Gender and the European Labour Market

Changing industrial relations and family settings, in combination with demographic trends have led to a dramatic change in labour market structures and policies. The male breadwinner model, with the gendered division of paid and unpaid work, no longer characterises the behaviour of a significant proportion of European families. Rather the adult worker model, in which it is assumed that both men and women are active on the labour market, serves as a normative framework, inspiring both the labour market behaviour of individual men and women as well as the policy measures at national and international level. The book presents state of the art research on women’s current position in European labour markets. It combines analysis of the latest trends in employment, pay, occupational segregation, working time, unpaid work, social provisions (especially care provisions) and the impact of the financial crisis, with overall assessment of the actual impact of the European Employment Strategy and the specific impact of key policies, such as taxation and flexicurity.

Part 1: Introduction, 1. Do We Have a Case for Gender Equality? Mark Smith and Francesca Bettio Part 2: Trends 2. Indexing Equal Opportunities for European Men and Women Janneke Plantenga, Chantal Remery and Mark Smith 3. Women in Men’s Jobs, Men in Women’s Jobs: Have We Gone Far Enough? Francesca Bettio and Alina Verashchagina 4. The Gender Pay Gap in Europe: Lessons from Eastern Countries Alina Verashchagia 5. Working Conditions and Job Quality Colette Fagan and Mark Smith 6. Stubbornly Different: Flexible Working Time Arrangements and Gender Equality Janneke Plantenga and Chantal Remery 7. Unpaid Work in Europe: Gender and Country Differences Francesca Francavilla, Gianna Giannelli, Lucia Mangiavacchi and Luca Piccoli 8. Who Shall Care? Family and Professional Carers, Immigrant and Local Carers Annamaria Simonazzi and Paola Villa Part 3:Policies 9. Lessons from the European Employment Strategy Paola Villa 10. Current Tax-Benefit Systems in Europe: Are They Fair to Working Women? Francesca Bettio and Alina Verashchagina 11. Reconciliation of Work and Private Life: The Organisation of Child Care and Leave Janneke Plantenga and Chantal Remery 12. Men's Role in Gender Equality Colette Fagan and Helen Norman 13. Recession and Recovery: Making Gender Equality Part of the Solution Mark Smith, Paola Villa and Francesca Bettio