Limited choice : structures of opportunity and employment patterns in European couple households

This article investigates employment patterns in couple households - and in particular their variability according to the presence and age of children. The aim of the comparative analysis of ten European countries, using data from the European Social Survey (2004/05 and 2006/07), is to explain the pronounced cross-country differences with regard to empirically relevant household employment patterns—focusing on their variability across an ideal-typical family life-cycle. Explanatory factors include the social policy framework (family and tax policies), socio-economic and labor market conditions (wage level, unemployment, the availability of part-time work) as well as national gender cultures (societal ideals regarding gender roles and childcare). The article discusses the relationship between these structural and cultural factors, on the one hand, and actual practices of gendered employment behaviour, on the other. It concludes that, in order to account for the complexity of causal relations, the explanation of gendered employment patterns ought to be country-specific