Navigating occupational norms: explaining the employment mobility patterns of Australian mothers

Abstract

This thesis presents a study of the micro dynamics of labour market segmentation, through an exploration of occupational variations in the differentiated patterns of mothers employment mobility. The study seeks an answer to the question: How do Australian mothers retain occupational access within a segmented labour market? While Australia has comparatively high rates of part-time employment internationally, not all Australian mothers access part-time work as a means of maintaining labour force attachment during periods of care responsibility. One third of employed mothers, with responsibility for a child under 16 years of age, work full-time. In contrast, for mothers who do access part-time work, the interlinking patterns of working hours, employment mode and occupational mobility often make altering working hours alone difficult. This study draws on a theoretical framework examining the interplay between choice and constraint at the individual level, exploring the occupational variations in enablements and barriers that mothers navigate in order to maintain both employment and occupational access. The thesis presents a longitudinal analysis of 5 waves of data from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics of Australia (HILDA) Survey (2001 2005), presenting two integrated studies. The first study examines the shape of employment, that is the pattern of norms relating to the terms and conditions of employment, including hours and location of work and contract mode; and how that shape varies both in appearance and strength for 64 occupations in the Australian labour market. The second study explores variations across 64 occupations in the patterns of navigation of Australian mothers between 2001 and 2005. This study explores the micro dynamics of employment mobility at the individual level, illustrating the impact of the shape of employment in both constraining and enabling the avenues of choice available to mothers attempting to combine work and care. Based on the empirical evidence in these studies, I argue that how a mother navigates her employment access is enabled and constrained by the shape of employment accessibility - the pattern and strength of occupational norms defining the available forms and modes of employment allowing occupational engagement.