abstract: 'Most OECD countries have experienced an increase of female part-time

  employment in the last decades. It has been argued that part-time work

  may give greater employment flexibility, enabling mothers to reconcile

  conflicting demands of family and work and thereby facilitating their

  integration into the wage economy. At the same time, it has been

  suggested that female part-time work implies segmentation of the labour

  force into a core and a periphery, with marginalized, low qualified jobs

  for part-time employees. However, little attention has been given to the

  possible mediating effect of the institutional context on potential job

  quality disadvantages of part-timers. We examine this question by

  comparing the skills and autonomy of female part-time workers in two

  countries, Britain and Sweden, often considered as representing quite

  distinct forms of institutional regime. The results show that female

  part-time employees in Sweden hold positions of higher skill and have

  more autonomy compared to their equivalents in Britain. Even so, both

  British and Swedish part-time employees face relative disadvantage when

  compared to female full-time workers. We conclude that differences in

  the institutional systems of Sweden and Britain do have a significant

  effect on the absolute skill level of part-time work. However, the

  relative disadvantage of part-timers persists despite Swedish policies

  giving greater salience to improvements in the quality of work. (C) 2011

  international Sociological Association Research Committee 28 on Social

  Stratification and Mobility. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights

  reserved.'
affiliation: 'Hallden, K (Corresponding Author), Stockholm Univ, Swedish Inst Social
  Res, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden.

  Hallden, Karin, Stockholm Univ, Swedish Inst Social Res, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden.

  Gallie, Duncan; Zhou, Ying, Univ Oxford, Nuffield Coll, Oxford OX1 NF, England.

  Zhou, Ying, Univ Surrey, Sch Management \& Law, Guildford GU2 7XH, Surrey, England.'
author: Hallden, Karin and Gallie, Duncan and Zhou, Ying
author-email: 'karin.hallden@soli.su.se

  duncan.gallie@nuffield.ox.ac.uk

  ying.zhou@surrey.ac.uk'
author_list:
- family: Hallden
  given: Karin
- family: Gallie
  given: Duncan
- family: Zhou
  given: Ying
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1016/j.rssm.2011.07.001
eissn: 1878-5654
files: []
issn: 0276-5624
journal: RESEARCH IN SOCIAL STRATIFICATION AND MOBILITY
keywords: Female part-time; Job quality; Skills; Autonomy
language: English
month: JUN
number: '2'
number-of-cited-references: '43'
orcid-numbers: Gallie, Duncan/0000-0002-5400-9540
pages: 187-201
papis_id: 5ffaf2bf341b3f67bdfdb42534409146
ref: Hallden2012skillsautonomy
researcherid-numbers: 'Gallie, Duncan/V-2470-2019

  '
times-cited: '11'
title: The skills and autonomy of female part-time work in Britain and Sweden
type: article
unique-id: WOS:000311914900004
usage-count-last-180-days: '2'
usage-count-since-2013: '26'
volume: '30'
web-of-science-categories: Sociology
year: '2012'