Convenience of work and the job constraint of children

Abstract

This paper investigates whether convenient working conditions reduce the constraint of children on married women working. It is assumed that convenient working conditions are most important for women with heavy child-care responsibilities. Therefore, differentials in participation rates, by presence and age of children, are expected to be less pronounced in those occupations where a high proportion of jobs have convenient working conditions. Data are selected from the 1960 1/1000 Public Use Sample of the United States population. Those studied comprise white married women living with their husbands. The paper involves a comparison of differential participation rates of women by presence of children, between occupations grouped according to measures of convenience, using a multivariate analysis. The results indicate that differentials are least pronounced in those occupational groupings which have the highest percentage of convenience factors.