1

Poverty - risks and triggers Family, work and gender equality in Norway and Britain

Anne Hege StrandPhD candidate

Department of SociologyUniversity of Bergen

Eight meeting of the European Network for the Sociological and Demographic Study of Divorce

Valencia 14 -16 Oct 2010

Macro societal trends

2

Women in paid work Unstable families

New model(s) for family provision

Gender equality light?

Gendered poverty risks

3

Male & female

UnemploymentIllness

Accidents

Female

DivorcePregnancy

Caring

Work sphere

Family sphere

Source: Daly 2000, Ruspini 2000

Conceptual framework

Poverty risks•Cross sectional•Static•Between group differences•Pooled regression

Poverty triggers•Longitudinal•Dynamic•Within person changes•Fixed effects

4

Data

• Norwegian Level of Living Panel Survey LEVPAN (1997-2002)

• 6 years of data• Sample individuals

• British Household Panel Survey BHPS (1997-2004) (waves 7-14)

• 8 years of data• Sample households

5

VariablesFamily •Couple (baseline)•Partnership dissolution•Single•Birth of child•Number of children

Work •Full-time work (baseline)•Part-time work•‘Forced’ inactive•Inactive

Partner work•Partner full-time (baseline)•Partner part-time•Partner inactive

Control variables•Higher education (baseline)•Upper secondary•Lower secondary

•Age

Dependent variable•Income poverty (poor/not poor)•60% median poverty line•Equivalised monthly net household income (modified OECD scale)•Deflated to 2001 prices

6

Descriptive statistics

7

    Norway Britain    Men Women Men WomenFamily characteristics

Couple 68.8 72.2 85.0 78.0

  Partnership dissolution 2.3 2.5 1.1 1.2  Single 29.0 25.3 13.9 21.0  Birth of child 3.4 2.4 4.9 4.7  No. of children          1 child 17.7 18.2 17.4 19.6  2 children 19.2 18.7 18.4 19.3  3 children 7.6 9.0 6.0 5.8  4 or more children 1.8 1.5 1.2 1.2           Work characteristics

Full-time work 83.7 52.4 80.4 41.9

  Part-time work 5.3 26.3 2.9 26.8  ‘Forced’ inactive 5.4 8.3 9.8 8.1  Inactive 5.7 12.9 2.1 18.6  Spouse (where present) FT 47.1 (n=1093) 75.1 (n=1025) 39.2 (n=1397) 65.8 (n=2349)  Spouse (where present) PT 21.7 (n=1093) 1.8 (n=1025) 26.6 (n=1397) 2.3 (n=2349)  Spouse (where present)

inactive4.2 (n=1093) 2.2 (n=1025) 11.3 (n=1397) 24.5 (n=2349)

           Control variables Higher education 29.3 29.4 50.4 44.4  Upper secondary education 60.2 60.4 35.7 41.5  Lower secondary education 10.5 10.2 13.0 12.8  Age 39.6 (mean) 40.1 (mean) 41.4 (mean) 39.3 (mean)           Dependent variable

Poor 7.9 10.1 11.4 14.8

             Number of person years 5803 5534 18097 18577  N 1652 1538 3492 3605Data: LKU 1997-2002, BHPS 1997-2004.

Percentage poor by independent vars

8

  Norway Britain

  Men Women Men Women

Overall poverty rate 7.9 10.1 11.4 14.8

         

Couple 3.5 4.7 9.7 9.1

Partnership dissolution

19.7 29.7 12.8 43.8

Single 17.6 23.7 21.6 34.5

         

Birth of child 3.1 5.5 16.1 19.8

         

Full-time work 4.2 4.6 6.2 3.9

Part-time work 24.4 10.9 21.7 13.2

‘Forced’ inactive 19.6 15.0 42.2 27.0

Inactive 35.8 27.8 52.9 37.3

         

Number of person years

5803 5534 18097 18577

n 1652 1538 3492 3605

Poverty risks – descriptive stats

9

Generic

SingleForced inact

Inactive

British

Child birth

Gendered

Men - PT

Partnership dissolution

Norway Britain

Odds ratio of poverty after partnership dissolution

10

11

    Norway   Britain    Men Men Women Women   Men Men Women Women    (1) Pooled (2) FE (1) Pooled (2) FE   (1) Pooled (2) FE (1) Pooled (2) FE                     Family Partnership

diss.a 1.5618*** 1.4028** 2.2254*** 2.9305***   0.6378** 0.1638 2.4180*** 2.8836***

Status   (0.268) (0.558) (0.235) (0.708)   (0.256) (0.341) (0.171) (0.284)  Singlea 0.9784*** 1.7759*** 1.3748*** 2.4919***   1.1021*** 0.7704*** 2.0293*** 1.9586***    (0.146) (0.562) (0.146) (0.874)   (0.086) (0.247) (0.074) (0.213)  Birth of child -0.3471 -0.8129 -0.4084 0.7647   0.0758 0.0796 -0.2693*** 0.0417    (0.425) (0.647) (0.400) (0.672)   (0.110) (0.154) (0.100) (0.156)  No. of children -0.0462 -0.2289 -0.0613 -1.2628***   0.5737*** 0.4808*** 0.3225*** 0.2116***    (0.080) (0.173) (0.066) (0.239)   (0.026) (0.078) (0.025) (0.077)Work Part-time workb 1.4132*** 0.5643* 0.9726*** 0.1633   1.4590*** 0.8228*** 1.0543*** 0.6660***Status   (0.168) (0.309) (0.139) (0.249)   (0.133) (0.213) (0.076) (0.130)  Forced ‘inactive’b 1.5078*** 1.1498** 1.6206*** 0.6392   2.3538*** 1.3468*** 1.9171*** 0.7981***    (0.172) (0.487) (0.175) (0.420)   (0.120) (0.234) (0.099) (0.193)  ‘Inactive’b 1.8960*** 0.7382** 1.9347*** 0.4438   2.4424*** 1.4558*** 2.3364*** 1.0242***    (0.156) (0.311) (0.142) (0.274)   (0.132) (0.279) (0.094) (0.175)  Partner part-

timec

-0.2144 0.3367 -0.2816 -0.9701   -0.0482 -0.0287 1.3704*** 1.3565***

    (0.237) (0.528) (0.751) (1.155)   (0.116) (0.199) (0.202) (0.375)  Partner

‘inactive’c0.3747 -0.0261 0.8938** 2.5329***   -0.0945 -0.4682* -0.0566 0.4319**

    (0.374) (0.584) (0.362) (0.853)   (0.135) (0.250) (0.107) (0.193)Control Upper

secondaryd -0.1796 -0.2543 -0.1099 0.3479   0.5475*** 0.5612** 0.5332*** 0.1363

Variables

  (0.123) (0.606) (0.113) (0.619)   (0.059) (0.258) (0.055) (0.199)

  Lower secondaryd

0.2231 -13.2568 0.2308 -3.3986**   1.0419*** 0.6103 1.1039*** -0.0709

    (0.184) (1,295.714) (0.181) (1.676)   (0.080) (0.463) (0.076) (0.434)  Age -0.0236*** 0.0941 -0.0408*** 0.0733   -0.0294*** -0.0509*** -0.0309*** -0.1139***    (0.006) (0.059) (0.005) (0.055)   (0.003) (0.017) (0.003) (0.016)                       Constant -2.4563***   -2.1139***     -2.5749***   -3.1477***      (0.309)   (0.307)     (0.128)   (0.124)                         Observations 5,803 728 5,534 925   18,097 4,273 18,577 5,141  Number of ident   191   226     716   869

Poverty triggers – WORK or FAMILY?

12

Norway Britain

Men Women Men Women

FAMILY Part.dissSingle

Part.dissSingle Single

More chld

Part.dissSingleMore chld

OWNWORK

PTForcedInact

PTForced Inact

PTForcedInact

PART. WORK

Inact PTInact