The return of women to the labour market after a break due to family responsibilities in the countries of the Visegrad Group in 2015–2020

Abstract

The aim of the study is to present and evaluate selected aspects related to women’s professional inactivity caused by caring responsibilities and mothers’ return to the labour market in the Visegrad countries.
To achieve the stated goal, the following research questions were formulated:
1. Are caring responsibilities the main cause of women’s economic inactivity in the V4 countries?
2. What chance do women in the Visegrad Group countries have of returning from professional inactivity to employment?
3. Does having a child significantly affect the status of women in the labour market? How did this relationship change over time and how big were the differences between the countries studied?
4. Does having children influence women to work part-time and how?
The basis for the analyses was data from Eurostat databases from the years 2015–2020. The scope of the study includes a statistical analysis and an attempt to assess changes in selected labour market indicators, including the flow of women from professional inactivity to employment, employment rates among women with and without children, causes of women’s professional inactivity, reasons for women taking up part-time work and the impact of having a child on the status of women in the labour market and the percentage of women working part-time.
The analysis leads to the following conclusions. Childcare and other family responsibilities were one of the most common reasons for women’s economic inactivity in the V4 countries. Typically, having a child was associated with a lower percentage of women being employed. In the surveyed countries, the flows of women from economic inactivity to employment were significantly lower than the average for EU countries. Polish women had the least chance of returning from professional inactivity to employment. Typically, employment rates among women without children were higher than among mothers. Family and care responsibilities were one of the most common reasons for women to work part-time. During the period under study, the percentage of women who indicated childcare as the reason for part-time work increased in each of the countries surveyed. Women in the V4 countries used flexible working time much less frequently than women in the EU countries.