Offering work–family balance: Employer commitments to family and care policies in job advertising
11:00am -12:00pm
Friday, January 24th, 2025
Social Science Centre 5220
A lecture by Nicole Denier
Nicole Denier is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Alberta. Her research considers the nexus between social and economic inequality. She is currently researching several aspects of North American labour markets, including market instability, sexual orientation inequality, immigrant integration, and the role of artificial intelligence in reconfiguring work and labour markets.
Abstract
Achieving work-family balance is critical to people's labor market outcomes and broader well-being. The ability to secure work family-balance has been linked to flexibility in both time and space to meet short-term fluctuations in family responsibilities as well as longer term care responsibilities. While federal and provincial governments set standards for leaves and benefits, companies have significant power in designing organizational policies and practices to support people's desired participation at work and home. This paper investigates how employers frame such organizational commitments to support work-family balance at the time of hiring. Drawing on a unique database of job postings from 2018-2023, we establish whether employers are advertising family and care policies at the recruitment stage, whether certain types of benefits or policies are more common, and which types of jobs and employers are offering work-family balance.
The Sociology Colloquium Series, brought to you by the Department of Sociology and the Social Science Student Donation Fund, is open to the public, students and scholars of any discipline.
