Family life on the fast track? Gender and work-family tradeoffs among highly educated professionals: A cross-cultural exploration

Abstract

Women have made considerable progress in the labor market, not least regarding the professions. Both men and women are attaining high-status degrees and entering fast-track professions such as law, medicine, and academia. This has changed the conditions for both family formation and careers. While high levels of education and career orientation among women are generally associated with reduced involvement in family life, there is evidence of change in Scandinavia as well as USA. This chapter focuses on how fast-track professionals in law, medicine, and academia fare with respect to continued childbearing. Evidence from Sweden is explored and contrasted with the experiences from the United States. The countries differ in terms of how the labor market works, but also with respect to social policy and gender equality. While Sweden has introduced extensive policies alleviating parents from work-family conflicts, such policies are limited in USA. There are differences with respect to continued childbearing within the group of highly educated professionals, in both Sweden and USA. Doctors are more likely to continue childbearing compared to law professionals and academics. Doctors are different compared to the rest; a result that holds for both men and women. There are differences in the variation across professions by gender, indicating that public sector employment is conducive to Swedish women’s continued childbearing. The results indicate that working conditions and career structures contribute to making it easier for some groups than others to combine a professional career and children, irrespective of country context.