Linda Laura Sabbadini, Lucia Coppola, Sara Demofonti “Work Session on Gender Statistics”

1. Man Breadwinner and Dual-earner couples in the EU Partners’ earnings: evidence from EU-SILC Linda Laura Sabbadini, Lucia Coppola, Sara Demofonti “Work Session on Gender Statistics” Geneva, 26-28 April 2010

2. Partners’ earnings Work session on gender statistics The analysis of partners’ earnings provides and interesting insight in the division of roles in the couple. Focusing on partners’ earnings allows to consider that part of personal income that the individual actively produces, by working and by balancing the commitment to the employment career and the family needs. This approach provides quite an innovative perspective on gender roles, and is fundamental to complete the picture usually provided by the consolidated analysis of partners’ time use and decision making. Geneva, 26-28 April 2010

3. Partners’ earnings Work session on gender statistics In fact, the division of economic roles is also associated with the balance of partners’ power in the family as well as access and management of household resources. Thus, considering partners’ economic roles represents a further instrument to pay the necessary attention to gender roles. By comparing the proportion of women’s earnings on the couples’ earnings, we can provide an overview of the different strategies of division of economic roles in the EU countries. To this purpose, we use data from the EU-SILC 2008 (cross-sectional release) for representing a rich source of information on income components but also on households’ and household members’ characteristics. Geneva, 26-28 April 2010

4. Partners’ earnings Work session on gender statistics • According to the woman’s contribution to the couple’s earnings, we define six strategies of partners' division of economic roles. • Man Sole Provider: • The couple is characterized by a complete and traditional specialization of partners, with the woman devoted to the housework and the family care, and the man completely responsible for the households’ economic needs (she has no earnings) • Man Main Provider: • The couple adopts a strategy of semi-specialization: the woman actually contribute to the household economy, but plays a secondary economic role (she earns less than the 40% of the couple’s earnings) • Equal Providers: • Both partners similarly contribute to the household economic support (she earns between the 40% and the 60% of the couple’s earnings) Geneva, 26-28 April 2010

5. Partners’ earnings Work session on gender statistics • Woman Main Provider: • In this couples, the woman earns more than her partner, and is mostly responsible for the economic needs of the household (her earnings represent more than 60% of the partners’ earnings) • Woman Sole Provider: • The women is the only provider of economic support to the household with her earnings (he has no earnings) • Both partners without earnings: • None of the partners has any positive earnings in the year of observation • According to these definitions, we show the distribution of the different types of couples across the EU countries. • We select couples characterized by partners aged between 25 and 54 year, for being less likely out of the labor market because still involved in the educational career, or already retired. Geneva, 26-28 April 2010

6. Partners’ earnings Work session on gender statistics Geneva, 26-28 April 2010

7. Partners’ earnings Work session on gender statistics • The proportion of “Man Sole Provider” couples: • There is an important variation across EU of the proportion of traditionally specialized couples. • In Northern countries (IS, SE, NO, DK and FI), women do not contribute to the household economic needs in less than 10% of the couples. • In contrast, in Mediterranean countries (ES, IT and GR), and PL, IE, LU and RO, such a traditional division of economic roles is adopted by more than 25% of the couples. Geneva, 26-28 April 2010

8. The proportion of “Man Main Provider” couples: • The most frequently preferred strategy in all countries but DK, SK, HU, and RO. • The traditional specialization is substituted by this form of semi-specialization. • Lowest proportions are observed in Eastern countries as HU, PL, RO (between 20% and 30%). • Highest proportions are observed in IS, NO, NL (higher than 50%). Partners’ earnings Work session on gender statistics Geneva, 26-28 April 2010

9. Partners’ earnings Work session on gender statistics • The proportion of “Equal Providers” couples: • This is the strategy more spread in DK, SK (around 40%), HU, and RO (around 30%). • High percentages are observed also in SE, NO (about 37%). • Lowest proportions (less than 25%) in NL, UK, AT, PL, IE, LU, IT and GR. Geneva, 26-28 April 2010

10. Partners’ earnings Work session on gender statistics • The proportion of “Woman Main Provider” and “Woman Sole Provider” couples: • The woman is the Main or the Sole Provider in a minority of cases in all countries. These situations are possibly due to men’s unfavorable economic conditions instead of women’s good earning capacity. • The highest percentages of Woman Main Provider are mostly in Eastern countries (about 10% or above) as LV, LT, HU, PL. • The Woman Sole Provider strategy is used by less than 5% of couples in all countries but LT, SK, HU, and PL. • The proportion of couples where none of the partners has any earning is extremely small in most of the countries. Once again, PL and HU show the highest percentages (about 5% and 6% respectively). Geneva, 26-28 April 2010

11. Partners’ earnings Work session on gender statistics • The distribution of couples by partners’ economic roles across EU shows an interesting heterogeneity mostly for the diffusion of the traditional Man Sole Provider model, that is rare in Northern countries while still frequently adopted in Mediterranean countries. • The persistence of a model of semi-specialization of partners (Man Main Provider) in most of the countries shows that an asymmetric division of gender roles is still convenient for couples: women actually support the economic needs of the households, but their economic role is mostly secondary, suggesting higher levels of responsibility for the care of the household members, and domestic activities. • The problem of reconciliation of work and family mostly relies on women’s efforts also in Nordic countries, where women’s activity rates are extremely high. Where part-time solutions are more easily available, a semi-specialization is favored. Geneva, 26-28 April 2010

12. Partners’ earnings Work session on gender statistics Geneva, 26-28 April 2010

13. Partners’ earnings Work session on gender statistics Where more than 30% of women have access to part-time employment a higher percentage of Man Main Provider couples is observed. NL shows the highest levels for both indicators. If conciliation is a need, part-time represents a feasible solution. Geneva, 26-28 April 2010

14. Partners’ earnings Work session on gender statistics Geneva, 26-28 April 2010

15. Partners’ earnings Work session on gender statistics Mediterranean countries show relatively low levels of female part-time, but also relatively high levels of Man Main Provider couples. In these cases, women’s lower earning capacity may be due mostly to a segregation in less well paid employment sector, that possibly easy family-work reconciliation (public sector?), than to a reduction of working time. Geneva, 26-28 April 2010

16. Partners’ earnings Work session on gender statistics Eastern countries show an heterogeneous picture in terms of diffusion of Man Main Provider couples, but always very low levels of part-time employment . Geneva, 26-28 April 2010

17. Partners’ earnings: a focus on Italy Work session on gender statistics Italy differentiates from the other EU countries mostly for the persistence of a high percentage of Man Sole Provider couples. The traditional partners’ specialization either in economic or domestic activities represents a solution still widely adopted by Italian couples. The origin of this phenomenon may be found both in the diffusion of traditional values and social norms and in the lack of adequate public policies aiming at easy work-family reconciliation. Consequently, Italian women opt more easily than their European colleagues for renouncing to the labor market, in favor of the family. Such a strategy is also socially diffused and accepted. However, partners' and household’s characteristics may play a role in determining opportunity costs of the different strategies of division of economic roles. Geneva, 26-28 April 2010

18. Partners’ earnings: a focus on Italy Work session on gender statistics • We investigate the relationship between the distribution of the different strategies of the economic roles, and some couple’s characteristics • In particular we consider: • Woman’s age • Woman’s education • Partners’ relative education • Number of children • Household income • Region of residence • Geneva, 26-28 April 2010

19. Partners’ earnings: a focus on Italy Work session on gender statistics • The Man Sole Provider • Woman’s educational level and partners’ relative education show to be associated with the diffusion of this strategy of partners’ division of economic roles: when she is lowly educated, about 48% of couples prefers a traditional division of economic roles vs. the 11% of the couples where she has achieved at least a university degree; when she is more educated than the partner, than only 23% of couples is in a Man Sole Provider regime, vs. the 42% of couples where she is less educated. Geneva, 26-28 April 2010

20. Partners’ earnings: a focus on Italy Work session on gender statistics • The Man Sole Provider • The proportion of couples that prefers this model of division of economic roles increases with the increase of the number of children: the higher the number of children to take care, the harder the work-family reconciliation, and the more efficient for the partners the complete specialization of their activities and responsibilities. Geneva, 26-28 April 2010

21. Partners’ earnings: a focus on Italy Work session on gender statistics • The Man Sole Provider • The proportion of couples that prefer this model of division of economic roles dramatically decreases with the increase of the household economic wellbeing. Moreover, there is a higher percentage in the South and Islands (above 50%) than in the rest of Italy. Geneva, 26-28 April 2010

22. Partners’ earnings: a focus on Italy Work session on gender statistics • The Man Main Provider and Equal Providers • The proportion of couples that prefer these models, increases with the woman’s educational level and the household’s income. This would suggest that these strategies are favored by women who have invested in human capital, and have good potential on the labor market, and neither strategies hamper the household’s economic well-being. Geneva, 26-28 April 2010

23. Partners’ earnings: a focus on Italy Work session on gender statistics • The Woman Main Provider • This model is quite rarely adopted in Italy. However, it is more frequent when she is highly educated, and more than the partner. But also in the highest fifth of the household income. Geneva, 26-28 April 2010

24. Partners’ earnings: a focus on Italy Work session on gender statistics • The Woman Sole Provider • This model is extremely rare. A higher percentage is found only in the poorest fifth and in the South and Islands. Geneva, 26-28 April 2010

25. Partners’ earnings: a focus on Italy Work session on gender statistics • The Man Sole Provider vs. The Dual-Earner model • In order to consider at the same time the relationship between the couple’s characteristics and the strategy of economic roles division, we use a logistic regression to contrast the Man Sole Provider vs. the Dual-Earner strategy. (apart from the couple’s characteristics so far discussed, we also control for woman’s age, difference of age between the partners, type of union) • The model estimates show that couples preferring a Man Sole Provider strategy to the dual-earner one are characterized by women of older age (45-54 years old), an important difference of age between the partners (higher than 5), low educated women, and less educated than their partner, and a marriage instead of a consensual union. • Moreover, the higher the income of the household, the lees likely the couple is to be in a Man Sole Provider regime. • Eventually, the traditional specialization is more likely observed in the South and Islands. Geneva, 26-28 April 2010

26. Partners’ earnings: a focus on Italy Work session on gender statistics • The Man Main Provider & Woman Main Provider vs. Equal Providers • In a second step we focus on Dual-Earner couples only, and use a multinomial logistic regression to contrast the Man Main Provider & the Woman Main Provider models vs. the Equal Providers. • The model estimates show that the most relevant characteristics associated with the preference towards any of these models are the partners' relative education, and the household economic well-being. • On the one hand, the man is the main provider (instead of an equal provider) when she is less educated, when the increasing number of children hamper the work-family reconciliation, when the household has low or high levels of income, and when the couple lives in the South or Islands. • On the other hand, the woman is the main provider (instead of an equal provider) when she is relatively old (between 35-44 years, or 45-54 years), and more educated than the partner, and the household has low levels of income. Geneva, 26-28 April 2010

27. Man Breadwinner and Dual-earner couples in the EU Conclusions The diffusion of dual earner couples in the EU is quite heterogeneous. Main differences are observed for the persistence of the traditional Man Breadwinner model (i.e. the woman is devoted to domestic activities and the man is responsible for the household economic needs), which is still high in Mediterranean countries, and very low in Nordic countries. Among Mediterranean countries, Italy shows that couple’s characteristics associated with the preference towards the traditional partners’ specialization are many. Significantly, if the woman has not invested much in human capital, and the presence of children hampers the work-family reconciliation, the couple is more likely in a man breadwinner regime. Moreover, these couples are also more likely to experience lower levels of economic well-being. Differences among the preferences for alternative strategies of dual-earner couples (i.e. man main provider, woman main provider and equal providers) are less evident. Still, the presence of children seems to make more convenient for a woman to be less responsible for the economic needs of the households, although the investments in education. Geneva, 26-28 April 2010