Career or Flexible Work Arrangements? Gender Differences in Self-employment in a Young Market Economy
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Career or Flexible Work Arrangements? Gender Differences in Self‑employment in a Young Market Economy Dominik Buttler1 · Eva Sierminska2 Published online: 2 March 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract We examined supply-side determinants of transition from the wage and salary sector to self-employment of women and men living Poland. The empirical analysis was made possible due to a unique and under explored longitudinal survey—Social Diagnosis—that contains rare indicators such as job preferences and work events. The empirical results in the 2007–2015 period indicated that women and men transitioning into self-employment were differently motivated. In terms of job attributes, women found independence at work and for those in professional occupations a job matching their competences as a desirable job attribute, while for men the lack of stress, a good salary and independence was key. The analysis of work events and its influence on self-employment weakly confirmed the glass-ceiling hypothesis. In line with other research, our analysis indicated that financial constraints strongly determined the entry into self-employment. A key human capital determinant was past entrepreneurial experience indicating a slow, cautious transition process into self-employment. Keywords Risk · Self-employment · Work conditions · Gender · Poland JEL Classification D31 · G11 · J61 · J24
Introduction In this paper, we examined the supply-side determinants of self-employment for women and men in Poland. The empirical analysis was made possible due to the longitudinal survey—Social Diagnosis. Large sample sizes, a wide thematic scope (including relatively rare indicators of job preferences and work events) and the longitudinal design make this dataset a valuable, yet underutilized source of information. Traditionally, studies have argued that for men the decision to become self-employed is mostly career-driven, while a significant proportion of women (particularly those with young children) decide to become self-employed based * Eva Sierminska [email protected] Dominik Buttler [email protected] 1
Department of Labour and Social Policy, Poznan University of Economics and Business, Al. Niepodleglosci 10, Poznan 61‑875, Poland
LISER, DIW Berlin, IZA and GLO, 11, Porte des Sciences, 4364 Esch‑sur‑Alzette, Luxembourg
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on trading off income against more flexible work arrangements (Budig 2006; Connelly 1992; Devine 1994; Hurst and Lusardi 2004; Williams 2000).1 Nowadays, the division of such arguments by gender is not as strict. Another strand of research views self-employment as a career advancement strategy that helps circumvent barriers in promotion faced by disadvantaged groups, including women, in the salaried sector, also termed as the glass ceiling hypothesis. The first and the last set of motivations refer to the careerist theory of self-employment, while the second refers to the work-life balance theory. Our study was embedded in
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