Work-Life Balance and Gender Equality Policy in Europe

The Working Woman and the Promise of Feminism

During times of military mobilization or industrial expansion, women represent a useful resource to employers even in the most sexually hegemonic of cultures. Politicians urge women to leave their kitchens and join the workforce under the heart-tugging banner of patriotism and national spirit. "We Need You!" they proclaim in colorful posters and media campaigns. However, when the market contracts or the men return, those same politicians thank women for their service and — with the threat of high unemployment looming — send them back to the domestic sphere with little justification beyond patriotic gratitude and entrenched social convention.

The modern working woman struggles to balance work and family as the Second Wave of feminism propels her firmly into the workforce, driving her through social cliché with the promise of gender equality at the office and a balanced life at home. Traditional gender roles, however, maintain a fixed devaluation of her performance — she cannot be expected to balance professional demands while also bearing, nursing, and raising the next generation. It is not until the rise of the Third Wave of feminism, led by the very women who left home for positions in politics, that promises of egalitarian family and workplace arrangements begin to take concrete shape. These movements have swept through the integrated institutions of Europe, where "family values" and "workplace equality" are projected simultaneously in government policy and in everyday life.

European Policy and the Work-Life Balance

While the United States has lagged behind, European leaders responded to growing pressure from their workforces by constructing social policies that relieve the strain imposed on working families by a patriarchal society. With working mothers facing mounting stress at home and in the office, their political voices grew louder. As one observer noted, "I'd like to think that the reason why the boys are now so interested is that they've seen the light — the innate justice and good sense, etc. — but in truth, the interest is far more to do with electoral strategy." While the promotion of gender equality has not always been the driving force, the result has been consequential: in both France and Britain, a more gender-balanced workplace and family life is increasingly reflected in governmental policy.

In 2000, the French government reduced the standard work week to thirty-five hours, introducing a new balance to the lives of two in three French workers. Although the government's primary aim was to reduce unemployment through greater distribution of employment, the policy resonated more broadly as an affirmation of work-life balance. Only five years later, France was forced to reverse course in the face of international outsourcing pressures, returning to the traditional forty-hour week.

Nevertheless, even as economic pressures drove working hours back to meet international competition, the social adjustments embedded in careful policy remained part of European public conversation. As one commentator observed, "Politicians who talk about the work-life balance show some understanding of the aspirations of ordinary people."

The European Commission in 1999 stressed that while women's labor market participation, working conditions, and preferences were well-documented, any work-life balance policy would need to reflect the universal need to reconcile the temporal demands of both work and family. It concluded: "Beyond maternal employment, other areas are poorly mapped or entirely uncharted. Paternal employment and parental employment at the household level have received very little attention." Fostered by research at a leading British university's School of Sociology and Social Policy, the British government confronted an uncomfortable fact: while policies enabling mothers to embrace family life without forfeiting their careers created new ease for working women, those same policies upheld the traditional patriarchal structure of gender politics.

References

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