Young French Women in Managerial Occupations: A Time Availability Perspective

As in EU, women are commonly under-represented in managerial positions in France despite their recent progression among young career beginners (di Paola et al., 2017). However, their overrepresentation in higher education since the end of the eighties, the reduction of segregation in education during the last two decades, gender ideologies more and more reflecting egalitarian disposition, are conditions that foster their high occupational achievement. In other words, young women should be more numerous than they really are in managerial positions.

Without excluding a self-selection process (Hakim, 2002; Corby and Stanworth, 2009), we would like to investigate a time availability perspective in relation to gender role attitudes within couples. In fact, most of managerial positions in the competitive sector are particularly time demanding and require a strong career commitment. For women in couple, these conditions depend on the division of activities and career priorities between partners and in particular, the way each one contributes to care and domestic tasks in the private sphere.

The aim of this contribution is to assess the importance of time availability for holding supervisory positions in early careers, attempting to control for other dimensions likely to interfere.

Our empirical material consists in a longitudinal survey – “Generation 2010”, Céreq - of about 9000 French individuals who left education in 2010 and were interviewed three times, in 2013, 2015 and 2017. The questionnaire of the third round includes two specific modules of questions that will be used to deal with the issue. The one informs the content and conditions of managerial occupations with specific questions on the time schedule and working hours. The second is addressed to all individuals being in couple and relates to the division of care and domestic work between partners and their priorities for career decisions.