Dominique Anxo

Gender Differences in Time Use over the Life Course in France, Italy, Sweden, and the US

Abstract This contribution analyzes how men and women in France, Italy, Sweden, and the United States use their time over the life cycle and the extent to which societal and institutional contexts influence the gender division of labor. In order to test the hypothesis that contextual factors play a crucial role in shaping time allocation, this study considers countries that diverge considerably in terms of welfare state regime, employment and paid working time systems, family policies, and social norms. Using national time-use surveys for the late 1990s and early 2000s and regression techniques, the study not only finds large gender discrepancies in time use in each country at all stages of life but also determines that institutional contexts, in particular the design of family policies and employment regimes, do shape gender roles in different ways, and that Sweden displays the lowest gender gap in time allocation across the life course.

THE ORGANISATION OF TIME OVER THE LIFE COURSE: EUROPEAN TRENDS

ABSTRACT Over the last decades, the life course approach has developed into a major research paradigm. The notion of life course provides a common field of research and a heuristic conceptual device aiming at studying individuals trajectories over time. In its modern version, the life course approach can be said to represent a major innovation in our understanding of complex social phenomena, making time, context and process core theoretical dimensions of social behaviour. Most of the research using this approach has stressed the extent to which social structures and individual factors shape the life course of individuals and has focused on the developmental consequences of alternative life trajectories. One of the main features of the life course approach is therefore to recognize the crucial role time plays in our understanding of individual behaviour and structural changes in society. The second important dimension of the life course approach is its attempt to take a holistic view, in that the analysis no longer focuses on isolated specific events, phases or demographic groups as being discrete and fixed but considers the entire life as the basic framework for empirical analysis and policy evaluation. The link between individual trajectories on one hand and historical period, social structures, as well as human agency on the other is also at the core of the life course paradigm. The notion of life course posits therefore that life trajectories are constituted by a palette of sequences of events that are both individually and socially constructed. The main objective of this cross-country comparative paper is to analyse to which extent the design of national welfare state regimes shape households’ patterns of labour market integration over the life course. An analysis of the various national regulatory frameworks, with special focus on institutional opportunities and/or barriers to combine paid work with other social activities, is provided. Special attention is also given to companies’ human resource and time management and whether human resource strategies encompass a life course perspective. By linking the specificity of the various regulatory and social protection systems to the countrys current patterns of labour market integration the authors not only examine the impact of the overall institutional framework on time allocation over the life course but, also the extent to which the current working time options actually affect the sustainability of the social protection systems. Finally, in the conclusion, some policy implications are suggested with a special focus on the needs of finding new forms of time organisation and distribution of income over the life course. According to the authors these new forms of time management might contribute to a better work life balance for employees and might favour positive compromises between firms’ productive efficiency and employees’ needs for a larger control on their time structures over their life course.

The Future European Labor Supply: The Critical Role of the Family

The European employment strategy initiated in 1997 is critically dependent upon the further integration of women into the labor market. The European Union has set a specific target employment rate for women of 60 percent by 2010 and is also committed to providing more and better child care facilities. This gender focus is reinforced by the requirement for gender mainstreaming in all aspects of European employment policy. There is an implied Europe-wide, universal policy of encouraging female labor-market participation and reducing the care work performed by domestic labor. However, the European Commission continues to have limited competence in areas of family, social, and welfare policy. As a result, these common employment objectives for women are thus being pursued against a background of quite different systems of social, family, welfare, and indeed labor-market organization. These systems have different economic and employment implications, such that the outcomes of the common European employment strategy will also be highly variable.

Working longer in European countries: underestimated and unexpected effects

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyse the main evolutions and the current situation of the 50-74 year olds on the labour market in eight European countries (Denmark France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Sweden, Poland and the UK). Design/methodology/approach - Based on a cross-country comparative approach, this overview draws on detailed analysis of the situation of older workers and public policies in each of the selected countries but also on a wide range of available studies and statistics on employment and welfare outcomes. Findings - The eight selected countries display similarities: a u-shaped pattern of employment rates of older workers (55-64 years old) over the last 40 years, with an increase since the mid 1990s, the later exit of higher educated workers and the higher prevalence of non-standard employment contracts among older workers. On the other hand, considerable disparities can be observed regarding the gender gap in employment rate, current employment rates, self-employment and part-time employment among older workers. Social implications - Specific questions will be more acute with the effective postponement of retirement: increasing inequalities between groups of older workers, increasing uncertainty about the age of retirement, the way to keep lower educated workers in their jobs, sustainable working conditions, increasing risks of age discrimination, and impact of care of older relatives. Originality/value - This paper offers a synthetic overview with a special attention paid to the main features of the countries’ exit patterns at the end of the working life, the prevailing public policies and the specificity of the different national employment and societal models.

Shaping the Life Course: A European Perspective

This book investigates the changing patterns and levels of social welfare systems through the lens of key life stage transitions. This provides an insight into the adequacy of welfare systems’ response to the changing needs for support at these critical stages of life that shape future life course prospects. The focus on key life stages has three purposes. First it provides a lens through which to analyse a range of different dimensions of social welfare systems. It is at key life stages that social welfare systems are particularly needed to provide support in addition to or instead of employment or the family. These include the key life stages of preparing for and entering work, setting up independent households, surviving interruptions to work, in prime age, whether for parenthood, sickness or unemployment, and withdrawing from work into retirement. The support systems in place at these stages have major impacts in empowering or preventing citizens from fulfilling their potential and their aspirations. These support mechanisms are critical for issues of equity and social inclusion. A focus on key life stages also facilitates an evaluation of how social welfare systems vary in the effectiveness of their support for different groups, defined, for example, by class, gender, age and generation. Second, the key life stage approach can help identify the impact of potentially conflicting pressures for change. These conflicts arise from the shortterm pressures to reduce costs or to minimise open unemployment for political reasons, both of which, for different reasons, may jeopardise opportunities to engage in longerterm strategic change. This longterm change is required to keep social welfare systems in step with the major changes actually taking place in the life course, and in the associated behaviour and aspirations of European citizens. The European Employment Strategy (EES) espouses the need for longterm reform to ensure that welfare systems promote an active, and appropriately and flexibly skilled,

Working Hours and Productivity in Swedish Manufacturing

The magnitude of the elasticity of output with regard to working hours is an important factor in the debate on working time. Despite some attempts at its estimation, little is known about this elasticity and empirical studies have yielded contradictory results. The main objective of this study is to analyze the sensitivity of the magnitude of the elasticity of output with respect to working hours to different production function specifications. Our best estimate of the elasticity of output with respect to working hours in Swedish manufacturing is thus 0.91, but we cannot reject the hypothesis that this elasticity is equal to one. This suggests that a reduction in working hours would not have any significant productivity effects.

The Welfare State and Life Transitions

This timely book reveals that new life courses are found to require more, and not less welfare support, but only Sweden has developed an active life course approach and only three more could be considered supportive, in at least some life stages. For the remainder, policies were at best limited or, in Italy’s case, passive. The contributors reveal that the neglect of changing needs is leading to greater reliance on the family and the labour market, just as these support structures are becoming more unpredictable and more unequal. They argue that alongside these new class inequalities, new forms of inter-generational inequality are also emerging, particularly in pension provision.

The Swedish Model: Revival after the Turbulent 1990s

The main objective of this paper is to analyse the major transformations of the Swedish model, its welfare regime, employment and production systems. Until the end of the 1980s Sweden was remarkably successful in combining low unemployment with high and growing employment rates and also with a high degree of income equality and small gender disparities. However, most economists and many policymakers were aware that the unprecedented activity level and the extreme labour market tightness during the second half of the 1980s were not sustainable in the long run. For many years inflation had been alarmingly high and in 1990 it reached 11 per cent, presaging a crisis that became dramatic. In just three years, from 1990 to 1993, the rate of employment fell by 10.5 percentage points and the rate of open unemployment quintupled from less than two to more than 8 per cent of the labour force.1 Furthermore, the annual government deficit reached 14 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), in spite of repeated ‘reform packages aimed at reducing public expenditure and increasing government revenues. The cutbacks in public spending, which principally took the form of lowering income replacement rates in various social insurance systems and reducing public sector employment, were considered by many citizens as a painful’ rolling-back of the welfare state .

Working Time Distribution and Preferences Across the Life Course: A European Perspective

The main objective of this paper is to identify andexplain cross-country gender disparities in workingtime distribution and working time preferences inseven EU-member states (France, Germany, Italy, theNetherlands, Poland and the UK). The selection ofthese countries has been essentially guided by thefact that they differ considerably in terms of welfarestate regime, employment and industrial relationsystems, family policies, and gender contract. Ourselected European countries still display a highgender polarization of working time and the currentgendered working time distribution reflects theresilience of a traditional gender contract. Regardingworking time preferences a majority of wage earnersseem to be satisfied with their current workingtime. However, around 45 per cent of dependentemployees indicate that they would like to changetheir current working time, and most of them expressa preference for a reduction of working time. Ourresults also show that male and female employees inour selected countries aspire to some convergenceof working time, female employees expressing onaverage a wish of increasing their working time andmen a wish of decreasing working time. Beyondmeasures favouring a more balanced gender divisionof labour, our study tends also to show the need ofimplementing family-friendly, flexible and reversibleworking time options across the life course. Finally,our results show that the current EU working timedirective is not always successful in limiting excessiveworking time.

Outsourcing of public services in Europe and segmentation effects: The influence of labour market factors

This article examines the influence of labour market factors on public authorities’ decisions to outsource public services in five countries. The dominant focus in the outsourcing literature is on a narrow range of factors: public–private gaps in pay, union membership and collective bargaining coverage. We find such differences to be variable, and develop a more encompassing perspective. This includes consideration of labour market rules that establish wage floors and employment protection (especially for outsourced workers) and the possible differentiation of legal status between public and private employees. Our case studies from local government in five countries highlight a set of country-specific interconnections between labour market factors and outsourcing. These lead to variations in both managers’ and unions’ approaches towards outsourcing and in outcomes for pay and working conditions. We call for a strengthening of the inclusiveness of industrial relations structures to combat problems of workforce fragmentation caused by outsourcing.