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Do people always get what they want in termsof work and care?
How do people move backwards and forwardsbetween work and care in their life-course?
These questions were addressed using the EuropeanSocial Survey, the International Social SurveyProgramme and the European Community Household
Panel, which enabled us to look at the longitudinalperspective. We adopted a “capabilities” model tounderstand how household might reconcile their wishesand their needs with dominant gender norms.
Normative Gender Regimes: Three countries representingcontrasting gender regimes were studied: Denmark, Spainand the UK. A series of questions asked individuals abouttheir own levels of approval or disapproval of non-traditional gender practices, and how they thought otherswould view these.
Summary Findings• There has been limited attention to the importance ofattitudinal research on the perceived social stigmaassociated with maternal employment.
• Individual’ attitudes were more permissive to non-traditional gender practices than they perceived thoseheld by others in their society.
• Attitudes in Demark were the most permissive, and inPoland the most conservative.
• British respondents had the highest proportionsexpressing neutral attitudes to non-traditional genderpractices.
• When asked about mothers with small children workingfull-time there was a core of approximately 30% ofBritish respondents who disapproved of this, which wasmuch higher than in all the other countries.
• Despite more conservative attitudes in general inPoland, there was less stigma associated with motherswith children under 3 working full-time.
Household Transitions betweenWork and Care
• Measures of well-being, capability and economic easewhere higher in Denmark than in other countries.
• There was a stronger sense of individuals in the UKhaving lower recognition for what they did than inother countries.
• Preferences for part-time employment were more widespread than the opportunity to take up part-timeemployment based on analysis of the ISSP.
Looking at household transitions between work and carewe were able to combine and compare the activities ofboth parents. Three types of transitions were studied inthe three countries: Denmark, Spain and the UK:- Integrative transitions: moving from non-employed into
part time or full time employment- Maintenance transitions: staying in work but maybe
changing working times- Exclusionary transitions: falling out of employment
• Opportunities for households to combine work and carearrangements were more limited in countries like Spainwith the predominance of a strong male breadwinnermodel than in other countries examined.
• Dual earners with both parents working full-time weremore common in Denmark.
• Nevertheless, in all countries there was more diversitywithin countries than established comparativeframeworks have suggested in the past.
• The UK illustrated the impact of a highly flexible labourmarket with household arrangements being more variedand transition patterns being more eclectic than inmany other European countries. Many of thesetransitions were around part-time employment, andespecially short hour part-time jobs.
• The key factors keeping people in employment in allcountries examined was being in public sectoremployment.
• Work poor households commonly moved to a traditional malebreadwinner pattern of employment, if they found work.
No:8
Social quality and changing relationships between work, family and welfare in Europe
WORKCARE
Professor Claire WallaceSchool of Social SciencesUniversity of AberdeenAB24 3QYTel: ++44 1224 273250Fax: ++44 1224 273442
Email:[email protected]
Professor Jane Lewis,London School of Economics, [email protected]
Professor Endre Sik,TARKI Joint Research Centre, [email protected]
Dr. Andras Gabos,Tarki Joint Research Centre, Hungary [email protected]
Professor Analia Torres,ISCTE [email protected]
Associate Professor Rossana Trifilleti,University of Florience, [email protected]
Dr. Luca Salmieri,University of Florience, Italy [email protected]
Dr. Liliana Mateeva,Institute for Advanced Studies,Vienna, [email protected]
Dr. Michaela Gstrein,Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna, [email protected]
It runs for three years from October 2006 to September2009.
The project will last three years. Information can be foundon the website:http://www.abdn.ac.uk/socsci/research/nec/workcare/
The WORKCARE project is supported by the Sixth FrameworkProgramme of the European Commission.
About WorkcareWorkcare is a research project drawing upon thecollaboration of 10 different institutional partners(University of Aberdeen, University of Roskilde, Institutefor Advanced Studies Vienna, Economics University Vienna,University of Sussex, London School of Economics, DISPOUniversity of Florence, ISCTE Lisbon, TARKI Hungary,University of Warsaw) and 16 persons.
Research TeamProfessor Claire Wallace,University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK(Project Co-ordinator)[email protected],
Professor Pamela Abbott,University of Aberdeen, Scotland, [email protected]
Professor Renata Siemienska,University of [email protected]
Dr. Barbara Haas,Economics University, [email protected]
Professor Thomas P. Boje,Roskilde University, [email protected]
Dr. Anders Ejrnæs,Roskilde University, [email protected]
Professor Jackie O’Reilly,University of Brighton, UKJ.O’[email protected]
Professor John MacInnes,University of Edinburgh, UK [email protected]
Professor Jaqueline O’Reilly
University of Brighton, UKJ.O’[email protected]
Tiziana Nazio is a lecturer inSocial Sciences at the
University of Turin
Tiziana Nazio
WorkCare A4 Paper 8:Layout 1 21/12/09 15:19 Page 1
• A key issue for understanding the impact of socialpolicies on activity rates is to examine these in terms ofjoint household decisions, rather than seeing theireffect solely in terms of individuals.
• The impact of welfare policies, or the potential lack ofthem, were visible in the effect of male unemploymenton female activity. In Denmark and the UK women witha non-employed partner were more likely to drop out ofemployment than was the case in Spain where theywere more likely to stay in employment.
KEY to charts: private/perm public temp student
private/temp self-employed unemployed
public/perm family worker inactive
United Kingdom: Women/Men, in couple (weighted) 1994-2001
Spain: Women/Men, in couple (weighted) 1994-2001
Germany: Women/Men, in couple (weighted) 1994-2001
Denmark: Women/Men, in couple (weighted) 1994-2001
WorkCare A4 Paper 8:Layout 1 21/12/09 15:19 Page 3
