The influence of employment uncertainty on childbearing in France: A tempo or quantum effect?

This paper investigates whether unemployment and insecure employment periods merely delay fertility or also impact on completed fertility in France. It analyses both the timing of first childbearing and the fertility reached at age 40. Different indicators of declining employment security are used, i.e. current individual employment characteristics, the accumulation of unstable jobs, and aggregate-level indicators of employment uncertainty. Male unemployment has a negative influence on the timing of first childbearing, while periods of insecure employment delay fertility for women. Completed fertility is impacted by unemployment spells only for men who have faced long-term unemployment. Employment uncertainty thus tends to delay first parenthood but has a relatively weak effect on lifetime fertility in France. Generous state support to families associated with a generous unemployment insurance system, and the strong French two-child family norm may explain why economic uncertainty affects fertility less than elsewhere.birth parity, event history analysis, fertility, gender, labor market, short-term employment, unemployment

France: High and stable fertility

The current total fertility rate in France is around 1.9 children per woman. This is a relatively high level by current European standards and makes France an outlier, despite the fact that its other demographic trends, especially conjugal behaviour, and social and economic trends are not very different from other Western European countries. France can serve as a counterfactual test case for some of the hypotheses advanced to explain the current low level of fertility in most European countries (delay in fertility, decline in marriage, increased birth control, greater economic uncertainty). France’s fertility level can be partly explained by its active family policy introduced after the Second World War, and adapted in the 1980s to accommodate women’s entry into the labour force. This policy is the result of a battle, fuelled by pro-natalism, between the conservative supporters of family values and the promoters of state-supported individual equality. French family policy thus encompasses a wide range of measures based on varying ideological backgrounds, and it is difficult to classify in comparison to the more precisely focused family policies of other European welfare states. The active family policy seems to have created especially positive attitudes towards two- or three child families in France.childbearing, fertility, France

Child-related career interruptions and the gender wage gap in France

In this paper, we investigate the extent of the effects of children and child-related time out of the labor market on the gender wage gap in France, with special attention to its impact on the accumulation and composition of human capital. Measuring this impact requires detailed information on the individuals‟ activity history that is rarely available. The French survey "Families and Employers" (Ined, 2005) provides this information. We first look at men's and women's wage determinants, including the penalties associated with unemployment and time out of the labor market. We find that having controlled for the jobs' characteristics and selection into employment, there is a penalty attached to child-related time out of the labor market, which affects only women. We do not find any direct negative impact of children on women's current hourly wage at the mean. Then for a sub-sample of men and women aged from 39 to 49, we use a decomposition of the gender wage gap into an "interruption" wage gap between women and a gender wage gap between women who have never taken child-related time out and men; we find that the wage gap between men and women who have never interrupted their participation in the labor force is essentially "unexplained", while the wage gap between women who have had child-related interruptions and women who have not is essentially "explained".Wages, Human capital, Children, Family pay gap, Statistical discrimination, Wage gap decomposition

French family policy: long tradition and diversified measures

In France, the intervention of the state in the private sphere has long been accepted as legitimate. The current French family policy is the result of a compromise between the objectives of raising fertility, providing income support to families and promoting the work-family balance. Thus it includes a wide range of measures based on a variety of ideological standpoints. It combines measures encouraging women's employment with others in favour of large families. Recently, employers have been encouraged to implement family-friendly policies of their own. Since the state family policy is already quite comprehensive, their participation is rather low. This long-term `mix of tools' is likely to be a factor behind the current high fertility in France, but the number and the complexity of family policy measures make it very difficult to quantify their overall effect on fertility.

Do the descendants of immigrants become adults sooner or later than native-born? Evidence from the French Generations and Gender Survey

- The French Generations and Gender Survey contains detailed information to study the exit from parental home and family formation processes among children of immigrants born in France. The longitudinal information contained in this data allows to trace the main events experienced in the early stages of the life course. Moreover, it contains information about the year of arrival in the host country and the characteristics of parents.- The timing in the transition to adulthood for the second generation from European countries is close to the transition of native French individuals.- Second generations from Maghreb leave the parental home and live with a first spouse – married or not – later than French natives, but only those with two immigrant parents

Transition to adulthood in France: Do descendants of immigrants differ from natives ?

This study examines whether major changes in patterns of transition to adulthood have taken place among descendants of immigrants in France. We simultaneously analyze the demographic events that make up the transition to adulthood for two main groups of immigrants’ descendants, i.e., North African and Southern European, and compare them to the pathway of native-born French. We identify five groups of similar trajectories using sequence and cluster analysis. In order to analyze how trajectories to adulthood are shaped by ethnic origin, gender, background characteristics and education, we estimate multinomial logistic regression on the likelihood of belonging to each of the five selected clusters. We find fairly similar paths to adulthood for descendants of immigrants and natives. However, specific patterns do emerge for immigrants’ descendants. They stay significantly longer in the parental home, partly because their parents come from societies characterized by strong family ties, and partly because they have greater difficulties becoming self-sufficient. Descendants of immigrants from North Africa, especially women, also have a lower probability of cohabiting. Finally, descendants of immigrants from North Africa behave more traditionally while descendants of immigrants from Southern Europe behave more like native French

Unemployment delays parenthood in France

International audienceFertility seems to be less affected by the economic crisis in France than in most other developed countries. Is French fertility behaviour immune to the effects of unemployment? Analysing data from the ERFI survey (the French variant of the Generations and Gender Survey), which interviewed respondents three times between 2005 and 2011, Ariane Pailhé and Arnaud Loilier, show that unemployment does in fact influence fertility intentions and their realization

Concilier, organiser, renoncer : quel genre d'arrangements ?

International audienceDieser Artikel zieht eine Bilanz der Entwicklung der Artikulation zwischen Familien- und Berufsleben, der über die feministische Kontroverse hinausgeht. Die Arrangements von Familien- und Berufsleben hängen nach wie vor hauptsächlich von den Frauen ab, insbesondere in Bezug auf die verschiedenen Phasen des Lebens. Die neuen Organisationsformen von Arbeit und die Segmentierung des Arbeitsmarktes führen zu einer Beibehaltung dieser sexuellen Arbeitsteilung. Die Arbeitgeber können zu einer Verringerung der Spannungen zwischen Familien- und Berufsleben beitragen, indem sie eine flexiblere Arbeitsorganisation ermöglichen. Die Situation der Arbeitnehmer einerseits, unabhängig von ihrem Familienstand, und die Unterstützungsmaßnahmen von Seiten des Arbeitsgebers andererseits, variieren jedoch stark je nach Arbeitsmarktbranche und Arbeitnehmerverhältnis.Beyond the scathing debate among feminist circles about the use of the word conciliation, this article assesses the articulation between family and work. Arrangements between family and work continue to mainly weigh upon women, more and more within the life cycle. New work organizations and segmentation of the workplace keep the gendered division going. Employers can contribute to the lowering of the tensions between work and family life, particularly by allowing a more flexible work organization. However, whatever their family status, workers do not all benefit from the same support from their companies: strong inequalities remain accounting to the field of activity and the job category.Más allá del debate virulento en los ámbitos feministas sobre el uso de la palabra conciliación, este artículo hace un balance de la articulación familia-trabajo. Los arreglos entre familia y trabajo siguen basándose mayoritariamente en las mujeres, y cada vez más a lo largo del ciclo de la vida. Las nuevas organizaciones del trabajo y la segmentación del mercado laboral mantienen esta división sexuada. Los empresarios pueden contribuir a limitar las tensiones entre trabajo y vida familiar, especialmente al permitir una organización del trabajo más flexible. Pero, independientemente de sus situaciones familiares, los trabajadores no se benefician del mismo tipo de apoyo por parte de sus empresas: siguen existiendo grandes desigualdades según los sectores y los tipos de puestos de trabajo.Au-delà du débat virulent dans les milieux féministes sur l’utilisation du terme de conciliation, cet article établit un bilan de l’articulation famille-travail. Les arrangements entre famille et travail continuent à reposer majoritairement sur les femmes, de plus en plus au cours du cycle de vie. Les nouvelles organisations du travail et la segmentation du marché du travail entretiennent cette division sexuée. Les employeurs peuvent contribuer à limiter les tensions entre travail et vie familiale, notamment en permettant une organisation du travail plus souple. Mais, quelle que soit leur situation familiale, les travailleurs ne bénéficient pas du même soutien de la part de leurs entreprises : de fortes inégalités selon les secteurs et les types d’emploi persistent

Le chômage retarde l'arrivée du premier enfant en France

International audienceLes hommes et les femmes ont moins l'intention d'avoir un premier enfant dans un avenir proche lorsqu'ils sont au chômage. En outre pour ceux qui souhaitent devenir parent, ce projet est retardé lorsqu'ils connaissent un épisode de chômage. Ce retard explique par un report de la mise en couple pour les hommes, et par l'attente d'une situation professionnelle stable pour les femmes. En revanche, le chômage n'affecte pas la réalisation des projets d'enfant pour ceux déjà parents

Leaving the nest in immigrant neighbourhoods : Gender and origin differences in France

This article investigates patterns of leaving the parental home in immigrant-dense neighbourhoods by gender and immigrant origin. We draw on a unique large sample, individual-level panel, the Permanent Demographic Sample (1990–2013), matched with neighbourhood-level census data, to track three types of transitions out of the parental home: leaving for an unmarried union, marriage, or independent living. The findings show that growing up in an immigrant-dense neighbourhood is associated with a decreased likelihood of leaving the parental home net of individual, family and contextual controls. Yet patterns vary by gender and origin. French majority youth, Southern European origin women and Sub-Saharan African men are more likely to remain in the parental home when they originate in an immigrant-dense neighbourhood. For others, particularly North African women, growing up in an immigrant-dense neighbourhood is linked to more frequent departures from the parental home to enter marriage. Opposite patterns are found for French majority and Asian origin women. Variation in home-leaving by neighbourhood environments is generally more pronounced for women. We discuss these trajectories in light of socioeconomic disadvantage and normative constraints in immigrant areas and residential sorting