Decomposing gender differences in temporary contracts

This study analyses gender differences in fixed term contracts in 19 European countries, using micro data from the European Social Survey. Our estimates show that temporary employment appears to be more feminized and that gender differences in temporary employment can arise from a female specific behaviour where young women often appear more concerned with atypical jobs. Moreover, the marital status affects negatively the probability of holding a fixed term contract where single men work more frequently than women in temporary employment while women often hold temporary contracts when they are married. Alternatively, the presence of kids is conversely connected with the probability of being in a fixed term contract, principally for men. Basing on Oaxaca and Blinder technique, decomposing gender difference in employment contracts allow us to better understand such differences regarding temporary work. The endowments reduce by approximately 13% the difference in the probability of being in fixed term contract for women. Conversely, the gender difference in unobservable characteristics is negative. Between the two groups, the decomposition of coefficients explains approximately 116% this difference. We find that, beyond the individual characteristics, controlling for the branch of industry allow only partially for explaining gender differences regarding the held contractual form. Other elements could be required to explain the gender differences such as labour market regulation which seems to perpetuate the other forms of gender inequality linked to education, homework sharing or even temporal flexibility.