Round-Table Discussion2006/3/19

• Why Do Women Quit Jobs Upon Getting Married and/or Giving Birth?

• Chin-fen Chang

Definitions

• Job quit: 1) take or change to other jobs (usually less work-intensive and more time-flexible), 2) withdrawal from formal labor markets.

• Getting married, becoming pregnant, and/or giving birth (MPB): should be viewed as events in the life course, rather than as causes accounting for job quit decision by women

Events vs. Causes

• By treating MPB as causes, we would naturally focus on how to prohibit discrimination against married or pregnant women, and how to alleviate women’s burden of child care provisions in Gender Employment Equality Act---penalty for discrimination, paid maternal leave, unpaid paternal leave, flexible time arrangements…

Misspecifications by treating MPB as causes (1)

• #1: Marital status cannot replace gender as the only factor of determining who would be major care-taker: MPB women not the only cares in the family; e.g. single women taking care ageing, handicapped family members, or siblings’ children; care work including youth, old children, and other adults….

Misspecifications (2)

• #2: MPB are not the only stage when women involuntarily choose to quit jobs: Many women quit their jobs when children below age 6 or in the primary school age. Providing more, cheaper, and/or better-quality day care facilities would not reduce the likelihood of job quit for these women.

Misspecifications (3)

• #3: viewing MPB as the cause would downplay the impacts of unfriendly labor market practices on women’s job quit decision: not all women quit upon MPB; women’s decision to quit at MPB contingent on other conditions or factors.

#3 is the focus of the subsequent discussion

• Gendered labor market segmentation: most women could only find jobs in the secondary jobs in the labor markets, less-respected occupations in specific industries, or peripheral positions in the organizations.

Outcomes of gendered labor market segmentation

• Lower job securities, promotion opportunities, satisfaction, employment stabilities, and EARNINGS in female-dominant jobs, occupations, or industries.

• Focus on earnings:

women earned less than men after controlling for marital status, education, tenure, region, industries, occupations…

Why women earned poor?

Discriminations in opportunities and rewards: 1)Job segregation: Less likely getting better-

paid jobs,

2) Unequal pay for equal work: Being paid

lower than male counterparts,

3) Low pay for equal contributions: Female-

dominant jobs or occupations underpaid

Female Labor Force

(10,000persons)

Female Labor Force Participation Rates in Selective Countries (%)

total

age 15-24

25-49

50-64>=65

25-29 30-39 40-49

Taiwan 2001 397.7 46.1 37.2 63.4 71.2 64.7 58.0 30.4 3.5

1991 321.4 44.4 43.9 55.0 59.9 54.3 51.7 30.7 4.1

Hong Kong 2000

142.3 49.1 44.7 66.6 86.6 68.5 55.9 32.5 1.7

Korea 2000 900.1 48.3 36.2 58.2 55.9 54.0 64.0 50.7 22.5

Japan 2000 2,752.0 49.3 46.6 66.1 69.9 59.2 70.7 56.8 14.4

Singapore 2000

86.8 55.5 55.7 69.2 84.9 68.4 59.3 33.7 4.1

Canada 2000 735.0 59.5 62.9 79.9 79.9 79.5 80.2 54.0 3.3

USA 2000 6,561.6 60.2 63.2 77.3 77.1 75.7 78.9 61.0 9.4

Germany 2000

1,736.0 48.2 47.3 77.7 74.7 77.0 79.8 44.8 1.5

G.B. 2000 1,308.4 54.9 65.6 76.8 - 75.3 77.8 29.0 -

Some basic facts

Differences of average earnings between employed women and men (women/men):

1996: 71.9%

1999: 73.5%

2002: 74.7%

Survey results of a national representative sample

• Taiwan Social Change Survey, 2002 (%) Monthly Earnings Women Men <10,000 (usd$313) 10.0 6.8

10,000~19,000 22.3 (32.3) 12.6 (19.4) 20,000~29,000 26.5 (58.8) 16.1 (35.5) 30,000~39,000 19.8 (78.6) 18.1 (53.6) 40,000~49,000 9.8 (88.4) 14.8 (68.4) 50,000~59,000 5.8 (94.2) 13.6 (82.0) >60,000 5.8 (100.0) 18.0 (100.0)

Survey results of a national representative sample

• Average monthly earnings of women quit upon MPB in the survey:

below NT $10,000 (about U.S.$313): 23%

between NT $10,000 and $20,000: 34% (57%)

between NT $20,000 and $30,000: 26% (83%)

Table 1Frequency Distribution of Major Causes of Withdraw from the Labor Markets

Frequency %

Getting Married 214 27.0

Work-related factors 199 25.1

Getting Pregnant 176 22.2

None-specified reasons 136 17.1

Take Care of Family Members 36 4.5

Expectations of Husbands or Family Members 33 4.2

Total Number of Cases 794 100.0

Table 2Causes to Quit Jobs upon MPB (married, pregnant, giving birth)

by Married Women

Singular Choice (%)

1. Wish to Take Care Children 147 (33.49) 2. Cannot Manage between Work and Family 68 (15.49) 3. Request by Husbands 57 (12.98) 4. Work Site Unsuitable 56 (12.76) 5. Help Family Business 26 ( 5.92) 6. Other Reasons 22 ( 5.01) 7. Good Financial Conditions 20 ( 4.56) 8. Bad Health or Injured 16 ( 3.64) 9. Request by Parents-in-Laws 11 ( 2.51) 10. Asked to Resign by the Employers 8 ( 1.82) 10. Earnings Lower than Childcare Expenses 8 ( 1.82) Total 439 (100.0)

* The data came from 2001 “Taiwan Social Changes Survey”. It was conducted on a random sampling at the national level with 1,979 valid cases in the sample. Among them 1,391 are married or cohabitating with spouses during the survey, which is composed of 70.3% of the total sample.

Table 3Multinomial Logistic Analyses of Reasons of Job Quit by Married Women in Taiwan (E

ver quit upon marriage, pregnancy, or birth giving (MPB)=0)

VariablesA. Wives job status B. A + Husband job status C. B + socio-cultural

factors

Quit due to work reasons

Quit due to other reasons

Quit due to work reasons

Quit due to other reasons

Quit due to work reasons

Quit due to other reasons

(omitted )

Education (University=0)

Primary .18(.38) -.57(.37) .10(.48) -.29(.47) -.07(.51) -.26(.50)

Junior High -.46(.37) -.58(.34)+ -.36(.43) -.31(.42) -.47(.46) -.35(.44)

Senior High -.10(.28) -1.13(.28)*** -.14(.33) -.83(.34)* -.16(.34) -.80(.35)*

Wife’s then Earnings 1.16(.30)*** .76(.30)* 1.16(.33)** .84(.33)* 1.22(.35)*** .81(.34)*

Prior Occupation (Professional=0)

White Collars .75(.40)+ .01(.35) 1.06(.46)* .05(.37) .99(.47)* -.03(.39)

Blue Collars .93(.45)* .15(.41) 1.21(.52)* .16(.44) 1.21(.54)* .15(.46)

Husband’s Education

Primary .74(.42)+ .43(.44) .71(.45)+ .38(.46)

Junior .18(.39) .55(.40) .17(.42) .53(.42)

Senior .07(.30) .35(.32) .08(.32) .27(.34)

Husband’s Then Earnings .04(.05) .08(.04)+ .01(.05) .08(.05)+

Liberal Gender Role Attitude .37(.22)* .47(.22)

Satisfaction with Work

Unsatisfied 1.29(.28)*** .70(.32)*

Constant -1.85** -2.36** -2.90* -3.73*** -3.24 -4.08**

Log Likelihood -731.0 -636.6 -589.0

Pseudo- R2 0.061 0.080 0.109

743 666 665

+: p<.10, *: p<.05, **: p<.01, ***: p<.001

End note

• When women are paid lower in their formal labor market jobs, there are many consequences: treatments in the workplace, family pressure to quit jobs at MPB, no career, falling into poverty easily when getting older…

What are to be done?

• Equal pay for equal work: prohibited by law, but still prevalent in the private workplace.

• Comparable Worth: specified in Gender Employment Equality Act, but not further actions by the state, e.g., job analysis.

• Men do more caring work and other household duties (see appendix)