HADAS MANDELTEL-AVIV UNIVERSITY

Which Social Policies Sustain Gender Equality in the Labour

Market?

PRESENTED AT THE CONFERENCE “GENDER EQUALITY IN THE LABOUR MARKET”

MAY 2nd, STOCKHOLM

Two questions

Which aspects of gender equality are we referring to? Social policies that promote some aspects of gender equality may, at the same time, aggravate others

To whom are we referring when we talk about gender equality?Some policies advance equality among disadvantaged women, while others are more beneficial for advantaged women

The first question: Which aspects of gender equality?

Access of women to paid work?

Economic attainments of those women already in the labour market?

Poverty rates?

The ability of single mothers to establish an independent household?

Prevalent indicators of gender in/equality in comparative analysis

Access of women to paid work  Labour force participation (all women, mothers of preschoolers) Working continuity (% of mothers who work after giving birth and during the child-rearing period) Levels of women’s earnings dependency (range 0-100)

Occupational and earning attainments Occupational sex segregation  Women's representation in managerial positions  Women's representation in highly paid positions

Class inequality Wage gap between high- and low-educated women  Poverty rate among single mothers 

Countries

Social Democratic (Scandinavia) Sweden Denmark Finland Norway

Liberal (Anglo-Saxon) USA Canada UK Australia

Conservative (Continental and Southern Europe) Germany Netherlands France Belgium

• Italy• Spain

Countries

Social Democratic (Scandinavia) Sweden Denmark Finland Norway

Liberal (Anglo-Saxon) USA Canada UK Australia

Conservative (Continental and southern Europe) Germany Netherlands France Belgium

• Italy• Spain

If welfare state strategies indeed affect patterns of gender inequality, then countries with similar policies should resemble each other in their patterns of gender inequality.

Prevalent Indicators of Gender Inequality in Comparative Analysis

Access of women to paid work  Labour force participation (all women, mothers of preschoolers) Working continuity (% of mothers who work after giving birth and during the child-rearing period) Levels of women’s earnings dependency (range 0-100)

Occupational and earnings attainment Occupational sex segregation  Women's representation in managerial positions  Women's representation in highly paid positions

Class inequality Wage gap between high- and low-educated women  Poverty rate among single mothers 

Denmk .SwedenFinlandNorway

Canada USAUK

Belgium

France

Australia

Nether.

Germany

Italy

Spain

Countries with similar welfare state strategies have similar forms of gender inequality (they fall into the same cluster)

Indicators of gender inequality in the 3 welfare regimes (values represent the average percentage in each cluster)

Indicators of gender inequality:

Cluster 1:Social-Dem.

(Sweden)

Cluster 3:Conservativ

e 

Cluster 2:

Liberal

Sig.

Access of women to paid work  Labour force participation: mothers of preschoolersWorking continuity (% of mothers who work after giving birth and during the child-rearing period)Levels of women's earnings dependency(range 0-100)Occupational and earning attainments Gender ratio in managerial positions Occupational sex segregation Women's representation in highly paid positions (equal representation =20)Class InequalityWage gap between high- and low-educated women Poverty rate among single mothers Blue: most egalitarian, Red: least egalitarian

Indicators of gender inequality in the 3 welfare regimes (values represent the average percentage in each cluster)

Indicators of gender inequality:

Cluster 1:Social-Dem.

(Sweden)

Cluster 3:Conservativ

e 

Cluster 2:

Liberal

Sig.

Access of women to paid work  Labour force participation: mothers of preschoolers

78 (86) 50 63 .00

Working continuity (% of mothers who work after giving birth and during the child-rearing period)

75 (73) 52 56 .09

Levels of women's earnings dependency (range 0-100)

22 (24) 52 39 .00

Blue: most egalitarian, Red: least egalitarian

Indicators of gender inequality in the 3 welfare regimes (values represent the average percentage in each cluster)

Indicators of gender inequality:

Cluster 1:Social-Dem.

(Sweden)

Cluster 3:Conservativ

e 

Cluster 2:

Liberal

Sig.

Occupational and earning attainments Gender ratio in managerial positions 

.37 (43) .47 .73 .02

Occupational sex segregation  61 (63) 54 53 .03

Women's representation in highly-paid positions (equal representation =20)

11 (12) 16 13 .00

Blue: most egalitarian, Red: least egalitarian

Indicators of gender inequality in the 3 welfare regimes (values represent the average percentage in each cluster)

Indicators of gender inequality:

Cluster 1:Social-Dem.

(Sweden)

Cluster 3:Conservativ

e 

Cluster 2:

Liberal

Sig.

Access of women to paid work  Labour force participation: mothers of preschoolers

78 (86) 50 63 .00

Working continuity (% of mothers who work after giving birth and during the child-rearing period)

75 (73) 52 56 .09

Levels of women's earnings dependency(range 0-100)

22 (24) 52 39 .00

Occupational and earning attainments Gender ratio in managerial positions 

.37 (43) .47 .73 .02

Occupational sex segregation  61 (63) 54 53 .03

Women's representation in highly paid positions (equal representation =20)

11 (12) 16 13 .00

Blue: most egalitarian, Red: least egalitarian

Indicators of gender inequality in the 3 welfare regimes (values represent the average percentage in each cluster)

Indicators of gender inequality:

Cluster 1:Social-Dem.

(Sweden)

Cluster 3:Conservativ

e 

Cluster 2:

Liberal

Sig.

Access of women to paid work  Labour force participation: mothers of preschoolers

78 (86) 50 63 .00

Working continuity (% of mothers who work after giving birth and during the child-rearing period)

75 (73) 52 56 .09

Levels of women's earnings dependency(range 0-100)

22 (24) 52 39 .00

Occupational and earning attainments Gender ratio in managerial positions 

.37 (43) .47 .73 .02

Occupational sex segregation  61 (63) 54 53 .03Women's representation in highly paid positions (equal representation =20)

11 (12) 16 13 .00

Class InequalityWage gap between high- and low-educated women 

29 (27) 38 58 .00

Poverty rate among single mothers  6 (5) 26 49 .00Blue: most egalitarian, Red: least egalitarian

How can we sustain gender equality in the labour market?

Depends on the aspects of equality we want to achieve

Different modes of state intervention can sustain some forms of gender equality, but promote other forms of gender inequality

An integrative analysis of different aspects of gender inequality will help us think more in terms of tradeoffs

The tradeoff in the social democratic regime

Mother-friendly policies that reconcile paid with unpaid work: Bring more women into paid work Increase women’s economic autonomy

But… Reduce women’s occupational mobility by

leading to increased discrimination Lessen women’s motivation by providing

attractive conditions in the public sector

The tradeoff in the liberal regime

State passivity and gender neutrality:

Facilitate success among educated and highly skilled women

But… Costs are paid primarily by disadvantaged

groups

Second question: To whom are we referring when we talk about gender

equality?

Socioeconomic diversity among working women has grown substantially

Solutions that are appropriate for low-skilled women would not necessarily help high- skilled women, and vice versa

Inequality among disadvantaged and advantaged men and women

DisadvantagedVulnerability: To what extent are women protected relative to men?

Advantaged Glass ceiling: To what extent do women succeed in attaining men’s positions? To what extent do women lag behind men?

My goal:

To examine the relationship between family policies and in/equality among disadvantaged and advantaged women separatelyby Index of family policy Indices of in/equality among disadvantaged and

advantaged

Low

High

Distribution of countries by levels of family policy

The components: (1)Length of paid maternity/parental leave (5) Public sector employment (2)Child care facilities for children under 3 (6) Service sector employment (3)Public spending on family benefits in public services and (4) in cash transfers

Indicators of in/equality among disadvantaged and advantaged

Women’s representation in:Managerial occupationsSupervisory positionsProfessional occupationsTop-wage positionsParliamentMinisterial positionsBoardroom membership

Poverty rate among single parents

Poverty rate among non-working single parents

Gender wage gaps among low earners

Gender wage gaps among low-educated workers

Percentage of women in the bottom wage quintile

Disadvantaged Advantaged

The components: (1) Poverty rate among single parents and (2) among non-working single parents(3) Gender wage gaps among low earners and (4) among low-educated workers (5) Percentage of women in the bottom wage quintile

Countries with generous family policies tend to advance gender equality among the disadvantaged

Unregulated vs. regulated attainment

Representation in:Managerial

occupationsSupervisory

positionsProfessional

occupationsTop wage positions

Representation in:ParliamentMinisterial positionsBoardroom

membership

In countries with generous family policies, the entry of advantaged women into powerful positions is facilitated by state regulations

The components: Women’s representation in: (1) parliament (2) ministerial positions (3) boardroom membership

In countries with generous family policies, advantaged women have lower occupational and earnings attainments

The components: Women’s representation in: (1) managerial occupations (2) supervisory positions (3) professional occupations (4) top wage positions

So, to whom are we referring when we talk about gender equality?

Generous family policies benefit women with lower socioeconomic characteristics.

Women with higher socioeconomic characteristics find it more difficult to enter powerful and highly paid positions in developed welfare states.

Career interruption is particularly costly for highly skilled women, who are the potential candidates for good jobs.

Distinguishing between the effects of different components

Some components of family policies may have discriminatory effects (e.g., parental leave, reduced working time), while others may not (e.g., child care facilities).

The problem: Countries with generous family policies tend to rank high on most indicators, and vice versa.

The effect of the different components of family policy on the gender wage gaps

Instead of dividing the indicators into groups, I divided the sample into two groups:

Men and women with low socioeconomic characteristics

Men and women with high socioeconomic characteristics

The effect of different components on gender wage gaps in different socioeconomic groups

* Result of HLM regressions, individual-level characteristics are controlled. ** Dark: significant, bright: insignificant.

Summing up:How can social policies advance gender equality?

1) Policy matters The important role of state intervention

The significance of Sweden and other Scandinavian countries as role models

Summing up

2) There are significant tradeoffs Different welfare state strategies have different

costs and benefits in advancing gender equality Limiting the attainments of advantaged women

may be a fair price to pay for advancing equality on a universal basis

The different gender inequality patterns reflect not only different modes of welfare state interventions, but also their different intentions

Summing up

3) The need to pay attention to the socioeconomic differences among women

The remedies appropriate for low- versus high-skilled women may not just be different, they may also conflict

Thank You!