Changing patterns of entry into employment and motherhood in Poland - a cross-cohort comparison

Anna Baranowska, Warsaw School of Economics

The research on the employment and family entry has so far focused on societies in Western Europe, whereas very little has been known about the tendencies in Central and Eastern European countries. A case study of Poland is particularly interesting because of rapid institutional and economic changes that followed the transition from centrally planned to market economy. These developments brought about important consequences for the range of opportunities and risks that young people used to meet after completion of schooling. This paper provides evidence on the changes in the heterogeneity of entry into employment and motherhood with use of a relatively new technique – sequence analysis. The results point at destandardisation of entry into these two life course domains across two last decades. After the socialism collapse, along with decreasing role of state in employment provision and regulation, the dominance of direct entry into both: stable job and motherhood decreased considerably. The determinants of different career entry options are examined with focus on two main dimensions of inequality: human capital and social background.