WUNRN
The Gendered Dimensions Of The Eurozone Economic
Crisis – Update
2012-07-19
AWID looks at what the Eurozone crisis
looks like now, and some of the gendered dynamics occurring as a result.
By Rochelle Jones
05/10/2012 - In the
past four years, the Eurozone seems to have been constantly unravelled and
re-knitted - like an old woollen scarf you can’t bear to part with, but that
doesn’t stay together without substantial work. The bottom line is that
billions of euros in loans have been agreed to between the ‘troika’ of the
European Commission (EC)/European Central Bank (ECB)/International Monetary
Fund (IMF), and struggling Eurozone countries such as
How much money and to who?
It was in 2009 that the Eurozone’s
financial problems increased in visibility and began migrating from one country
to another, starting with
In 2010, concern also started to mount
over the other heavily indebted countries of
So what has this meant for women?
Governments who are granted loans from the
‘troika’ are required to meet certain conditions imposed on their public
expenditure. For example in Portugal, some of the austerity
measuresthat have been put in place include privatization of some
industries, public sector wage cuts, a reduction in public sector jobs and an
increase in the national sales tax on some food products. In concert with
these measures, unemployment levels have risen. The Portuguese seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 15% in
February 2012 from 12.3% registered in the same period one year ago. At the
same time, youth unemployment was registered at 35.4%.
In 2009 and 2010, AWIDcommissioned research into
the impact of the global financial crisis on women’s rights. In AWID’s
2010 report on Western Europe, it was argued that government responses to
the Eurozone crisis were not taking gendered impacts seriously enough.
Specifically, the report said that “European Recovery Plans were ‘gender
neutral’ with no plans to invest in care, community-based services, education
or health. This gender blindness continues to be a feature of the economic
crisis with little mainstream public recognition of what is happening to
women’s economic activities including pay cuts, loss of work or the increase in
unpaid care work and domestic work at home
Two years on, the same story looks to be
the case. transform!
- A European network for alternative thinking and dialogue - argued in their latest journal that, “women are doubly affected as the
principal employees in the public sector and the principal users of social
services… The cuts in social security and health services especially affect
women to the extent that they have to assume the role of the main heads of the
family. Women find themselves obliged to cover those services from which the
state is withdrawing, which increases their difficulty in carrying out their
family and professional lives. The increased unpaid work load in their private
lives occurs at the expense of their jobs, which reinforces the gender
inequalities on the labour market and in women’s schedules”.
While both women and men may lose their
jobs in a crisis and have to deal with increasing prices, less public services
and more tax – it is women more so than men who care for the ill, children and
the elderly, do the cooking and the cleaning. It is women who take up the loose
ends when public services are cut and increase their unpaid, domestic workload.
As one commentator has noted: “Women’s labour not only replaces
household income, but also subsidises the state”.
Adding to the direct impacts of the crisis
are the indirect effects such as a failure to comprehensively and accurately
capture women’s experiences. Underestimation of the crisis’ impact on women is
exemplified in the labour market, where gender disaggregated data is not always
available, and is usually collected in terms of who is ‘employed’ and who is
‘unemployed’. The ‘underemployed’, or the working poor who are working
part-time and have had their hours reduced as an impact of the crisis –
typically women - are off the radar and hence their experiences are not
captured and considered.
Can there be recourse to action?
The European Commission’s Gender Equality
Strategy has taken on board some of these issues, and according to the EC’s latest annual report on gender
equality, “improving equality between women and men is essential to the EU's
response to the current economic crisis”. Discussion, however, about how this
translates into practice seems to focus mainly on achieving a greater
percentage of women into the labour force and particularly into senior,
economic decision-making positions – and that this could be achieved by
providing adequate childcare and more access to flexible working conditions.
At the 2012 AWID Forum in
April of this year, Women
in Development Europe (WIDE Plus) hosted a session on how the European
crisis is impacting women’s lives. Women from
At the macro level, increasingly it looks
like the economic crisis in the Eurozone is a crisis of existence – meaning
that the very nature of the contract has come into question and the rules have
to change in order for the euro to survive and thrive. In her statement at the
AWID Forum for example, Christa Wichterich (Germany) argued how the crisis
highlights “the internal contradictions of the EU and of European integration:
common monetary policies but no common wage, fiscal and industrial policies; a
growing gap between the real economy and the financial sector, a lack of
employment equivalent to the huge amounts of financial capital; and high
inequalities between countries.”
If this rings true, a strong feminist
response to the impacts of the crisis, as well as feminist contributions to a
potential restructure of the Eurozone is critical. Getting more women to the
top ranks of decision-making as proposed by the EC in their report on Gender
Equality in the EU is not going to ensure that women at the grassroots have
their voices heard. Effective consultative mechanisms in combination with a
louder feminist voice have a better chance.
The European Commission and the European
Parliament are a place to start. According to their website, the Commission
“has the right of initiative to propose laws for adoption by the European
Parliament and the Council of the EU (national ministers)… Before making
proposals, the Commission consults widely so that stakeholders' views can be
taken into account. In general, an assessment of the potential
economic, social and environmental impact of a given piece of legislation act
is published along with the proposal itself.” Consultation with civil society
is required as per the Treaty of Lisbon (Article 11 TEU), and this is an avenue
for women’s rights organisations and individuals to advocate for change[1].
[1] For information regarding NGO-EU consultation see:
1. http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/index_en.htm - a portal for
individuals and organizations wishing to take part in public consultations
and/or comment on legislative proposals;
2. http://www.ngoeuconnect.ie/content.php?area=13
– an Irish-based website with useful information about how NGOs can connect
with EU institutions.