Implications of Work-Family Policies and Anti-Discrimination Policies on Gender Occupational Inequality: A Cross-National Study

Whereas the impact of the welfare state on the quantity and quality of women’s employment is widely studied, little research has further investigated the ways other (non-welfare) types of policies affect women’s occupational opportunities. In this paper, I attempt to explain the level of gender occupational inequality in 2004 in 35 countries through cross-national variations in particular state policies in 1984. I create an original indicator of two types of policies: laws designed to help women combine employment and childrearing responsibilities (measured by a paid maternity leave policy) and laws that promote non-discrimination (measured by a policy that guarantees equal access to all occupations and a policy that guarantees equal remuneration). My data thus include three policies altogether: maternity-leave policies and two distinct forms of anti-discrimination policies. I find that state policies are the strongest determinants, compared to global and female human capital factors, of the gender occupational inequality but different types of policies have different impacts. Specifically, maternity leave is associated with a greater level of occupational gender inequality while anti-discrimination legislation is associated with less occupational inequality within countries. Although a panel analysis for a relatively small number of countries should not be overgeneralized, the results do introduce new information about policy-specific consequences for gender occupational inequality and provide a solid foundation for future research.