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.
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.
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.
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
Understanding of welfare states has been much enriched by comparative work on welfare regimes and gender. This book uses these debates to illuminate the changing gender regimes in countries of Central and Eastern Europe. It has particular significance as countries in the region make the transition from communism and into a European Union that has issues of women's employment, work-life balance, and gender equality at the heart of its social policy. The analysis draws on quantitative comparative data, and on rich qualitative data from a new study of mothers in Polish households, illuminating the effects of changing welfare and gender relations from the perspective of those most directly affected - mothers of young children. This book is an important addition to the literature and is recommended to academics and students interested in the study of gender relations, welfare states, and international and comparative European social policy. The insights gained will also be of value to those engaged in welfare policy and practice.
The book presents state of the art research on women’s current position in European labour markets. It combines analysis of the latest trends in employment, occupational segregation, working time, unpaid work, social provisions (especially care provisions) and the impact of the financial crisis, with overall assessment of the actual impact of the European Employment Strategy and the specific impact of key policies, such as taxation and flexicurity.
Providing a comprehensive analysis of comparative gender difference in the EU, this book addresses a spectrum of gender issues. From employment and households, to culture, sexuality and male violence, the book transcends any 'economy/culture' divide. This wide coverage is placed within a conceptual view of structured 'gender cultures' which vary spatially and historically. Individual chapters are written around this common theme by an expert board of international contributors, drawn from a variety of intellectual and disciplinary backgrounds, allowing the reader to compare between chapters and read across them.
This book uses work on welfare regimes and gender to illuminate the changing gender regimes in countries of Central and Eastern Europe making the transition into a European Union that has women's employment, work-life balance, and gender equality at the heart of its social policy.
