The determinants of womens employment dynamics: The case of Israeli women

Haya Stier, Meir Yaish

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The dynamic of Israeli womens labour market experiences is analysed, with the focus on three main determinants of their attachment to the labour market: (i) family events, particularly the effect and timing of childbirth on womens market involvement, (ii) human capital, and (iii) structural determinants, including occupation, and sector of employment. Utilizing data from the 2001 mobility study in Israel, which is a retrospective longitudinal survey, we employed event history techniques to examine womens likelihood to leave and re-enter the labour market. As expected, childbirth proved to increase the likelihood of work withdrawal, and human capital reinforced womens attachment to paid employment. Structural characteristics of the labour market, especially employment in the public sector, provided women with the necessary conditions to maintain continuous employment, even when family responsibilities were high, and to resume working sooner than women employed in a less supportive environment. Implications are discussed, and several avenues for further research suggested.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)363-377
Number of pages15
JournalEuropean Sociological Review
Volume24
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2008

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The research reported here was partly supported by grants: to the first author from the Institute for Social Research, Tel Aviv University, and to the second author from the Edelstein Foundation for Population Studies at the University of Haifa. Authors are listed alphabetically. An earlier version of this article was presented at the ISA-RC28 meeting at Nijmegen, May 2006. We thank participants at this conference for their comments. We also wish to thank Yinon Cohen, Richard Breen, and Sonja Drobnic for their

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Sociology and Political Science

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The determinants of womens employment dynamics: The case of Israeli women'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this