Donne tra lavoro e maternità: chi rimane occupata?

Female labour force participation is now a crucial feature for social research and policy makers. Even if less comprehensive than for men, women in the labour market are now a reality. All countries have seen the numbers of working women increasing in the last couple of decades. However this growth has not been uniform. The differences between countries include: its size, when it started, when it stabilized, until when it continued, if it had been linear or if it has showed different trends over the years. Family and occupational contests are not always favourable for the working woman and this is one of the major problems for policy makers and one of the most interesting aspects for social research: working out how to solve the work-life balance problem. Childbirth is one of those life-course events that increases the likelihood of leaving paid employment to take family responsibilities full-time. This exit strategy is penalizing women twice: first, because of problems in being able to re-enter the labour market (especially in some countries) and then because of occupational downgrading (if they are successful in their re-entering path). The ongoing changes to the economic structure of Western countries has made the double earning family more and more indispensable. In this context, supporting mothers and allowing them to work and raising family at the same time is crucial. Otherwise there is a risk of pushing those families (and their children) in to the poverty trap. The aim of this paper is to analyze what happens in terms of labour market participation to women having children. Do they leave the labour market? Do they continue in the same way as before? Do they opt for reduced working hours? Do some differences emerge between countries? We aim to analyze 10 EU countries. Those chosen differ in terms of their dominant welfare regimes. We include Scandinavian social-democratic universalistic welfare states (Denmark, Finland), liberal means tested English speaking countries (UK and to a lesser extent Ireland); South Europe familistic countries (Spain, Italy and Greece) and corporatist, statist mainland states (France, Germany, Austria). Data comes from two big datasets: ECHP (which covers 1994-2001 years) and EU SILC (which starts from 2004). The decision to combine the two databases is to maximize the number of cases to be included in our sample. The dependent variable, in our analysis, is represented by whether the female worker experiencing a reproductive event remains employed or not (we use the year following the birth of the child as our reference point). First, we aim to propose some logistic models to show which characteristics are more associated with the likelihood of leaving the labour market after a new child is born. We include some variables concerning the mother’s occupational status and the characteristics of their participation in the labour market. We also take under control socio-demographic variables and potential external factors influencing the transitions in question. Secondly, we are proposing to use propensity score matching techniques to investigate if, and in what way, countries differ from each other once some variables potentially affecting the results are standardized. The aim is to equalize the distribution of individual characteristics within countries to check if any differences remain in the proportion of new mothers leaving their employment. The most interesting results emerging concern part-time work: women already working part-time are less likely to keep their job one year after the birth of their child. The reduced number of hours worked may be indicative of a minor attachment to paid work. This could be an explanation for the bigger ratio of women leaving their occupation as the minor attachment makes the exit less penalizing. Interesting results also emerge from the comparison between countries. In particular, Denmark, Germany and Italy are the countries with the best occupational performance for new mothers already into employment. The outcome is similar but the underlying factors explaining it are very different between these 3 countries. Finland shows a different path compared to Denmark even if the welfare regime is similar: this can be explained by the importance of individual preferences into mothers’ choices.