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No / The tensions and pressures that mothers experience when they have to make decisions about combining the care of children with entry into the labour market are by now well established. Much of the research in this area, however, has focused on Europe or North America. In this article, the focus is on a society where women's employment and its relationship to childcare has seldom been explored: Iran. Iran has often been presented as a state that is not particularly women-friendly and as distinctly different from the seemingly more pluralistic and egalitarian states of Western Europe. The argument here is that mothers' employment in Iran should not be viewed through cliches of religion and patriarchy, rather that it is significantly affected, as in other countries, by care structures, the general acceptance of leaving one's children to a caregiver, the availability of employment opportunities and the general policy environment.

This thesis investigates how family–employment reconciliation issues associated with single motherhood affect women’s employment careers. The study fills a gap in the literature, which rarely considers single motherhood and employment as processes in the life course, much less in a cross-country comparative perspective. Patterns of employment trajectories during and after single motherhood are examined as the outcome of individual and institutional circumstances. Great Britain and West Germany are used as contrasting cases that represent relatively different contexts of labour market structures and family policy. Longitudinal individual-level data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) are analysed, looking at the period between and including 1991–2008. The thesis develops a theoretical model that assumes differential career outcomes for experiencing single motherhood at different life stages. Higher difficulties of family–employment reconciliation are predicted for women experiencing single motherhood at a young age compared to later stages. The acquisition of marketable resources, which stands in the context of education systems, is assumed to be one of the central mechanisms mediating the relationship between age at single motherhood and employment. Moreover, policies directed at single parents affect reconciliation, shaping opportunity structures on which women can draw in single motherhood. Compared to the German context, Britain provides little institutional support securing labour market attachment for women in single motherhood, particularly when their children are young. Although providing more generous family policy measures in comparison, West German maternity leave regulations are often not applicable to women in single motherhood, and childcare is mostly granted on a half-day basis. The findings from three steps of empirical analysis provide new insights and highlight specific facets of established facts. First, fixed effects logistic regression is used, which exposes a negative association between single motherhood and entering full-time employment. No differences are observed between partnered and unpartnered mothers, but effective childcare arrangements support women’s transition in both Britain and West Germany. The second step of the analysis explores employment career patterns during and after single motherhood using sequence analysis. The emerging typical patterns are observed to different degrees in the two country contexts. On average, more employment trajectories dominated by non-employment are observed in Britain and by part-time employment in West Germany. In the last step, these findings are used in an explanatory framework, the results of which provide evidence for the life stage hypothesis. The analysis demonstrates that not only social class but also mother’s age, children’s age and skill levels seem to foster employment stability and labour market attachment during and after single motherhood.

Australian women’s participation in paid work has been and continues to be strongly influenced by gendered patterns of parental care. This thesis examines how children structure another dimension of economic stratification in Australia, hourly wages. Previous studies from the United States and Great Britain show women who care for children have lower wages than their childless counterparts and that this motherhood gap in pay is partly explained by mothers’ interruptions to employment and movement into part-time jobs. Outside the US and Britain fewer studies of the motherhood gap in pay have been undertaken. Compared to these two countries, Australia has lower maternal employment rates and higher rates of part-time work. These features may increase wage disparities between mothers and childless women in the Australian labour market. Australia, unlike Britain and the United States, has a history of centralised wage regulation, leading to a comparatively narrower wage distribution and a higher minimum wage. These institutional features may offer protection against downward wage mobility. This thesis investigates how motherhood influences the hourly wages of Australian women using panel data. Previous Australian research has documented static wage disparities, relying on cross-sectional data. My analysis draws on the first six waves of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey (2001-2006), a large, nationally representative panel survey. The thesis is comprised of three studies. First, I investigate the overall motherhood gap in pay in Australia in 2001. In aggregate, the mean wage of women with children is equal to that of childless women. After imputing a potential wage for mothers who are not employed, I show that the overall motherhood gap in pay would be considerably wider in Australia were fewer mothers to exit the labour force. This is because mothers without tertiary qualifications are less likely to be employed than mothers with a certificate, diploma or degree. Second, I use the panel design of HILDA to estimate female wage equations using fixed-effects regression. Controlling for differences in observed human capital, part-time work and unobserved heterogeneity, I find each child lowers wages by 6%. The analysis also reveals that mothers’ propensity to work part-time does not explain any of the Australian motherhood gap in pay. After incorporating detailed controls for time-varying job characteristics, I find that part-time wages are 14% higher than full-time wages. On average, the pay premium for part-time work more than offsets the pay penalty associated with one or two children. Third, I narrow my focus to Australian women experiencing a birth between 2001 and 2006, assessing whether the wage premium for part-time work extends to transitions at this point in the lifecourse. I investigate patterns of wage growth among mothers returning to employment within 3 years of a birth. My results reveal that Australian mothers who transition from full-time to part-time hours have significantly higher wage growth than mothers who remain in full-time employment. Taken together, my results suggest women’s part-time employment has a distinctive form in Australia. I find no evidence Australian mothers’ part-time employment constitutes a low-paid segment of the labour force. Isolating a causal explanation for the comparatively high wages of Australian women’s part-time employment is difficult, though two factors are likely to be important. First, Australian mothers’ participation in part-time employment rapidly increased during the 1970s and 1980s, a period when wages were largely regulated through collective agreements. Although wage determination has become more deregulated since the mid-1980s, the principle that part-time employees should receive pro rata wages does not appear to have been contested by Australian employers. This could be because demand for labour in feminised industries has remained strong. Second, decisions to remain attached to employment around childbirth could possibly be structured by the availability of part-time work. Rather than transition into a lower waged part-time job, Australian mothers may exit the labour force drawing on supports for stay-at-home mothers in the Australian family payment and taxation system. In the longer term, mothers who continue in part-time work may have fewer opportunities for upward mobility and flatter wage trajectories. As additional waves of HILDA become available, such divergences in wage trajectories will be able to be empirically investigated. This study examines female wages in a period of strong economic growth and low unemployment. Part-time employment may not be positively associated with wages in a macroeconomic context of lower demand for labour and rising unemployment. An interesting avenue for future research would be to compare how transitions into part-time work influence female wages across periods of strong and weak labour market growth.

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本論文從兩個方面研究了1996年美國福利制度改革對單身母親的影響。首先，本文研究了在SSI和AFDC/TANF兩個政府福利計劃之間是否存在替代效應。其次，本文研究了福利制度改革是否令到更多的單身母親變得邊緣化(沒有參與工作亦沒有領取政府福利)，以及研究她們的長期生活情況。利用美國三個具代表性的調查數據庫, difference-in-difference分析以及logistic回歸分析方法，本文有以下四點結論:（一）SSI和AFDC計劃之間並不存在替代效應；（二）對AFDC/TANF計劃實行五年的領取期限令到部分單身母親變得邊緣化；（三）在年福利改革之後，被邊緣化的單身母親在食物消費上並沒有發生太大的變化；（四）被邊緣化的單身母親傾向將她們多餘的時間分配在個人娛樂方面而不是在家務和照顧小孩上面。雖然年的福利改革成功地減少了領取/計劃的人數，但政策制定者仍需注意改革令到更多的單身母親變得邊緣化，同時應制定相關政策來幫助她們。 / This paper studies the effect of the 1996 welfare reform on single mothers, focusing on two important aspects. First, it examines the existence of programme substitution between SSI and former AFDC/TANF recipients after the reform. Second, it examines the prevalence of single mothers who were disconnected from government assistance and the job market since the reform and evaluates their long-term well-being. Using three major nationally representative surveys, difference-in-difference analysis, and logistic regression models, I arrive at four main findings. First, I find no evidence of a programme substitution effect between AFDC/TANF and SSI. Second, the five-year time limit policy is suggested as being responsible for part of the increase in the disconnected rate among single mothers. Third, disconnected single mothers did not face a food insecurity problem after welfare reform. Fourth, disconnected single mothers allocate much more time to personal entertainment than to productive activities such as housework and child care. While the 1996 welfare reform has succeeded in reducing AFDC/TANF caseloads, policy makers should pay attention to its effects on the disconnectedness of single mothers and help such women leave their disconnected status. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Hoi, Kam Un. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 59-62). / Abstracts also in Chinese. / Abstract --- p.ii / 摘要 --- p.iii / Acknowledgements --- p.iv / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 2 --- The AFDC Programme and the 1996 Welfare Reform --- p.3 / Chapter 3 --- Literature Review --- p.5 / Chapter 3.1 --- Employment of single mothers --- p.5 / Chapter 3.2 --- Welfare programme substitution --- p.6 / Chapter 3.3 --- Disconnectedness --- p.9 / Chapter 4 --- Data and Methodology --- p.13 / Chapter 4.1 --- Data sources and description --- p.13 / Chapter 4.2 --- DID analysis --- p.14 / Chapter 4.3 --- Logistic regression methodology --- p.15 / Chapter 5 --- Existence of programme substitution --- p.18 / Chapter 6 --- Change in the number of disconnected single mothers --- p.19 / Chapter 6.1 --- A national picture of single mothers --- p.19 / Chapter 6.2 --- Empirical results --- p.21 / Chapter 6.3 --- Why black single mothers are less likely to be disconnected --- p.22 / Chapter 6.4 --- The separate effects of time limit policy on disconnectedness --- p.23 / Chapter 7 --- Change in the well-being of disconnected single mothers --- p.24 / Chapter 7.1 --- Food consumption --- p.24 / Chapter 7.2 --- Time allocation --- p.26 / Chapter 8 --- Discussion and Policy Implications --- p.29 / Chapter 9 --- Conclusion --- p.31

He, Xiaoyue. / "July 2011." / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1. --- Background --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2. --- Theoretical Model --- p.4 / Chapter 2. --- Literature Review --- p.7 / Chapter 3. --- Data and Methodology --- p.12 / Chapter 3.1. --- Data --- p.12 / Chapter 3.2. --- Methodology --- p.13 / Chapter 3.3. --- Definition of Key Variables --- p.14 / Chapter 4. --- Descriptive Results of DID Analysis --- p.15 / Chapter 5. --- Regression Approach --- p.20 / Chapter 6. --- Time Allocation of Single Mothers of Differing Education Levels --- p.25 / Chapter 7. --- Changes in Leisure Inequality Among Single Mothers --- p.31 / Chapter 8. --- Single Mothers by Demographic Characteristics --- p.33 / Chapter 8.1. --- Single Mothers by Race --- p.33 / Chapter 8.2. --- Single Mothers by Age --- p.35 / Chapter 9. --- Discussion and Policy Implications --- p.36 / Chapter 10. --- Conclusion and Directions for Further Research --- p.39 / Tables and Figures --- p.42 / Appendices --- p.62 / References --- p.82

This thesis examines the politics of identity of women accountants in the UK who are mothers, by exploring the links between working in the accounting profession and the experience of motherhood. It takes a sociological approach to analyse how social, political, cultural and moral forces, in relation to accounting, motherhood and wider society, affect identity, or the self. The accounting profession is arguably a masculine enviromnent into which the accountant is socialised. Motherhood illustrates the tensions between an essentialist and a non-essentialist view of identity. The thesis explores the contradictions and juxtapositions between these two identities of accountant and mother, and the struggle of women to exercise agency within the confines of the profession. It uses a feminist methodological framework based on the subjective experience of women. As such, I present my own autobiographical account of being an accountant and mother, and the oral history narratives of fifteen other women, arguing that narrative forms an integral part of identity construction. The thesis concludes that the narrative approach and the use of oral histories has much to offer to accounting research and has important implications for our understanding of the interrelationships between accounting and motherhood. These include the emotions, transformations and constructions of identity of women accountants.