Gender-specific effects of commuting and relocation on a couple’s social life
BACKGROUND This contribution analyzes gender-specific effects of long-distance commuting and residential relocation on the social integration of couples. Research on geographical mobility in the partnership context focused very much on gender differences of regional mobility with respect to labor ma...
| Veröffentlicht in: | Demographic Research. - Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der Wissenschaften, 1999. - 40(2019) vom: Juni, Seite 1047-1062 |
|---|---|
| 1. Verfasser: | |
| Weitere Verfasser: | |
| Format: | Online-Aufsatz |
| Sprache: | English |
| Veröffentlicht: |
2019
|
| Zugriff auf das übergeordnete Werk: | Demographic Research |
| Schlagworte: | Social sciences Behavioral sciences Economics |
| Zusammenfassung: | BACKGROUND This contribution analyzes gender-specific effects of long-distance commuting and residential relocation on the social integration of couples. Research on geographical mobility in the partnership context focused very much on gender differences of regional mobility with respect to labor market outcomes and economic success. The effects of regional mobility and their possibly gendered impact on social networks and the social integration of households have been understudied. However, one would expect that regional mobility imposes severe temporal and geographical restrictions on the formation and upholding of social relationships. Moreover, these restrictions can be assumed to differ by gender due to differential involvement of women and men in market and domestic care work, which also present different opportunities and constraints for maintaining and forming social contacts. OBJECTIVE Against this background we analyze the effects of internal migration and job-related commuting on couples’ social relationships. METHODS The analysis is based on the British Household Panel Study (BHPS) waves 1997–2008. We first give extensive descriptive overview on the social structure of mobile couples and the amount and perceived quality of social contacts men and women maintain. Second the effects on quality (i.e., the satisfaction with one’s social life) are analyzed within a panel fixed-effects framework. RESULTS Results indicate that regional mobility affects women more than men. In particular women who move for her partner’s job prospects suffer losses in perceived quality ofsocial life. Female commuters are dissatisfied if they have low qualification and are only weakly integrated in the labor market. Among male commuters time restrictions due to high workload are detrimental to their social life. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 23637064 |