Organised from 19 to 20 September 2022 in Brixen by the Bolzano-based association Arbeiter, Freizeit- und Bildungsverein - AFB in cooperation with the European Centre for Workers' Questions - EZA and financed by the European Union, the international conference of the IPEO platform was attended by more than 45 representatives of workers’ organisations from South Tyrol/ Italy, Germany, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Serbia and Albania who discussed under the title “Recovery plans after the corona pandemic – new momentum for gender equality policy?” reforms to be made in the labour market, family and social policies to tackle the issues encountered during the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, scientific studies and country reports presented during the conference evidence that despite some welcome steps forward, reforms do no abound. Equal opportunities remain a Cinderella in policy terms: gender equality is just one of the many fields of action on a rather crammed political agenda. The general public, decision-makers and economic think tanks focus their attention on other matters, such as the consequences of the pandemic and how to deal with them, the war in Ukraine, inflation and surging food prices, uncertainty about future energy supplies and the race to establish a new world order. Social partners are not prepared to modernise social security systems and anchor them in the digital labour market, nor are they ready to promote a concerted process for the ecological transformation of the economy.
After receiving panegyrics and serenades for their ability to make the system work, women rightfully expected resolute structural reforms to remedy disparities at least in some core areas of social organization, namely family, work and livelihood security. It was primarily thanks to women that the social system did not collapse during the pandemic: they made sure that things worked at home and in essential sectors such as trade, education, social services and healthcare. However, in times of uncertainty and political clash of interests and show of force, attempts to reorient systems are being hampered. In many cases, the laws are informed by the male breadwinner model, whereby the man is the one who works and earns the money to support the family, while the woman takes care of household chores, children and their upbringing. In reality, many women have a paid job and contribute significantly to the family income. Women are thus confronted with the task of managing multiple responsibilities, with ensuing psychological stress and organisational dilemmas: their self-image affected by societal expectations and sensitive to family issues, women are under pressure to adjust to changing situations and to perform at their best.
The political recipes applied after the financial crisis of 2008 to relieve battered state budgets while facilitating economic recovery were essentially based on rigorous austerity policies that severely restricted the financial leeway of national governments. This strategy was mainly inspired by neoliberalism, the same doctrine that Margaret Thatcher had used in the 1980s to introduce a massive wave of privatisation of public services in the UK. In keeping with this model, substantial cuts in spending on social welfare, healthcare and education policies have been made throughout Europe. The pandemic has revealed that the public welfare systems – the ones which ultimately had to handle the crisis - have been trimmed too much.
With the Next Generation EU programme, the European Union has launched a major initiative to bolster economic recovery in the Member States after the pandemic: for the first time, the EU countries have taken on debt together to provide 750 billion euros for economic recovery and structural reforms. This is a one-off measure that could have a structural nature, especially because funds are unlikely to be sufficient to stabilise the countries' economies in the light of the new challenges posed by the war in Ukraine. To ease monetary policy during the pandemic, the ECB introduced the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP), a temporary asset purchase programme of private and public sector securities. Further financial support is provided by additional funds included in the EU's 7-year budget 2021-2027 and by the European instrument for temporary Support to mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency (SURE).
Public funding flows mainly into those sectors of the economy where influential investors expect a higher return, while public goods such as the healthcare, social and education systems receive insufficient funding. Also the 750 billion euros made available by the EU for post-pandemic reconstruction follow this logic. As shown in a study by Caroline Criado Perez which won the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award in 2019, economic analyses are male-dominated: they are based on indicators which are first chosen and then given normative relevance by males according to their worldview. Data are selected according to the same approach. The study shows that the ‘male’ algorithm is also used in job interviews and when reviewing professional CVs. There are no data on the gender impact of monetary policy, the financial market, hedge funds or derivatives trading. The added value created by women through unpaid work at home, for child-rearing and care responsibilities is not even captured by market system indicators and thus its social significance fails to be perceived.
More (child)care services, improved access to the labour market for women and working arrangements that take into account the family responsibilities of parents to ensure a decent work-life balance are important measures that must be implemented in all EU countries. Part-time work necessitated by care responsibilities must be recognised for pension entitlement. The parental leave pay should be such that also higher income earners are encouraged to devote more time to their family. In general, gender equality should be embedded in all legislation, starting from the 50/50 principle. In order to achieve these goals, trade unions and workers' organisations at all levels must step up their efforts. They must confront their governments demanding that equal opportunities be considered on the basis of concrete benchmarks.
During the seminar it was noted that countries are implementing measures in a half-hearted way, while policies are increasingly influenced by obsolete role models. Measures to promote women's labour potential in Italy were quoted as an example: of the 200 billion euros of Italy’s Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), only 0.33% is allocated to direct measures to boost women's employment. The goal is to increase the female employment rate by 4%, but that is far too little considering Italy’s share of women in employment of 53.2% compared to the EU average of 67.7%, with Italy’s southern regions non exceeding 40%. The provision of childcare services for children aged 0-3 is to be increased from 25% to 33% by 2030 - a target already set by the EU in 2010. The plan falls short of the expectations associated with this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to address structural backlogs. Equality thus often remains lip service without concrete and effective implementation steps.
As for equal opportunities in Eastern Europe, despite different contour lines, criticalities remain the same. There, women's employment is taken for granted, just as it is expected of women to look after the house and shoulder responsibility for the care of family members. Governments are mainly concerned with how international crises and structural problems impact on the economic and social system and pay little attention to gender equality issues, which explains the lack of relevant support projects and specific funding.