Educational Differentials in Married Women's Labor Force Participation in Japan during the 1990s

So-jung Lim, University of Wisconsin at Madison

This study examines several potential mechanisms underlying the recent emergence of positive relationship between educational attainment and married women’s labor force attachment in Japan. I use data from a longitudinal survey collected in the 1990s and early 2000s, a period of substantial change in the context of women’s work, to estimate discrete-time hazard models for married women’s labor force exit. Preliminary results indicate that career orientation and job characteristics such as employment type, occupation and public sector employment are key mediators of the positive relationship between women’s educational attainment and labor force attachment. Women’s own income, however, does not explain the positive relationship between education and continuous employment. Also, in contrast to earlier studies, husband’s income and education are unrelated to the higher likelihood of labor force exit. In subsequent analyses, I will reevaluate these preliminary results using more refined measures and analytical techniques and interpret them in comparative perspective.