Transcript Diapositiva 1

GENDER ISSUES
ACADEMIC YEAR 2014-15
Maria A. Confalonieri
Lecture 8
Gender and the Welfare State
The Continental and South European Models
Continental Model
• Conservative of gender differences
(Ostner).
• Reforms: new social risks and continental
w.s.
Germany-Pre WW2
• Policy legacy – Early policies of protection for
working mothers  maternity leave
introduced in 1878 and since 1883
compensation at 50% of wage.
• Family members social entitlements
(healthcare etc.) based on the breadwinner’s
entitlements as a worker
• Preferences of conservative and socialist
party for the breadwinner model.
After WW2
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Federal Germany –continuity
German welfare conservative of class and gender differences.
Generous monetary benefits for families based on the working father’s
employment status .
Few childcare facilities-short school hours
Expansion of female participation to the workforce part time
Long leaves for mothers
Democratic Republic of Germany  socialist model based on 2 adult
workers’
Extensive state provided childcare .
• Germany’s re-unification in 1990 brings together two
different models
Germany -policy change
• 2000s -> debate on demography
• European pressure
Agenda 2010-Vorteil Familie (SPD-Green coalition 19982005)
• Childcare services : target 30% 0-3 by 2010
• New income-related child allowance to combat children
poverty
• Grand Coalition : SPD-CDU 2005-2009
• Work-life balance policy – Sharing of parental
responsibilities
Parental leave (available for for both parents ) since 2006
compensated with 67% of salary for 12 months (14 if
shared).
Germany –since 2009
• Centre right coalition (CDU-CSU-FPO)
• More traditonal policies -Emphasis on
family responsibiity.
• Investment in childacare services
continued
• Some reduction in parental leave
coverage reduced at 65%.
The Netherlands
• From a male bread-winner to a 1 ½
breadwinner model
• Part-time for women since mid-Eighties.
Part-time plus since 2007
• Role of social partnership
• A new idea 2 for 3/4
France:policy legacy
• Debate on birth rate (already after 1870)
• Late industrialization (industry needs women workers)
• Etatism républicain role of the State in education –
1900 1 out of 4 children 3-6 in écoles maternelles; from
early XX development of public crèches
• Maternity leave (1908 Loi Engerand)
• Family allowances (1923; loi Landry 1932)
• Redistribution to family with children : end 1940s
childallowance amounto to 4% of GNP and income 4children families doubled beacuse of ch.allowances
France postwar
• Support to families with more than 2 ch
persists+ financial support to low income
families (complement de familles 1978 ,
Allocation pour jeunes enfants 1985).
• PAJE 2004 - cash for care or payment of
childcare
France childcare
• High coverage
• High differentiation and flexibility : crèches
but also authorized baby sitters
• 2006 –CESU Chèques employ service
universelles- vouchers for buying care
services whose quality is assured and
monitored (from various providers)
Southern European Welfare states
• Familistic  a minimum of de-familization of care
• A male breadwinner model “stretched towards a
family-kinship “ model.: Family (extended, multigenerational ) provides care through the un-paid work
of women (mothers, grannies)
• Origins :Catholicism, rural family, authoritarian
regimes
• An “archaic” model, hardly capable of coping with the
uncovered risks in weak and unbalanced welfare
systems .Resilient
• Since 1980s Market provided care: migrant women
(irregular)
Spain
• XIX Century Civil code- minority of women
• II Republic (1931-36) –Radical secularization. Civil
and political equality between men and women,
divorce Since 1931 maternity leave (limited coverage,
not in agriculture)
• Authoritarian regime (Francoism)-Clerical backlash
:restroring the traditional family model ; women need
the authorization of the husband to work.Modest
policies for supporting birthrates
• Modest family benefits for the male-breadwinner
(cargo familiar) with extended family obligations
Spain –after democratic transition
• Low women’s participation to labor
market,slowly growing since 1980s
• Priority to issues of secularizationdivorce ,
abortion.
SPAIN 1990s
Eu pressure
Centre-Right governments  deregulation
flexibility and non-standard work: growth in womens'
employment : 57% in 2007 . But low quality of work : women
over represented in low paid and in temporary jobs
Parental leave but unpaid
Low means-tested family benefits
Limited availability of childcare for 0-3
Centre-Left (2004-11) 
Stronger initiative in combating gender violence (law 1/2004)
allow same sex marriage (law 13/2005) and gender equality in
decison making (40% in decison making bodies).
Coomprehensive law on equality (Equality law 2007)
Investments in Care servicesIntroduction of 3 weeks paid paternity leave(extension to 4 weeks
by 2011 was postponed by the Centre-Right government in 2011)
Dependency Law 2006 – care for elderly and disabled –
Traditional family's role is not substituted but family receive more
support
Impact of austerity policies in Spain 2011• Postponement of equality measures introduced by
PSOE government--> extension of paternity leave;
cut of financial support for people caring for a
dependent relative; cuts in funding for equality
bodies.
• Reform of employment laws increases flexibility for
the employers , making easier to fire emloyees
• Impact of the crisis --< fist on men's jobs (housing
bubble) but then also on women's employment due
to job cuts in the public sector and non-renewal of
temporary contracts
Greece
• Low employment rate
• Fragmented family benefits
• Low provision of childcare (firms with over
300 should provide a crèche, but they are
few)
• Centrality of the family to provide care and
financial support for its members.
• Labor market : growing flexibility
• Market provided care-->immigrant women
GREECE
• Family less capable of providing for its
member .
• Job losses for men but also women in the
public sector
• Indebteness of private households
Portugal
• Exception - high labour market women’s
participation rate, including mothers, fulltime
• Backward economic structure and diffuse
poverty of families
• Low family benefits and ill-compensated
maternity and parental leaves
• Effort to increase childcare, especially
non-profit