Career VS Children: The Effects of Institutional Background on Females' Subjective Well-Being Across Europe

The paper deals with life satisfaction and happiness among women in European countries. The research question is to disclose in which countries (with more liberal or strict labour market legislation) females are more happy to have job, kids or to combine children with employment. The author claims that women living in the countries with more liberal labour laws and open labour markets are happier to have children and combine their work with childbearing than those mothers who have to re-enter labour market in the countries with very rigid labour legislation. The hypothesis is tested with the help of the European Value Study dataset for 2008 year, including 28 countries. The results of multilevel regression analysis proved the tested assumption and showed that females are happier in those countries with family oriented labour legislations and at the same time where it is easy to find a new job, means lebral labour markets. In the countries with with high rates of employment protection legislation females are more happy with jobs than with combining motherhood and employment. Conditional effects of multilevel regression explain the results in a more detailed way. The paper could have important implications for social policy in European countries.