The Economic and Career Effects of Sexual Harassment on Working Women

an article by Heather McLaughlin (Oklahoma State University, USA), Christopher Uggen (University of Minnesota, USA) and Amy Blackstone (University of Maine, USA) published in Gender & Society Volume 31 Issue 3 (2017)

Abstract

Many working women will experience sexual harassment at some point in their careers. While some report this harassment, many leave their jobs to escape the harassing environment.

This mixed-methods study examines whether sexual harassment and subsequent career disruption affect women’s careers. Using in-depth interviews and longitudinal survey data from the Youth Development Study, we examine the effect of sexual harassment for women in the early career.

We find that sexual harassment increases financial stress, largely by precipitating job change, and can significantly alter women’s career attainment.

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Labor Force Participation of Women in the EU – What Role do Family Policies Play?

an article by Agnieszka Gehringer (University of Göttingen, Germany & Flossbach von Storch Research Institute, Cologne, Germany) and Stephan Klasen (University of Göttingen, Germany) published in LABOUR Volume 31 Issue 1 (March 2017)

Abstract

We empirically study the role of different family policies in affecting women’s labor market behavior in the European Union. Women tend to assume more family duties than men and, consequently, often participate less in the labor market.

Family policies aim to support families in general while a particular focus is on helping women to reconcile family duties with labor market participation. Their impact, however, is not clear, especially when it comes to different forms of labor market activity.

We use a static and dynamic panel econometric framework examining the link between financial support for four types of family policies and labor force participation as well as (part-time and full-time) employment. The results suggest no stable significant impact of expenditures on family policies on overall labor force participation.

However, higher spending on family allowance, cash benefits, and daycare benefits appears to promote part-time employment, whereas only spending on parental leave schemes is a significant positive determinant of women's full-time employment.

Full text (PDF)

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"like-promotes-like"

I've just come across a report from last year about women in positions of responsibility in the hospitality sector.

Research has shown that people tend to recruit and promote people like themselves. It's a case of familiarity – we like what we know. However, if, as is the case in the hospitality sector, only six per cent of all board positions are female, the likelihood of women progressing via the "like-promotes-like" mechanism is tiny. Bearing in mind that, across all UK industry sectors, only twelve per cent of board positions are taken by women, we can't rely on peer pressure to precipitate change either.

Sharon Glancy in Training Journal (April 2013) www.women1st.co.uk

Multiple Glass Ceilings

an article by Giovanni Russo (CEDEFOP, Bonn, Germany) and Wolter Hassink (Utrecht University, the Netherlands and IZA, Bonn, Germany) published in Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society Volume 51 Issue 4 (October 2012)

Abstract

Both vertical (between job levels) and horizontal (within job levels) mobility can be sources of wage growth.

We find that the glass ceiling operates at both margins.

The unexplained part of the wage gap grows across job levels (glass ceiling at the vertical margin) and across the deciles of the intra-job-level wage distribution (glass ceiling at the horizontal margin).

This implies that women face many glass ceilings, one for each job level above the second, and that the glass ceiling is a pervasive phenomenon.

In the Netherlands it affects about 88 percent of jobs, and 81 percent of Dutch women in employment work in job levels where a glass ceiling is present.

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Tracking Pay Equity: The Impact of Regulatory Change on the Dissemination and Sustainability of Equal Remuneration Decisions

an article by Julie Connolly, Tricia Rooney and Gillian Whitehouse (University of Queensland, Australia) published in Journal of Industrial Relations Volume 54 Number 2 (April 2012)

Abstract

While considerable attention has been paid to gains made in successful pay equity cases, there has been limited analysis of compliance with decisions and the maintenance of relative wage increases. This article examines the dissemination and sustainability of wage gains won under the auspices of Queensland’s ‘equal remuneration principle’ for dental assistants and childcare workers in 2005 and 2006, respectively, in the context of subsequent changes to the industrial relations framework in Australia.

It shows that while increases were initially disseminated effectively, albeit with some differences across jurisdictions in the context of Work Choices, longer-term maintenance is at risk with the full translation of these groups into the federal system under the Fair Work Act.

Our analysis underlines the importance of forms of collectivism within the industrial relations system, which facilitated the determination and dissemination of wage gains in spite of low levels of unionization and the absence of direct action among these award-reliant groups. However, we argue that this collectivism was insufficient to ensure the sustainability of equal remuneration gains in the face of jurisdictional changes and that the capacity for the types of collectivism supportive of pay equity under Modern Awards is yet to be determined.

Hazel’s comment:
Clearly a case of the law says you must, or must not, but if no-one is going to check compliance with the law then it might as well not be there!

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