One of the main drivers of gender inequality is the unequal distribution of paid work between men and women, in particular, after the birth of a child. In this study, we examine how a man’s employment flexibility, specifically his weekly hours of employment and schedule autonomy, influence his female partner’s return to employment after the birth of a first child using the German Socio-Economic Panel. Given women’s placement as primary but not solitary carers of young children, it is plausible that women’s attachment to the labour force will increase if their male partner is in a position to take on more of the responsibility for unpaid work. Results indicate that a father’s employment flexibility facilities a mother’s part-time employment. A return to full-time hours, however, is less contingent on the father’s employment circumstances or other external factors. The findings highlight the importance of employing couple-level analyses in examinations of the gender division of labour.

中文翻译：

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父亲的工作灵活性和母亲的重返工作岗位

性别不平等的主要驱动因素之一是男女之间有偿工作分配不均，尤其是在孩子出生后。在这项研究中，我们使用德国社会经济小组研究了男性的就业灵活性，特别是他的每周工作时间和日程安排自主权，如何影响其女性伴侣在第一个孩子出生后重返工作岗位。鉴于女性被安置为幼儿的主要照顾者而非单独照顾者，如果男性伴侣能够承担更多无偿工作的责任，女性对劳动力的依恋就会增加，这似乎是合理的。结果表明，父亲的就业灵活性有利于母亲的兼职工作。然而，回到全职工作时间，较少取决于父亲的就业情况或其他外部因素。研究结果强调了在检查性别分工时采用夫妻层面分析的重要性。