensive reconciliation policies and limited family allowances.

Women’s Employment: Institutions and Demographics

Rense Nieuwenhuis — Fri, 25 May 2012 19:27:10 +0000

Women’s employment increased dramatically during recent decades. Nevertheless, women’s employment falls behind that of men. One key explanation for that discrepancy is that mothers are less likely to be employed than women without children. In a recent publication in the Journal of Marriage and Family, it was shown that government policies can have a substantial impact on the degree to which women combine motherhood with employment.

This publication was authored by Nieuwenhuis (that’s me), Need, and Van der Kolk, and is titled “Institutional and Demographic Explanations of Women’s Employment in 18 OECD Countries, 1975 – 1999″. We compared 18 OECD countries, covering the period from 1975 to 1999, to study the degree to which women combined motherhood with employment. In most countries the degree to which women combined motherhood with employment increased between 1975 and 1999, such as, for instance, in the Netherlands. In Denmark no trend was observed, but the difference in employment between mothers and women without children was very small throughout the complete period studied. In (the former) West Germany and Portugal the difference in labour force participation between mothers and women without children was observed to increase.

The study further shows that government policies can partly explain the differences between countries and trends within countries in the degree to which mothers are employed. Extensive reconciliation policies facilitate combining motherhood with employment, thereby increasing the participation of mothers on the labour market. On the other hand, policies aimed at supporting families with children financially, reduce the employment of mothers.

The Journal of Marriage and Family published this study in their June number. For those who have access to this journal, it is available online (link).

Nieuwenhuis, Rense, Need, Ariana, & Van der Kolk, Henk (2012). Institutional and Demographic Explanations
of Women’s Employment in 18 OECD Countries, 1975 – 1999 Journal of Marriage and Family, 74 (3), 614-630 : 10.1111/j.1741-3737.2012.00965.x