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EUROPEAN REVIEW

ISSUE 22- Page 5

'Women's work' still exists but female labour market status improving gradually

In passing various equality directives and with initiatives such as gender budgeting and mainstreaming the EU has sought to improve the position of women in the labour market. With the help of a recent survey we examine the advances that have been made and how far there is to go.

THERE HAS BEEN MUCH activity lately, both within the EU commission and outside it, designed to improve the position of women in the labour market and persuade more of them to join it. Not the least reason for this is the desire of the Member State governments to hit the so-called 'Lisbon' target of 60% of women of working age being in employment by 2010. This is part of a strategy to defuse the 'pensions time-bomb' (see page 3) by having a larger number of tax-payers supporting the benefits of a greater number of pensioners.

The expected revision of the 1976 Equality directive (see issue 15 page 2) will for the first time provide a definition of sexual harassment and it will also allow 'organisations, associations or other legal entities' including trade unions to collectively defend equal treatment in workplaces as well as take up individual cases.

Survey chart showing reasons for non-employment by gender

The directive defines both direct and indirect discrimination and requires Member States to test all new legislation to see whether it furthers equality between men and women (this is known as 'gender mainstreaming'). The EU attempts to use the same technique with regard to its own measures. Gender budgeting, meanwhile, seeks to analyse all fund headings to see if the effect on women and men is equal or as Anna Karamanou, a Greek Socialist MEP concluded 'a budget more relevant to all people, whether men or women'.

So, a number of advances have occurred as far as the law is concerned, but how near are we to equality on the ground, in the labour market ? The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions recently published a survey, 'Quality of women's work and employment : Tools for change'. It starts off, after mentioning some successes in the courts, by saying 'The policy has failed, however, to address many aspects of gender inequality in the labour market'. While women have increasingly participated in the job market over the last 25 years, the report continues, and in recent years most of the new jobs created have been filled by women, job quality and working conditions remain problematic.

While about 90% of men in their forties have jobs, only about 60% of women do. Far more female workers are part timers and average hours are considerably less for women than for men. However many workers of both sexes want to reduce their hours, usually to obtain a better 'work-life balance'. Typically men would like a small reduction but stay in the 30-39 hours a week range while women favour working 21 to 30 hours weekly. Another problem is that of 'gender segregation'. This refers to the concentration of women workers in services in private households, health, education and in other care-related activities as well as in sales, hotels and catering.

A graph from the survey showing the percentage of women & men in the labour market by age

They are also far more likely to work in the public sector. Although there are now more female managers only 21% of the workforce have a woman boss with only 10% of male employees reporting to one. Partly because female employment is skewed towards lower income jobs the gender pay gap, though reduced from previous years is still with us. 26% of women as opposed to 9% of men were classified as 'low income' in a recent report. Other factors are also involved such as career interruption to have children. The survey concludes that collective bargaining and action by companies outside the negotiating process must fill the gap between EU directives and women's work experience.

'Quality of women's work and employment : Tools for change' is available on the internet at:

http://www.eurofound.eu.int/publications/EF02110.htm

The file is in 'Portable Document Format' which needs 'Adobe Acrobat' software to read it. This can be downloaded free from:

http://www.adobe.co.uk/products/acrobat/readstep.html

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So, a number of advances have occurred as far as the law is concerned, but how near are we to equality on the ground, in the labour market ? The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions recently published a survey, 'Quality of women's work and employment : Tools for change'. It starts off, after mentioning some successes in the courts, by saying 'The policy has failed, however, to address many aspects of gender inequality in the labour market'. While women have increasingly participated in the job market over the last 25 years, the report continues, and in recent years most of the new jobs created have been filled by women, job quality and working conditions remain problematic.			While about 90% of men in their forties have jobs, only about 60% of women do. Far more female workers are part timers and average hours are considerably less for women than for men. However many workers of both sexes want to reduce their hours, usually to obtain a better 'work-life balance'. Typically men would like a small reduction but stay in the 30-39 hours a week range while women favour working 21 to 30 hours weekly. Another problem is that of 'gender segregation'. This refers to the concentration of women workers in services in private households, health, education and in other care-related activities as well as in sales, hotels and catering.
	A graph from the survey showing the percentage of women & men in the labour market by age

'Quality of women's work and employment : Tools for change' is available on the internet at:	http://www.eurofound.eu.int/publications/EF02110.htm
The file is in 'Portable Document Format' which needs 'Adobe Acrobat' software to read it. This can be downloaded free from:	http://www.adobe.co.uk/products/acrobat/readstep.html