Divergent Female Part-Time Employment in Britain and Denmark and the Implications for Gender Equity

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Abstract
This paper examines women's employment in Britain and Denmark, societies characterised similarly by high proportions of female employees working part-time but by rather different gender arrangements. Part-time working is associated with female-carer workers; women who have reduced their hours in the labour market to bring up children and are able to do this because of the presence of an alternative source of income – usually a male breadwinner. Yet Denmark has been conceptualised as having more of ‘dual-breadwinner’ gender arrangement than Britain. It would seem then, that part-time working is distinctly different in these two societies. Examining this question, the paper concludes that extensive part-time working for women, and not men, does indeed tend to reinforce a traditional male-breadwinner model. However, the strength of this reinforcement varies, depending on the relative conditions of the part-time labour market. These conditions vary substantially cross-nationally and can also change rapidly within one society over time. As a result, the typical ‘role’ a part-time job plays for women can also vary cross-nationally and can change over time.

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