Time Spent in Paid Work by Women and Men in Urban and Less Urban Contexts in the Netherlands

This paper addresses the question to what extent the degree of urbanisation influences the time spent in paid work by men and women in the Netherlands. The effects of the residential context have been estimated separately for women and men and for different household contexts, after accounting for age, age differences between partners, educational level and differences between partners in educational level. Data from the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study and Tobit regression analyses have been used. The hypotheses are based on human capital theory, gender inequality theory, time space geography, and ideas concerning lifestyle orientations. The results indicate that in strongly urbanised areas women work more hours than women living elsewhere, whereas men in strongly urbanised areas work fewer hours. The impact of the residential context is strongest for women and men who have a partner and children.