Doctoral Dissertation Research: Work Hour Regulations and Family Policies in Cross-National Perspective

加州大学欧文分校的克里斯汀·希尔格曼在女性劳动力参与率不断增长的背景下，家庭政策和工作时间规定受到了极大的关注。家庭友好型政策，如育儿假和育儿，被认为有助于协调劳动力参与和家庭责任，限制工作时间可以防止就业太多地侵占家庭时间。虽然这些政策的影响对个人工作时间有明显的影响，但尚未评估这些政策是否有可能造成或改善配偶之间的带薪工作时间不平等。这项研究的目的是调查不同国家配偶之间的带薪工作时间差距。21个国家的数据来自国际社会调查方案的2002年家庭和性别角色变化模块，而关于工作时间条例和家庭政策的宏观数据则来自经济合作与发展组织。该项目将包括乌得勒支大学进行的其他数据和分析。这项研究首次对配偶之间的工作时间差距进行了跨国和多层次的研究--这是一个与个人工资、就业福利(包括医疗保健和退休福利)、晋升机会和家庭议价能力相关的性别不平等维度。此外，这项研究还通过强调在减少工作时间不平等方面最有效的政策类型(儿童保育无障碍、育儿假或工作时间限制)，以及这些政策如何反过来减少男女之间的其他类型的不平等，如工资差距和职业隔离，为有兴趣减少两性不平等的决策者提供了重要方向。

SES-0623698Judith TreasChristine HilgemanUniversity of California, IrvineIn the context of growing female labor force participation, family policies and work hour regulations have received significant attention. Family-friendly policies, such as parental leave and child care, are argued to help reconcile labor force participation with family responsibilities and the limitation of work hours prevents employment from encroaching too much on family time. While the effects of these policies have clear implications for individual work hours, these policies have not been assessed for their potential to generate or ameliorate inequality in paid work hours between spouses. The objective of this research is to examine this gap in paid work hours between spouses across countries. Data for 21 countries are available from the 2002 Family and Changing Gender Roles module of the International Social Survey Programme while macro level data on work hour regulations and family policies are obtained from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The project will include additional data and analyses undertaken at Utrecht University. This research offers the first cross-national and multi-level study of the gap in work hours between spouses -- a dimension of gender inequality correlated with a person's wages, employment benefits (including health care and retirement benefits), opportunities for advancement and promotion, and household bargaining power. Furthermore, the research provides important direction to policy-makers interested in reducing gender inequality by highlighting the types of policies (child care accessibility, parental leave, or work hour limitations) that would be most effective in reducing work hour inequalities and how these may, in turn, reduce other types of inequality between men and women, such as the wage gap and occupational segregation.