Abstract

AGUILAR-BARCELO, José Gabriel  and  LOPEZ-PEREZ, Nadxilli. Work-family conciliation: a comparison of the employment decisions made by Mexican and Spanish women. CienciaUAT [online]. 2016, vol.11, n.1, pp.37-48. ISSN 2007-7858.

The recent world economic crises have accelerated the integration of women into the labor force. This has represented a new challenge in the achievement of work-family balance. The aim of the present study was to analyze the extent to which the feasibility to conciliate work and family influence career choice and the level of women employment from Mexico and Spain. In order to achieve this, data from the Family and Changing Gender Roles IV International Research Project was analyzed by using a multinomial logistic regression model. Occupation was treated as the dependent variable while socioeconomic characteristics, stereotypes, gender roles and household division of labor were treated as independent variables. The main findings indicate that the lack of work-family conciliation increases the likelihood of women's participation as housewives in both countries. The international comparison showed that gender bias and asymmetry in household division of labor did not lead to extra-domestic work. However, this activity was consistent with traditional gender roles that associate women with child rearing. We conclude that even though Mexico and Spain share certain cultural canons, these countries have differences in the way of conceptualizing the conciliation of family and work, which are also reflected in a differentiated regulatory framework.

Keywords : gender; work-family conciliation; labor market; self-employment; paid employment.