In ‘Social Change in Western Europe’ (1999) Crouch argues that there is a “mid-century social compromise” in which industrialism, capitalism, liberalism, and citizenship achieved a distinctive balance in Western Europe after World War II. The new role of women as paid workers has affected domestic and private gender relations. Conciliation of paid work and unpaid domestic and care work has become a problem for many couples and an important policy issue. A new social compromise is needed in order to balance employment and family and avoid important unintended effects such as low fertility. In this piece of work we focus on one very private dimension of the new balance, which is the division of unpaid work.The aim of this chapter is to explore factors linked to the emergence of a gender-equality-balance and thus the conditions under which men become equally engaged in housework within young-adult couples in post-industrial societies. The indicator selected for ‘gender equality’ is men’s share of domestic activities. First, we explore the conditions under which men perform the same amount of housework as their wives or more, asking whether the bargaining power of his partner, indicated by her relative income and her time spent in paid work is still relevant when gender attitudes and the family life stage are taken into account. Second, we explore how country differences in the prevalence of innovative men can be explained through female empowerment in the market, the family and the state. We argue that national contexts influence the gendered division of housework, independently of composition effects, through gender norms and institutions that influence bargaining power within couples. In order to achieve our research goals, we develop a comprehensive multi-level and cross-national analysis, which we apply to 26 European countries using the 2004 European Social Survey.
Gender, Family and the Labour Market in Post-industrial Societies: A New Social Compromise?
NALDINI, Manuela
2012-01-01
Abstract
In ‘Social Change in Western Europe’ (1999) Crouch argues that there is a “mid-century social compromise” in which industrialism, capitalism, liberalism, and citizenship achieved a distinctive balance in Western Europe after World War II. The new role of women as paid workers has affected domestic and private gender relations. Conciliation of paid work and unpaid domestic and care work has become a problem for many couples and an important policy issue. A new social compromise is needed in order to balance employment and family and avoid important unintended effects such as low fertility. In this piece of work we focus on one very private dimension of the new balance, which is the division of unpaid work.The aim of this chapter is to explore factors linked to the emergence of a gender-equality-balance and thus the conditions under which men become equally engaged in housework within young-adult couples in post-industrial societies. The indicator selected for ‘gender equality’ is men’s share of domestic activities. First, we explore the conditions under which men perform the same amount of housework as their wives or more, asking whether the bargaining power of his partner, indicated by her relative income and her time spent in paid work is still relevant when gender attitudes and the family life stage are taken into account. Second, we explore how country differences in the prevalence of innovative men can be explained through female empowerment in the market, the family and the state. We argue that national contexts influence the gendered division of housework, independently of composition effects, through gender norms and institutions that influence bargaining power within couples. In order to achieve our research goals, we develop a comprehensive multi-level and cross-national analysis, which we apply to 26 European countries using the 2004 European Social Survey.
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