understanding women’s employment in europe: the importance of class and gender. tracey warren
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Understanding women’s employment in Europe:
the importance of class and gender.
Tracey Warren
Research focus
Gender and classIn Britain, women in lower level occupational classes
Work timeEconomic well-being of women at the bottom of the occupational hierarchy in Europe
objective subjective
Economic well-being
A The level of living perspective social policy approach - povertySociology
sociology of work and employment: wages
B Subjective indicators of quality of lifesatisfaction
Women’s work time and EWB in Britain
Women employed in lower level part-time jobs
Negative repercussions for ‘Having’. low hourly wages low monthly wages. low independent financial assets. financial worries
Work time and EWB
The British work time regime: a polarisation between a female-dominated part-time labour market and a long hours male-dominated full-time labour market. Fagan (2001) a distinctly family-unfriendly and class bound system. Generalisability of the weak British situation?
Data
Wave 7 of the Users Database of the European Community Household Panel Survey. The sample aged 25-55
Work time - 1-29 hours (in the main job including any overtime); and more hours. Occupation in current job
A four cell matrix : PT Manager/professional/associate professional; FT Manager/professional/associate professions; PT clerical/manual; FT clerical/manual.
Economic well-being: employees’ relative earnings (current gross monthly); satisfaction with their earnings; assessments of own financial positions;
assessments of household economic positions.
Figure 1. Weekly hours worked by female employees (aged 25-55).
Source: ECHP, 2000.
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2
4
5
7
5
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5
9
8
13
3
6
10
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20
29
34
71
29
78
27
23
62
41
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35
23
64
9
59
62
19
35
46
62
41
32
21
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0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Finland
Portugal
Denmark
Spain
Greece
France
Italy
Germany
Luxembourg
Austria
UK
Ireland
Netherlands
1-19 20-29 30-39 40+
Occupational location of female part-timers?
Working short hours did not mean being concentrated in low level occupations
over-represented in ‘manual/elementary’ and in clerical/service category (Britain and Austria)concentrated in manual/elementary jobs (Finland, France, Luxembourg and Spain). clerical/service work (Denmark). manual, clerical and higher level occupations (Ireland and the Netherlands) women in high level jobs were more likely to work part-time (Greece and Italy and Portugal behind them) .
Monthly wages?
Women in low level jobs working 1-29 hours a week lowest monthly wages of female employees in each country
Relatively more wage-advantaged in Denmark and the Netherlands (63% and 61% of the median for female employees) more wage-disadvantaged in Portugal and Finland (36% and 40%).
Earnings satisfied PT low level workers?
Denmarkmost wage satisfied group
Austria, Ireland and the UKsimilarly wage satisfied to other groups of women.
Question - links between actual wages and feelings about those wages?
Greece Low wage satisfaction.
Italy and Spain toosimilarly dissatisfied as part-timers in managerial jobs. PT/FT rather than class?
Households: have anything to save?
Part-time low level disadvantage commonFinland, Greece, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, UK.
In many countries, similarly disadvantaged as full-time low level workers
France, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the UK
Class not work time?
Households: find it difficult to make
ends meet?Part-time low level disadvantage common
– Austria, France, Greece, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain.
Close behind were full-time clerical/manual workers
Exceptions?Denmark and Finland
Conclusions
Part-time low level workers had the lowest monthly wages, relative to their compatriots, but the intensity of wage disadvantage varied substantially.
Subjective:No universal correlation between women’s relative wage positions and their earnings satisfaction
More prevalent association at the level of household economies.
Conclusions: individuals and households
Individual or household level analysis of economic well-being?
bringing the household back in?members of households as financial buffer a more detailed consideration of the ‘households’ of women neededclass
Indicators of a nation’s economic prosperity socio-economic structures and welfare regimes offer buffers/ cushions to those in the weakest economic positions. Denmark and Finland
Conclusions: EWB
Researching women workers’ economic well-being Wage levels and wage satisfaction
Objective and subjective indicators of ‘Having’ material resources. Subjective measures - adaptations, aspirations and expectations.
satisficingreflections on outgoings and not just incomingsaspirations and situation
Economic well-being in research into gender, class, family and employment
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