Introduction

In this chapter, we will look at the relationship between objective and subjective insecurity in mid-career, often referred to as an age range spanning from the late twenties until the early fifties. In previous research, this phase has often been portrayed as a phase of relative stability in employment lives. Following a phase of (difficult) establishment within the labour market during early career (see, for example, Chapter 2), individuals are more often found in more stable forms of employment. Notably, however, this pattern has been shown to apply particularly for men, who are more often found in permanent, stable full-time employment than in flexible employment forms, although the risk of ending up in the latter varies with educational attainment and welfare state background (Blossfeld, Mills and Bernardi, 2006). In contrast, women's employment has often been more discontinuous due to childcare phases (Blossfeld and Hofmeister, 2006). The still disproportional engagement of women in childcare and household activities (Eurostat, 2019c) not only leads to employment interruptions, but often also implies reduced working hours when returning to work up until children reach school age (Eurostat, 2020). Looking at the development in employment insecurities in mid-career thus requires a gender-specific perspective, differentiating between the labour market experiences and perceptions of men and women.

In this chapter, we will apply such a perspective, looking at the genderspecific experience of objective employment insecurity and the subjectively perceived insecurity of men and women. We will start by providing an overview about the overall labour force attachment of the two genders over time by contrasting their overall employment rates. Particular attention in this respect will be given to women's employment during motherhood and early childhood years. We will then turn to different types of objective insecurity, first considering atypical employment. Here we will look at major trends in part-time employment, which is known to play a particular role for women in reconciling work and family during early childhood years. We shall also investigate in how far fixed-term-employment, whose importance loomed large for early career employees, is also found among mid-career employees of both sexes.