Around 50 participants from South Tyrol/Italy, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Lithuania and Serbia dealt with the topic "Back to the kitchen? Reconciling work and family life: expectations vs reality” at the international conference on 17 and 18 September 2020 in Bressanone/Italy, organised by the AFB association (Arbeiter, Freizeit- und Bildungsverein) in cooperation with IPEO (International Platform for Equal Opportunities) and with the European Centre for Workers' Questions – EZA. The conference was supported by the European Union.
At this year's conference, IPEO looked at the principle of equal opportunities for women and men in work and family life to see how it is being upheld across EU countries with a view to ascertaining whether and to what extent there is a relapse into traditional role models which relegate women back to the kitchen. Female speakers from a number of European countries were invited to the event and were able to provide an overall picture of gender equality efforts across Europe using evidence from a wide variety of sources, including scientific studies, data concerning the labour market, the social security systems and the latest developments in the legal field, experience reports about work situations and the challenges of reconciling work and family life, as well as examples of cooperation arrangements between employers and employees.
The EU has been spearheading equal opportunities for decades. In 2019 a new important directive on work-life balance for parents and carers was adopted (Directive (EU) 2019/1158). Nevertheless, between 2005 and 2019, the equality index in the EU countries improved on average by only 5.4 points, reaching 67.4 out of 100 points. In its Communication of March 2020, the European Commission confirmed that a "new impetus" is needed as progress in the field of gender equality issues is still slow. The document presents the policy objectives of the Commission’s gender equality strategy for the period 2020-2025, confirming that discrimination against women and gender stereotypes should be effectively fought against and that the gender perspective should be systematically taken into account in all policy areas.
This approach is in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) announced by the United Nations in 2015. Among other things, goal 5 calls for "sound policies and enforceable legislation to promote gender equality" and the "full and effective participation" of women in political, economic and public life. Unpaid care and domestic work should be recognised and valued "through the provision of public services and infrastructure, social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and family". The IPEO considers it a priority to highlight the discrepancy between general political statements, legal principles and social reality.
Legislation on the labour market, on family and social policy, scientific research results, developments in collective bargaining policy and the experience of women reported by equality councillors show that the equality agenda has come to a standstill. This is, in brief, the analysis provided by the speakers from Germany, Italy, Hungary, Belgium, Serbia and Lithuania who attended the IPEO conference. Governments and companies show little enthusiasm when it comes to implementing concrete equality measures in the labour market, in social policy and to recognizing the role of women in society. Equality acts and regulations are challenged by conservative populist governments which propagate social role models that push women back to the kitchen and run counter to the EU's equality goals.
In many respects, the speakers at the conference could only acknowledge and emphasise that inequalities do exist: First of all, women take on family caregiving tasks more often than men and are thus often exposed to disadvantages in their employment biographies. Motherhood has an impact on a woman’s career, while for men fatherhood hardly brings about any changes in everyday working life; for most men, the sharing of family responsibilities is still far from the ideal “50/50 time-sharing”. In the absence of a clear national legal framework, trade unions and even advisory institutions can only negotiate working time arrangements compatible with family responsibilities at company level. Here however their requests often fall on deaf ears as corporate management frequently shows little awareness of equality issues and tends to pay little or no attention to the needs of working mothers. This is evidenced, among other things, by the high proportion of women dismissed during their first year of maternity leave, but also by the lack of incentives to return to work after family leave, with downgrading being a common practice.
The so-called “child penalty” to which women are exposed is evidenced throughout their working lives by the gender pay gap and career disadvantages, which translate into lower pension entitlements. As a result, women end up feeling disappointed and discouraged and might decide to resign or to put their career on hold for a while – alas, what begins as a temporary pause often becomes irreversible. Trade unions have proven unable to put issues such as equality and social justice at the top of the political agenda. The lockdown due to the Covid 19 pandemic has confirmed the role of women as key family managers: that is a pattern that shapes society as a whole. Surveys show that many men have failed to be reliable partners in this challenging period.
Equality is a key area of action in the labour market and is of fundamental importance to society in terms of family and community development. Trade unions and social organisations must approach this issue with renewed vigour and determination looking at legislation, work organisation and social participation. The proportion of women in these organisations must be increased, particularly in management positions, so that equality becomes a priority on the agenda.
The deregulation of the labour market undermines the role of trade unions as guarantors of fair pay and decent working conditions. A new basic consensus between the social partners is needed to enable them to represent effectively not only workers protected by collective agreements but also the ever-growing number of workers who lack collective protection standards. EZA must press for an agreement to be drawn up at EU level which defines principles on workers' rights and procedures for balancing the interests of the parties in the digital work society, to be recognised throughout Europe by governments, employers' associations and trade unions as a “Magna Charta”.
EZA should make contact with (female) members of parliament in the EU countries and propose concerted action for the implementation of equal opportunities, advocating, for instance, the legal right to part-time work, the parental leave for fathers, the inclusion of periods of upbringing and care in the calculation of pension entitlements.
The standstill in the concrete application of equality rights is prompting women to look for new ways to establish equal opportunities in our society. The main priority is to make the issue more visible to the public through authentic advocates (so-called "Equality Greta") and unconventional actions.
The IPEO conference also made it possible to view the situation in Western and Eastern European countries from different perspectives. The EU must deal with the fact that in western countries "normal operation" is often guaranteed in hospitals and in the nursing professions at the expense of underpaid and disadvantaged women from Eastern Europe. This practice also causes problems of care in the countries of origin.
With regard to reconciling work and family life, the "50/50 time-sharing " should be anchored in the use of flexible work schedules, parental and caregiving leaves.
Public and private childcare services should be affordable, of high quality and with flexible opening hours. This will create a large number of jobs particularly interesting for women.
A legal or collective bargaining framework for company agreements is urgently needed, as individual employees find it difficult to negotiate appropriate working time arrangements for reconciling work and family responsibilities.
When analysing labour market data, the employment and unemployment rate and the number of women and men actually seeking work must be taken into account in order to get a reliable overall picture. Indeed, there is an increasing number of so-called “discouraged people” who are no longer actively looking for a job due to the ongoing crisis.
Prompted by the pursuit of short-term profit and market-focused social concepts, politicians and companies tend to give little attention to the issues of social justice, human dignity and solidarity when making decisions. There is a need to launch an awareness raising campaign on these fundamental issues of social change.
Trade unions and social organisations should advocate that the national programmes for the use of Recovery Funds include social, labour market and education policy measures which can improve employment opportunities and offer ways out of precarious employment (keyword: livelihood-securing employment), guarantee income security even in times of crisis and implement equality policy objectives on a broad scale.
The Covid 19 pandemic has acted as an amplifier of the male bread-winner paradigm in society. A package of measures should be defined without delay to remedy the gender inequalities that have come to light.