"We try to help the mothers." Failing the work-life balance

Ingólfur V. Gíslason, associate professor,

University of Iceland

Why is work-life balance important?

• Key to the solution of the gender pay gap problem

• Necessary for a full life of both men and women

• Important for economic growth

• Necessary for demographic sustainability

Why is there a pay gap?

• Gender segregation on the labour market

• - history

• - traditional roles

• Family responsibilities

• Blatant discrimination

Gender Pay Gap

• Norway 2008: Up to 40% of the gender pay gap can be explained by the different effects that becoming a parent has on salaries of fathers and mothers

• Iceland 2010: Children have a positive effect on men’s salaries but a negative on women’s. The younger the child, the more pronounced are the effects

Three levels

• Maxi – the involvment of the state

• Midi – firms and municipalities – culture

• Mini – decisions within individual families

The state – labour market agreements

• Working hours

• Child care facilities

• Laws on gender equality

• Parental leave

Firms and municipalities

• Program for work-life balance

• Gender equality plans

• Good child care facilities

• City planning

Family responsibilities

• Real – parental leave – time studies – employers views

• Imagined – discrimination

• Experiments

• - transgender people

• - names set pay standards (Iceland)

Failing!

• “Yes, we try to be a family-friendly workplace. We believe it attracts the best people. We have a family policy and a gender equality plan. Mainly it amounts to trying to help the mothers balancing family responsibilities and work. They still take the lions share of family work.”

• Male executive (43), gender mixed firm (finance)

Individual (family) decisions

• Determined by the maxi and midi levels

• Economic considerations (often overrated)

• Gender ideals – the good mother – the good provider

11

Men’s share of domestic work 1987/90 and 2000/01

010203040506070

8090100

Denmark Norway Sweden

1987/90

2000/01

Icelandic fathers on parental leave

0102030405060708090100

%

%

Women’s earnings as % of men’s in Iceland

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Total

Hourly

Total 47 46 48 49 48 49 54 50 51 49 49 50 51 51 52 52 52 52 53 54 55 57 59 61 61 61 61 61 64 68

Hourly 74 76 75 75 75 74 74 76 77 79 79 79 79 80 81 81 81 82 88

19801981

1982198319841985

1986198719881989

1990199119921993

199419951996

1997199819992000

2001200220032004

2005200620072008

2009

Men to fathers

• Hormonal changes (less testosterone, less cortisol, more estradiol, more prolactin)

• Couvade syndrome

• Baby blues

• Use parental leave if certain conditions are met

• Are important for the emotional and cognitive development of children

Competence of fathers

• Fathers, as well as mothers, are biologically prepared for their new role

• Active fathers show similar sensitivity to the needs of infants as mothers do

• Children raised by single fathers fare no worse than those raised by single mothers, in some cases even better

Way forward?

• Work-life balance is today to a large degree a question of promoting caring masculinities:

• Paternity leave

• Active fatherhood in workplaces

• Encourage parents to let fathers take care of sick children

• Cultural promotion of caring fatherhood

Problems and possible solutions

• It is not only (or even mainly) about women/mothers

• It is a complex problem with no easy solutions

• We have to face the possibility that gender pay gap will not be eliminated in a society based on market economy

• But we can certainly diminish the gap