Gender and intra-household entitlements. A cross-national longitudinal analysis.
Lead Research Organisation:
The Open University
Department Name: Economics
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Publications
Bennett F
(2012)
Gendered Lives - Gender Inequalities in Production and Reproduction
De Henau J
(2013)
Unpacking Within-Household Gender Differences in Partners' Subjective Benefits From Household Income Unpacking Within-Household Gender Differences
in Journal of Marriage and Family
De Henau, Jerome
(2012)
Comparing welfare regimes by their effects on intra-household inequalities
Himmelweit S
(2013)
Sharing of Resources Within the Family and the Economics of Household Decision Making
in Journal of Marriage and Family
Himmelweit, Susan
(2011)
Sharing of resources within the family and the economics of household decision making
| Description | This project aimed to investigate cross-nationally the gendered factors that influence the benefits that men and women in couples receive from their joint household income. Quantitative methods were employed on household panel data from 13 EU countries and Australia. Answers to a question about satisfaction with household income, as a subjective measure to capture benefits of household income that might go beyond individual consumption. The categories of employment status were used to capture each partner's financial and/or domestic contributions to the household. In all countries and for both sexes, partners who contributed through employment, rather than in any other way, gained greater benefit from household income. This is a gender effect in itself, since in all countries men were more likely to be in full-time employment than women. However, countries varied in these effects, with some significant gender differences in a few countries; for example, women lose out more from being economically inactive than men in Denmark, but in some Southern European countries men lose more. While men's satisfaction with their household income universally depended more on their own contribution than their partner's, for women this varied, leading to differences across countries in the weight women put on men's versus women's employment. We found this gender difference stronger in the liberal welfare states of the UK and Australia than in Germany, where for many years policies explicitly supported the male breadwinner family; there this inequality weakened well before policy changes were introduced. Some other cross national differences in gender effects were also found. Comparing welfare regimes, women benefit relatively more within their households from moving into (full-time) employment in countries, such as Denmark, Finland, France and Belgium, with policies more supportive of working mothers. By contrast, women benefit relatively less than men from taking full-time employment where attitudes and policies are more conservative. Other influential variables capturing contributions confirmed these effects: women gained less from household income when they had young children in northern European countries, and more so the longer that that they spent on childcare and housework. Men also gained less from household income if they spent longer on childcare. One relevant implication for current UK policy is that measures that encourage one partner's employment (eg a focus on workless households) may inadvertently exacerbate intra-household inequalities which may in turn make promoting women's employment more difficult. Attention needs to be given to policy's effects on relative employment within households and in particular to promoting/not hindering women's employment. |
| Sectors | Healthcare |
| URL | http://www.open.ac.uk/socialsciences/genix/ |
| Description | Collaboration with Curtin University |
| Organisation | Curtin University |
| Country | Australia |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | I am advising them on methodology. They wish to use the same metholodgy that the GenIX team did. |
| Collaborator Contribution | They have an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant of $326,000 to investigate Intra-household resource allocations of older couples. This project aims to analyse processes and outcomes within older households using national, large-scale representative data and mixed methods research design. In an ageing population where households are becoming responsible for provisioning retirement needs, understanding what happens in older couple households is important. The project expects to influence policy by generating evidence relevant to the design of regulations governing the allocation of superannuation assets, tax incentives for alternative forms of retirement savings, asset and income tests on the Age Pension, and initiatives targeting older Australians' financial literacy. |
| Impact | Not yet - grant started only in Jnauary 2017. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | House of Lords: meeting on Welfare Reform Bill, 25 Oct 2011. Issues for second earners |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | This presentation sets out why the amendment of the Welfare Reform Bill that proposes an earning disregard for the second earner is important and details some of the arguments that might be used in its support Presentation of a note that sets out the reasons why the amendment of an earning disregard is important in the Welfare Reform Bill (Universal Credit). Presentation of a note that sets out the reasons why the amendment of an earning disregard is important in the Welfare Reform Bill (Universal Credit). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |