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.

2

2

2

2

4

5

7

5

4

5

9

8

13

3

6

10

12

12

14

17

19

23

24

20

29

34

71

29

78

27

23

62

41

30

10

30

39

42

35

23

64

9

59

62

19

35

46

62

41

32

21

19

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