“Mind the Gap!” Conceptualising & Measuring Inequalities & Fairness

1. “Mind the Gap!”Conceptualising & Measuring Inequalities & Fairness Jacqueline O’Reilly, Jose Roche & Tiziana Nazio Brighton University, Oxford University & Turin University Workcare seminar ETUI Brussels September 2011

2. … Issues & Problems …. • From Equal Opportunities to Inter-sectionality • Fairness vs. social justice • Which Social & Labour market policies • Competing demands – factors pulling in different directions Complexity Ubiquitousrelational concept – which comparator? For which groups, which gaps, which policies? increasing inequalities alongside attempts at social cohesion

3. Inequality: It’s a Man’s thingMen’s real hourly wages (indexed to 1 in 1975)

4. Addressing Inequality in the UK • Equality Act 2006 & 2010 • Anatomy of Inequality in the UK Government Equality Office Jan 2010 • How fair is Britain? Equality and Human Rights Commission in the UK Oct 2010. • Equality Measurement Framework Monitoring multi-dimensional inequalities over a range of policy areas

5. Challenging the Gender Contract: Developing an Analytical Framework • Macro: – regulatory framework and changing economic structure • Meso: firm level practices as pro- or re-active • Micro: – behaviour and attitudes of individuals: • what is the right thing to do?; • managing coping and caring; • cultural lags between what people want and how they are able to realise this

6. Aim of presentation • Monitoring gaps & using composite indexes • Identifying norms • Realisedlabour market transitions • Rethinking Inequalities: Discussion – matching different norms, transitions and policy goals

7. Part I: Indexes for International comparisons

8. Comparative indexes : GDI GEM • GEM • political participation & decision making • economic participation & decision making • power over economic resources • GDI • life expectancy at birth, • adult literacy& real GDP

9. Benchmark base to compare countries • Comparisons over time • Available data & relevance • Consciousness raising • Draw attention to policy areas to address gaps

10. Cons • Debate over capabilities & outcomes • Methods of calculating indices • Confusion over what is being measured – relative or absolute gender inequalities • Neglected in policy debates • Not dig deeper (Chant 2006)

11. EU Gender Equality Index (EUGEI) • Rationale European Employment Strategy – policy orientated • Definition of equality based on – Fraser – equity • Multiple levels of measures (Plantenga et al. 2009)

12. Composition of the EU Gender Equality Index (EUGEI) Source: Plantenga et al. 2009

14. Rationale for comparison (EUGEI) Gender Gaps

15. …. but which gap? • Employment rates – low in Spain • unemployment rates – high in Spain • gender pay gap - lower in Poland • gender poverty gap - higher in Poland and Spain. • Political representation - higher in Spain and Denmark • Gender segregation higher in Denmark • Care gap highest in Spain • Leisure gap largest in Poland and Spain

16. Part II: Norms & Values (or who cares?)

17. ESS Questions on Gender Norms at individual and societal level The questions asked of individuals were: • ‘Do you approve or disapprove if a woman/man: • … lives with a partner without being married to him/her? • … has a child with a partner she/he lives with but is not married to? • … gets divorced while she/he has children aged under 12? • … chooses never to have children? • … has a full-time job while she/he has children aged under 3?’ • The same five dimensions were also examined at a societal level with the question: • ‘Apart from your own feelings, how do you think most people would react if a woman/man they knew well did any of the following?’

19. Cluster analysis (mean factor score and distribution by country)

21. Findings • Across all countries men expressed more traditional than women. • More stigma towards maternal full-time employment than towards paternal employment • The characteristics associated with holding more traditional attitudes were being religious, having being divorced and having lower levels of education. Those not working in a full-time job, i.e. part-timers, the unemployed and those not in employment were also more likely to hold traditional attitudes, or to express indifference associated with societal disapproval. Age didn’t seem to have a major influence except in categories 3 & 4 (dis & ind). And students were found distributed across the ideational spectrum. • Characteristics associated with indifferent attitudes were strongest amongst both the higher and less well educated, the unemployed, those without strong religious beliefs, divorcees, and those not in full-time employment. • Permissive attitudes were found amongst women, those with weak religious beliefs, the unmarried and divorced. • Being a parent had no effect on any of the attitudes

22. Part III: So What? Who gets the job?

23. Questions in Labour Market research • Stocks or flows? • Individuals or Households? • Preferences or policies? • Comparative employment regimes – what are the key dimensions to understand inequalities?

24. Research questions • How is care and work organised in European households? EU Workcare project • What characteristics are associated with making different transitions: integrative, exclusionary & maintenance? Transitional Labour Markets (Schmid)

28. Regional differences: Germany and Italy compared

29. What integrates women into work? • UK – being childless & highly qualified • Denmark – having children 3-5 & being highly qualified • Spain – being childless, having a partner who is not working or being highly qualified

30. What prevents women working? • UK – having small children under 5, a partner who works very long hours or is unemployed • Denmark – having children under 2, an unemployed partner, few qualifications • Spain – having 3 or more small children, preferring to be a full-time mother, a partner working long hours, few qualifications

31. What enables mothers to continue working? • In all three countries: • Job satisfaction • Working in the public sector

32. Men & Kids: Does it matter? • DK – kids have no effect on transitions – childcare is beneficial to men as well as women compared to UK and Spain. • UK – men with kids more likely to work; but 3+ kids more likely to loose their job • Spain – 3+ kids or kids under 2 dad’s less likely to work

33. Conclusions • Indexes – Monitoring inequalities – which gap? • Norms – Who cares? • Transitions – Who gets what job?

34. Challenging the Gender Contract: Comparative Analytical Framework • Macro: – regulatory framework and changing economic structure • Meso: firm level practices as pro- or re-active • Micro: – behaviour and attitudes of individuals: • what is the right thing to do?; • managing coping and caring; • cultural lags between what people want and how they are able to realise this

35. Cultural lags- policies & norms • Dimensions normative gender regimes in four European countries. • UK quite traditional attitudes to maternal full-time employment & indifference to traditional family norms. The liberal UK model relatively poor infrastructure for family policy and the pervasiveness of part-time employment by firms. • In Poland more support for maternal full-time employment & strong support for traditional family values. This could in part be due to the economic necessity for Polish women to work, together with the more limited availability of part-time employment & communist heritage. • In Spain more permissive values than expected where harder for mothers to work. • Denmark congruence at individual and societal level supporting more permissive gender norms & stable transiions between work and care.

36. Returning to my problems • Fairness – relational concept – can it mean anything credible? Or is it too malleable? • Policy – what kinds & for which groups of people – targeted/universalistic • Factors pulling in different directions – changing structure of employment opportunities and policy goals?