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Synthesis Report

Prepared by

Francesca Bettio, Marcella Corsi, Carlo G·HSSROLPL Antigone Lyberaki, Manuela Samek Lodovici and Alina Verashchagina

November 2012

This report was financed by and prepared for the use of the European Commission, Directorate-General for Justice; Unit D2

'Equality between men and women', in the framework of a contract managed by the Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini (FGB) in

partnership with Istituto per la Ricerca Sociale (IRS). It does not necessarily reflect the opinion or position of the European

Commission or of the Directorate-General for Justice and nor is any person acting on their behalf responsible for the use that

might be made of the information contained in this publication.

THE IMPACT OF THE ECONOMIC CRISIS

ON THE SITUATION OF WOMEN AND MEN

AND ON GENDER EQUALITY POLICIES

2

Expert Group on Gender and Employment (EGGE)

The national experts (+ indicates a non-EU country) Ingrid Mairhuber (Austria) Ulrike Papouschek (Liechtenstein+) Danièle Meulders (Belgium) Ruta Braziene (Lithuania) Iskra Beleva (Bulgaria) Robert Plasman (Luxembourg) åHOÓNR 0UQÓMYMŃ FURMPLM+) Ana Androsik (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia+) Chrystalla Ellina (Cyprus) Frances Camilleri-Cassar (Malta) $OHQM .őWaeNRYi F]HŃO 5HSXNOLŃ Inés Hardoy (Norway+ )

Karen Sjørup (Denmark) Ania Plomien (Poland)

Marre Karu (Estonia) Virgínia Ferreira (Portugal) Hanna Sutela (Finland) Lucian - Liviu Albu (Romania) Rachel Silvera (France) Magdalena Piscová and Miloslav Bahna (the Slovak Republic) Friederike Maier and Andrea-Hilla Carl (Germany) Aleksandra Kanjuo-0UÿHOM 6ORYHQLM Maria Karamessini (Greece) Elvira González Gago (Spain)

Maria Frey (Hungary) Anita Nyberg (Sweden)

Sigurdur Johannesson (Iceland+) Janneke Plantenga and Chantal Remery (The Netherlands)

Ursula Barry (Ireland) Semsa Ozar (Turkey+)

Francesca Bettio and Alina Verashchagina (Italy) Colette Fagan and Helen Norman (United Kingdom)

Olga Rastrigina (Latvia)

Expert Group on Gender Equality and Social Inclusion, Health and Long-Term Care (EGGSI) The national experts (+ indicates non-EU countries)

Bettina Haidinger (Austria)

Nathalie Wuiame (Belgium)

Maria Slaveva Prohaska (Bulgaria)

Susana Pavlou (Cyprus)

$OHQM .őWaeNRYi F]HŃO 5HSXNOLŃ

Tine Rostgaard (Denmark)

Reelika Leetmaa and Marre Karu (Estonia)

Johanna Lammi-Taskula (Finland)

Anne Eydoux (France)

Alexandra Scheele (Germany)

Maria Thanopoulou and Johanna Tsiganou (Greece)

Beáta Nagy (Hungary)

Maria Hegarty and Mary Murphy (Ireland)

Flavia Pesce (Italy)

Anna Zasova (Latvia)

Ulrike Papouschek (Liechtenstein+)

Ruta Braziene (Lithuania)

Robert Plasman (Luxembourg)

Jana Lozanoska (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia+)

Frances Camilleri-Cassar (Malta)

Peter Donders (Netherlands)

Ira Malmberg-Heimonen (Norway+)

Irena Topinska (Poland)

Teresa Sarmento (Portugal)

Livia Popescu (Romania)

Barbora Holubová (the Slovak Republic)

Masa Filipovic (Slovenia)

Elvira González Gago (Spain)

Anita Nyberg (Sweden)

Yildiz Ecevit (Turkey+)

Claire Annesley (United Kingdom)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors wish to express their gratitude to Angela Cipollone who gave valuable contributions to the

drafting of the present report. 3

Contents

Executive summary ....................................................................................................................... 8

Résumé ......................................................................................................................................... 19

Kurzfassung ................................................................................................................................. 32

Preface ......................................................................................................................................... 46

1 Impact of the crisis on paid work ......................................................................................... 48

1.1 Introduction: concepts and past findings ........................................................................................................... 48

1.2 Employment, unemployment and sectoral segregation ................................................................................... 52

1.3 Inactivity and discouragement.............................................................................................................................. 63

1.4 Employment conditions: involuntary part-time and temporary contracts.................................................... 66

1.5 In-work poverty: differences among women matter ........................................................................................ 69

1.6 Working conditions: infringement and restrictions of rights and entitlements............................................ 70

1.7 Buffer and sheltered groups: the age, nationality and educational divides.................................................... 72

1.8 Concluding remarks ............................................................................................................................................... 76

2 The Gender Pay Gap in the current recession ...................................................................... 80

2.1 The decline in the Gender Pay Gap .................................................................................................................... 81

2.2 Factors driving the GPG decline ......................................................................................................................... 83

2.3 The role of Equal Pay policy ................................................................................................................................ 85

2.4 Concluding remarks ............................................................................................................................................... 86

3 Unpaid work in the current recession ................................................................................... 88

3.1 Changes in household expenditure in the recession ......................................................................................... 89

3.2 Unpaid work in Italy, Slovenia, Spain, and Turkey ........................................................................................... 90

3.3 Concluding remarks ............................................................................................................................................... 94

4 Fiscal consolidation, employment policies and gender equality ......................................... 95

4.1 Crisis, Governance and gender ............................................................................................................................ 95

4.2 The EU response to the crisis and gender mainstreaming .............................................................................. 97

4.3 Employment policies ............................................................................................................................................. 98

4.4 Fiscal consolidation and its likely impact on gender equality ........................................................................ 101

4.4.1 Fiscal consolidation: macroeconomic background and basic facts .......................................................... 101

4.4.2 Ex ante impact assessment of Fiscal Consolidation ............................................................................ 104

4.5 Taking the analysis forward: selected issues encountered in a panel of six Member States ..................... 108

4.6 Equal opportunities policy frameworks............................................................................................................ 113

4

4.7 Concluding remarks ............................................................................................................................................. 115

5 Gender differences in income poverty ................................................................................. 119

5.1 Income poverty and the crisis ............................................................................................................................ 121

5.2 Income support schemes and consumption support measures.................................................................... 126

5.2.1 Guaranteed minimum income schemes ................................................................................................ 127

5.2.2 Categorical measures for specific target groups ..................................................................................... 129

5.2.3 Consumption support measures and their consequences on gender equality............................................ 131

5.3 Concluding remarks ............................................................................................................................................. 133

6 Gender differences in social exclusion ................................................................................ 135

6.1 Material deprivation and the crisis ..................................................................................................................... 136

6.2 Education, life-long learning and training ........................................................................................................ 141

6.2.1 Focus on children and young people .................................................................................................... 142

6.2.2 Education and training for migrants .................................................................................................. 143

6.3 Housing conditions and living arrangements since the beginning of the crisis ......................................... 144

6.3.1 Cash benefits to support decent housing .............................................................................................. 147

6.3.2 Social housing and the fight to homelessness ........................................................................................ 148

6.4 Health and long-term care activities: evolution during the crisis ................................................................. 150

6.4.1 Impact of the recent reforms on health care .......................................................................................... 151

6.4.2 The provision of long-term care........................................................................................................... 154

6.5 Concluding remarks ............................................................................................................................................. 157

7 Overall conclusions .............................................................................................................. 158

7.1 Questionable progress towards equality: the downward leveling of gender gaps ...................................... 158

7.2 Women more similar to men in this crisis ....................................................................................................... 160

7.3 Moderate setbacks in the social impact of the crisis and the impact of fiscal consolidation ................... 161

7.4 Are gender mainstreaming and the equal opportunity infrastructure at stake? .......................................... 164

7.5 Recommendations ................................................................................................................................................ 165

References................................................................................................................................... 167

Appendix 1: The timing of peaks and troughs by country and sex (based on employment

rate for the age group 15-64) ....................................................................................................... 174

5

List of Figures

Figure 1.1. Employment and GDP 2003Q1-2012Q1. EU27 ............................................................................................ 52

Figure 1.2. Employment and inactivity rates in EU27, quarterly values and trends 2003Q1 ² 2012Q1 ....................... 55

Figure 1.3. Quarterly unemployment rates, 2003Q2-2012Q1, by sex .............................................................................. 56

Figure 1.4. Unemployment rates 2008Q2-2012Q1, by country and sex .......................................................................... 57

Figure 1.5. Employment and unemployment in the USA and in Europe 2000-2011, by sex ........................................ 58

Figure 1.6 -to-trough and trough-to-2012Q1 variations in employment, by country and sex ....................................... 59

Figure 1.7. Discouraged workers, 2008-11, by country and sex ........................................................................................ 65

Figure 1.8. Involuntary part-time, 2007-2011 ..................................................................................................................... 67

Figure 1.9. Temporary employment. Peak-to-trough change and current values ............................................................ 68

Figure 1.10. Determinants of in-work poverty, EU level, survey years 2007-2009 ......................................................... 69

Figure 1.11. Subjective evaluation of change in working conditions during last three years, 2008-2010 ...................... 71

Figure 1.12. Age profile of employment change. Peak-to-trough and trough-to-2012Q1 variations in the

employment rate. ................................................................................................................................................................... 74

Figure 1.13. Education profile of employment change. Peak-to-trough and trough-to-2012Q1 variations in the

employment rate. ................................................................................................................................................................... 75

Figure 1.14. Nationality profile of employment change. Peak-to-trough and trough-to-2012Q1 variations in the

employment rate. ................................................................................................................................................................... 76

Figure 2.1. Change in the composition of the gender pay gap. Belgium, 2007-2009 ...................................................... 83

Figure 3.1. Household expenditure by consumption purpose (selected COICOP items), % change 2008-2009

(volume) .................................................................................................................................................................................. 89

Figure 3.2. Difference between total work of women and men (20-74 years) in the EU ............................................... 90

Figure 4.1. Anticipated changes in employment levels in more than 50% of governmental agencies and ministries

(2010) .................................................................................................................................................................................... 100

Figure 4.2. Announced Consolidation plans as % of GDP ............................................................................................. 103

Figure 4.3. Short-term fiscal impact of the crisis. General government debt in ratio to GDP .................................... 104

Figure 4.4. (%) of persons reporting that poverty has strongly increased in the last 12 months in their country ..... 109

Figure 5.1. Dependency rate by sex, before and after the crisis began ........................................................................... 126

Figure 6.1. Intersections between the Europe 2020 indicators, by sex ........................................................................... 137

6

List of Tables

Table 1.1. Peaks and troughs in the employment rate (all, aged 15-64) ............................................................................ 54

Table 1.2. Employment vulnerability in the downturn ...................................................................................................... 62

Table 1.3. FRXSOHV N\ SMUPQHU·V LQŃRPH UROH 2007-2009 ................................................................................................... 64

Table 2.1. Gender pay gap in hourly earnings, unadjusted 2002-2010 ............................................................................. 82

Table 2.2. Gender pay gap, unadjusted, hourly earnings 2007-2011 ................................................................................. 84

Table 3.1. Yearly change in paid work, unpaid work, and housework: Italy, 1988-2009 ................................................ 91

Table 3.2. Change in paid and unpaid work by sex (2003-2010): Spain ........................................................................... 92

Table 4.1. Codifying some stylized facts -fiscal consolidation experience in the six country studies .......................... 112

Table 5.1. Evolution of the percentage of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion, by sex ................................. 120

Table 5.2. Evolution of the at-risk-of-poverty rate, by sex .............................................................................................. 122

Table 5.3. Evolution of the at-risk-of-poverty rate anchored at a fixed moment in time (2005), by sex .................... 123

Table 5.4. Evolution of the at-risk-of-poverty rate before social transfers, by sex ....................................................... 124

Table 6.1. Evolution of the severe material deprivation rate, by sex .............................................................................. 138

Table 6.2. Evolution of the severe material deprivation rate, by educational attainment and sex ............................... 139

Table 6.3. Evolution of the severe material deprivation rate among single persons, by sex ........................................ 140

Table 7.1. Crisis-specific measures in National Reforms Programme 2011 in EU 27 .................................................. 164

7

List of acronyms

CIG Cassa Integrazione Guadagni (Wages Guarantee Fund)

ECB European Central Bank

EEA European Economic Area

EFTA European Free Trade Association

ESF European Social Fund

EU European Union

FYROM the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

IMF International Monetary Fund

GDP Gross Domestic Product

GPG Gender Pay Gap

NEET Neither in Education nor in Employment or Training p.p. Percentage points

VAT Value Added Tax

8

Executive summary

Purpose

financial services sector and evolved as a sovereign debt crisis. Fiscal consolidation and austerity measures have been deployed in response to the crisis to reduce public deficits and debt. This crisis is still unfolding so that the analysis and findings of this report must remain a work in progress. This report aims to assess the impact of this crisis on the situation of women and men in Europe and on gender equality policies. This is important as economic crises are deeply gendered. Past experience cannot provide sufficient insight into the gender impact of this crisis as the position of women has changed considerably since the last major recession. This crisis offers opportunities for radical change, including a potential to advance equality for women and men. However, the crisis also poses challenges where gender equality may be seen as an issue only for the good times. This report is a product of the EGGE and the EGGSI expert networks of the European Commission. It covers twentyseven Member States, the EEA-EFTA countries and three candidate countries: Turkey, Croatia and FYROM. The core reference period for analysis of the labour market impact is the (nearly) four years between the second quarter of 2008 - when the

crisis technically started for the EU as a whole1 - and the first quarter of 2012 - the latest quarter

for which Eurostat data is available at the time of writing. Analysis of the social impact extends over the period between 2005 and 2010.

Four Main Conclusions

Four main conclusions can be drawn from this report. The first conclusion is that there has been a levelling down of gender gaps in employment, unemployment, wages and poverty over the crisis.

This however does not reflect progress in gender equality as it is based on lower rates of

employment, higher rates of unemployment and reduced earnings for both men and women.

HQ POH ILUVP \HMUV RI POH ŃULVLV OMNRXU PMUNHP VHJUHJMPLRQ OMV HIIHŃPLYHO\ VOHOPHUHG RRPHQ·V

employment, labour market activity and pay during the crisis to date. This segregation involves over-representation of women in service employment (including public sector jobs) and under- representation in manufacturing, construction and male dominated branches of the financial sector. The overall level of segregation in a country associates positively and significantly with the difference in employment losses for men and women. Men experienced comparatively higher employment losses than women in countries where this segregation is greater. Further, labour market segregation may eventually expose women to a greater extent where fiscal consolidation significantly curtails public sector jobs.

The second main conclusion of this report is that the labour market behaviour of women over the crisis

has been similar to that of men. The traditional view that women behave as employment buffers, called in when demand expands but pushed back when it contracts has been challenged for previous crises, but has been definitely refuted by the experience of this crisis. The contemporary

1 See European Commission, 2010e: Table 1. A recessionary episode technically occurs when the GDP records

quarter-on-quarter negative variations for two consecutive quarters. 9 This similarity of behaviour starts with the changed income role of women. Dual earner couples lost ground in the downturn almost exclusively to the advantage of female breadwinner couples that increased their share to almost 10%. Similarity of behaviour is evident in that discouragement from seeking work affected men more than women, in percentage terms. There is further evidence in that no fewer women than men workers was actually larger among women, although in percentage terms the surge was stronger among men. The worsening of employment conditions affected women and men differently rather than there is no clear indication whether men or women have been more affected. Men do report themselves as more affected by the crisis with more frequent complaints of heightened job insecurity, cuts in pay and having to accept less interesting work. There are repercussions from the crisis that specifically concern women. The rights of pregnant women to maternity leave and benefits have been curtailed and discrimination against pregnant women has been documented in at least four countries. There is limited evidence on developments in relation to unpaid work. However, in the depth of the first recessionary episode (2008-2009) household expenditure went down in most European countries for the consumption of items for which unpaid work may provide a good substitute. The third main conclusion of this report is that, while there is evidence of contained but uneven retrenchment in welfare provisions in the first years of the crisis, there is a threat that fiscal consolidation may ultimately reduce both the welfare provisions being made and the related employment with associated gender equality impacts.

The crisis has slightly reduced the gender gaps in poverty in the first two years, albeit by

increasing the risk of poverty among men more than among women. Without social transfers, the crisis would have produced larger increases in poverty rates in a large number of countries for both men and women. This redistribution has been important in reducing the gender gap in poverty rates. Education and training appear to have been less affected by budget cuts until 2010. National strategies during the crisis have focused on extending pre-school and out of school programmes. Such schemes are advantageous not only for children but also for the caring parents and in particular for women. Vulnerable groups in the education and training domain include migrant women, the homeless and those at risk of early school leaving (among whom men are over- represented).

The housing crisis in some countries is seriously affecting the lives of the most vulnerable

households, including single mothers and low-income households (among whom women are over-represented). Homelessness and long-term homelessness have increased during the crisis and this is a gendered phenomenon in several countries.

Men·V MQG RRPHQ·V OHMOPO VPMPXV LV UHSRUPHG PR OMYH GHPHULRUMPHG MV M UHVXOP RI POH ŃULVLVB Recent

health reforms in several countries have focused on cost containment and new or higher prescription fees have been also introduced in several countries. Cost containment has a regressive effect since the cost of healthcare impinges proportionally more on people with lower incomes and this weighs more heavily on women. Budget cuts in the health sector also hit women harder than men on the supply side as more women are employed in the sector. Some countries have boosted health and long-term care facilities but many others have raised

fees or reduced health or care-related cash benefits as part of public expenditure cuts. In

10 countries that underwent the most significant fiscal consolidation long-term care allowances and monetary benefits have been reduced and this has a disproportionate impact on women. Fiscal consolidation poses a risk for gender equality. The consolidation measures likely to have the most impact on gender equality include wage freezes or wage cuts in the public sector; staffing freezes or personnel cuts in the public sector; pension reforms; cuts and restrictions in

care related benefits/allowances/facilities; reduction of housing benefits or family benefits;

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