Gender and Internal Geographical Mobility in Europe: A Comparative Analysis of Family and Employment over the Life Course

This article investigates the gendered employment outcomes of internal migration in six European countries, focusing on how inter-regional moves affect men and women differently over the life course in their likelihood of being employed over time. Using SHARELIFE data and linear probability panel models with fixed-effects, we analyze the impact of the very numerically prevalent phenomena of inter-regional migration on employment status and how these effects vary by gender, marital status, and national context. Drawing on gender-asymmetric and human capital theories, as well as existing empirical research, our findings reveal a stark gender disparity: men consistently gain from inter-regional mobility, while women’s outcomes are more complex and often less favorable. Married women experience the least benefit from mobility, while unmarried women see comparatively positive effects, underscoring the interaction between gender roles, marital status, and familial obligations. Most notably, our results contribute to the literature by showing differences in predicted employment levels over time both pre- and post-move. The event of mobility generally provides an immediate boost in employment levels, but both men and women saw a drop in expected levels of employment in the first year post-move, which recovered completely after a few years for men but never did for women, showing patterns of cumulative (dis)advantage in outcomes. Evidence shows such a pattern most clearly in Spain and Italy, where women’s employment and mobility were rather low to begin with. A clear divergence in outcomes emerged between married and unmarried women in France and Sweden, which boasted the most mobile populations, while employment outcomes for all women regardless of marital status were more similar in Germany and Poland. By revealing these nuanced and country-specific gendered effects, our research advances the understanding of how internal migration perpetuates labor market inequalities and outcomes.