Who is responsible for the career interruption?

• In Event: 2266 - Family Section Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 9. Gender Division Labor and Women's Career Interruption

Abstract

This paper examines the effects of a spouse’s involvement in housework and a company’s welfare support on working married women’s resignation at three stages (before, during, and after) of childbirth. Based on statistical analysis utilizing Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women and Families, this work demonstrates that the decision of whether to stay in or out of the labor market is no longer determined by socioeconomic statuses of oneself and spouse, but rather by women-friendly working environments and family support at every stage of childbirth. The results indicate that women with higher organizational welfare level and spending less time on housework have a lower risk of resignation. also, The women who receive more company welfare benefits have a lower risk of resignation than those who do not, and if the welfare level increases by one unit, the female resignation risk is reduced by about 7.5%. In contrast to the husband's wage variable, in the husband's housework hours, both coefficient and statistical significance were meaningful. As a result, the spouse factor influencing women's deviation from the labor market can be seen as the level of participation or sharing of domestic labor rather than wage At the same time, these findings enable us to take a broader view on what and who could reduce inequality in labor market created by gender. While most scholars believe that the clue for alleviating the gender gap in the labor market participation in a context of experiences as women, the results in this paper indicated that it can also be ameliorated by female supportive institutions and men who are accepting of a new type of masculinity/fatherhood that features committing to housework and childcare.

Author

• Hyejin Jeon, University of Maryland