Gender Matters: Feminisation of Labour Market Outsiders across Europe and the Role of Family Policy

This thesis aims to examine how the dualized labour market is gendered, and how family policies as institutional contexts shape such gendered patterns. Labour market inequality is one of the major issues in post-industrial societies. Dualization theory explains how institutions have shaped such dividing structure in the labour market, focusing on the inequalities between standard and non-standard employment. Nevertheless, this binary understanding of labour market is centred around male-dominated sectors, which may falsely universalise male experiences. With the increase in women's labour market participation, it is important to examine labour market inequalities across gender lines, taking into account various dimensions of labour market disadvantages. Using European Working Conditions Survey data and five labour market disadvantages indicators, this thesis conducts latent class analysis to examine how the labour market is divided. 30 European countries are examined including EU27, UK, Switzerland and Norway. Four labour market segments are found across Europe: one Insider segment and three Outsider segments (Typical Outsiders, Dead-end Insiders and Subjective Outsiders). Women are not only overrepresented in the Outsider jobs as a whole, but especially among Dead-end Insiders, indicating that the 'gendered labour market' is more nuanced than women overrepresented in the unemployed or non-standard jobs. Moreover, while generous family policy helps mothers to remain in the labour market, they are limited to the Dead-end Insider jobs. This resonates with the welfare state paradox or family policy trade-off theories that the policies promoting gender equality on one hand may work as a barrier in other aspects of gender equality. On the other hand, countries with longer fathers' leave tend to show less gender gap among young Outsiders (i.e., Typical Outsiders), suggesting the changes in gender norms reducing statistical discriminations against women. These are yet another evidence showing the need for policies that can disrupt existing gender norms.