My dissertation titled titled “Family Policy Outcomes: Combining Institutional and Demographic Explanations of Women’s Employment and Earnings Inequality in OECD Countries, 1975-2005″ has been formally approved. In the Netherlands (where I did my PhD) this means that I will now be able to print it and to defend it during a public ceremony.

My dissertation will be available very soon, and I am currently in the process of updating this website to provide some additional information. You can expect a good number of dissertation-related posts building up until my defense on January 10th 2014.

Key findings of my dissertation include:

This dissertation showed how family policies have been effective in shaping inequalities in women’s employment and earnings inequality within and between households. Reconciliation policies were found to result in a smaller gap in employment between mothers and women without children. Overly long childcare leave negatively affects the employment of mothers and higher educated mothers benefit more from paid leave than the lower educated. Financial support policies to families were shown to result in mothers being less likely to be employed. In countries that facilitate women’s employment, with extensive reconciliation policies and limited financial support policies, women’s earnings contributed more strongly to reducing earnings inequality between households.

More information will follow soon on this blog and on this dedicated page of my website. Should you be interested in receiving this dissertation on Family Policy Outcomes, or have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at rense.nieuwenhuis@sofi.su.se. Any conversation about my work will be greatly appreciated.