Mothers’ Life Course Work and Career Choices and Intergenerational Ties at Older Age

Agnieszka Chlon-Dominczak, Warsaw School of Economics
Iga Magda, Warsaw School of Economics
Pawel A. Strzelecki , SGH Warsaw School of Economics

Over the past few decades women in Europe had taken various strategies to reconcile work and family life – from working mainly full-time, through part-time work to choosing household work and withdrawing from labour market activities. These choices varied depending on their level of education, number of children as well as country of origin. In the paper we investigate to what extent choices regarding economic activity over the life course influence intergenerational ties at older age, including non-monetary and monetary transfers, grandchildren care and intensity of contacts with children. In the analysis, we use data from the SHARE survey, including SHARELIFE module with individual labour market careers data as well as recent information on intergenerational transfers collected in 2018. We find that individual histories of women who followed part-time labour market careers are associated with stronger intergenerational exchanges at older age, compared to women who withdrew from the labour market. Once women’s individual characteristics are accounted for, national (welfare state) differences also determine the intensity of intergenerational contacts and transfers.

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 Presented in Session P2. Poster Session Ageing, Health and Mortality