Purnur Agiacai (Central European University, Hungary)
E-Mail address: c01agp01@ceu.hu
Changes And Trends In Gender Wage Differentials In Romania In The Transition Years
|
|
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the size and the trend of wage differentials among genders in
Romania. Following a method developed by Juhn et al. and replicated by Blau and Kahn, and later by
Brainerd, I intend to find answers for two main questions: the first question asks whether a gender wage
gap has existed in Romania, and the second is about the way in which it has evolved during the transition
years. While answering the first question, I am interested in decomposing the size and change of the gender
wage gap in causal facts. From answering the second question, I assess the existence and the extent of the
"swimming upstream" process in the Romanian labor market.
|
Emília Rodrigues Araújo (University of Minho, Portugal)
E-Mail address: era@ics.uminho.pt
It's logical and obvious that it must be, isn't it? But it depends
|
|
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the concepts of citizenship and gender on the light of an ongoing
investigation about academic uses and representations of time that counts with 36 interviews in two
Portuguese universities. The main hypotheses in debate consists in advocating that the study on gender and
specially of women is somehow "clutched" considering the permanence of legitimating mechanisms that
contribute for the maintenance the social order. Despite the changes on universities temporal schemata's,
the sociological question underground, related to the existence of the university teachers as "intellectuals",
marked by the idea of vocation and celibate, still permeated the quotidian of the "academic milieu" and,
therefore, the academics own identity. It is precisely regarding this assumption of ever availability that one
of the most important questions emerges about gender: the duality of being "academic" and being women
in "our society" (expression from an interview). So, we intend to discuss the nature of the distance
between some of the social policies destined to help people to synchronize their multiple times and its
predominant quantitative orientation that, in conjugation with the temporal imaginary of academic careers,
still force people, especially women to "logically" abdicate of their time (in a daily and biographical basis).
Ideas of authors as Gunning, Bourdieu and Adam are taken into consideration.
|
Chris Diamond (The University of Queensland, Australia)
E-Mail address: c.diamond@mailbox.uq.edu.au
Work, family and the potential of telework
|
|
Telework is a flexible work arrangement where employees work from an alternative location (often from
home) using information and communication technologies to link to the standard workplace. It is available
in many Australian organisations and is often presented as a work-family initiative. This paper examines
the work-family utility of telework from the perspective of the home, which is also the site of unpaid
domestic work. Relevant findings from part of my doctoral research, a qualitative study of 11 teleworkers,
will be presented. This evidence suggests that while telework often affords workers who combine work
and family responsibilities with positive flexibilities, experiences vary greatly and particularly with gender.
Telework assisted the female respondents to meet their many and significant responsibilities with less
stress, while for the males, the ability to telework seemed to encourage them to 'help out' more with their
families. This change in the organisation of paid work, however, does not appear to challenge the
traditional gendered division of domestic labour which remains a dominant influence.
|
Bernard Fusulier (University of Aberdeen, UK)
E-Mail address: cms109@abdn.ac.uk
Implementing Family Friendly Policies in Voluntary Organisation: between constraint, strategy and
culture
|
|
Since the mid-nineties, the 'work-family challenge' has become a particularly prominent issue. Applied to
the British political agenda, today there is immense institutional pressure for the world of work, to find
ways of achieving a balance with domestic and private life. Some of the most important issues which
require to be investigated in the field of research focus not only on the 'individual jugglers' and public
policies, but also on organisations. Previous authors have pointed out the importance of the organisational
context and the relative autonomy of organisations as far as translating policies into practice is concerned.
Some studies have been carried out on work-family issues in business companies and public sector.
However, until today research has neglected voluntary sector. In this contribution, we draw on our case
study of 'Action Group'. This voluntary organisation gives their employees a large range of policies and
initiatives considered to be favourable to the work/life balance. The question addressed in our research is
how such an apparently innovative development can be understood and explained. We examine the
different organisational dynamics that surround the question. As well as documentary analysis, we
conducted semi-structured interviews with staff.
|
N.S. Ghoseheh Jr. (International Labour Organisation, Switzerland)
E-Mail address: ghosheh@ilo.org
A Family Affair? Theoretical Considerations in the Development of Policies on Work-Family Balance
|
|
Nowadays families must contend with changing social and economic conditions that can place a great
strain on family members, particularly those who must balance between the conflicting need of family
responsibilities and workplace commitments. These difficulties are becoming an increasing focus of
attention for policy-makers as more and more segments of society struggle to achieve an adequate work-
family balance. Yet efforts at policy-making often are done without sufficient or complete consideration of
a theoretical framework that effectively places the issues and factors affecting how work-family balance in
proper context. Much of the existing work-family literature focuses on factors affecting family decision-
making or labour market participation without fully exploring the nexus between the two. Social capital
theory has been used in the past to examine the interaction between individuals and groups, but its
application to family has been limited until recently. Nevertheless, the use of family social capital theory to
address the "family context" of work-family balance will provide a more robust counter-point to concerns
about financial capital earned through work. Using and elaborating social capital theory to provide a
theoretical framework, this paper will explore the issues and factors that affect work and family balance. It
will highlight the fact that family members who work will, at certain points during the course of their
family life, require assistance in the form of supplements to family social capital in order to satisfactorily
balance work and family responsibilities. The paper will further suggest that the manner in which society
and policy-makers construct these family social capital supplements impact not only those currently
participating in the labour market and their families, but can have implications for future generations within
a society. Finally, it will propose that the only way to find effective and efficient supplements to assist with
work and family balance is through societal dialogue.
|
Vera Gouchtchina (Voronezh State Organization, Russia)
E-Mail address: root@vng.vsu.ru
Soviet Gender Ideal
|
|
The paper tries to identify the gender ideal how it was shaped by the Soviet official ideological discourse
and the system of education. Special attention is paid to the gendered education of children at school as
members of such public children's organizations like Octobrists, Pioneers and Komsomol. The main idea
behind these organizations was to bring up a sexless, ideologically centered person ready to give his/her life
for the sake of Communist ideas. Masculine ideal was a soldier, feminine too. All other social roles (bread-
winner, worker, father, mother, husband, wife) were submitted to this role. Art, science, philosophy
cultivated these ideals. Males served this aim physiologically better and therefore they were valued in
practice more than females who were appreciated less and mainly by words. Finally, men turned out to be
more unprepared for civil and independent economic life and market relationships then women.
Male gender ideal was also touched by a criminal/marginal sphere because the whole country has
experienced directly or indirectly GULAG's influence which was especially destructive in regard to work-
and family-related values.
|
Annette Henninger (University of Bremen, Germany)
E-Mail address: a.henninger@zes.uni-bremen.de
New Forms of Work and Changing Patterns of Gender Relations in Germany's New Media an Cultural
Industries
|
|
The proposed paper presents a current research project on self-employment in selected professions in
Germany's new media and cultural industry (TV and online journalists, web designers and software
developers). The study investigates the work-life arrangements of self-employed professionals in this field,
looking for forms of (re-)regulation of work in their everyday practices, and for new patterns of gender
arrangements. The hypothesis is that knowledge workers in this sector due to their high qualification which
promotes double-income patterns might overcome the male breadwinner/female housewife pattern of
gender relations which was traditionally very strong in Germany. Also, they have to develop new strategies
to manage market risks, as social security policies in Germany are based on dependant labour, and the
privileges of self-regulation of the traditional professions have not been extended to the new professionals
in this sector. The paper will present the concept of the study and describe the structure of this professional
field in Germany, contrasting first results based on data from secondary statistical analysis, expert
interviews and in-depth interviews with male and female self-employed knowledge workers with findings
from empirical studies in the U.S. and the U.K.
|
Mauro Migliavacca (Universita Cattolica Milano, Italy)
E-Mail address: mauro.migliavacca@polimi.it
Job instability and the work-family system: The Italian case.
|
During last decades in Italy, and in general in the European countries, some relevant changes in the labour
market happened: increase of unemployment and flexibility of job. These events put in crisis those welfare
systems - like the Italian one - where permanent jobs represent the main protections against social
vulnerability. To analyse this complex changes it is necessary to look at the family as a sphere where
different job conditions are composed.
The aim of this paper is to analyse how the relation between work condition and family condition is
changed, to study the evolution of the work-family system. Usually data sets that contain detailed
information about both job condition and family characteristics are not available. As far as this problem is
concerned, the data set of Bank of Italy is an important source of information, too rarely used. Thanks to
this data set, in the paper I compose the work-family structure through the job condition of every member
(by combining information on professional condition and working hours). I consider time series data
(1990-2000) to analyse the transformations in this period. This paper is the first part of a comparative
project on different work family structures in Europe.
|
Herve Queneau/Michael Marmo (Xavier University/Laboratoire Georgest Friedmann, USA/France)
E-Mail address: queneau@xavier.xu.edu
Alternative Work Schedules: What Do Women Want?
|
|
Drawing upon a sample of 890 women employees from three manufacturing companies and two
universities in the lower Midwest, this paper analyzes the extent to which preferences for flextime,
telecommuting, and compressed workweek are related to socio-demographic and work-related factors.
Potential predictors of preferences for the different alternative work schedules include: age, race, marital
status, parental status, household income, caring for aging relatives, occupation, quality of work-family
programs, and quality of work relations. Flextime and compressed workweek are the two most preferred
alternative work schedules. About 80% of respondents reported strong preferences for flextime and 62.8%
of them reported strong preferences for compressed workweek. Telecommuting is the least preferred
alternative work arrangements with 54.6% of respondents reporting strong preferences for such an
arrangement. The presence of children under 11 and occupation are both significantly related to strong
preferences for flextime. The presence of children under 11, occupation, quality of work-family programs,
and quality of work relations are significantly related to strong preferences for telecommuting. Occupation,
whether respondents must care for aging relatives, marital status, and quality of work relations are
significantly related to strong preferences for compressed workweek. To conclude, the policy implications
of these findings are discussed.
|
Herve Queneau (Xavier University/Laboratoire Georges Friedmann, USA/France)
E-Mail address: queneau@xavier.xu.edu
Gender, Education, and Housework: Some Evidence from France
|
|
Using 1999 data from the French Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE), this paper analyzes
the effects of employment status, gender, and education on the time spent each day on total housework,
core housework and discretionary housework in France. First, the paper describes the time spent per day in
household labor by gender, employment status, and education. Then, it examines whether there are
interaction effects between gender, employment status, and education. Finally, daily total housework, core
housework, and discretionary housework are regressed on employment status, gender, and education.
Preliminary findings are as follows. There is a significant gender gap in both the distribution of total
housework and time spent on specific household tasks in France. No interaction effects were found
between gender, employment status, and education. Education is not significantly related to housework.
Gender and employment status are strongly related to total household labor. All else being equal, being a
woman increases by almost two hours per day the time spent on housework and being employed reduces by
approximately one hour per day the time spent on housework. To conclude, the implications of these
findings are discussed.
|
Sebastian Sarasa (University of Pompeu Fabra, Spain)
E-Mail address: sebastia.sarasa@cpis.upf.es
Long term care, gender and employment in some European states
|
Some UE states are trying to cope with rising needs in elderly care by promoting changes in the structure
of long-term care services. Austria and Germany, for example, have opted for a social insurance strategy,
financed through new social security contributions. Others, like Denmark and Sweden, have already a
longstanding, comprehensive, and well- established system of local community based services. But, in
Southern European countries – notwithstanding substantial debate -- no significant policy has yet been
implemented.
The aim of the paper is to compare the effects of different institutional designs of long-term care services
on two dimensions simultaneously: their effects on patterns of care service consumption, and their effects
on women's employment. The paper will analyze comparatively the three principal kinds of service
models: The residual and means-tested approach typical in Southern Europe, the Nordic universal and tax-
financed model, and the social insurance model implemented in Austria and Germany. It is to be expected
that each model will have significantly different consequences not only for the incidence of meeting needs,
but also for patterns of female employment.
Empirical analyses will be based mainly on the European Community Household Panel database.
|
Oliver Thevenon (University of Nanterre, France)
E-Mail address: thevenon@u-paris10.fr
Welfare State Regimes and Female Labour Supply in a European perspective : a comparison of female
behaviour in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and United-Kingdombetween over the 90's
|
|
This paper provides an analysis of the differences in institutional embeddedness of the family/employment
nexus and its consequence on female labour supply in six European countries. The first section presents a
short overview of differences in societal and institutional context of female labour supply decision in six
European countries and refers to Esping-Andersen's their welfare state regime typology. Liberal,
conservative (including mediterranean), social-democrat welfare models are shown to promote different
patterns of family and work combination: the first one promote a strict adaptation of female labour market
behaviour, the second favours a rather long interruption for family formation whereas the Mediterranean
model promotes a strict sequential pattern of labour market participation and family formation periods. At
the opposite end of this spectrum, 'social democrat' welfare regimes promote a simultaneous combination
of family formation and labour market participation. The third section shows that the different contexts of
welfare governance are consistent with observed differences in the relationships between family formation
and female labour supply in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and United-Kingdom, as
identified from Eurostat Labour Force Survey over the 1992-1999 period. Differences are however
diminishing in the 90's.
|
Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay (Tele-Universite/Universite du Quebec, Canada)
E-Mail address: dgtrembl@teluq.uquebec.ca
"Flexibility" – A Double-edged Sword in Work and Family Balancing: Results from a research in three
sectors : education, health and offices.
|
Evidence accumulated in different studies conducted in Canada reveals that many working parents are
having increasing difficulty balancing the demands of work and family. There are two main sources for
these difficulties: first, the nature of work and task organization and second, societal norms and
expectations, especially with regards to the role of women as both workers and parents.
The female participation rate in Canada is currently on the order of 59 percent; 62 percent for women who
are married. According to forecasts, the rise in the female participation rate will be greatest among women
of childbearing age – those between 25 and 44 years – and will reach 91 percent in 2005. Currently, two-
thirds of Québec women aged 20 to 44 with children aged less than 16 are employed compared with 79
percent of those without children and of the same age (Institut de la statistique du Québec, 2000). The fact
of this persistent difference in participation rates and the data available on work-family balancing measures
in firms (little, as is shown in Tremblay and Amherdt, 2000, and some data presented in SASE 2001)
constitute proof that workplaces have not adequately adjusted to the radical new face of family life in
Québec and elsewhere in Canada.
In this year's conference, we will present data from a statistical analysis of a survey which has just been
completed and which covers men and women in the sectors of education, health and offices (mainly women
in that last case). The data will highlight factors which contribute to making work-family balancing
difficult with statistical analysis results, completed by some case studies. The presentation will highlight
the statistical results, among which the fact that the following elements are critical in determining
difficulties in WFB, in order of importance: partner's concrete support; supervisor's support, age of
children, working time.
Size of firm also appears important in some segments, and contrary to expectation, it seems that small firms
make it easier. This can be interpreted in our view as related to the fact that smaller firms make it easier for
workers and their supervisors to come to an informal agreement which facilitates WFB.
We will present other data indicating the major significant differences in the male and female respondents,
which also help in understanding the significant elements in difficulty to balance work and family. We will
conclude on the paradox of flexibility and which we can summarize in the following paragraphs.
"Flexibility" – A Double-edged Sword
A significant paradox that underlies the entire discussion on WFB is that the apparent solution to some of
the employees' problems in balancing work and family life CAN BE a source of stress. Parents need and
want flexible work hours to help better organize family life. At the same time the evidence is clear that
irregular work hours imposed upon parents and non-standard jobs come with their own set of difficulties.
At least part of the contradiction lies the different meaning "flexibility" has for employees as opposed to
employers. Employees want flexible scheduled selected by them and tailored to their needs with the hope
of improving the work-family balance. Employers want flexibility in employment status and work hours in
order to increase productivity and profitability.
The articulation of work-family programs and initiatives represents one of the most important challenge for
future. In my view, the responsibility for restoring the balance between work and family responsibilities
does not rest on individual workers or firms alone. Since the root causes of the problem are broadly social,
the solutions are necessarily collective. Educational institutions, employers and all levels of government
have primary roles to play.
|
Jean Wallace (University of Calgary, Canada)
E-mail: jwallace@ucalgary.ca
Fairness and the Division of Household Labor: What About Procedural Justice?
|
|
The literature on the household division of labor reports two consistent findings - wives
perform more household tasks than their husbands, and wives perceive this situation to be
fair. Thompson (1991) suggested that the distributive justice framework may be useful in
explaining this justice paradox. I propose that we extend the justice framework further and
consider procedural justice. I illustrate the relevance of considering the decision-making
process for understanding the household division of labor and wives' sense of fairness with
examples provided by working wives. This paper closes by discussing the implications of
considering the procedural justice framework in future fairness studies of the household
division of labor.
|
Gillian Whitehouse/Matthew Tomkins (University of Queensland, Australia)
E-Mail address: g.whitehouse@uq.edu.au
Models of maternity rights and implementation barriers in East and Southeast Asia
|
|
Much of the internationally comparative literature on maternity rights in employment has focused on
advanced industrialized countries, drawing distinctions on the basis of welfare state typologies, and
inferring rationales ranging from the enhancement of fertility to the erosion of gendered patterns of paid
and domestic labour. In this paper we extend analysis to East and Southeast Asian countries, examining
formal maternity leave provisions and barriers to their implementation. We find that while relatively
comprehensive and long standing provisions are in place in most of these countries, rationales for their
introduction and the cultural, socio-legal and labour market contexts in which they operate mean they do
not fit easily into models devised for comparing advanced welfare states. In particular, factors such as the
prioritization of maternal health in policy design, and the distribution of women's employment between
formal and informal sectors of the labour market are indicators of qualitatively different capacities for
maternity rights. Overall, our analysis suggests a more nuanced set of criteria to inform comparisons
inclusive of developing countries, and highlights specific barriers to the extension of maternity rights in
Thailand and South Korea, which represent contrasting socio-economic and cultural patterns within the
region.
|
|