Nieuwsbrief 32 (pdf) - Sophia

echerche
34
onderzoek
sophia | n° 32 | 2002
other leave arrangements. The research
analysing data on the United Kingdom
and the United States includes also the
effect of women being concentrated in
part time jobs which appear to be paid less
in the United Kingdom and the United
States. Sweden and Denmark have not
included part time work as an explanation
for differences in pay between mothers
and childless women. The studies reviewed
are unclear about what part of the
child penalty is explained by accumulated
years of employment experience.
Fertility and women’s work status is the
central topic of the fifth chapter. During
the last two decades, fertility rates have
sharply decreased in most developed
countries, childbearing has been delayed
and the correlation between fertility and
participation rates across the European
countries has become positive. The flexibility
of the market to accommodate
women’s exit and entry decisions and the
reduction of the penalty induced by career
breaks, like foregone experience, delayed
wage growth and increased risk of unemployment,
are aspects that can explain
those trends. Both changes in fertility
and changes in employment are related to
an increased emphasis on individual independence
and to the desire of women to
be attached in a more permanent way to
the labour market (Lesthaeghe, and
Willems 1999)(6).
The authors distinguished different equilibriums
across EU countries. In Northern
Europe, both large public sectors
with a large share of female workers and
generous maternity benefits guarantee a
high level of female participation and a
high fertility rate (still barely below replacement
rate). In Southern Europe, in
which female participation is relatively
low, part time is uncommon and the stickiness
of unemployment has brought
about a dual market with unstable labour
contracts for young workers. Fertility is
relatively low.
Other factors were also analysed such as
education, child care, part time, and coresidence
with adult children.
The sixth and last chapter of our State of
the Art provides some insight into the
question of how motherhood influences
time allocation. Nowadays, in order to
understand differences among peoples’
allocation of time in different countries
it is necessary to take into consideration
many variables such as men’s and women’s
access to paid work and their economic
independence, or the complex relationship
between work, household duties
and welfare provision.
It seems quite difficult to detect the
influence of policy measures on the actual
behaviour of men and women, especially
with regard to work, childcare and housekeeping.
The more women have to give
up earnings in order to reconcile family
and working life (or, the more domestic
work is time-consuming), the more they
are inclined to leave their labour market
position and give up their independent
income. Quite often, taking care of children
or elderly family members determines
the position of women in the
labour market and their family size.
Current legislation on equality between
men and women is quite progressive in
European countries, and the question of
equality has been widely debated in the
last decades. Nevertheless, the prevailing
norms and values are not in line with the
relevant legislation.
An individual and non-transferable right
to a partly paid paternal leave is a good
example of the kind of measures that
should be implemented. Other forms of
intervention should combine financial
support for beneficiaries and careers with
services in kind, without undermining
the structure of family life. Think of
‘home help’ and ‘care at home’, for example.
Organised voluntarism could also
play an important role and existing informal
networks should be reinforced.
Exploration of new forms of interaction
between the ‘public’ and the ‘private’ is
needed.
Contact
Danièle Meulders, Department of Applied
Economics, Free University of Brussels
Av. F.D. Roosevelt 50, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
Tel +32 02 650 41 12
Fax +32 02 650 38 25
dmeulder@ulb.ac.be
Síle O’Dorchai, Department of Applied
Economics, Free University of Brussels
Av. F.D. Roosevelt 50, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
Tel +32 02 650 42 55
Fax +32 02 650 38 25
sile.odorchai@ulb.ac.be
Notes
1 LUMEN, J., LE CACHEUX, Jacques, MEUL-
DERS, D. (2000) Policy Digest.
2 ADEMA, Willem; EINERHAND, Marcel;
EKLIND, Bengt; LOTZ, Jorgen; PEARSON,
Mark. (1996) Net public social expenditure.
OECD, Paris, Labour market and social policy
occasional papers n°39, 1996.
3 ESPING-ANDERSEN, G. (1990) The Three
Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Cambridge, Polity
Press, 1990
4 PFAU-EFFINGER, B. (2000) Changing Welfare
States and Labour Markets in the Context of
European Gender Arrangements. Centre for
Comparative Welfare State Studies, Aalborg
University, Denmark, COST A13 Action
“Changing Labour Markets, Welfare Policies
and Citizenship”, Gender Group Working
Paper, 2000.
(http://www.socsci.auc.dk/cost/gender/workingpapers.html)
5 Datta Gupta Nabanita and Nina Smith 2000
Children and Career interruptions: The Family
Gap in Denmark, CLS working paper
2000:18, University of Aarhus and Aarhus
School of Business.
6 Lesthaeghe, R., and Willems, P., (1999), “Is Low
fertility a Temporary Phenomenon in the Euro-