Pregnancy and Employment: A Literature Review - Crisis Pregnancy ...

Pregnancy and Employment: A Literature Review
also notes that there is no straightforward association between the presence of a work-test and employment
levels. According to Bradshaw et al (1996), other factors that are important in explaining national differences
in employment among lone parents include demographic characteristics (e.g. the number and ages of the
children of lone parents), the demand for labour, the level of benefits (replacement rates), and the availability
of other policies to reconcile paid employment and family life. Bradshaw et al conclude that, of the welfare and
benefit factors they examined, childcare costs across countries had the closest relationship with lone parent’s
employment rates (ibid, p48).
1.4 Part-time Employment and Caring Roles
Countries also differ in the extent to which part-time work is used to combine employment and caring roles
(Blossfeld & Hakim, 1997; O’Reilly & Fagan, 1998; Fagan & Rubery, 1996; Stier et al, 2001). Eurostat figures for 2008
based on harmonised European Labour Force Surveys show that the proportion of employed women who work
part-time ranges from 75% in the Netherlands to less than 5% in Slovakia and Bulgaria (see Table 1.3). The rate of
part-time work in Ireland was 32%, the average figure for the EU25 but below the EU15 average. The level of parttime
working among Irish women remained remarkably stable over the period 1998 to 2008; the proportion stood
at between 30% and 32% for the whole period. In comparison, the proportion of Irish men employed part-time in
2008 was 8%. However, recent labour-market statistics suggest that the part-time rate for women has risen since
the last quarter of 2008, which coincides with the onset of recession (CSO, 2010).
Table 1.3: Percentage of employed women working part-time, 2008
% part-time % part-time
European Union (27 countries) 31.1 Spain 22.7
European Union (25 countries) 32.4 Finland 18.2
European Union (15 countries) 36.6 Portugal 17.2
Netherlands 75.3 Poland 11.7
Germany 45.4 Cyprus 11.4
United Kingdom 41.8 Slovenia 11.4
Austria 41.5 Romania 10.8
Sweden 41.4 Estonia 10.4
Belgium 40.9 Greece 9.9
Luxembourg 38.3 Lithuania 8.6
Denmark 36.5 Czech Republic 8.5
Ireland 32.3 Latvia 8.1
France 29.4 Hungary 6.2
Italy 27.9 Slovakia 4.2
Malta 25.5 Bulgaria 2.7
Source: Eurostat website http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/, extracted 2010-01-26. Part-time work is self-defined by respondents.
The connection between part-time work and motherhood is clearly evident in Figure 1.2 (below). In Ireland, 22%
of employed women without children under 18 years worked part-time; the rate increased to 34% for women
with one child, 44% for women with two children and 50% of women with three or more children. This pattern is
repeated in most Northern EU countries. In contrast, in many Central, Eastern and Southern EU countries where
part-time rates are low overall, the gradient with number of children is not evident.
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