Demographic challenges and equal opportunties
Women are key in the discussion on demographic change: not only do they constitute an under-utilised pool of labour to face the labour shortage, but they are also one of the main actors in the provision of the future work-force; thirdly, they are the key providers of both formal and informal care to children and the elderly and, fourthly, they constitute the major part of the older population due to their longer life-expectancy, making them more reliant on welfare provision in the long run. Hence their role is primordial, and yet also fraught with problems. The main problems are linked to the triple bind facing women, as follows: the demand for an increase - and a continuing increase - in their labour market participation; the implicit expectation that they should give birth to more children; and, thirdly, the growing demand, at a later stage in their lives, to care for their grandchildren, as well as for their own parents.
Description
Statistics reveal a positive correlation, at macro level, between fertility and female employment rates. Hence high fertility countries also have high employment rates for women. Although across Europe married women, especially, have increased their labour supply over the past 30 years, the measures needed to enable families to combine work and family responsibilities have not been developed evenly in the different countries. Gainful employment has become the norm for women, and the choice to have children or not has become dependent on whether there are possibilities to combine work and children. In other words, the choice for women today is whether to hold jobs with or without children. It is necessary to look only at the gap in employment and fertility rates between the southern European countries and for example the Scandinavian countries. In addition, women adjust their fertility aspirations in order to pursue valued career goals, and at the same time unemployment and precarious employment act as a brake on fertility rates. Furthermore, precarious employment records will have an impact on the standard of living in old age as pension provisions are based on employment records and wage levels. Hence, the ability to reconcile family and work, gearing welfare systems towards the changing realities of families and the labour market, combined with the emphasis on high quality employment for women in terms of contractual relationships and wages, are key in facing the demographic change. Women have an interest in promoting change in order for reality to better take account of their specific situation but also so as to encourage men to take advantage of opportunities to play a full part in family responsibilities.
This project will analyse the discourse and policy reforms in 7 EU member states in order to assess to which extent the policy mix proposed in relation to the demographic challenges will have a positive or negative impact in terms of equal opportunities. Key elements to be analysed are actions aiming at closing the gender pay gap, improving the availability of quality employment for women, measures improving parental care provision including compulsory elements for fathers, introducing mechanisms into social protection systems that acknowledge that lifecycles are individual and made up of periods of market and non-market activities; this includes phasing out family-derived social and tax rights by introducing systems that compensate for time spent in informal caring, ensuring the availability of negotiated flexible working arrangements, including leave arrangements for workers that do not undermine their long-term participation and position on the labour market, providing universal, accessible and affordable child-care and elderly care provision that do not hinder mobility on the labour market, as well as finding innovative ways of providing essential household services as well. There will be an emphasise on the finding of good practice among the European countries on how to enable women and men to combine family life and professional life without prejudice to equal opportunities.
Researchers
Maria Jepsen
Acting head of department, senior researcherphone: +32 (0) 2 224 04 90