IUSSP 2017. THEME 6 - THEME 8. Education and labor force. Changes - PDF document

IUSSP 2017. THEME 6 - THEME 8. Education and labor force. Changes and continuities in labor mobility of three generations of women in Mexico Fiorella Mancini Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales. UNAM fiorella@unam.mx Abstract This paper analyses the different work transitions of three generations of Mexican women, from their first job until the age of 30. The objective is two-pronged: (i) to observe informalization, deskilling, de-waging, and tertiarization in the women’s labor market in the past few years and (ii) to analyze how these processes affect female work trajectories. First, the findings indicate that generational changes relating to sector of activity, employment position, occupational status and economic sector are not interchangeable. Second, they appear to reflect that structural mobility in the labor market does not match individual mobility in the female workforce. The results also show that the conditions in which women enter the labor market have a significant impact on their future career opportunities. Introduction Several studies have drawn attention in recent years to the increasing participation of women in Mexican labor markets, their differentiated behavior vis-à-vis men in the world of work and, in general, to the rupture of the male breadwinner model (Rendón 2003, Todaro y Yáñez 2004, García y De Oliveira 2006, OIT-PNUD 2009, Chávez 2010, Maldonado 2010) . These findings would also indicate that these processes are articulated with far-reaching social transformations related not only to economic but also cultural and demographic aspects (García y Oliveira 2001; Oliveira, Ariza y Eternod 2002) . At the same time, and despite the long tradition of sociological research on social stratification in Mexico (Balán, Browning y Jelín 1977, Muñoz, Oliveira y Stern 1977, Zenteno 2003, Pacheco 2004, Cortés, Escobar y Solís 2007, Solís 2007), there are few studies that are concerned with analyzing -from the labor market approach- the individual mobility of women throughout their career. This paper tries to contribute to this analysis from the review of different labor transitions that can experience women of three generations, from their first employment until the age of 30. The generations observed by the Retrospective Demographic Survey of Mexico (EDER 1

2011) allow us to account for different historical moments of the economic development of the country and, with it, to unravel possibilities of explanation regarding social change in the participation of the female labor force. At the same time, longitudinal observation makes it possible to identify transitions in the individual biography of women within the different historical periods. In these sense, the main is two-pronged: (i) to observe informalization, deskilling, de- waging, and tertiarization in the women’s labor market in the past few years and (ii) to analyses how these processes affect female work trajectories. That is, to what extent, processes related to the precariousness of work translate (or not) into the precarization of a certain trajectory. For this, the analysis is based on the study of the first job in order to explore the conditions of entry to the labor market and its relation with the individual mobility of labor trajectories (Blossfeld, 1992). The hypothesis is that the conditions in which a newcomer enters the labor market profoundly modulate the future possibilities of his career (Castel, 2010). 1. Data and methods To do this, information from the Retrospective Demographic Survey (EDER) of Mexico (2011) is used. The Retrospective Demographic Survey (EDER) 2011 is a longitudinal survey, whose general purpose is to collect information on the temporal nature of the sociodemographic processes (migration, education, occupation, nuptiality, fecundity and mortality) experienced by the population of Mexico during the second half of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century, as well as on the interrelations of different demographic phenomena in the life trajectories of individuals. The reason for using it in this paper is that it allows longitudinal analysis of the labor transitions of individuals and, therefore, make comparisons of social processes over time. At the same time, longitudinal observation makes it possible to identify transitions in the individual biography of women within the different historical periods. The three cohorts observed by the survey allow us to account for different historical moments of the economic development of the country and, with it, to analyze possibilities of explanation related to social change in the participation of the female labor force. The target population of EDER 2011 is constituted by the cohorts born in the years 1951-1953, 1966-1968 and 1978-1980. For this reason, in 2

this paper only these three generations of study are observed. EDER 2011 cohorts were in the range of 58-60 years old, 43-45 years old and 31-33 years old, respectively, at the time of the survey. With the selection of these three cohorts, while it is possible to consider the diversity of cohorts that represents the behavior of the population of Mexico in very varied contexts of the economic and social development of the country, it is also possible to consider the life experiences of most recent history in Mexico. In fact, the 15-year gap between the study cohorts allows us to interview groups of people who have transited their adult lives in different social, economic and demographic environments that may have particular influences on the labor transitions discussed here. First, the analysis is based on tables of mobility between the first employment and the 30 years with respect to the transitions that occurred in the activity sector, the position at work, the occupational status of the workers and the branch of activity. The reason for constructing tables of labor mobility between the first job and the 30 years old obeys theoretical and methodological questions, simultaneously. From a theoretical point of view, and from the perspective of the life course, the 30 years are a moment in which most of the transitions to adult life have already taken place: leaving school, finishing school, entrance to labor market, departure from the home of origin, formation of unions, birth of the first child and others. Consequently, it is considered a point of comparison sufficiently stable to observe changes in time from the first employment (Coubés, 2004). At the same time, from the methodological point of view, employment at age 30 is an ideal moment for the analysis of labor mobility, since, given the early age of entry into the labor market in Mexico, the measurement occurs after an average of 10 or 15 years of observation of the individual trajectory. Secondly, the weight associated with the conditionals of informality at the age of 30 is analyzed from multivariate regression models that consider, in particular, the characteristics of the first job among women. Both techniques are intended to test a hypothesis of social change that accounts for structural processes of precariousness of the female labor force at early ages. The study universe consists of those women who worked, at least, for a year throughout their lives and the observation period ranges from the first employment to the 31 years of age for women of three generations (most of the work history of the first cohort 3

occurs during the 1970s, the second cohort during the 1980s, and the third cohort during the 1990s). 2. Results and discussion. Labor transitions from the first job: the difficulty of being a newcomer to the job market 2.1 Individual female transitions by the economic sector In order to analyze the economic sector and, based on this, the possibility of observing processes of informality in the labor market, we adopted the criteria of Coubés (2004): 1. Agricultural employment, including any occupation in agriculture, fishing or forestry; 2. Non-agricultural employment of micro and small enterprises, consisting of enterprises of five persons or less in trade and services, and enterprises of 15 persons or less in industry; 3. Non- agricultural employment of medium and large companies, comprising those with a higher number of employees (more than five in the tertiary, more than 15 in the industry) and; 4. Public employment that includes workers employed by the three levels of government in the areas of public administration, education sector and health sector. As indicated by Coubés (2004), this categorization combines a differentiation by economic sector (agriculture and non-agriculture), a distinction by institutional sectors (private sector and public sector) and a variation by size of company. Table 1. Mobility table by sector of activity between the first employment and the 30 years, Mexican women, by cohort First job 30 years Micro Medium & Cohort Public Does not Agriculture & small large Total 1951- 1953 Sector work companies companies Agriculture 6.7 40.2 4.3 0.0 48.9 5.2 Micro & small companies 1.5 45.9 13.3 0.4 39.0 50.6 Medium & large comps. 0.0 14.5 54.9 1.2 29.4 41.0 Public Sector 0.0 3.1 28.4 22.1 46.5 3.2 Total 1.1 31.4 30.3 1.4 35.8 100.0 Cohort 1966- 1968 Agriculture 22.0 23.3 0.0 0.0 54.7 2.3 Micro % small companies 0.0 46.7 19.7 1.3 32.3 40.8 Medium & large comps. 0.0 15.0 51.3 2.8 30.9 49.4 Public sector 0.0 6.1 13.4 62.1 18.5 7.6 Total 0.5 27.5 34.4 6.6 31.1 100.0 Cohort 1978- 1980 Agriculture 21.3 0.0 21.3 0.0 57.4 1.1 Micro & small companies 0.0 40.3 23.1 2.1 34.5 41.0 Medium & large comps. 0.1 16.7 45.1 4.0 34.1 54.2 4