GENDER INDICATORS

International Conference on Reconciliation:

“Tips to top reconciliation: work it out, home it in: por una conciliación compartida”

One of the Lisbon European Council target is to increase female participation in the labour market and to reduce gender gaps in employment, unemployment and pay .

Work is a source of income, professional satisfaction and social contact.

However, work is not always easy to combine with family life and other private activities.

Reconciling both demands is an important issue for many citizens in the European Union.

When looking at the gender breakdown for combined working hours in Europe, results indicate that there is a marked difference between women and men in terms of unpaid working hours.

In fact, although an increasing number of women have careers, what is socially expected of them inside the home often remains much the same. Frequently referred to as women’s “double shift”, these demands tend to limit period of free time women have and to perpetuate gender stereotypes.

EMPLOYMENT RATES (employed persons aged 25-49 )

COUNTRY TOTAL MEN WOMEN

EU 27 7.4 6.6 8.3

ES 77.2 88.0 65.9

IT 74.0 87.3 60.5

NL 84.5 91.1 77.9

PL 74.4 80.7 68.1

RO 76.4 81.9 70.7

SE 84.8 88.1 81.4

UK 81.4 88.5 74.6

Even if female employment rates in People countries increased in all but Romania (strong increases were registered in Spain and Italy) it is still lower than men.

Both sexes continue to encounter difficulties in reconciling their professional and private lives.

UNEMPLOYMENT RATES (unemployed persons aged 25-49 )

COUNTRY TOTAL MEN WOMEN

EU 27 7.4 6.6 8.3

ES 7.8 5.6 10.8

IT 6.3 4.8 8.4

NL 3.8 3.4 4.3

PL 12.4 11.2 13.8

RO 6.7 7.6 5.6

SE 5.5 5.3 5.8

UK 4.1 4.2 4.0

Although gender disparities in unemployment continue to decrease, discrepancies continue to remain noticeable. In fact, in the overall EU-27, the female unemployment rate reached 8,3% whereas that of men reached 6.6%. Only in the United Kingdom (4.0%) female unemployment rates were the lowest.

PART TIME RATES

COUNTRY TOTAL MEN WOMEN

EU 27 13.2 2.9 24.7

ES 5.5 1.0 11.1

IT 11.7 2.4 23.8

NL 35.1 10.1 63.0

PL 2.3 1.0 3.8

RO 0.4 0.2 0.7

SE 17.4 4.6 30.5

UK 19.3 3.3 35.8

The rate of part-time employment among women is considerably higher than the corresponding rate for men, revealing the predominantly female nature of part-time work in Europe.

FIXED-TERM WORKING CONTRACTS

COUNTRY TOTAL MEN WOMEN

EU 27 12.1 11.2 13.0

ES 31.9 29.9 34.4

IT 12.0 9.6 15.3

NL 11.6 10.5 12.8

PL 24.1 25.3 22.7

RO 1.7 1.9 1.4

SE 13.9 11.7 16.1

UK 4.3 3.5 5.2

In contrast to permanent work, employment under fixed-term contracts have an end date.

The incidence of fixed term employment generally affect women more than men, who suffer more labour precarity.

COMPOSITE INDICATOR OF PAID WORKING HOURS

COUNTRY MEN WOMEN

EU 27 41 35

ES 42 36

IT 42 36

NL 39 31

PL 45 40

RO 46 44

SE 39 31

UK 41 29

This table reveals that men work longer hours in paid employment, women actually work more hours than men when paid and unpaid working hours are combined, as we can see in the next table.

COMPOSITE INDICATOR OF UNPAID WORKING HOURS

COUNTRY MEN WOMEN

EU 27 53 65

ES 52 67

IT 52 67

NL 55 61

PL 57 70

RO 60 78

SE 55 61

UK 55 61

The time spent in unpaid work, even if it is not remunerated by the market , is clearly as important in societal and economic terms as paid work.

The unpaid work is time spent on househol duties and caring for children and adults.

When looking at the table of “unpaid working hours” by country, results indicate that there is a marked difference between women and men.

Women in Romania appear to be carrying the highest burden (78 hours each week) to 61 hours of UK, NL and Sweden.

HOURS SPENT CARING FOR ADULTS PER WEEK

COUNTRY MEN WOMEN

ES 0.5 2

IT 0.5 2

NL 0.25 1

PL 0.75 1.25

RO 1 2

SE 0.25 1

UK 0.75 1.25

HOURS SPENT CARING FOR CHILDREN PER WEEK

COUNTRY MEN WOMEN

ES 4.25 11.5

IT 4.25 11.5

NL 7 16.5

PL 4.75 2.5

RO 4.25 13

SE 7 16.5

UK 4.25 14.5

Childcare is by and large assumed by women in all countries.

Caring for children and other dependents is very often the primary motivation in the women decision to stop working for family reasons.

As we can see in both tables of caring for “adults” and “children”, there are significant differences in the gender distribution of the number of hours spent by women and men for caring.

Thus in the Netherlands, the amount of time spent on caring is better shared between women and men than in the Southern European countries.

The Council encourages Member States to

define strategies aiming to promote balanced

participation of women and men in family and

working life, that take account of the following

aspects:

examine the scope for granting working

men a right to paternity leave, maintaining

their rights relating to employment, and rights

likely to allow them to provide major support

for family life;

reinforce measures to encourage balanced

sharing between working men and women of

the care to be provided for children, elderly,

disabled or other dependent persons;

reinforce measures to encourage the development of support services for families, especially the improvement of child-care structures;

grant, where appropriate, specific protection to single-parent families;

develop incentives and support measures for non-governmental organizations committed to promoting equal opportunities;

devise, launch and promote information and awareness campaigns to develop more progressive outlooks among both the general public and specific target groups;

encourage businesses, in particular small and medium-sized enterprises, to introduce and develop management practices that take account of their workers’ family life.