Kent Academic Repository Full text document (pdf) Citation for published version Kleinert, Eva (2018) Do family policies and labour market institutions hinder women from reaching the top? A multilevel analysis of the institutional drivers of the gender gap in top positions. Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) thesis, University of Kent,. DOI Link to record in KAR https://kar.kent.ac.uk/73082/ Document Version UNSPECIFIED Copyright & reuse Content in the Kent Academic Repository is made available for research purposes. Unless otherwise stated all content is protected by copyright and in the absence of an open licence (eg Creative Commons), permissions for further reuse of content should be sought from the publisher, author or other copyright holder. Versions of research The version in the Kent Academic Repository may differ from the final published version. Users are advised to check http://kar.kent.ac.uk for the status of the paper. Users should always cite the published version of record. Enquiries For any further enquiries regarding the licence status of this document, please contact: [email protected] If you believe this document infringes copyright then please contact the KAR admin team with the take-down information provided at http://kar.kent.ac.uk/contact.html Do family policies and labour market institutions hinder women from reaching the top? A multilevel analysis of the institutional drivers of the gender gap in top positions Eva Kleinert School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research This thesis is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In Social Policy 81,653 words 8th May 2018 Abstract This thesis iestigates to hat etet highl eduated oes udeepesetatio in managerial and senior professional positions in European economies varies. Secondly, it examines how family policies impact on this gender gap in top positions. In a last step, this thesis investigates what else – if not family policies – can explain why women are not only underrepresented in top positions, but why this gap is wider in some countries than in others. Following a multilevel approach, context-level data stems from various sources such as the OECD, Multilinks and Eurostat and is from around the year 2010. Individual-level data such as occupational positions stems from the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) 2010. Depending on data availability, models include between 22 and 31 European countries. Using two definitions for top positions (managerial; managerial and senior professional), findings suggest highly educated women face an even greater gender gap in top positions than lesser educated women. Secondly, the thesis partly supports the hypothesis following the welfare state paradox theory that family policies widen the gender gap in so far as the same family policies that help women enter the labour market, hinder women from reaching top positions. For example, generous childcare seems to actually widen the gender gap in top positions. Informal childcare and financial support however reduce the gap. Thirdly, following the question as to what else could explain the gender gap, this thesis finds limited evidence for the impact of labour market institutions such as unions on the gender gap in top positions. The models however do suggest that in countries with strong Employment Protection Legislation (EPL) the gender gap for the highly educated is smaller. 1 Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................................ 1 List of Research Questions and Hypotheses .................................................................................. 4 List of tables ......................................................................................................................................... 6 List of figures ....................................................................................................................................... 8 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................ 9 Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................... 11 1.1 Family policies and labour market institutions – drivers of labour market inequalities? ....... 14 1.2 Aims and objectives of this thesis ...................................................................................................... 17 1.3 General approach and research strategy ......................................................................................... 22 1.4 Structure of the thesis .......................................................................................................................... 23 Chapter 2: Family policies and gender labour market inequalities ......................................... 27 2.1 The pay gap and occupational segregation across Europe............................................................ 28 2.1.1 The Gender Pay Gap.................................................................................................................................. 29 2.1.2 Horizontal Segregation............................................................................................................................. 31 2.1.3 Vertical Segregation .................................................................................................................................. 33 . Woe’s eploet pattes aoss Euope .............................................................................. 37 2.2.1 Gendered differences in employment rates .................................................................................... 38 2.2.2 Gendered differences in the occurrence of part-time .................................................................. 43 2.3 Family Policies and Occupational Segregation – The Welfare State Paradox ........................... 44 .. Woe’s eploet ad fail poliies – literature review ................................................ 45 2.3.2 Empirical evidence for the Welfare State Paradox ........................................................................ 50 2.3.3 Questioning the Welfare State Paradox: Empirical evidence .................................................... 54 2.4 Limitations of previous studies and research questions ............................................................... 56 2.4.1 Vertical segregation and macro versus micro level data ............................................................. 56 2.4.2 Focus on typologies and indices ........................................................................................................... 58 2.4.3 Focus on overall female workforce vs highly skilled women ..................................................... 60 Chapter 3: Labour market institutions and occupational gender segregation ...................... 66 3.1 Conflict theory ....................................................................................................................................... 68 3.2 Varieties of Capitalism and occupational segregation ................................................................... 74 3.3 Summary and research questions ...................................................................................................... 79 Chapter 4: Data and Methodology ................................................................................................ 84 4.1 Data sources – an overview ................................................................................................................ 88 4.1.1 Individual-level data ................................................................................................................................. 88 4.1.2 Family Policy data ...................................................................................................................................... 90 4.1.3 Labour market institutions data ........................................................................................................... 91 4.2. Measuring top occupations – data and sample ............................................................................. 92 4.3 Control Variables ................................................................................................................................ 103 4.4 Measuring Family Policies ................................................................................................................ 110 4.5 Measuring Labour Market Institutions .......................................................................................... 118 2 4.6 Selection of countries and reference year .................................................................................... 127 4.7 Method – Multilevel modelling ....................................................................................................... 131 4.8 Limitations ........................................................................................................................................... 137 Chapter 5: Cross-national variation of the gender gap in top positions .............................. 140 5.1 Background and Research Questions ............................................................................................. 142 5.2 Descriptive statistics .......................................................................................................................... 144 5.3