Publication
Title
Outsourcing housework and highly skilled women's labour force participation : an analysis of a policy intervention
Author
Abstract
Women in developed countries still bear the brunt of care and household work, often with severe consequences for their professional careers. In addition to policies to promote gender equality in the realm of household work, state-supported outsourcing has the potential to help women reduce work-family conflict in a more optimal way and thus to realize their professional potential. We use the enactment of the Belgian Service Voucher Scheme to examine whether the introduction of a heavily state-subsidized outsourcing option increased womens employment rates at the extensive margins, especially among the highly educated. Using time-series analyses as well as difference-in-differences models, we find both short- and long-term positive changes in the employment rates of highly skilled women in Belgium after the enactment of the scheme in January 2004. Moreover, the results of our difference-in-differences models suggest that highly skilled womens increased ability to outsource housework is the main mechanism driving the change in their employment rates.
Language
English
Source (journal)
European sociological review. - Oxford, 1985, currens
Publication
Oxford : 2019
ISSN
0266-7215 [print]
1468-2672 [online]
DOI
10.1093/ESR/JCZ001
Volume/pages
35 :2 (2019) , p. 205-224
ISI
000465096400004
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (open access)
Full text (publisher's version - intranet only)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 07.02.2019
Last edited 24.11.2024
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