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