Transcript Слайд 1 - Kommunal

Family Care in Russia –
Gender Outlook
Kommunal Conference
March 8, 2010
Stockholm
USSR before 1990s
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Large families; different generations often living together helping each other
in child-rearing and elderly care
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Children brought up either at home or at the kindergarten; their parents try
not to put their elders to elderly-care facilities, boarding houses and
hospitals as the society does not approve of such steps; having young
children and old people in one household is an element of nurturing
compassion, tolerance, kindness, friendship, mutual understanding and
respect among generations
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Help in care is often offered and provided to needy families of next-door
neighbours with children and old people, friends, colleagues
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Encouragement of having more children in the families (traditions, public
opinion, state incentives)
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Decent life expectancy and duration; good health parameters
USSR before 1990s (2)
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State social policy supportive of families
More help to families with many children
Pay/remuneration enabling families’ and society’s stability and
development
Decent levels of social provision and pensions
Well-developed and affordable public services
Free of charge health-care, education, cheap housing and utilities,
transport, catering, crashes, kindergartens, sports, cultural and leisure
facilities, etc.
Necessity to seek permanent extra work to support family standards of
living is rare and not pressing
Traditionally a considerable home and family care share (especially in
rural areas) is borne by women of different ages
«Perestroika»
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Policies aimed at deliberate squeezing women out of paid industrial and
other employment; generating public opinion on women’s “natural
predestination”, their family and house-keeping “calling”
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Women’s paid work outside the family vocally proclaimed non-important
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Powerful onslaught of “male” priorities and patriarchal attitudes in all
spheres of social life and the economy; sexism on the loose
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This tendency prevails and becomes stronger, especially today during
the current world crisis as economies compete: women as a “resource”
can be used profitably and much cheaper than men
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The beginning of “information violence” against women and indirectly
against the family
Russia after 1990s
1992 – beginning of “shock therapy” in the economy and socio-political
“reforms” under the slogans of “fighting the legacy of communism” resulting in:
 Sharp multiple fall and continuing lowering of nominal and real incomes of the
working people and pensions amounts (about 20% of the average low lost income
today) + influence of today’s world crisis
 Introduction of subsistence levels for workers and pensioners with
considerable regional variations (only recipients themselves are taken into
account – no counting in of their physiological needs, the needs of their
families or inflation, just the bare physical survival levels that remained the
same for years)
 Work pay and pensions do not ensure proper nutrition, healthcare, rest; necessity for
regular additional earnings; continuing on the job after retirement
 Emerging and growing category of the “working poor”; speedy poverty
feminization (living on less than 0,5-1,0 dollars a day)
 All social benefits and allowances (for children, disabled, veterans, young mothers,
large families, etc.) are brought down to purely symbolic figures; “monetization” of
natural benefits (housing, utilities, medicines, transport, telephone services, etc.)
 Introduction of flat income tax of 13%
 Return of the long forgotten homeless, beggars, parentless street children; dozens
of hunger and malnutrition deaths documented from the beginning of the 1990s
Russia after 1990s (2)
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Growth of unemployment among the Russians against the background of growing
labour migration (from Russia mainly to the West, to Russia from the FSU and
other parts of the world)
Labour market discrimination against women and workers with family
responsibilities
Families falling apart; numbers of single female-earner families become higher
Excessive males’ mortality; sharp drop of birth-rates and soaring overall
mortality after 1992-93; exacerbation of the tendency throughout most of
the following years (“the Russian Cross”)
Ageing of the population and process of depopulation
Worsening of people’s health indicators (all ages); numbers of handicapped
and disabled rise (children included); many basic medicines inaccessible
Rise of suicides numbers (all ages)
Sharp increase of tobacco, alcohol, drugs consumption
Increase in crime, prostitution; trafficking
Russia after 1990s (3)
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Disruption of the previous municipal public services system
Chronic under-financing of all sectors providing normal life support
Forcing the paid services system in alongside with the free-of-charge services
Lowering quality and accessibility/affordability of all public services –
health and social care, education, housing, transport, etc.
Acute lack of pre-school and other children’s facilities working parents could use
Families are forced to take back a considerable share of every-day
services and care of their members and relatives in need of such care
Increase of family gender asymmetry; the main house-keeping and family care
load is on the women of different ages
The Russian people and Russian women continue to pay the cruel
social price of the numerous “market reforms” imposed on Russia
Family Functions: Women’s Traditional Mentality
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Women do not want to let men have their share in the family and house
work: men should not be “housewives”, they should earn for the family –
the more the better; they should not be mocked as house-husbands by
their bosses and colleagues
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It’s hard to respect a man who stays at home, a “non-working” man
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Things should not go as far as letting a man reproach his female
partner for bad or insufficient house and family keeping
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A woman can do things at home much better than a man; one can die
of hunger while a male partner cooks a meal, etc.
(Poll results, 2009)
Traditional Older Males Notions of Family Roles
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Women do better at home much better than men
Any way, on their jobs women earn little – men earn much more
When there are kids in the family there’s no way she can go for a serous job
– she’d better find a part-time job or get an easier one till the kids grow up
If the kid is sick or disabled – the mother will not be able to get a proper job –
it’s really annoying how much time she spent on her university studies!
OK, and who’s going to breast-feed – me?!
It’s time to decide who will take care of my old Mum – she’s your in-law,
remember?
Fine, I know, your parents need care too – but there’s no money to pay the
professional
Kids and old people are much better with women than without them or at
various social facilities
Instead of wasting time on her way to work, all day there, and on her way
back (in the road jams for hours on end) she’d do better staying at home and
do some husband-pleasing
No wonder women want to leave and go to work – it’s all feminism
Notions of Younger Men
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Women should get their education and jobs/professions – life can
make a turn and they’d be the only family earners and support
It’s good when a wife works and earns her wage/salary – that’s some
guarantee against unexpected family budget problems
Of course, it’s a bit uncomfortable for a man when his female partner
earns more – but this is good for the family
There’s nothing awful in sharing house work and family responsibility
with a woman
It’s even fun to care for the kids
If the kids are sick – let their mother continue at work – I’ll take care of
them, because her salary is higher than mine
If my wife wants to start working – let her do so, she should not stay at
home all her life – she gets tired and irritated, and I find it’s not
interesting to talk to or be with her when I come home after my day at
work
(Poll results, 2009)
House Work Distribution in Russia, %
Women
Men
All, or almost all work is done by the wife
21,4
11,5
Both spouses have their own
responsibilities, but the larger part of work
is on the wife
38,9
32,6
Most work is done by the spouses jointly
or in turns
28,1
36,7
Both spouses have their own
responsibilities, but the larger part of work
is on the husband
5,2
12,0
No opinion
4,3
5,1
Other
2,1
2,1
Actual Time Spent on Different Activities in Russia
(for Participants of These Activities), Hours per Week
Men
Women
Paid employment
43,0
38,4
Work in subsidiary small holdings
15,4
13,0
Food shopping
3,6
4,4
Meals cooking
5,2
13,8
House cleaning
2,6
5,7
Clothes washing and ironing
2,0
4,2
Taking care of the children and other family
members
15,0
31,5
The Typical Situation in Russia:
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High level of employment among women (49% of economically active
population; 64% women work full-time)
High levels of female education
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Formal equality
• Less-paid and low-paid jobs are for the women
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Gender pay gap at 35-45%
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The budgetary sector (health and social care, pre-school facilities):
drop in jobs prestige, low pay, lack of skilled personnel, ageing of
workforce, influx of temporary workers and migrant workers, female
dominated sector (over 80%)
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The poorer the region, the more pay equality; the richer the region, the
more differences
Observation: market mechanisms uphold and strengthen gender
sectoral segregation and differences in earnings
Gender and Health
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Work places quality and working conditions directly influence health and life
duration - considerably less control over health and safety since 1990s
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Issues of mothers’ health: traditionally more attention is directed to working
conditions’ influence on female (reproductive) health
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Women have more jobs-related illnesses
• In “male” working places with more hazards and risks, accidents result in deaths
16,5 times more often
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Excessive males’ mortality reduces labour resources and changes their gender
and age structures
Observation: women in Russia statistically live 13-14 years longer than
men, but female health is worse, and women bear the larger part of care for
the children, grandchildren, the sick and the elderly relatives in their
immediate and extended families; in spite of this about 1/2 womenpensioners are for material reasons forced to continue working after
retirement and at the same time provide assistance in family care
Labour Market VS Family Care
 Employers are unwilling to take on women who have kids and elderly
dependants, and also expectant mothers; in times of crisis they try to rid
of them at first opportunity
 Workers with family obligations cannot always count on finding full-time
jobs or employment in line with their training/education – they have to
look for jobs where regimes are more convenient/pay higher, etc.
 Single mothers willing to take any jobs permitting to balance work and
family care (shift/night work, 2-3 jobs, a salary+wage, etc.)
Employers’ stereotypes: Women are a less useful workforce. Women
have to combine work and family loads, so they cannot be expected to
demonstrate zeal, to be career-bound. The result is discrimination
Workers’ stereotypes: Women spend a lot of time on their families and
housework, and they know that they are treated as less preferred
workers, so they do not even try to compete with men and choose
“family-friendly” jobs. The result is women find themselves in less
demanding jobs and, consequently, lower paid jobs
Child and Elderly Care
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In the health and care sectors in Russia 4,5 million workers are
employed - doctors, nurses, lower and auxiliary staff, social workers,
teachers (2008)
People in need of care (2007 г.):
 Social help facilities
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women – 23 000
men – 79 000
Clinics
women – 123 000
men
– 118 000
At home
women – 900 000
men
- 207 000
A much larger number of people are taken care of by relatives (women)
in their families – this is hard unpaid work of up to 15-18 hours a day –
no accurate data
Material Foundations
 Deliberate downgrading of state and municipal care institutions and
steady introduction of paid care services the low-paid families
cannot afford
 Expensive, supposedly high quality, private (+ foreign companies’)
care sector for the rich
 Low pay for the vast majority of the Russians (both male and
female) makes it difficult/impossible to get access to modern hightech professional care for children, the sick, disabled and the elderly
Family Care – Possible Ways of Gaining
Gender Balance: Specifics
In
market economy countries most activity would be undertaken by the
employers with trade unions’ involvement/pressure
Reasons: societal and corporate standards
In
countries of “economy in transition” so far the main role goes to the
state – with active trade union support
Reasons: labour market situation, insufficiently developed societal and
corporate standards
In
conditions of the current world economic crisis the state under harsh
employers’ and big business pressure reduces the government-unions
sphere of interaction on the issues discussed and on other issues of
social policies
Family Care- Possible Ways of Gaining Gender Balance
All social partners need to be involved:
State
Employers
Trade unions
Family Care - Possible Ways of Achieving
Gender Balance: the State
 Adequately financed state policy of combining work and family,
state social protection for workers with family responsibilities,
large families, families with disabled members
 Concept of “working mothers” or “working adults”; maternity
and child protection; state provision of mothers’ and families’
benefits
 Re-establishing and developing at modern level the affordable
state care services system for the children, the elderly, the
disabled
 Immediate income tax regime change
 Economic stimulus to make employers interested in hiring
workers with family obligations
Family Care - Possible Ways of Achieving
Gender Balance: the State (2)
 The task of lowering sectoral segregation
 Liquidation of gender disparity in “female dominated” sectors
by changing wage policies in the budgetary sectors
 Overcoming the cadres “hunger” in the budgetary sectors; recreation of the professional/vocational education/training
systems for the young recruits/workers
 Increasing attractiveness of work in the budgetary sectors
(possibility of skills enhancement, career perspectives, decent
and equitable pay, targeted social and pension benefits)
 State gender-aimed policy of improving quality of life, work
and health as formulated strategy of «preserving the nation”
Family Care - Possible Ways of Achieving
Gender Balance: the Employers
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Social accountability including gender equality principles
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Recognition as not “second class” of workers with family care responsibilities
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Accountability for equal opportunities and non-discrimination principles
violation
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Personnel changeability reasons analysis
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Creation of gender-based statistics systems
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Retraining / skills upgrading programmes for workers with family
responsibilities
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Additional measures for developing labour potential and social guarantees for
workers with family responsibilities
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Elaboration of working rules and regulations that take into account women’s
and workers with family responsibilities’ rights and interests
Family Care - Possible Ways of Achieving
Gender Balance: Trade Unions
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Getting women to join the unions
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Keeping trade union gender statistics
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Employment and unemployment gender-based monitoring
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Monitoring labour and criminal law respect; special attention to be
given workers with family responsibilities and young workers
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Monitoring discrimination of women-workers and workers with
family responsibilities (hiring, working conditions, dismissal, etc.)
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Gender-based monitoring of health and safety at work
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Improving work-places characteristics to improve public services
quality
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Using collective talks and agreements at all levels for achieving
additional protection for workers with family responsibilities
Family Care - Possible Ways of Achieving
Gender Balance: Trade Unions(2)
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Fighting wage arrears
Achieving the minimum wage that is not less than the legally
established subsistence level
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Strategy to reach equal pay for work of equal value
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Bringing up the minimal pay levels
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Closing the gender wage gap, and hence closing the gender
pensions gap
Family Care - Possible Ways of Achieving
Gender Balance: Trade Unions (3)
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Promoting gender thinking within the union
Working with women’s organizations and human rights
ombudsmen
Promoting improvements in national legislation; support for
legislative initiatives on gender equality issues
Learning from international legislation connected with care
and equality issues
Studying the best practices of sister unions in other countries,
the PSI, the EPSU