Accounting for Change in Labour Market Participation Among Ethnic Minority Women in the UK

There are substantial differences in the labour market participation of immigrant and immigrant-origin women in the UK. A particular focus of policy and academic interest has been the relatively low participation rates of Muslim women, particular those of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin. While rates increase across the generations, the participation rates of the second generation are still lower than those of other minority groups as well as than the White British majority. These gaps have often been attributed to cultural reasons including gender norms, and domestic division of labour. In this paper, rather than the gap with other groups, I focus on the change in participation and occupational attainment that has taken place among British Pakistani and Bangladeshi women over time and between generations. I illustrate how neither accounts predicated on the influences of family background and economic context familiar in stratification research, nor those reliant on cultural explanations would not predict the dramatic degree of change in women’s educational attainment, that itself drives much of the increase in economic participation. Drawing on a range of cross-sectional and longitudinal data sources, I analyse the patterns of social mobility of ethnic minority women from different groups, exploring the extent to which class background is relevant for their attainment; and I examine girls’ occupational aspirations as a mechanism that is consistent with their changing labour market profile, but that is poorly predicted by family context and existing reference points or role models. I reflect on the implications for how we study gendered labour market gaps across ethnic groups, and for assumptions about the role of family context and family background in stratification research more widely.