WP 36 - Women's Preferences or Delineated Policies? The development or part-time work in the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom

Mara Yerkes & Jelle Visser

4.2 United Kingdom

The development of part-time work in the United Kingdom differs from both Germany and the
Netherlands mainly because it is shaped in a much less regulated labour market. The similarity lies in
the heritage of a strong male breadwinner model (Lewis, 1992). Hence, in the UK, part-time work
also developed mostly as a means for women wishing to combine paid labour and motherhood
(Bruegel and Perrons, 1998). Nearly all of the post-war growth in married women’s employment
can be explained by the growth in part-time work (Lewis, 1992). However, there are two distinct
differences in the way in which part-time work developed in the UK. Firstly, while part-time work
among women differs between East and West in Germany, in the UK part-time work among women
is divided along ethnic lines. Full-time, not part-time work seems to be the norm for minority ethnic
women in the UK and ethnic minority women are more likely than white women to be working full-
time. This full-time pattern varies little based on occupation or the presence of children in the
household (Dale and Holdsworth, 1998). Secondly, working hours are polarized in the UK, and part-
time work often consists of marginal or short hours, which serves to increase levels of involuntary
part-time work among women. Due to the short hours nature of part-time work in Britain, workers
are often excluded from benefits, making their labour market position even more precarious
(Bruegel and Perrons, 1998; Fagan and Rubery, 1997).

WOMEN’S PART-TIME PREFERENCES

The growth in female part-time work in the UK is not reflective of female preferences for part-time
work, but stems from necessary practicalities of household and family organization and deeply
entrenched social attitudes, a trend we see in Germany and the Netherlands as well (Fagan and
Rubery, 1997). The largest preference for part-time work can once again be found by mothers
looking to combine paid work with family responsibilities and childcare. Even with a slight increase in
full-time jobs, most married mothers continue to work part-time (Dale and Holdsworth, 1998). As
noted previously, it is more common for women of ethnic minorities to remain in full-time
employment after having children. This is also true for highly educated women (Fagan and Rubery,
1997). Yet even this group of women is significantly smaller in comparison to other European
countries due to long-held social beliefs regarding motherhood and paid work in the UK, a trend
also visible in the Netherlands and Germany (Fagan and Rubery, 1997; Pfau-Effinger, 1998).
However, the difficulty of combining paid work with motherhood does not deter all women from
participating in the labour market. Despite a lack of childcare, young women with children have the
highest increasing rate in labour market participation (Fagan and Rubery, 1997).

The largest inconsistency between the development of part-time work and women’s working
preferences lies in the issue of hours. The precariousness of small part-time jobs in the UK is

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