Race/ethnicity, Gender, and Work: Black, Hispanic, and White Women’s Reasons for Employment in Nonstandard Jobs

Alisha J. Coleman, Pennsylvania State University
Diane K. McLaughlin, Pennsylvania State University

Women may choose nonstandard jobs (work that is part-time, temporary or has varied hours) as they balance work and family or they may accept nonstandard jobs if they are the only employment available. Using the 2005 Current Population Survey Contingent Work Supplement, we examine women’s preferences and reasons for working nonstandard jobs and consider differences across race and ethnic groups. Through race specific logistic regression models we predict the odds of women working nonstandard jobs from family structure, sociodemographic factors, and job characteristics focusing on the variation in relevant predictors across race and ethnic groups. We hypothesize that white women enter nonstandard jobs by choice to balance work and family and that black and Hispanic women enter nonstandard jobs out of economic necessity and prefer standard employment. Differences in reasons for entering nonstandard work across white, black and Hispanic women likely reflect minority women’s disadvantage in the labor market.