This book examines a central issue in understanding recent changes in demographic patterns and the labour market - the increased participation of women in the workforce, and how the nature of this participation has developed. In the context of such economic and labour phenomena as globalization, increasing flexibilty in work patterns, intermittent and part-time employment, and in many countries high underemployment or unemployment, the role of women workers has transformed dramatically.This book explores a number of demographic issues associated with these developments, such as migration in the developed world and transition economies, family formation and dissolution, the autonomy of women migrants, household composition, the evolution of gender systems, and contraceptive behaviour, both as factors that determine the labour market conditions for women and their income levels, and as demographic outcomes. The studies cover a wide-range of situations, from societies with a strong patriarchal ideology and residential female seclusion, to industrialized countries with policies designed to assist women manage both a work and a family role, and makes use of extensive data sets collected at country level. The Editors have sought to maintain an interdisciplinary outlook in the book, and to draw policy implications from the various socio-economic situations examined.

Although both demography and gender relations have been the focus of research for quite some time, the intersection of gender studies and demographic analysis is a more recent phenomenon. Fortunately, gender aspects of dem- raphy and demographic aspects of gender are two lines of research that have received increased attention in recent years, there is a growing group of researchers active in this area, and consequently, a growing body of publications of different kinds. Despite this, books treating the topic of gender and demography in a more comprehensive fashion are rare. In fact, I can think of few examples since the publication of two edited volumes in the first half of the 1990s, namely Women’s position and demographic change and Gender and family change in industrialized countries, both resulting from the activities of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population. The editors of the current volume are therefore to be congratulated for taking the initiative to produce a much needed volume on gender and demography in developed countries (with a focus on Europe). The book covers a lot of ground, from the age at first int- course over union formation and union dissolution to excess male mortality, and report important findings of empirical research, mostly based on comp- ative data from a number of European countries. The source of these comp- ative data is, in most cases, the Family and Fertility Surveys (FFS) carried out in the 1990s.

Although both demography and gender relations have been the focus of research for quite some time, the intersection of gender studies and demographic analysis is a more recent phenomenon. Fortunately, gender aspects of dem- raphy and demographic aspects of gender are two lines of research that have received increased attention in recent years, there is a growing group of researchers active in this area, and consequently, a growing body of publications of different kinds. Despite this, books treating the topic of gender and demography in a more comprehensive fashion are rare. In fact, I can think of few examples since the publication of two edited volumes in the first half of the 1990s, namely Women’s position and demographic change and Gender and family change in industrialized countries, both resulting from the activities of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population. The editors of the current volume are therefore to be congratulated for taking the initiative to produce a much needed volume on gender and demography in developed countries (with a focus on Europe). The book covers a lot of ground, from the age at first int- course over union formation and union dissolution to excess male mortality, and report important findings of empirical research, mostly based on comp- ative data from a number of European countries. The source of these comp- ative data is, in most cases, the Family and Fertility Surveys (FFS) carried out in the 1990s.

This book examines a central issue in understanding recent changes in demographic patterns and the labour market - the increased participation of women in the workforce, and how the nature of this participation has developed. In the context of such economic and labour phenomena as globalization, increasing flexibilty in work patterns, intermittent and part-time employment, and in many countries high underemployment or unemployment, the role of women workers has transformed dramatically.This book explores a number of demographic issues associated with these developments, such as migration in the developed world and transition economies, family formation and dissolution, the autonomy of women migrants, household composition, the evolution of gender systems, and contraceptive behaviour, both as factors that determine the labour market conditions for women and their income levels, and as demographic outcomes. The studies cover a wide-range of situations, from societies with a strong patriarchal ideology and residential female seclusion, to industrialized countries with policies designed to assist women manage both a work and a family role, and makes use of extensive data sets collected at country level. The Editors have sought to maintain an interdisciplinary outlook in the book, and to draw policy implications from the various socio-economic situations examined.

Although both demography and gender relations have been the focus of research for quite some time, the intersection of gender studies and demographic analysis is a more recent phenomenon. Fortunately, gender aspects of dem- raphy and demographic aspects of gender are two lines of research that have received increased attention in recent years, there is a growing group of researchers active in this area, and consequently, a growing body of publications of different kinds. Despite this, books treating the topic of gender and demography in a more comprehensive fashion are rare. In fact, I can think of few examples since the publication of two edited volumes in the first half of the 1990s, namely Women’s position and demographic change and Gender and family change in industrialized countries, both resulting from the activities of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population. The editors of the current volume are therefore to be congratulated for taking the initiative to produce a much needed volume on gender and demography in developed countries (with a focus on Europe). The book covers a lot of ground, from the age at first int- course over union formation and union dissolution to excess male mortality, and report important findings of empirical research, mostly based on comp- ative data from a number of European countries. The source of these comp- ative data is, in most cases, the Family and Fertility Surveys (FFS) carried out in the 1990s.

Although both demography and gender relations have been the focus of research for quite some time, the intersection of gender studies and demographic analysis is a more recent phenomenon. Fortunately, gender aspects of dem- raphy and demographic aspects of gender are two lines of research that have received increased attention in recent years, there is a growing group of researchers active in this area, and consequently, a growing body of publications of different kinds. Despite this, books treating the topic of gender and demography in a more comprehensive fashion are rare. In fact, I can think of few examples since the publication of two edited volumes in the first half of the 1990s, namely Women’s position and demographic change and Gender and family change in industrialized countries, both resulting from the activities of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population. The editors of the current volume are therefore to be congratulated for taking the initiative to produce a much needed volume on gender and demography in developed countries (with a focus on Europe). The book covers a lot of ground, from the age at first int- course over union formation and union dissolution to excess male mortality, and report important findings of empirical research, mostly based on comp- ative data from a number of European countries. The source of these comp- ative data is, in most cases, the Family and Fertility Surveys (FFS) carried out in the 1990s.