THE IMPACT OF THE ECONOMIC CRISIS ON THE SITUATION OF WOMEN AND MEN AND ON GENDER EQUALITY POLICIES Synthesis Report Prepared by (original) (raw)
Related papers
The impact of the economic crisis on the situation of women and men and on gender equality policies
2012
Purpose Europe is experiencing a financial and economic crisis. This began with the 'credit crunch'in the financial services sector and evolved as a sovereign debt crisis. Fiscal consolidation and austerity measures have been deployed in response to the crisis to reduce public deficits and debt. This crisis is still unfolding so that the analysis and findings of this report must remain a work in progress.
We want sex equality. Labour market reforms, economic crisis and the condition of women in Europe
Editorial * It was 1968 when 187 female workers from the Ford factory in Dagenham, faced with further discriminatory treatment compared to their male counterparts (over 50,000), walked out, thereby starting one of the most memorable strikes in the history of gender equality movements in Europe. Although this was a small group of women with very little political experience, their protest against the salary gap between the sexes managed to arouse public opinion, probably laying the foundations for the adoption of the Equal Pay Act: the measure adopted by the British Parliament in 1970 which became the model for various European national laws on equal pay. It was certainly an * We are grateful to Emanuela Abbatecola, Giulio Itzcovich, Laura Scudieri and Luisa Stagi for their comments and suggestions on a previous version of this paper.
European Labour Markets in Times of Crisis : a Gender Perspective
The crisis that began in 2008 has hit European countries diversely, causing economic and labour market disequilibria of more or less magnitude. As with past global crises, the current one has gendered implications. While women's employm e n t i s s a i d t o h a v e b e e n preserved relative to men's in the early stage of a recession, austerity plans implemented in several countries to limit public deficits and debts are deemed to affect female workers more deeply. How gendered are labour market changes in recession and austerity and how should cross-country differences be analysed? The seminal book edited by Jill Rubery in 1988, Women and recession, carried out a comprehensive and comparative review of the gendered dimensions of past recessions, and it constitutes an invaluable guidebook for the present. It notably points out the protective role of the gendered segregation of labour markets (i.e. the fact that women and men do not work in the same sectors or occupations): male-dominated sectors (construction, industry, etc.) are generally first hit in recession, while female-dominated sectors (services and the public sector) remain quite sheltered from a quick drop in the demand for labour -but are exposed to job losses at a later stage. Jill R u b e r y ' s b o o k a l s o u n d e r l i n e s the way changing gender roles and public policies influence women's labour supply in recessions: as women perceive themselves 1. The research presented in this special issue follows up a workshop organised jointly by the CEE, the IRES and the OFCE.
Analysis note: gender equality and recession
Commissioned by Directorate-General for Employment, …, 2009
The current economic situation presents a number of challenges to European policy makers and labour markets. Indeed the crisis has been described as being different to previous recessions in severity and impact. One key difference about this recession is that the impact is likely to be more evenly shared by women and men, markedly different to that in the recessions of the early 1990s and early 1980s. Women now account for a much greater proportion of the labour market and the growth of dual earning means that many more households rely on two incomes to make ends meet. As a result the impact of female job loss has a significant knock-on effect on household incomes whether they are single femaleheaded or dual earner households. Indeed male job loss in dual earning households creates female breadwinners and thus the impact of labour market inequalities along gender lines are felt not only by individual women but by the whole household.
Gender and Time Use in a Global Context
We are in the middle of a global economic crisis which is considered as the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The experience of the crisis in different parts of the globe and countries varies greatly as regards the initial shock, secondary effects, policy responses, and economic and social effects. As regards the political management of the crisis, after significant state intervention and public spending to rescue banks and avoid economic collapse during the initial years, austerity became the M. Karamessini (*) Greek Public Employment Agency (OAED),
Female employment and the economic crisis
European Societies, 2013
One of the characteristics of the Italian peninsula is a sharp North-South gradient on many economic and labour market variables. This gradient is particularly marked in relation to female employment, making Italy a particularly useful 'laboratory' for studying changes in gender roles. Esping-Andersen's description of the decline of the 'male breadwinner' model and the search for a 'new equilibrium' in gender roles is suggestive, but the assumption that current processes will inevitably converge towards a relatively homogeneous social configuration (exemplified by the Scandinavian countries) is rather unconvincing. We will show in this article that the Italian case comprises macro-regions with very different female employment rates and highly differentiated welfare systems. Furthermore, one of the effects of the economic crisis has been to obstruct the entry of women into paid work, particularly in the South where employment rates are already at a very low level. When discussing trends and changes in women's roles, it is important to remember that the resulting transformations are plural, contingent and discontinuous and strongly shaped by prevailing socioeconomic conditions. In the context of a prolonged and severe crisis, the differences between Northern and Southern Italy have been further accentuated, impeding the development of coherent policy responses and obstructing change in gender roles.
Women, men and working conditions in Europe
Despite much legislative progress in gender equality over the past 40 years, there are still gender gaps across many aspects of the labour market. Inequalities are still evident in areas such as access to the labour market, employment patterns and associated working conditions. This report explores gender differences across several dimensions of working conditions, examining relevant country differences, analysing the different occupational groups of both men and women, and comparing the public and private sectors. It also looks at the impact of the crisis on gender segregation in employment. Based on findings from the fifth European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS), conducted in 2010, the analysis offers a striking picture of women and men at work across 34 European countries today
Gender, Crisis and the Welfare State: Female Labor Market Outcomes across OECD Countries
2016
The 2008 global economic crisis has had profound social and economic consequences across states. In addition to cross-national social and economic disparities, the crisis generated increased domestic divisions between labor market insider and outsider groups. This article analyzes the impact of the global economic crisis on female workers across advanced welfare states. While considerable attention has been given to the impact of the Great Recession on financial markets and employment sectors, we argue that the crisis had an important gendered effect across advanced capitalist states that remains significantly underexplored. In particular, we examine the divergent ways in which distinct welfare systems and their cultural underpinnings shape labor market access and levels of social protection for women. In this endeavor, we integrate literature on welfare systems, feminist political economy, and financial crisis to examine the relationship between social protection structures, cultural legacies, and gender inequalities – which manifests most strongly during times of economic crisis. Our hierarchical panel model of 28 countries across seven years is supplemented by cultural and survey data. Our findings not only give an important analysis of an understudied aspect of the global economic crisis, but also provide policy implications for more gender-conscious crisis management responses going forward.