“Mind the Gap!”Conceptualising & Measuring Inequalities & Fairness

Jacqueline O’Reilly, Jose Roche & Tiziana Nazio

Brighton University, Oxford University

& Turin University

Workcare seminarETUI Brussels

September 2011

… Issues & Problems ….• From Equal Opportunities to

Inter-sectionality

• Fairness vs. social justice

• Which Social & Labour market policies

• Competing demands – factors pulling in different directions

Complexity

Ubiquitous relational concept – which comparator?

For which groups, which gaps, which policies?

increasing inequalities alongside attempts at social cohesion

Inequality: It’s a Man’s thingMen’s real hourly wages (indexed to 1 in 1975)

0.9

1

1.1

1.2

1.3

1.4

1.5

1.6

1.7

1974 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000

Hou

rly w

age i

ndex

10th percentile 50th percentile 90th percentile

Source: Family Expenditure Survey. Machin in Dickens et al. (2003:196)

Addressing Inequality in the UK

• Equality Act 2006 & 2010

• Anatomy of Inequality in the UK Government Equality Office Jan 2010

• How fair is Britain? Equality and Human Rights Commission in the UK

Oct 2010.

• Equality Measurement FrameworkMonitoring multi-dimensional inequalities over a

range of policy areas

Challenging the Gender Contract: Developing an Analytical Framework

• Macro: – regulatory framework and changing economic structure

• Meso: firm level practices as pro- or re-active• Micro: – behaviour and attitudes of individuals:– what is the right thing to do?; –managing coping and caring; – cultural lags between what people want and how

they are able to realise this

Aim of presentation

• Monitoring gaps & using composite indexes• Identifying norms• Realised labour market transitions• Rethinking Inequalities:

Discussion – matching different norms, transitions and policy goals

Part I:

Indexes for International comparisons

Comparative indexes : GDI GEM

• GEM• political participation & decision

making• economic participation & decision

making• power over economic resources

• GDI• life expectancy at birth, • adult literacy & real GDP

• Benchmark base to compare countries• Comparisons over time• Available data & relevance• Consciousness raising• Draw attention to policy areas to address gaps

Cons

• Debate over capabilities & outcomes• Methods of calculating indices• Confusion over what is being measured –

relative or absolute gender inequalities• Neglected in policy debates• Not dig deeper (Chant 2006)

EU Gender Equality Index (EUGEI)

• Rationale European Employment Strategy – policy orientated

• Definition of equality based on – Fraser – equity

• Multiple levels of measures(Plantenga et al. 2009)

Composition of the EU Gender Equality Index (EUGEI)

Dimensions Subdimensions Indicators

Equal sharing of paid work Labour Force Participation Gender employment gap

Unemployment Gender unemployment gap

Equal sharing of money Pay Gender pay gap

Income Gender poverty gap among single-headed households

Equal sharing of decision-making power

Political Power Gender gap in Parliament

Socio-economic power Gender gap in ISCO1

Equal sharing of time Caring time Gender gap in caring time for children

Leisure Gender gap in leisure time

Source: Plantenga et al. 2009

Rationale for comparison (EUGEI) Gender Gaps

…. but which gap?

• Employment rates – low in Spain • unemployment rates – high in Spain• gender pay gap - lower in Poland • gender poverty gap - higher in Poland and Spain.• Political representation - higher in Spain and

Denmark• Gender segregation higher in Denmark • Care gap highest in Spain• Leisure gap largest in Poland and Spain

Part II:Norms & Values

(or who cares?)

ESS Questions on Gender Norms at individual and societal level

The questions asked of individuals were:

• ‘Do you approve or disapprove if a woman/man:• … lives with a partner without being married to him/her? • … has a child with a partner she/he lives with but is not married to? • … gets divorced while she/he has children aged under 12?• … chooses never to have children? • … has a full-time job while she/he has children aged under 3?’

• The same five dimensions were also examined at a societal level with the question:

• ‘Apart from your own feelings, how do you think most people would react if a woman/man they knew well did any of the following?’

Cluster analysis (mean factor score and distribution by country)

Findings• Across all countries men expressed more traditional than women. • More stigma towards maternal full-time employment than towards

paternal employment• The characteristics associated with holding more traditional attitudes

were being religious, having being divorced and having lower levels of education. Those not working in a full-time job, i.e. part-timers, the unemployed and those not in employment were also more likely to hold traditional attitudes, or to express indifference associated with societal disapproval. Age didn’t seem to have a major influence except in categories 3 & 4 (dis & ind). And students were found distributed across the ideational spectrum.

• Characteristics associated with indifferent attitudes were strongest amongst both the higher and less well educated, the unemployed, those without strong religious beliefs, divorcees, and those not in full-time employment.

• Permissive attitudes were found amongst women, those with weak religious beliefs, the unmarried and divorced.

• Being a parent had no effect on any of the attitudes

Part III: So What?

Who gets the job?

Questions in Labour Market research

• Stocks or flows?• Individuals or Households?• Preferences or policies?• Comparative employment regimes – what

are the key dimensions to understand inequalities?

Research questions

• How is care and work organised in European households? EU Workcare project

• What characteristics are associated with making different transitions:

integrative, exclusionary & maintenance?

Transitional Labour Markets (Schmid)

Regional differences: Germany and Italy compared

What integrates women into work?

• UK – being childless & highly qualified• Denmark – having children 3-5 & being highly

qualified • Spain – being childless, having a partner who

is not working or being highly qualified

What prevents women working?

• UK – having small children under 5, a partner who works very long hours or is unemployed

• Denmark – having children under 2, an unemployed partner, few qualifications

• Spain – having 3 or more small children, preferring to be a full-time mother, a partner working long hours, few qualifications

What enables mothers to continue working?

• In all three countries:

• Job satisfaction

• Working in the public sector

Men & Kids: Does it matter?

• DK – kids have no effect on transitions – childcare is beneficial to men as well as women compared to UK and Spain.

• UK – men with kids more likely to work; but 3+ kids more likely to loose their job

• Spain – 3+ kids or kids under 2 dad’s less likely to work

Conclusions

• Indexes – Monitoring inequalities – which gap?

• Norms – Who cares?

• Transitions – Who gets what job?

Challenging the Gender Contract: Comparative Analytical Framework

• Macro: – regulatory framework and changing economic structure

• Meso: firm level practices as pro- or re-active• Micro: – behaviour and attitudes of individuals:– what is the right thing to do?; –managing coping and caring; – cultural lags between what people want and how

they are able to realise this

Cultural lags- policies & norms• Dimensions normative gender regimes in four European countries. • UK quite traditional attitudes to maternal full-time employment &

indifference to traditional family norms. The liberal UK model relatively poor infrastructure for family policy and the pervasiveness of part-time employment by firms.

• In Poland more support for maternal full-time employment & strong support for traditional family values. This could in part be due to the economic necessity for Polish women to work, together with the more limited availability of part-time employment & communist heritage.

• In Spain more permissive values than expected where harder for mothers to work.

• Denmark congruence at individual and societal level supporting more permissive gender norms & stable transiions between work and care.

Returning to my problems

• Fairness – relational concept – can it mean anything credible? Or is it too malleable?

• Policy – what kinds & for which groups of people – targeted/universalistic

• Factors pulling in different directions – changing structure of employment opportunities and policy goals?