TY  - JOUR
A1  - Grunow, Daniela
A1  - Aisenbrey, Silke
T1  - Economic instability and mothers’ employment: A comparison of Germany and the U.S.
T2  - Advances in life course research
N2  - Do economic fluctuations change the labour market attachment of mothers? How is the reentry process into the labour market after childbirth dependent on the country context women live in? Are these processes affected by occupational status? We address these questions using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth and the German Life History Study. Event history analyses demonstrate that in Germany and the United States, mothers who work in high occupational status jobs before birth return more quickly to their jobs and are less likely to interrupt their careers. During legally protected leave periods, mothers return at higher rates, exemplifying that family leaves strengthen mothers’ labour force attachment. Economic fluctuations mediate this latter finding, with different consequences in each country. In the United States, mothers tend to return to their jobs faster when unemployment is high. In Germany, mothers on family leave tend to return to their jobs later when unemployment is high. The cross-national comparison shows how similar market forces create distinct responses in balancing work and care.
KW  - Mothers
KW  - Employment career
KW  - Life course
KW  - International comparison
KW  - Event history analysis
Y1  - 2015
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/54350
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-543508
SN  - 1879-6974
SN  - 1569-4909
N1  - This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
VL  - 29
SP  - 5
EP  - 15
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam [u. a.]
ER  -