Francisco Perales

Occupational sex-segregation, specialized human capital and wages: evidence from Britain

Female-dominated occupations are poorly paid, but there is disagreement about why. Sociological explanations argue that pay in such occupations is low because society undervalues ‘women’s work’, while economic theory argues that this is due to scant requirements for specialized skills. This article sheds light over these debates by examining the impact of occupational feminization on wages in Britain and exploring the mechanisms that produce it, using innovative statistical models that account for both observable and unobservable skill. Results confirm that occupational sex-segregation explains a sizeable portion of the gender wage gap and that wages in female-dominated occupations are lower than wages in other occupations. Inconsistent with human capital theory, low pay in female-dominated occupations cannot be explained fully by low skill specialization or by observable or unobservable characteristics of their workers. Remaining wage penalties in such occupations are consequently taken as evidence of institutional devaluation of ‘women’s work’.

Gender, justice and work: A distributive approach to perceptions of housework fairness

Most women and men report that the division of domestic labor in their household is fair, despite women undertaking approximately seventy percent of housework. This raises questions about how fairness is evaluated within partnerships. We explore how parenthood and relationship transitions affect perceptions of housework fairness using panel data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey and panel regression models. Our results indicate that net of actual housework divisions, socio-demographic factors, time availability and relative resources, the transition to parenthood increases womens perceptions of housework fairness immediately following the birth of a child, but decreases them in the long run. Relationship transitions have no independent effects. Our findings suggest that parenthood transitions are associated with changes in womens identity, cognitive evaluations of fairness and feelings of entitlement, as indicated by distributive justice theory.

On the associations between physical activity and quality of life: findings from an Australian nationally representative panel survey

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the associations between the frequency of moderate or vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and quality of life (QoL) measures using longitudinal data and panel regression models on a large, representative sample of the Australian population.MethodsThis study used yearly panel data on over 23,000 individuals collected by the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey between 2001 and 2011. Ordinary least squares and fixed effects regression models were used to examine the associations between the weekly frequency of MVPA and several indicators of QoL, including both measures of health-related QoL (such as those derivable from the SF-36) and global subjective well-being assessments (such as self-reported life satisfaction), controlling for observable and unobservable factors.ResultsOur results provided consistent evidence that the frequency of MVPA is related to QoL and proved to be robust. A higher frequency of MVPA was related to higher scores in each of the outcomes analysed and using either of two different estimation strategies. The most pronounced associations emerged between the frequency of MVPA and the physical and vitality dimensions of the SF-36. A change from undertaking no MVPA at all to undertaking such activity once a week was remarkably associated with higher QoL. The influence of MVPA on global life satisfaction was only partially channelled through physical and mental health.ConclusionWe provide strong evidence that MVPA is related to QoL, thus adding to the large body of scientific literature demonstrating the benefits of becoming physically active.

Hours of Paid Work Among Single and Partnered Mothers in Australia The Role of Childcare Packages

Research has established that families in developed countries commonly combine multiple sources of child care. Yet, families’ packages of child care and their effect on maternal labor force participation are underresearched, and the few existing empirical studies are primarily descriptive or use cross-sectional data. We add to the existing literature by theorizing and testing the relationships between family type, child care arrangements, and mothers’ work hours using Australian panel data and panel regression models. We find that employed mothers of young children who use a mixed child care package complete more hours of paid work than do employed mothers of young children who use other child care packages, but the reasons for this association are different among single and partnered mothers. For single mothers the most important characteristic of mixed child care packages appears to be their flexibility, whereas for partnered mothers mixed child care increases employment hours by maximizing the hours of child care available to them.

Impact of Physical Activity on Psychological Distress: A Prospective Analysis of an Australian National Sample

OBJECTIVES We analyzed the individual-level associations between participation in moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and psychological distress levels using a large, nationally representative, longitudinal sample and multivariable panel regression models. METHODS We used 3 waves of panel data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey, consisting of 34 000 observations from 17 000 individuals and covering 2007, 2009, and 2011. We used fixed-effects panel regression models accounting for observable and unobservable confounders to examine the relationships between the weekly frequency of MVPA and summary measures of psychological distress based on the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale. RESULTS We found substantial and highly statistically significant associations between the frequency of MVPA and different indicators of psychological distress. Frequent participation in MVPA reduces psychological distress and decreases the likelihood of falling into a high-risk category. CONCLUSIONS Our findings underscore the importance of placing physical activity at the core of health promotion initiatives aimed at preventing and remedying psychological discomfort.

Ethnic Differences in the Quality of the Interview Process and Implications for Survey Analysis: The Case of Indigenous Australians

Comparable survey data on Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians are highly sought after by policymakers to inform policies aimed at closing ethnic socio-economic gaps. However, collection of such data is compromised by group differences in socio-economic status and cultural norms. We use data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey and multiple-membership multilevel regression models that allow for individual and interviewer effects to examine differences between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in approximate measures of the quality of the interview process. We find that there are both direct and indirect ethnic effects on different dimensions of interview process quality, with Indigenous Australians faring worse than non-Indigenous Australians in all outcomes ceteris paribus . This indicates that nationwide surveys must feature interview protocols that are sensitive to the needs and culture of Indigenous respondents to improve the quality of the survey information gathered from this subpopulation.

Gender, ethnicity and the division of household labour within heterosexual couples in Australia

Women continue to undertake substantially more unpaid labour than men, with the gaps closing if women bring economic resources to the household, spend time in paid work, or both partners hold egalitarian gender-role attitudes. Some attention has been given to how these patterns vary across ethnic groups, but the research is sparse and dominated by US studies. We examine the relationships between gender, ethnicity and housework supply within heterosexual couples in Australia using longitudinal data and individual- and couple-level panel regression models. We find large and statistically significant ethnic differences in gender divisions of household labour in Australia, with particularly egalitarian arrangements within Indigenous couples. These results have implications for understanding the processes underlying gender divisions of household labour, and highlight important, previously unknown, issues in Indigenous family processes. Particularly, our findings constitute first-time evidence of positive gender-equality outcomes for this subpopulation and call for further research on this topic.

Happier with the Same: Job Satisfaction of Disadvantaged Workers

Job satisfaction evaluations depend not only on the objective circumstances that workers experience in their jobs, but also on their subjective dispositions, such as their aspirations, expectations, feelings of entitlement or personal evaluation criteria. We use matched employer–employee data from the United Kingdom to examine whether and how subjective dispositions influencing job satisfaction vary across workers with different socio-demographic traits. We approximate jobs using detailed occupations within workplaces and find that most of the variability in job satisfaction is at the worker rather than the proximate-job level, and that workers with disadvantaged statuses report higher satisfaction with the same jobs than those with advantaged statuses.

Looking Inwards: Towards a Geographically Sensitive Approach to Occupational Sex Segregation

Perales F. and Vidal S. Looking inwards: towards a geographically sensitive approach to occupational sex segregation, Regional Studies. This article questions implicit assumptions in the literature and explores the issue of occupational sex segregation from a geographical standpoint. Specifically, variation in the gender compositions of occupations, the degree of occupational sex dissimilarity, and the impact of occupational feminization on wages across local labour markets in England and Wales is uncovered and explained. These findings imply that occupational sex segregation and its outcomes are contingent on the local context, that policies aimed at achieving gender equality at work should be channelled through local authorities, and that further research should be devoted to exploring systematically the multiple intersections between geographical space and gender equality at work.

Religion, religiosity and patriarchal gender beliefs: Understanding the Australian experience

This study examines diversity in how different religious groups and people with different levels of religiosity see the value and roles of women in Australian society through an examination of their gender beliefs. This addresses a significant gap in knowledge in the Australian scholarship in religious diversity and the impact of religion in family life. Understanding the relationships between religious identity and patriarchal gender attitudes is critical to understanding certain contemporary social problems, such as the links between religion and domestic violence, and devising appropriate intervention. The analyses rely on high-quality panel data from a national sample, the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey. Identifying with a religion is associated with stronger patriarchal attitudes, but there is remarkable heterogeneity in attitudes across religious groups. Higher religiosity is associated with stronger patriarchal beliefs. Differences in patriarchal beliefs between religious and non-religious people in Australia increased between 2005 and 2015.