Flexible working in freelance self-employment during COVID-19: gender differences and comparisons with wage-and-salaried employees Cover

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Flexible working in freelance self-employment during COVID-19: gender differences and comparisons with wage-and-salaried employees

The Irish Journal of Management

Volume 44 (2025): Issue 1 (July 2025)

By: Lauren Bari

Open Access

|Nov 2025

Figures & Tables

Caring & family reasons: self-employed women and men.

Part-time work: self-employed women and men.

Working from home: self-employed women and men.

Caring & family reasons for part-time work: self-employed and employee women.

Part-time work: self-employed and wage & salaried women.

Working from home: self-employed and wage-and-salaried women.

Summary of effect of main flexibility factors on likehood of self-employment over wage_&_salaried work for women (logit models_.

% distributions of independent variables 2019-2022 plus Chi Sq and Cramers v effect sizes: Self-employed and wage and salaried women

	2019				2020				2021				2022
	SE women	W&S women	% diff	Effect size	SE women	W&S women	% diff	Effect size	SE women	W&S women	% Diff	Effect size	SE women	W&S women	% diff	Effect size
% with children	63%	66%	-3%	.011	59%	68%	-9%	.049	58%	66%	-8%	.052	56%	67%	-11%	.060
% in se	5				6				5				5
p/t work	45	27	18*	.070	40	29	11*	.064	48	30	18*	.084	47	30	17*	.083
Wfh	62	16	46*	.273	64	79	-15*	.137	72	36	36*	.167	66	32	34*	.167
Caring	32	17	15*	.085	15	10	5	.007	43	40	3	.006	49	43	6	.068
Married	65	58	7*	.075	66	54	12*	.059	64	49	15*	.091	51	48	3*	.048
Children<15	42	40	2*	.010	36	39	-3*	.007	37	38	-1	.007	38	38	0	n/a
Older/adult	20	26	-6*	.031	23	29	-6*	.017	21	28	-7*	.032	18	29	-11*	.053
No children	37	33	4*	.019	41	31	10*	.044	42	34	8*	.037	44	33	11*	.056
Occ 1	65	42	23*	.032	61	42	19*	.090	67	44	23*	.100	60	43	17*	.086
Occ 2	14	21	-7*	.050	17	22	-5*	.029	9	21	-12*	.091	11	17	-6*	.032
Occ 3	22	36	-14*	.101	22	36	-14*	.068	24	35	-11*	.129	29	40	-11*	.063
Sector 1	17	11	6*	.046	18	10	8*	.050	15	11	4*	.027	18	31	-13*	.047
Sector 2	22	34	-12*	.067	23	32	-9*	.051	18	35	-17*	.071	20	36	-16*	.060
Sector 3	31	16	15*	.092	31	26	5*	.081	36	17	19*	.095	33	22	11*	.039
Sector 4	30	38	-8*	.042	28	22	6*	.046	31	37	-6*	.024	28	11	17*	.087
Age 20-29	5	23	-18*	.085	5	22	-17*	.086	8	24	-16*	.072	8	24	-16*	.066
Age 30-39	22	26	-4*	.023	15	26	-11*	.059	19	24	-5*	.026	22	23	-1	.009
Age 40-49	28	25	3	.007	32	26	6*	.031	29	26	3	.016	30	26	4*	.019
Age 50-59	25	18	7*	.045	27	19	8*	.049	27	18	9*	.052	21	19	2	.001
Age 60-69	18	7	11*	.069	19	6	13*	.083	16	7	9*	.047	18	7	11*	.070
n	427	7,002							337	5,796			371	6,103
N	57,666	1.79m			59,087	951,399			57,610	1.08m			63,987	1.1m

Binary logistic regression of flexibility and work-related factors on the choice for solo self-employment for women_ DV self-employment/wage- and-salaried work

	2019	2020	2021	2022
Constant	-4.429	-5.021	-6.811	-5.553
Int. part-time/caring reasons	3.274*(.012)	1.897*(.017)	3.329*(.015)	3.168*(.014)
Home working	8.614*(.014)	2.590* (.011)	4.672*(.012)	3.632*(.012)
Children <15	1.068*(.014)	1.049* (.011)	.915*(.011)	1.097*(.015)
Married	1.118*(.012)	.966*(.012)	1.579*(.010)	1.184*(.012)
Occupation 1	1.063*(.019)	2.906*(.018)	3.691*(.017)	2.579*(.017)
Occupation 2	.144*(.024)	1.374*(.019)	n/a	1.484*(.018)
Sector 1	1.986*(.013)	1.807*(.011)	1.412* (.015)	1.886*(.016)
Sector 3	2.068*(.012)	1.489*(.014)	2.345*(.016)	1.389*(.016)
Sector 4	.709*(.015)	.837*(.014)	1.340*(.015)	.898*(.015)
Age 30-39	.938*(.022)	.894*(019)	.1444*(.016)	1.169*(.020)
Age 40-49	1.234*(.021)	1.840*(.017)	2.595*(.012)	1.575*(.020)
Age 50-59	2.342*(.021)	2.989*(.021)	4.436*(.025)	1.764*(.020)
Age 60-69	4.856*(.023)	7.386*(.021)	8.775*(.027)	4.567*(.021)
n	6, 280	5, 507	5, 6794	6, 044

% distributions of independent variables 2019-2022 plus Chi Sq and Cramers v effect sizes: solo self-employed by sex

	2019				2020				2021				2022
	Women	Men	% diff	Effect size	Women	Men	% diff	Effect size	Women	Men	% diff	Effect size	Women	Men	% diff	Effect size
% with children	63%	56%	+6%	.120	59%	57%	+ 2%	.080	58%	56%	+ 2%	.075	56%	51%	+ 5%	.130
% in se	5	14	-9*	.151	6	16	-10*	.106	5	13	-8*	.145	5	13	-8	.128
p/t work	45	12	33*	.345	40	14	26*	.268	48	18	30*	.297	47	19	28	.290
Wfh	62	53	9*	.066	64	49	15*	.109	72	44	28*	.245	66	50	16	.160
Caring	32	4	28*	.293	15	9	6*	.217	43	13	30	.323	49	6	43	.343
Married	65	67	-2*	.012	66	68	-2*	.111	64	68	-4*	.065	51	54	-3	.120
Children<15	42	30	12*	.062	36	30	6*	.023	37	30	7*	.053	38	29	9	.091
Children >15	20	26	-6*	.110	23	27	-4*	.022	21	25	-4*	.029	18	21	-3	.017
No children/adult	37	44	-7*	.052	41	43	-2*	.022	42	44	-2*	.024	44	49	-5	.025
Occupation 1	65	31	34*	.296	61	33	28*	.251	67	32	35*	.311	60	35	25	.248
Occupation 2	14	51	-37*	.328	17	51	-34*	.304	9	53	-44*	.389	11	49	-38	.321
Occupation 3	22	18	4*	.044	22	16	6*	.071	24	15	9*	.103	29	16	13	.087
Sector 1	17	56	-39*	.315	18	55	-37*	.306	15	59	-44*	.355	18	55	-37	.305
Sector 2	22	25	-3*	.033	23	22	1	.007	18	21	-3	.039	20	22	-2	.011
Sector 3	31	16	15*	.162	31	18	13*	.124	36	17	19*	.191	33	19	14	.132
Sector 4	30	3	27*	.379	28	4	24*	.342	31	3	28*	.404	28	4	24	.354
Age 20-29	7	5	2	.065	7	5	2	.059	9	4	5	.059	9	3	6	.045
Age 30-39	22	13	9*	.029	15	14	1	n/a	19	11	8*	.051	22	12	10	.169
Age 40-49	28	23	5*	.018	32	23	9*	.085	29	24	5	.022	30	23	7	.008
Age 50-59	25	30	-5*	.056	27	27	0	n/a	27	26	1	n/a	21	27	-6	.148
Age 60-69	18	29	-11*	.066	19	31	-12	.107	16	35	-19	.132	18	35	-17	.025
n	427	1371			385	1179			337	1099			371	1045
N	57,666	174,636			59,087	165,422			57,610	167,968			63,987	164,986

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ijm-2024-0003 | Journal eISSN: 2451-2834 | Journal ISSN: 1649-248X

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Language: English

Page range: 27 - 50

Submitted on: Oct 17, 2023

Accepted on: Jan 4, 2025

Published on: Nov 18, 2025

Published by: Irish Academy of Management

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Publication frequency: 3 issues per year

Keywords:

work-family balance,

self-employment,

Related subjects:

Business and economics,

Business management,

Marketing, sales, customer relations,

Management, organization, corporate governance,

Entrepreneurship,

Human resources, labor practice, job and career

© 2025 Lauren Bari, published by Irish Academy of Management
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

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