Between Equalization and Marginalization : Women Working Part-Time in Europe and the United States of America

This text reassesses the competing theories and conflicting perspectives so far offered on the growth of part-time work among women. It concludes that part-time work does not equalize women's position vis a vis full-time workers, nor does it leave women in part-time jobs wholly marginalized.

Levels of part-time work vary enormously across industrial society, from 66 per cent among women in the Netherlands to just 8 per cent among women in Greece. Part-time work was almost unknown in Eastern Europe, but is now growing rapidly in the same sectors of industry as in Western Europe and the USA.Between Equalization and Marginalization provides a comparative analysis of the development of part-time work in Europe and the USA from 1950 onwards, using longitudinal and cross-sectional data, and reassesses the competing theories and conflicting perspectives so far offered on the growth of part-time work among women. It concludes that part-time work does not equalize women''s position vis à vis full-time workers, nor does it leave women in part-time jobs wholly marginalized. Instead, it shows that part-time jobs provide new opportunities for secondary earners and play a special role in the context of the sexual division of labour in the family.The country reports - by national experts - cover the USA, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, West Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Greece, Hungary, Slovenia, and Poland. Two chapters by the editors synthesize the results and assess their theoretical implications.