The kids are alright: working women, schedule flexibility and childcare

ABSTRACT

This paper tests the effects of children and childcare on women’s employment and entrepreneurial outcomes at the county level for the United States. Given that policies and economic development strategies are often implemented across local and regional jurisdictions, this regional study contributes to the literature by considering access to childcare in relation to locally aggregated female labour market outcomes by sector. The results, which address potential endogeneity, indicate that young children and childcare affect female employment differently depending on the sector. The results are consistent with women choosing the public sector and self-employment over the private sector to accommodate the demands of childrearing.

KEYWORDS:

• self-employment
• gender
• childcare
• employment
• regional

JEL:

• J13
• J22
• L26
• M13
• R1

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Tessa Conroy https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0120-297X

Notes

1. A total of 3072 of 3143 counties and county equivalents including certain independent cities that are economically integrated with their surrounding county. In the instance of a newly formed county during the focal period, these counties are aggregated to their extensive boundary for consistency. Alaska, Hawaii and US territories are excluded.

2. Instruments retrieved from the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (Haines, 2010).