Divorce and female labour force participation

Do women who expect an upcoming divorce increase their employment? Evidence from Flanders

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2301331
AutoresGert Thielemans (0000-0003-0373-4467, University of Antwerp, autor de correspondencia), Dimitri Mortelmans (University of Antwerp), Vicky Lyssens‐danneboom (0000-0003-3285-8223, University of Antwerp)
Año2022
Volumen65
Número1
Páginas3-23
Fecha de publicación2022-02-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaActa Sociologica (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0001-6993 • E-ISSN: 1502-3869
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0001699321994189
OpenAlexW3141304692
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas7
Referencias citadas35

Women who expect an upcoming divorce have the possibility of taking action in order to protect themselves against the projected negative financial consequences. In this paper we investigate whether they do. Using retrospective data for a sample of 884 divorced women from the Divorce in Flanders (DiF)-survey, we estimate the difference in the probability that women increase their employment intensity surrounding the time a couple stops living together between women who expected the divorce and those who did not. We find that in the year leading up to the factual separation, women who expect the divorce are three to five times more likely to increase their employment. Our results suggest that when anticipatory employment behaviour is not considered when researching the negative consequences of relationship dissolution, both the magnitude of the downturn as well as the time to recovery is likely underestimated for a large group of women

Demographic economics · Economics · Labour economics · Recession · Sample (material · Sociology · Time-use survey · Work (physics · Demography · Family Dynamics and Relationships · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving · Psychology