Colette Fagan

Women's employment in Europe : trends and prospects

Based on extensive original research, this volume examines contemporary patterns of womens employment in Europe in the context of the profound economic, social and cultural changes that have taken place in recent years. It considers the progress made towards equal treatment in the labour market in the light of European Union action programmes, and examines the prospects for womens employment under the fourth action programme. The authors conclude that progress towards equal treatment will only occur when gender issues are fully integrated into the European Commissions employment and labour market policies.

Part-time prospects: an international comparison of part-time work in Europe, North America and the Pacific Rim

The growth in part-time employment has been one of the most striking features in industrialized economies over the past forty years. Part-Time Prospects presents for the first time a systematically comparative analysis of the common and divergent patterns in the use of part-time work in Europe, America and the Pacific Rim. It brings together sociologists and economists in this wide-ranging and comprehensive survey. It tackles such areas as gender issues, ethnic questions and the differences between certain national economies including low pay, pensions and labour standards.

National Working-time Regimes and Equal Opportunities

Progress towards equal opportunities is critically dependent upon the development of a more equal and more balanced allocation of time in both paid and unpaid work. Gender divisions relating to working time arise primarily from differences in gender divisions within the household but the extent and form that these gender divisions take in the labor market are moderated or mediated by national working-time regimes. These regimes are found to be extremely diverse across Europe with very different implications for gender equality. Current interests in greater flexibility in working time are leading to pressures to changes in working-time regimes and to an increase in the extent of unsocial hours working. The strategies adopted to meet these pressures may vary by country and sector but the restructuring of working time is also likely to be influenced by gender factors and divisions. The result may be increasing differentiation by both gender and class. Progress towards equality requires a renewal of interest in reducing standard working hours and a questioning of the current assumption that increasing unsocial hours working is essential for competitiveness.

Women and European Employment

1. Introduction 2. The female contribution to the European employment rate 3. Womens employment rates and structural and regional change 4. Unemployment, gender and labour market organisation 5. State policies and womens employment and unemployment rates 6. Household organisation, state policy and womens employment rates 7. The new member state 8. Conclusions Notes References Appendices

Women's paid work and moral economies of care

Female labour force participation has been increasing in recent decades, in part encouraged by state policies to raise the employment rate to encourage economic competitiveness and combat social exclusion. Social provision for care, however, has lagged behind this increase, creating practical and moral dilemmas for individuals and for society, facing parents with complex choices about how to combine work and care. In this paper, we draw on a qualitative study in London to explore the extent to which the large-scale entry of women into waged work is altering womens understandings of their duties and responsibilities to care for others. We conclude that their decisions are influenced by class position, entrenched gender inequalities in the labour market, varying abilities to pay for care and complex gendered understandings of caring responsibilities.

The temporal reorganization of employment and the household rhythm of work schedules: The implications for gender and class relations

Working-time arrangements are being restructured across Europe in parallel with the spread of dual-earner arrangements for couples. This article elaborates the different temporal dimensions to the employment relationship, distinguishing between the different dimensions of working-time schedules, work-time intensity, and the time-money exchange. This conceptualization is used to draw attention to occupational class, gender, and household differences in the temporal organization of employment illustrated with the example of the United Kingdom. The argument made is that class differences between households must be integrated into analyses of gender inequalities in work time. This is necessary to develop an understanding of the implications of the temporal reorganization of employment and to compare how the outcomes may vary between countries due to societal differences in regulations and political debates.

The contradictions and intersections of class and gender in a global city: Placing working women's lives on the research agenda

In this paper we examine the relationships between class and gender in the context of current debates about economic change in Greater London. It is a common contention of the global city thesis that new patterns of inequality and class polarisation are apparent as the expansion of high-status employment brings in its wake rising employment in low-status, poorly paid ‘servicing’ occupations. Whereas urban theorists tend to ignore gender divisions, feminist scholars have argued that new class and income inequalities are opening up between women as growing numbers of highly credentialised women enter full-time, permanent employment and others are restricted to casualised, low-paid work. However, it is also argued that working womens interests coincide because of their continued responsibility for domestic obligations and still-evident gender discrimination in the labour market. In this paper we counterpose these debates, assessing the consequences for income inequality, for patterns of childcare and for work–life balance policies of rising rates of labour-market participation among women in Greater London. We conclude by outlining a new research agenda.

Work, life and time in the new economy: an introduction

Introduction There is little agreement over what the Onew economyO is: its size, in financialand employment terms; its impact on the work men and women do inside andoutside of the formal labour market; or its geographical implications. And yetdespite this lack of conceptual and empirical clarity the term Onew economyOhas found its way into all manner of publications, from government press releases, white papers and more populist journalistic accounts of contemporaryBritain through to high social theory.At the same time, and in the context of concerns about equal opportunities,the desire to retain highly qualified female employees and more generally tofacilitate and raise female employment rates, interest in flexible working, workÐlife balance, and reconciling work and family life has grown among tradeunions, corporations and government. These issues are related because thegrowing use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), as part ofthe emergence of the Onew economyO, appears to be extending the temporal andspatial boundaries of paid work, allowing people to work more flexibly and sopotentially reconcile paid work with other activities, including unpaid caring.And yet, ICTs are also conducive to more intense and longer working hours,with more critical interpretations of the Onew economyO linking it with pre-carious, fragmented and insecure working patterns, all of which could make itmore difficult to effect workÐlife balance policies and realize equal opportuni-ties. Moreover, changes in educational attainment levels, lifestyle choices andfamily formation, together with the changes in working arrangements, have

Job quality in Europe

Promoting job quality and gender equality are objectives of the European Employment Strategy (EES) in spite of a downgrading of the attention given to both in the revised employment guidelines and the relaunch of the Lisbon Process. However, advances on both of these objectives may be important complements to the employment rate targets of the EES, as access to good quality jobs for both sexes is likely to help sustain higher employment rates. While the European Commission has a broad view of the concept of job quality in practice, it relies on a selection of labour market type indicators that say little about the quality of the actual jobs people do. Using data from the 2005 European Working Conditions survey, we analyse job quality along three dimensions: job content, autonomy and working conditions. We conclude that gender and occupational status, along with other job characteristics such as working time and sector, have more influence on an individuals job quality than the country or national model they are situated in. Our results also demonstrate the value of developing indicators of job quality that are both gender sensitive and derived at the level of the job rather than the labour market in order to advance EU policy and academic debate on this topic.

Payment structures and gender pay differentials: some societel effects

Comparative studies of Women’s labour market position usually focus on patterns of gender segregation, considered to be the foundation of gender discrimination. Few studies trace the link between gender segregation and gender pay differences in a comparative context, and even fewer seek to identify links between payment structures and practices and the extent and form of gender pay inequality. Yet although the degree and form of gender segregation clearly vary between countries, there is even more likelihood that differences in pay structures and practices will result in differences in gender outcomes. This study explores the gender pay implications of payment structures and payment systems in three European countries, the UK, Italy and Germany. Payment systems are found to be embedded within country-specific employment systems and result in different levels and forms of gender pay equality. They also present different obstacles to the closure of the gender earnings gap. Moreover, the trends within the ge...