Karin Wall

GENDER, OCCUPATIONAL CLASS AND WORK–LIFE CONFLICT

Although people from different countries may report similar scores on measures of work–life conflict, the factors which give rise to conflict may in fact be very different. Full-time working respondents to the 2002 Family module International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) in both Portugal and Britain were assessed for country, gender and occupational class differences in work–life conflict, focusing on both work and domestic spheres. Two distinct groups emerged as having very high levels of work–life conflict: routine and manual women in Portugal and professional and managerial women in Britain. It is suggested that very long hours of domestic work, combined with worries over unsatisfactory childcare arrangements and a lack of support from partners and informal networks, contribute to the high levels of conflict experienced by women working in routine and manual occupations in Portugal. The pressures of very long working hours, combined with a perception of increasing work demands, as well as additional domestic work, contribute to the high levels of work–life conflict for women working in professional and managerial occupations in Britain.

Main Patterns in Attitudes to the Articulation Between Work and Family Life: a Cross-National Analysis

This chapter examines one of the most important social changes that has taken place over the last few decades in the articulation between work and family life — the changes in the attitudes, expectations and practices related to women’s work, particularly women with families and children. In the European Union (15 member states) female employment rates have been rising since the 1950s and stood at 54 per cent in 2001 (Eurostat, 2003).

Changing meanings of family in personal relationships

Personal relationships are today less dependent on marriage and blood ties, with commitments going far beyond the nuclear co-resident family to include kin, non-kin and ex-kin. The aim of this article is to examine the meanings of family bonds by exploring the changing boundaries between kinship ties and a wider array of affinities, in a Southern European country with a specific pathway (Portugal). The authors begin by analysing the ties which individuals consider as ‘family’ within their personal networks and describe the main types of family configurations. They then examine the determinants of including non-kin as ‘family’ and excluding kin from the family network. Findings reveal the salience of kinship ties, as well as greater fluidity in the social construction of family bonds, in particular through friendship. Structural, life stage and family variables are shaping factors, but relational effects, linked to the quality of the tie, are of particular importance.

Immigration, Welfare and Care in Portugal: Mapping the New Plurality of Female Migration Trajectories

The role of migrant women as domestic and care workers is a main characteristic of the feminisation of migration to southern Europe. This article aims to understand how and why current patterns of female migration to Portugal are a key element, driving increased flows of domestic workers. The article focuses first on the path followed by Portugal in the fields of immigration, employment, welfare-state developments and care arrangements, and then presents results of a qualitative study on Brazilian immigrant women. Findings show that the new plurality of female migration trajectories is an important factor in explaining the rapid integration of immigrant women in the domestic sector. This does not mean, however, that a predominant ‘migrant in the family’ care model has emerged in Portugal. In contrast with other southern European countries, different policy perspectives and outcomes over the last three decades have made for a more diversified care model. National contexts in southern European countries must therefore be taken into account, since they provide particular conditions for the main forms and features of migrant domestic work.

Parental Leave Policies, Gender Equity and Family Well-Being in Europe: A Comparative Perspective

This chapter explores the diversity of leave policy models in contemporary European society. Seven empirically based ideal types are identified by looking at data for the 22 countries on leave systems, early childhood services and maternal and couples’ employment patterns. We address the complex interplay between leave systems and work-family, gender and welfare regimes. The analysis reveals three sets of conclusions, which relate to convergence and divergence in care leave policies across Europe, leave generosity and its linkages to gender equity and family well-being.

Leave policies in Southern Europe: continuities and changes

This contribution addresses the challenge of reviewing Southern European welfare states by analysing how developments in leave policies are generating common or divergent trends across Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece. These societies offer a mixture of family patterns and family policies. Over the last decade they have developed significant work–family arrangements both in terms of parental leave and early education childcare services. The four countries have been moving in the direction of longer paid leave and the promotion of paternal leave, allowing for family diversity and new gender-equality incentives. Besides these common trends, the four countries also reveal differences enabling them to shift towards alternative leave models, such as the one-year gender-equality-oriented model or the choice-oriented leave model. However, for the time being, taking into account take-up rates and the impact of the economic crisis, the four countries conform to what we have characterised as an ‘extensible early return to work’ leave model. Leave policies are reviewed in Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain mainly between 2004 and 2014, drawing on data from the Annual Reviews of the Leave Policies and Research Network, Eurostat and the OECD Family Database.

Coresidence as a Mechanism of Relational Proximity: The Impact of Household Trajectories on the Diversification of Personal Networks

For a long time, the household unit—that is, the ‘menage’—has been a privileged doorway to study family and personal life (Laslett 1972; Wall 2005). Yet, the transformations of family arrangements associated with divorce, informal cohabitation, migration, and ageing alongside the pluralization of the life course have been challenging the heuristic potential of the household unit to capture family meanings and practices (Bonvalet and Lelievre 2013). More recent approaches (e.g., the configurational perspective) highlight the importance of focusing instead on the networks of meaningful relationships in which individuals are embedded in their everyday lives that can go beyond the limits of the household (Widmer 2010).

The Impact of Coresidence Trajectories on Personal Networks During Transition to Adulthood: A Comparative Perspective

Over the life course, individuals develop personal networks that provide essential resources, sporadically or on a daily basis, such as instrumental, emotional, and informational support. Those personal networks are composed of family (i.e., primary and extended kin) and nonfamily ties (i.e., friends, colleagues, acquaintances) (Pahl and Spencer 2004). The prominence of specific ties varies across the life course depending on life stages, transitions, and events. Following the linked-lives principles (Elder et al. 2003), these transitions trigger changes in household composition, promoting different types of relational interdependencies. The level of interdependence with some household members may have a cumulative effect by strengthening the bonds, whereas with others the effect may be more ephemeral and lead to the exclusion of such ties in current personal networks. Thus, coresidence trajectories, such as the experience of growing up in a two or one-parent family, leaving the parental home early or late, moving in with a partner or living alone, becoming a parent, divorcing, and other events, will differentially influence the composition of personal networks.

Critical Review of Research on Families and Family Policies in Europe

FAMILYPLATFORM (SSH-2009-3.2.2 Social platform on research for families and family policies) is funded by the EU’s 7th Framework Programme (€1,400,000) for 18 months (October 2009-March 2011).

Peasant Stem Families in Northwestern Portugal: Life Transitions and Changing Family Dynamics

The article analyzes data on family forms and individual life experiences in two rural communities of the Baixo Minho (northwest Portugal) during the 20th century. It examines how social and economic differentiation shaped norms and practices, giving rise to a variety of family forms rather than a regional family pattern. The stem family is found to be characteristic of wealthy peasant farmers. Drawing on individual life histories in two different generations, the article traces changes in stem family dynamics under the impact of industrialization and modernization over the last thirty years.