Marie-Thérèse Letablier

From Equality to Reconciliation in France

When the European Economic Community (EEC) was established in 1957, France was responsible for the inclusion of Article 119 on equal pay between women and men within the social policy section of the founding treaty. Unlike other EEC countries, France had ratified the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Convention no. 100, ‘concerning equal remuneration for men and women workers for work of equal value’. The French, therefore, argued the case not on the grounds that provision for equal pay was necessary to promote social integration, but rather because it would prevent unfair economic competition. Unlike the ILO convention, Article 119 in the Treaty of Rome did not, however, refer to work of ‘equal value’, and the interpretation given to Article 119 by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) after 1976 revealed the gap that existed between the paternalistic conception of equal rights observed by the French and the approach adopted by the EEC.

Family change, intergenerational relations and policy development in contemporary France

ABSTRACT This article examines the impact of changing family structures on intergenerational relations in contemporary France. It explores the ways in which policy has responded to these changes and sought to influence the direction of change. The author argues that, in a context of population ageing and rapid socio-economic development, family forms and living arrangements have become more diversified and complex, creating new challenges for family members and requiring innovative policy responses. The article draws on socio-demographic data and evidence from social policy analyses to track changing family structures and associated patterns of intergenerational solidarity. It documents attempts by policy-makers to establish and support a new social contract between the generations. Although many of the trends reported are common to other advanced Western societies, the author identifies distinctive features in the role played by the state in France in fostering and supporting intergenerational relations and solidarities. Other governments, including in East Asian countries, have looked for lessons that might be learned from the French case, but without, it is argued, being able to reproduce the necessary societal conditions that have allowed the French family-friendly policy model to develop and prosper.