All the Single Ladies - and Gentlemen. The Gendered Role of Education and Career Investments for Lifelong Singlehood over Italian Birth Cohorts.

Beatrice Caniglia , University of Trento
Anna Zamberlan, University of Trento
Paolo Barbieri, University of Trento

In this study, we investigate whether and how the proportion of lifecourse singles has changed over birth cohorts in Italy, a familistic welfare regime where the exacerbated work-family conflict may have ultimately hindered family formation. We further ask what are the determinants of lifelong singlehood, focusing on the gendered role of education and career investments, and whether their role has changed over birth cohorts for men and women. We rely on retrospective information on individual family and work trajectories from the ISTAT Multipurpose Survey on Households (2016). Results from Kaplan Meier failure curves suggest that the proportion of lifelong singles has increased over time. Moreover, logistic regressions indicate that education positively affects the probability of being single for both genders, while time spent in employment is positively associated with singlehood for women but not for men. Little between-cohorts change in these main associations is found.

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 Presented in Session 75. Union Formation