WUNRN
EU - IMPACT OF THE ECONOMIC CRISIS
ON WOMEN, MEN, GENDER EQUALITY
Direct Link to Full 224-Page 2013
Report:
Europe is experiencing a
financial and economic crisis. This began with the ‘credit crunch’ in the financial services
sector and evolved as a sovereign debt crisis. Fiscal consolidation and
austerity measures have been deployed in response to the crisis to reduce
public deficits and debt. This crisis is still unfolding so that the analysis
and findings of this report must remain a work in progress.
This report aims to assess the
impact of this crisis on the situation of women and men in Europe and on gender
equality policies. This is important as economic crises are deeply gendered.
Past experience cannot provide sufficient insight into the gender impact of
this crisis as the position of women has changed considerably since the last
major recession. This crisis offers opportunities for radical change, including
a potential to advance equality for women and men. However, the crisis also
poses challenges where gender equality may be seen as an issue only for the
good times.
Four Main Conclusions
The first conclusion is that there has been a levelling down of gender gaps
in employment, unemployment, wages and poverty over the crisis. This however
does not reflect progress in gender equality as it is based on lower rates of employment,
higher rates of unemployment and reduced earnings for both men and women.
In the first years of the
crisis labour market segregation has effectively sheltered women’s employment, labour market
activity and pay during the crisis to date. This segregation involves over-
representation of women in service employment (including public sector
jobs) and under- representation in manufacturing, construction and male
dominated branches of the financial sector. The overall level of segregation in
a country associates positively and significantly with the difference in
employment losses for men and women. Men experienced comparatively higher
employment losses than women in countries where this segregation is greater.
Further, labour market segregation may eventually expose women to a greater
extent where fiscal consolidation significantly curtails public sector jobs.
The second main conclusion of
this report is that the labour market
behaviour of women over the crisis has been similar to that of men. The
traditional view that women behave as employment buffers, called in when demand
expands but pushed back when it contracts, has been challenged for previous
crises, but has been definitely refuted by the experience of this crisis. The
contemporary ‘buffers’ are young men and women on
temporary employment contracts and migrant workers. This similarity of
behaviour starts with the changed income role of women. Dual earner
couples lost ground in the downturn almost exclusively to the advantage of
female breadwinner couples that increased their share to almost 10%. Similarity
of behaviour is evident in that discouragement from seeking work affected men
more than women, in percentage terms. There is further evidence in that no
fewer women than men accepted parttime work ‘involuntarily’. The increase in the numbers
of involuntary part-time workers was actually larger among women, although in percentage
terms the surge was stronger among men. The worsening of employment conditions
affected women and men differently rather than ‘more’ or ‘less’. There is evidence of
infringement and curtailment of rights over the crisis, but there is no clear
indication whether men or women have been more affected. Men do report
themselves as more affected by the crisis with more frequent complaints of
heightened job insecurity, cuts in pay and having to accept less interesting
work.
There are repercussions from
the crisis that specifically concern women. The rights of pregnant women to
maternity leave and benefits have been curtailed and discrimination against
pregnant women has been documented in at least four countries. There is limited
evidence on developments in relation to unpaid work. However, in the depth of
the first recessionary episode (2008- 2009) household expenditure went down in
most European countries for the consumption of items for which unpaid work may
provide a good substitute.
The third main conclusion of
this report is that, while there is
evidence of contained but uneven retrenchment in welfare provisions in the
first years of the crisis, there is a threat that fiscal consolidation may
ultimately reduce both the welfare provisions being made and the related
employment with associated gender equality impacts. The crisis has slightly
reduced the gender gaps in poverty in the first two years, albeit by increasing
the risk of poverty among men more than among women. Without social transfers,
the crisis would have produced larger increases in poverty rates in a large
number of countries for both men and women. This redistribution has been
important in reducing the gender gap in poverty rates. Education and training
appear to have been less affected by budget cuts until 2010. National
strategies during the crisis have focused on extending pre-school and
out-of-school programmes. Such schemes are advantageous not only for children
but also for the caring parents and in particular for women. Vulnerable groups
in the education and training domain include migrant women, the homeless and
those at risk of early school leaving (among whom men are over-represented). The
housing crisis in some countries is seriously affecting the lives of the most
vulnerable households, including single mothers and low income households (among
whom women are over-represented). Homelessness and long-term homelessness have
increased during the crisis and this is a gendered phenomenon in several countries.
Men’s and women’s health status is reported to
have deteriorated as a result of the crisis. Recent health reforms in several
countries have focused on cost containment and new or higher prescription fees
have been also introduced in several countries. Cost containment has a
regressive effect since the cost of healthcare impinges proportionally more on
people with lower incomes and this weighs more heavily on women. Budget cuts in
the health sector also hit women harder than men on the supply side as more
women are employed in the sector.
Some countries have boosted
health and long-term care facilities but many others have raised fees or
reduced health or care-related cash benefits as part of public expenditure
cuts. In the European countries that underwent the most significant
fiscal consolidation long-term care allowances and monetary benefits have been
reduced and this has a disproportionate impact on women.
Fiscal consolidation poses a
risk for gender equality. The consolidation measures likely to have the most
impact on gender equality include wage freezes or wage cuts in the public
sector; staffing freezes or personnel cuts in the public sector; pension
reforms; cuts and restrictions in care related benefits/allowances/facilities;
reduction of housing benefits or family benefits; tightening of eligibility
criteria for unemployment and assistance benefits or reductions in replacement
rates; tax measures; VAT increases; and increases in fees for publicly
subsidized services. The most recent evidence gathered at country level
suggests that the specific impact of fiscal consolidation on gender equality
varies considerably among countries. While in some countries the impact is
modest and not consistently pro-inequality, in others considerable retrenchment
in employment, social transfers and social services may be rolling back past
progress. It cannot be ruled out that disparities in gender equality within
Europe may widen back as an unintended consequence of fiscal consolidation.
The fourth main conclusion of
this report is that in the vast majority
of countries gender mainstreaming has not been implemented in policy design and
policy implementation over the crisis. Neither recovery nor consolidation
measures have been assessed from a gender perspective in the vast majority of
cases. Gender impact has been taken into account at all policy process stages
in about one tenth of the policy initiatives announced or implemented in
response to the crisis as part of the 2011 National Reform Programmes. Fiscal
consolidation packages have also impaired the functioning of the gender
equality infrastructure in several Member States.
A few countries have, however,
taken steps to make the xisting infrastructure more effective, and
some Eastern European countries have introduced institutional innovations in
the field of gender equality. What follows reviews in greater detail the most
salient issues underpinning these broad conclusions.
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