Multiple Agendas?: How Women's Reasons for Employment Exits Affect Their Return to Work

• In Event: 256 - Section on Organizations, Occupations and Work Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 17. Work and Family

Abstract

This paper examines how women’s reasons for job exit, motherhood status, and education affect the probability and timing of their return to work. Women’s exits have been studied widely, yet little is known about who returns to work. But returning to work likely has important consequences for the well-being of women and their families. Using data on 8,843 person-spells of non-employment lasting three months or more in the NLSY79, I find that most women who experience a spell of non-employment eventually return to work, but the timing varies. New mothers remain non-employed longer than other groups, regardless of reason for exit. But women who quit for family reasons or to look for a new job remain away from employment longer if they have more or less than a high school education as compared to women with a high school degree. I also find evidence of a group of women with intermittent labor force attachment; those who have left a job for three months or longer 3 or more times are much more likely to return to work than those who have done it only once or twice. By specifically examining the predictors of women’s job reentry timing, this paper contributes to a better understanding of women’s employment transitions, including the costs and benefits to women when they use non-employment as a way to meet non-work needs in the absence of policy supports.

Author

• Anne Kaduk, University of Minnesota