Women’s Employment–Family Trajectories and Well-Being in Later Life: Evidence From France

International audienceObjective: Previous research in various countries has found that employment-family trajectories characterized by early or single motherhood, or weak ties to employment, are associated with poor well-being among older women. Our paper explores whether this differs (1) in France, characterized by a high female employment rate and supportive family policies; (2) across dimensions of well-being.Method: We used the Health and Occupational Itinerary survey to identify 10 common patterns of employment?family trajectories (derived from multi-channel sequence analysis) and analysed their association with six indicators of well-being in 2010 (N = 2882 50?78 years old women).Results: Continuous full-time employment is associated with better well-being, except for women who had a first child around 24 years old, who reported increased anxiety and lack of support.Discussion: Employed mothers' well-being seems to be protected in a context of family friendly policies, but we identified one group with lower well-being, which merits further study