Labor Market Context and Social Policy Arrangements: The Gender Employment Gap in Central and Eastern Europe

• In Event: 212 - Section on Inequality, Poverty and Mobility Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 08. Policy and Politics II

Abstract

This study analyzes the relative impact of labor market context and social policy arrangements on the gender employment gap in Central and Eastern Europe. We use the 2010 wave of the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions as well as data from various aggregate sources in various multilevel models to explore both societal and individual level factors simultaneously. Contrary to scholarship on the US and Western Europe, we find that social policy arrangements, aside from childcare, are only weakly associated with the gender employment gap. Instead, labor market context, including the degree of segregation and overall growth rates, are more important for shaping women’s labor market opportunities relatively to men’s. We conclude by identifying emergent gender employment regimes in post-socialist region.

Authors

• Eva Fodor, Central European University

• Christy M. Glass, Utah State University