Setting the Scene.
Gender equality and the crisis: the role of equality bodies.
Francesca Bettio
University of Siena
ENEGE Network
This presentation
• Lessons from the crisis
Evidence and analysis from the ENEGE report ‘The impact of the
crisis on women and men and on gender equality policies’
(www.
• Role of equality bodies
Some food for thought and for discussion
Lessons’ from the crisis
 Misleading gender scoreboards
 The gaps trap
 Women are no longer the employment buffer
 Entitlements in need of revision
 The unintended consequences of fiscal consolidation
 Beyond the crisis: recommendations
1 Headline gender gaps leveled downward…….
 Between 2008 and 2012 (2nd quarter) men’s employment rate (15-64 yrs.)went





down from 72.9 % to 69.8 %, whereas the female rate decreased from 58.9 % to
58.7 %.
Female unemployment was much higher to start with and it increased as the
recession thickened, but not as much as male unemployment. On several occasions
the male rate was higher than the female rate.
Earnings decreased for men and women, but less sharply for the latter. In 2011 the
gender pay gap in unadjusted form stood at 16.2% in the EU as a whole, down
from 17.7 in 2006.
Many more women than men were inactive before the crisis, and the disproportion
remains to date, but the gender inactivity gap was lower in 2012.
Income poverty is, and remains, more widespread among women, but in the two
initial years of the recession the increase was higher for men.
The crisis also appears to have adversely affected health behaviour. Drug addiction,
smoking, and heavy drinking appear to have been on the rise in more than one
European country, especially among men.
Gaps levelling downward: employment rates
80
75
69.8
70
65
60
58.7
55
50
Men (ER)
Women (ER)
Gaps levelling ‘downward’ :unemployment rates
11
10.9
10.5
10.7
10
9.5
9
8.5
8
7.5
7
6.5
6
Men (UR)
Women(UR)
Gaps levelling downwards: inactivity rates
45
42.5
40
37.5
34.1
35
32.5
30
27.5
25
21.9
22.5
20
Men
Women
Men, trend
Women, trend
1……but men were not consistently worse off
He-cession or she-session?: misleading
scoreboards
 While male dominated manufacturing suffered severe job losses, women lost




proportionately more employment than men in Europe as a whole
The average European worker with tertiary education was comparatively shielded
from dismissals in this as in previous crises, but this was not the case for women in
some Baltic and Mediterranean countries.
The gender gap repeatedly reversed at European level, as noted, but this obscures
the fact there are still 15 countries where unemployment remains higher for
women.
Unpaid work is likely to have gone up and women are likely to have shouldered the
largest increase, though the evidence is slim
Above all, we are not out of the recession yet and we do not know yet the future
and final impact of the downsizing of welfare on women’s fertility and their labour
market position.
2. The gaps trap
 If labour market outcomes are more similar for men and women now
than they were before the crisis, this is largely because everybody has
become worse off, men a bit more than women. Does such leveling
downward conform to our idea of progress in equality?
 10 Member States were above the 65 % employment rate mark
for women before the recession, down to 7 in 2012 . Does this
constitute progress in gender equality?
 Measurement issue: gender gaps do not measure women’s disparities
in some absolute sense but only relatively to the men.
 Current gap indicators ought to be flanked by some other indicators to
assess progress over time. For example, the difference between the
actual female employment rate and a target value (75%?)
3. Women no longer
thelonger
employment
bufferbuffe
Women are
are no
the employment
 The idea of women playing the role of buffers has been conclusively refuted in
Europe and elsewhere.
 The ‘buffers’ of this crisis are young workers on temporary and other
atypical employment contracts – men and women - as well as
migrant workers, the men more than the women.
 Women as a whole were spared the role of buffers not only thanks to a
comparatively favourable distribution across sectors and occupations, but also
because they resisted exiting the labour market or decided to enter it
afresh despite adverse demand conditions.
Dual earner couples lost considerable ground (-5.1 % share) early on in the recession
(2008 and 2009), but this was almost entirely compensated for by the increase in female
breadwinner couples.
 Women retain the majority of all discouraged workers at EU level, but in percentage
terms the share of discouraged workers over the inactive population has gone up more among
male workers (+2.0 % against +1.2 %).
 The percentage increase in involuntary part-timers was higher for men, but the absolute
increase was much larger among women.

4. Revision of entitlements to face a ‘liquid’ market
 Working conditions deteriorated (from delays in wage payments and
occupational downgrading to violations of health and safety
regulations or (normal) or of parental rights).
 Overall, there is no conclusive evidence showing which of male or
female workers were the most frequent targets of rights restrictions
 unemployment and atypical employment expanded. This meant an
increase in the number of women with restricted access to
fundamental rights such as maternity benefits
 Non standard forms of employment prevail among young men and
women in their family formation years. The crisis has brought to the
fore the issue of restricted access to fundamental rights for atypical
workers (and for the unemployed)
4. Revision of entitlements to face a ‘liquid’ market
 In 2012 there were: nearly 14 million women on temporary work
contract in Europe , most of them young; 7.2 m. unemployed
and 3.2 million self employed women of reproductive age.
 Depending on the country first time job seekers or holders of non
standard contracts (e.g. stagiere or in Italy) are not entitled to
maternity benefits; Also, temporary employees or the selfemployed may be entitled to lower beneftis
 In 2011 Italy, for example, 27% of mothers were not entitled to
benefits; some of these mothers were stagiere or first time job
seeker.
 Do we need longer leave for those already entitled or more
universal entitlements and more flexibility of use (e.g.
part-time leave in all MS?)
5. The unintended
consequences
of of
fiscal
The unintended
consequences
fiscal conso
consolidation
Retrenchment in welfare provisions in the first years of the crisis was
contained, albeit uneven.
• up until 2010 the general trend has been for countries to preserve
the provision of services relatively more than cash benefit schemes,
• In these early crisis years education and training appear to have been
less affected by budget cuts and national strategies have focused on
extending pre-school and out-of-school programmes.
• The development in childcare for very young children was uneven.
Coverage worsened in several countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece,
Italy, Lithuania, Romania and Spain) but little change in the
aggregate.
The unintended consequences of fiscal
5. Risks of a two-tier
gender equality regime for
consolidation
Europe?
• We do not know much about retrenchment in public provisions and
welfare benefits after 2010
• Retrenchment was limited in countries with moderate fiscal consolidation
programmes such as Finland or the Netherlands; or there was attention to
partly compensate for adverse effects on women or the poorest.
• In contrast, evidence for Spain, Greece Ireland is alarming (increase in
poverty and some groups of women being especially hit; downsizing of the
equality machinery, retrenchment in care provisions, elderly care in
particular and much more)
Is fiscal consolidation making gender equality ‘affordable’ only in
the North of Europe?
Beyond the crisis: recommendations
1. Member States should be encouraged to adopt gender budgeting procedures
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
for key policies. Each main austerity policy, spending review or stimulus
package should be audited at design stage and after implementation.
Social expenditure should prioritise quality services over cash benefits
Recovery funds should be directed towards social and care infrastructure.
The European Social Fund should be strengthened and its procedures reviewed,
so that it can serve to compensate for cuts in local provision and to sustain
Europe 2020 goals, particularly in Member States with low female employment .
Income support schemes should be gender mainstreamed. Tax and social
expenditure should focus on advancing women’s and men's financial
independence.
A ‘critical mass’ female representation should be ensured in high level boards
of key Eu-ropean financial institutions .Financial literacy initiatives targeting
women should also be supported.
New gender equality indicators should be developed to track progress over
time.
Surveillance of violations of maternity and leave rights should be increased and
public awareness of this issue should be heightened.
Which role for equality bodies?
Some food for thought:
•Gender Mainstreaming or Diversity Management?
• Equality machineries: a more decisive shift
towards monitoring and assessing outcomes,
including economic?
• The FSE and investment in social infrastructure