Moving away from equality

• Published in: Progress in planning Vol. 157; p. 100537
• Main Authors: Mann, Yaara, Hananel, Ravit
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.03.2022
• Subjects: Employment penalty; Gender inequality; Internal migration; Israel; Planning and housing policy; Women’s employment; Planning and housing policy; Internal migration; Gender inequality; Israel; Employment penalty; Women’s employment
• ISSN: 0305-9006; 1873-4510
• DOI: 10.1016/j.progress.2020.100537

•This study explores the effect of housing policy and internal migration on women’s employment.•It looks at a trend of middle-class families moving from the center of the metropolis to its outskirts.•We ask how this trend, which is intensified by current housing policy, effects women’s employment.•Data was collected through questionnaires, distributed among a large sample of men and women.•Findings show women are more likely to suffer a career disruption following the move, and make a trade-off between income and commuting time. Planning and housing policies influence our daily lives. They determine where we live, where we work, where our children study, and the time it takes us to commute between these places. As such, planning and housing policy often affects individuals’ and households’ satisfaction with each of these and determines the price to be paid by anyone who is not satisfied and wishes to make a change. On the basis of this fundamental premise, we set out to examine how Israel’s planning and housing policy has influenced the decision of middle-class families to migrate away from the metropolitan core and the implications of the move for the employment situations of these families, and of women in these families in particular. The analysis is based on a large survey of women and men in Israel who moved away from the heart of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area into smaller municipalities on its outskirts. The study has three theoretical pillars: planning and housing policy, internal migration, and women’s employment. We examine the relationship between these pillars, focusing on its implications for various aspects of women’s employment. The findings show that women are more likely than men to change their place of work following the move and to suffer a decrease in income, and to trade higher-paying jobs for a shorter commute. These findings show how planning and housing policies can increase gender inequality in the labour market and point to how it can be avoided. This issue is relevant today more than ever in the face of the dramatic changes women’s employment has undergone over the last century, and in particular, in face of the current global housing affordability crisis and its impact on migration trends of middle-class families.