Gender specific effects of partners’ careers on family dissolution in Italy

Irene Ferro, University of Florence
Silvana Salvini, University of Florence
Daniele Vignoli, Università di Roma "La Sapienza"

Since the last decades, female labor-force participation has been increasing in most European countries. At the same time, a diffusion of new family models, including separations and divorces, has been observed. Then, a connection is often made between these two processes: changes in the economic role of the women are hypothesized to have led to an increasing of family instability. This study aims at analyzing gender specific effects of partners’ careers on family dissolution in Italy. As it is well-known the Italian context is characterized by strong family models, but recently data show a progressive rise of the separations and divorces. Moreover, we are interested in investigating sub-national differences in the effects of labor market features on men and women’s family dissolution behavior. The work is based on data from Multipurpose Survey on Families 2003 carried out by ISTAT, which includes both information related to family instability and partners’ occupation. The analysis uses event-history techniques.