This event examines how the feminisation of the labour force has influenced consumption, sectoral employment, and the evolution of national growth models in high-income countries.
Over the past half-century, women’s labour force participation has risen dramatically across high-income countries. This talk explores the implications of rising women’s employment for the growth models countries have adopted. We will theorise two ways in which the feminisation of the labour force shaped growth models.
The first is through its direct effect on consumption. The rise in women’s labour force participation created more formal wage earners, which in turn boosted household income and consumption, intensifying the contribution of domestic consumption to aggregate demand. The second significant change unleashed by the formalisation of women’s labour was a shift in the composition of sectoral employment in the labour market. Women’s labour market participation was overwhelmingly concentrated in the services sector, in contrast to men’s.
We predict that the domestic consumption effect of women’s work will be enhanced if their employment is better paid (i.e., concentrated in higher-earning public-sector services). This would help entrench domestic demand growth at the expense of export-led growth. If rising women’s employment is instead concentrated in low-wage service sectors, women’s purchasing power will be suppressed. In this case, the positive impact of women’s employment on domestic demand growth will be mitigated, while export-led growth will become more entrenched due to weaker consumption.
We test these predictions using a panel analysis of two contributors to growth, domestic demand and exports, in 21 high-income countries from 1980 to 2019, alongside a comparative case study of growth model evolution in Sweden and the Netherlands. Our analyses largely confirm our predictions.
Alison Johnston is a Professor of Public Policy and the current holder of the Ulysses G. Dubach Chair in Political Science at Oregon State University. Her research interests lie at the intersection of international and comparative political economy, with a focus on comparative capitalism; the political economy of European (monetary) integration, growth models, housing markets and household debt; the political economy of populism, and sovereign credit ratings. Her work has appeared in Comparative Political Studies, Comparative Politics, Perspectives on Politics, Politics & Society, the Journal of Common Market Studies and the Journal of European Public Policy, among other outlets. She is the current co-lead editor of the Review of International Political Economy.
Deborah Mabbett is a Professor of Public Policy at Birkbeck, University of London. Her research interests are in comparative political economy and social policy, including recent work on minimum wages, pension funds, central banking and women’s employment. She has published widely in outlets including the Socio-Economic Review, the Review of International Political Economy, the Politics & Society and the Journal of European Public Policy. She is co-editor of The Political Quarterly journal.
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