The effects of ill health and informal care roles on the employment retention of mid-life women: Does the workplace matter?
This article uses longitudinal data to measure the effects of ill health and informal care roles on the employment chances of mid-life women, and to examine how these effects are mediated by workplace characteristics. We find that women in jobs with lower skills/status encounter the greatest difficu...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
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Sage Journals
2013
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/26962 |
| _version_ | 1848752132852809728 |
|---|---|
| author | Austen, Siobhan Ong, Rachel |
| author_facet | Austen, Siobhan Ong, Rachel |
| author_sort | Austen, Siobhan |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | This article uses longitudinal data to measure the effects of ill health and informal care roles on the employment chances of mid-life women, and to examine how these effects are mediated by workplace characteristics. We find that women in jobs with lower skills/status encounter the greatest difficulty in finding accommodations for changes in their health and informal care roles. We identify an important role for paid sick leave and holiday leave in boosting employment retention. However, we find that the positive employment effects of permanent contracts do not extend to women experiencing increased informal care roles. Additionally, we do not identify a positive link between employment retention and flexible working time arrangements. However, we do establish a link between a preference for reduced working hours and employment cessation, suggesting that some women experience problems in achieving flexible working hours and that this causes some of them to leave work altogether. We argue that these findings are relevant to the design of policy initiatives aimed at lifting rates of workforce participation as part of the response to population ageing. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T08:03:46Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-26962 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T08:03:46Z |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publisher | Sage Journals |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-269622017-09-13T15:29:36Z The effects of ill health and informal care roles on the employment retention of mid-life women: Does the workplace matter? Austen, Siobhan Ong, Rachel workplaces informal care ill health Employment retention women This article uses longitudinal data to measure the effects of ill health and informal care roles on the employment chances of mid-life women, and to examine how these effects are mediated by workplace characteristics. We find that women in jobs with lower skills/status encounter the greatest difficulty in finding accommodations for changes in their health and informal care roles. We identify an important role for paid sick leave and holiday leave in boosting employment retention. However, we find that the positive employment effects of permanent contracts do not extend to women experiencing increased informal care roles. Additionally, we do not identify a positive link between employment retention and flexible working time arrangements. However, we do establish a link between a preference for reduced working hours and employment cessation, suggesting that some women experience problems in achieving flexible working hours and that this causes some of them to leave work altogether. We argue that these findings are relevant to the design of policy initiatives aimed at lifting rates of workforce participation as part of the response to population ageing. 2013 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/26962 10.1177/0022185613494648 Sage Journals fulltext |
| spellingShingle | workplaces informal care ill health Employment retention women Austen, Siobhan Ong, Rachel The effects of ill health and informal care roles on the employment retention of mid-life women: Does the workplace matter? |
| title | The effects of ill health and informal care roles on the employment retention of mid-life women: Does the workplace matter? |
| title_full | The effects of ill health and informal care roles on the employment retention of mid-life women: Does the workplace matter? |
| title_fullStr | The effects of ill health and informal care roles on the employment retention of mid-life women: Does the workplace matter? |
| title_full_unstemmed | The effects of ill health and informal care roles on the employment retention of mid-life women: Does the workplace matter? |
| title_short | The effects of ill health and informal care roles on the employment retention of mid-life women: Does the workplace matter? |
| title_sort | effects of ill health and informal care roles on the employment retention of mid-life women: does the workplace matter? |
| topic | workplaces informal care ill health Employment retention women |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/26962 |