Activite feminine, taille des familles et politique familiale perspective historique 1892-1992-
Institution:
Toulouse 1Disciplines:
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Abstract EN:
Women's economic activity rates and family policy are two topics which have rarely been analysed in conjunction and which have been largely ignored in economic theory. However, because of the intermediate position they occupy between the social and economic spheres, they are directly related to the significant changes that have taken place in the productive system and in the social organisation of modern societies. A quantitative, institutional and historical economic methodology enables us to clarify the veritable relationship between family policy and the economic activity rates of women with dependant children in france. A long-term historical perspective, through analysis of the emergence of the family allowance system and the history of women's employment, serves to shed some light on the different stages of the progressive social construction of an opposition between women's economic activity and fertility rates as the degree of state intervention increases. The single salary allowance (allocation de salaire unique) can be taken as an illustration of the institutionalisation of the opposition between women's economic activity and fertility rates. Since the value of this allowance varies according to the birth rank of children, it has a differential influence on women's decision to leave the labour market according to the total number of dependant children and also according to the historical reforms of family policy. Based on an original empirical analysis of the value of family allowances (for three different types of family size) in relation to women's average wagerates, this thesis demonstrates that, from 1954 onwards, the increase in women's economic activity rates varies according to three distinct periods. Each of these periods illustrates a specific relationship between women's activity rates and the value of the family allowance. Thus, the number of dependant children can be taken as a determinant variable in the analysis of the influence of family policy on the changes in women's economic activity rates over time. It enables us to introduce a number of institutional variables which help to overcome the shortcomings of previous analyses of this phenomenon.
Abstract FR:
L'activite feminine et la politique familiale representent deux objets de recherche jusqu'ici peu rapproches entre eux et abordes de maniere marginale par l'analyse economique. Pourtant, en raison de leur place particuliere entre le social et l'economique ils appartiennent tous les deux aux profondes transformations de notre systeme de production et de notre organisation sociale. La methode de l'economie historique, institutionnelle et quantitative, permet de preciser le sens et la portee des relations reelles que la politique familiale a entretenus avec l'activite professionnelle des meres ayant des enfants a charge. La perspective de longue duree, par l'etude de la genese du systeme d'aides aux familles et de l'histoire du travail feminin, eclaire les differentes etapes de la construction sociale d'une relation d'opposition entre activite feminine et nombre d'enfants au fur et a mesure que s'affirme l'interventionnisme d'etat. L'allocation de salaire unique (asu) symbolise l'institutionnalisation de cette opposition. En raison de la regle de progressivite selon le rang de l7enfant, l'incitation a l'inactivite differe selon le nombre d'enfants a charge et varie dans le temps en fonction des reformes de la politique familiale. Un travail original d'analyse des montants des prestations familiales compares au salaire feminin, selon trois tailles de familles, permet de montrer que, a partir de 1954, l'accroissement de l'activite des meres s'effectue selon trois phases distinctes, caracterisees chacunes par une relation particuliere entre taux d'activite et prestations familiales. Le critere de la taille de la famille (au sens du nombre d'enfants a charge) s'avere une variable pertinente pour etudier les influences de la politique familiale sur les mouvements de l'activite des meres. Il permet d'approfondir et de relativiser les interpretations anterieures en terme de changements de comportements par l'introduction de facteurs institutionnels concernant specifiquement l'activite feminine.