WP 45 - Diversity in work: The heterogeneity of women's labour market participation patterns

Employment patterns are gender-driven, yet analyses of women’s employment often fail to recognize the heterogeneous patterns evident within women’s labour market participation itself. This article examines the variation in women’s labour market participation in light of Hakim’s heterogeneity argument. It focuses on the effects of individual differences in educational level, marital status, motherhood and cohorts in the Netherlands, Germany and the UK for the period 1992-2002, disregarding Hakim’s focus on individual attitudes and preferences as the cause of this heterogeneity. Results from a quantitative study using panel data show that women’s labour market participation patterns vary greatly, and that educational level and motherhood are the strongest determinants of this variation. At the same time, cross-country variation is evident. Not only do the results of this study confirm the variation in women’s employment patterns, they raise questions about the theoretical understanding of women’s labour market participation. Therefore, this article also considers the consequences for future theoretical discussions of gendered labour markets given these significant individual differences among women both in and out of paid work.