Institutionalizing Inequality: Gender, Work and Family

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This research investigates the relationship between demographic changes within the family, women's involvement in the paid labor force, and legal structures and social institutions governing employment relations and the care of children using a combination of empirical data analysis and simulation methods. There are three aims in this project. The first is to understand the effects of demographic characteristics, the structure of the economy, and public policy on women's employment, occupational sex segregation, and earnings. The second is to understand how women's employment and the reconciliation of work and family are influenced by legal structures regulating employment and institutional arrangements governing gender relations and the care of children. The third is to examine how alternative configurations of industrial relations and policy conditions influence fertility patterns, child care arrangements, and gender inequality in the home and workplace. This proposal outlines a program of: 1) empirical research on the microeconomic and institutional factors affecting gender inequality in the labor market; and 2) the construction of dynamic simulation models to investigate theoretical mechanisms linking decision making within individual households with resulting inequalities. This research draws on theoretical insights from several disciplines including economics, political science, sociology, and legal studies, and employs methodological techniques that span disciplinary boundaries. The support of a K01 will enable the P.I. to engage in additional training and mentorship which will provide a broad theoretical foundation and enhanced methodological skills to effectively carry out the proposed research on gender, work, and family, and develop an independent research agenda focused on interdisciplinary approaches to important questions in family demography and social inequality. This research has important implications for the health and well being of children and their families. By investigating how households make decisions regarding work and family with a specific focus on how those decisions are influenced by social and policy supports for child care and an attendant interest in how household-level decisions affect macro-level conditions, this research should provide theoretical insights that will help us better understand the relationship between alternative policy configurations and work-family conflict, the well-being of children, and gender equality in the home and workplace.