The standard approach to regulating working hours rests on gendered assumptions about how paid and unpaid work ought to be divided. In this book, Ania Zbyszewska takes a feminist, socio-legal approach to evaluate whether the contemporary European working time regimes can support a more equal sharing of this work. Focusing on the legal and political developments surrounding the EU's Working Time Directive and the reforms of Poland's Labour Code, Zbyszewska reveals that both regimes retain this traditional gender bias, and suggests the reasons for its persistence. She employs a wide range of data sources and uses the Polish case to assess the EU influence over national policy discourse and regulation, with the broader transnational policy trends also considered. This book combines legal analysis with social and political science concepts to highlight law's constitutive role and relational dimensions, and to reflect on the relationship between discursive politics and legal action.
Ania Zbyszewska's feminist, socio-legal study of the European working time regime examines its historical development and influence in the Polish working time reform, focusing on the gendered dynamics and the relationship between the EU and national politics and law. This study will be of interest to legal and feminist scholars, and policy makers.
This dissertation examines the discursive, political, and legal context of the European Union's (EU) Working Time Directive, beginning with the history of its adoption and ending with its unsuccessful revision attempt in 2009. It also analyzes the Directive's influence on the working-time regime in Poland, and considers whether or not it advances gender equality. A feminist, socio-legal perspective that is attentive to multiple levels of governance is used to analyze the Directive, the Polish Labour Code provisions, and their interaction. The dissertation illustrates how standard working-time norms both assumed and institutionalized an unequal allocation of paid and unpaid work between men and women, which either constrained women's employment opportunities or, in Poland's case, penalized women with a double burden of paid and unpaid work. It shows how a contextual analysis of the EU and Polish working-time instruments allows us to evaluate whether the norms they set embody and reproduce, or challenge and move beyond, these gendered assumptions. The focus is on changes in the political, economic, and social milieu, developments in policy discourses and institutional architecture, and the role of actors influencing the evolution of these instruments. Emphasis is given to Poland's post-1989 transition and EU accession processes, the expansion of the EU competences, and the influence of broader transnational trends. The study reveals that the current regulatory approaches to standard work-time promoted in the EU and Poland are unlikely to facilitate equal re-distribution of work time between men and women because equality and work-family reconciliation have been either absent as potential regulatory rationales or subordinated to the dominant pursuit of labour market flexibility and efficiency. In the EU, this subordination stemmed from institutional, legal, and political constraints existing at the time of the Directive's adoption and subsequent review. In Poland, domestic and external pressures also privileged economic discourses and the adoption of EU norms enabled progressive flexibilization of the Polish working-time regime, while preserving opportunities for long work-hours. Although recent policy emphasis on equality and the promotion of work-family reconciliation for all workers is promising, curbing long hours and betterincorporation of care work are required for socially sustainable and equal working-time regimes.
Comprehensive gender equality remains an unfulfilled goal in many European countries, in spite of important developments and challenges to the traditional gendered division of labour. This volume reviews recent advances of gender policies in different countries in the European Union, together with recent empirical data on gender relations in the labour market and within families. It adopts an international and interdisciplinary perspective through its use of qualitative and quantitative data, and a comprehensive theoretical framework. Particular attention is paid to the latest developments in the field of gender equality in different Scandinavian countries - countries which are customarily seen as forerunners in the area. The title culminates with an in-depth discussion on the possibility of converging alternate gender policy regimes in Europe.
Oversigt over de europæiske landes arbejdstider - deltidsarbejde, overarbejde, hjemarbejde og fleksible arbejdstider - og disses indvirkning på kønsligestilling
What types of work arrangements do women and men prefer? To what extent do current work patterns diverge from these preferences? These questions are of vital importance for European employment policy. To achieve a higher employment rate, it is necessary both to increase the number of jobs and to encourage work arrangements that accommodate individual preferences. In this way, women and men will be able to participate actively in the labour market throughout their working lives. This report looks at the role played by gender in determining labour market participation. It draws on findings from a major survey on employment options carried out by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions across all 15 EU Member States and Norway. It shows how women's and men's employment preferences are related to the kinds of jobs they do, as well as to their domestic circumstances, and compares the wishes of those who are currently employed with those of job-seekers. The study covers a range of aspects including self-employment, working from home, childcare, and working time arrangements.
This Handbook maps the expanding field of gender and EU politics, giving an overview of the fundamentals and new directions of the sub- discipline, and serving as a reference book for (gender) scholars and students at different levels interested in the EU. In investigating the gendered nature of European integration and gender relations in the EU as a political system, it summarizes and assesses the research on gender and the EU to this point in time, identifies existing research gaps in gender and EU studies and addresses directions for future research. Distinguished contributors from the US, the UK and continental Europe, and from across disciplines from political science, sociology, economics and law, expertly inform about gender approaches and summarize the state of the art in gender and EU studies. The Routledge Handbook of Gender and EU Politics provides an essential and authoritative source of information for students, scholars and researchers in EU studies/ politics, gender studies/ politics, political theory, comparative politics, international relations, political and gender sociology, political economy, European and legal studies/ law.
An exploration of European integration as seen through a gender lens. This book looks at integration theories, institutional relationships, enlargement, the development of gender law and the role of formal actors, scholars and expert networks in the EU policy-making process. With a focus on gender mainstreaming as a new approach to gender policy.
