The socio-cultural dimension of women's labour force participation choices in Switzerland

Is the trade-off that women make between work and family socio-culturally conditioned? To answer this question, the authors investigate the choices that women make as to whether they participate in the labour force and, if so, whether they do so on a full-time or part-time basis. Their case study focuses on the female population of Switzerland - a country divided into three distinct language regions (German, French, Italian) bridging southern and northern Europe, whose patterns of female labour force participation are known to differ. Based on an innovative application of classification trees, the authors' research is also of significant methodological interest.