Children, Elder Care and the Probabilities Spanish Women have of Holding Decent Works

Using a cross-sectional sample of workers taken from the administrative data set Muestra Continua de Vidas Laborales 2008, we investigate how having children and elderly family members at home can affect women’s labour situation in Spain. Following the International Labour Organization concept of Decent Work, we defined a set of job situations that range from more to less decent, and then classified workers according to the decentness level of their work situation. We use logistic regressions to calculate the impact of children and elders on the probability of workers holding each level of Decent Work. We conclude that raising children has a strong negative impact for women’s Full Time stabilization, while increasing their options of working part time. The negative effect of childcare is so strong that even reverses the positive impact of age on women’s chances of getting a Full Time Decent Job. Moreover, mothers are more exposed to unemployment and inactivity in a bigger proportion than other women. We also find that the younger the children the higher the negative impact, although the negative impact persists even when children reach 18 years of age. Similarly, taking care of an elderly person at home also hinders women’s stabilization at work, both full and part time.