Gendered work-family pathways over the life course. A comparison through hidden Markov models

The aim of this study is to explore the intertwinement of paid employment and family processes in the life course of Japanese men and women. In all contemporary modern societies, women have changed their preferences and behavior with respect to employment and work to a greater degree (Pennoni & Nakai, 2019). However, it is well known that work-family trajectories are gendered (Moen, 2016). Both advantages and disadvantages cumulate over the life course, thereby widening inequalities across gender divides (Budig & England, 2001). Especially in Japanese society, men and women typically follow very different patterns of employment through the life course due to the prevailing traditional norms of the male breadwinner and female homemaker. In this paper, we jointly consider the information on work and family careers to identify differential work-family trajectories holistically during the life course. This approach will help to understand how women's work life course has been more strongly interwoven with the family domain than men's.aks, CA: Sage.