Understanding How to Maximise the Potential of Women Returners to Undertake High Quality Employment in Areas of Occupational Segregation

Funder: Department of Trade and Industry

Investigators: Wendy Olsen, Kingsley Purdam, Jenny Tomlinson, Colette Fagan, Daniel Neff and Smita Mehta

Dates: 10 January 2005 - 31 March 2005

Background

In 2004, nearly 14 million women (74%), aged 16-59, are economically active. Between 1984 and 2003, the gender gap in economic activity has halved and now stands at 11 percent. Changes have taken place in the last decade, with a substantial increase in women with dependent children entering the workforce. We have also witnessed a dramatic increase in women with very young children returning to work. Around 66 percent of these women work part-time.

Explanations for women returners’ transitions through child-care are varied, and notions of choice and constraint are central. Leading researchers also emphasise fluctuating work-life balance orientations, lack of affordable childcare facilities, and the question of whether working-time arrangements in the UK suit workers’ preferences. There is also a concern that the jobs which have shortages of suitably skilled workers are highly gender-segregated, and that women tend to be located outside male-gendered job categories.

Key Objectives

To determine the skill profile of women returners.

To compare the profiles of women returners with the skills required by occupations experiencing severe occupational segregation and skills shortages.

To assess whether occupations or jobs currently experiencing both severe occupational segregation and skill shortages have the characteristics that women returners seek.

Methodology

We will conduct an in-depth literature review and a review of training opportunities available for women returners through consultation with policy experts.

In order to capture the dynamics of the issues surrounding the return to work of partnered women we will examine: the Labour Force Survey (LFS), the British Household Panel Study (BHPS) and the National Employers Skills Survey (NESS).

The statistical aspects of this study are broken into three components. Firstly, a review of work-life histories using the BHPS. We will analyse existing national sets to find out the work-histories associated with (a) returning to work with below-level 2 qualifications, (b) returning to work with Level 2 qualifications, (c) returning to work with Level 3 qualifications, and (d) return to work with higher qualifications than Level 3. Wage regressions will help us analyse nationally representative LFS samples to find out how far wages and labour-force participation respond to specific vocational qualifications. The differences in returners’ wages will be stressed. We will distinguish actual returners from potential returners.

Contact

Kingsley Purdam

kingsley.purdam@man.ac.uk

Centre for Census and Survey Research, University of Manchester

0161-275-4719