This contribution analyzes how men and women in France, Italy, Sweden, and the United States use their time over the life cycle and the extent to which societal and institutional contexts influence the gender division of labor. In order to test the hypothesis that contextual factors play a crucial role in shaping time allocation, this study considers countries that diverge considerably in terms of welfare state regime, employment and paid working time systems, family policies, and social norms. Using national time-use surveys for the late 1990s and early 2000s and regression techniques, the study not only finds large gender discrepancies in time use in each country at all stages of life but also determines that institutional contexts, in particular the design of family policies and employment regimes, do shape gender roles in different ways, and that Sweden displays the lowest gender gap in time allocation across the life course.Gender division of labor, life course, paid work, time budget surveys, time use, unpaid household work,

No abstract

This article examines the influence of labour market factors on public authorities’ decisions to outsource public services in five countries. The dominant focus in the outsourcing literature is on a narrow range of factors: public–private gaps in pay, union membership and collective bargaining coverage. We find such differences to be variable, and develop a more encompassing perspective. This includes consideration of labour market rules that establish wage floors and employment protection (especially for outsourced workers) and the possible differentiation of legal status between public and private employees. Our case studies from local government in five countries highlight a set of country-specific interconnections between labour market factors and outsourcing. These lead to variations in both managers’ and unions’ approaches towards outsourcing and in outcomes for pay and working conditions. We call for a strengthening of the inclusiveness of industrial relations structures to combat problems of workforce fragmentation caused by outsourcing.

No abstract

The main objective of this paper is to analyse the main evolutions and the current situation of the 50-74 years old on the labour market in eight European countries (Denmark France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Sweden, Poland and the United Kingdom). Based on a cross-country comparative approach, this overview draws on detailed analysis of the situation of older workers and public policies in each of the selected countries but also on a wide range of available studies and statistics on employment and welfare outcomes. Our eight selected countries display similarities: a ushaped pattern of employment rates of older workers (55-64 years old) over the last 40 years, with an increase since mid 1990s, the later exit of higher educated workers and the higher prevalence of non-standard employment contracts among older workers. On the other hand, considerable disparities can be observed regarding the gender gap in employment rate, current employment rates, self-employment and part-time employment among older workers.

Purpose Drawing on a unique combination of longitudinal administrative data and a postal survey, the purpose of this paper is to identify the socio-economic factors and individual characteristics that affect senior citizens’ decision to continue working on the Swedish labour market after the standard retirement age. Design/methodology/approach By using standard econometric techniques (multinomial logit model) on a large representative sample of 20,000 senior citizens residing in Sweden, the auhtors analyse the extent to which socio-economic factors and individual characteristics including personality traits affect the decision of senior citizens to delay retirement and to continue working after the standard retirement age. Findings The results of our estimations show clearly that good health, high educational attainment/high-skilled jobs, good psychosocial work environment, employment status (to be self-employed), personality traits (extraversion, openness to experience and conscientiousness) as well as industrial sectors (agriculture, healthcare and transport) are strong predictors of the continuation of work after the standard retirement age (65 years old). Research limitations/implications High job quality and good working conditions, along with continuous improvements in public health, are seemingly essential elements for motivating senior workers to delay retirement as are preventive policy measures favouring the development of decent and sustainable working conditions across the life course. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the paper is the first attempt in Sweden to analyse jointly a large range of factors influencing the decision to remain in the labour force after the standard/normal pension age, including psychosocial working conditions and personality traits.

[fre] Offre de travail et répartition des activités domestiques et parentales au sein du couple: une comparaison entre la France et la Suède . . Globalement, la division du travail entre conjoints dans les couples français et suédois reste traditionnelle et évolue dans le même sens. Dans les deux pays, les femmes consacrent plus de temps aux activités domestiques et parentales et moins de temps aux activités professionnelles que les hommes. Un tel résultat doit cependant être précisé en fonction des contextes économiques, institutionnels et sociétaux de chaque pays, notamment pour apprécier dans quelle mesure ces différences favorisent ou entravent une division plus égalitaire des activités rémunérées et des tâches domestiques et parentales entre les conjoints. Au vu d’analyses plus fines, la division du travail apparaît ainsi plus inégalitaire pour les couples français que pour les couples suédois. Les Suédois consacrent plus de temps aux activités domestiques et parentales que leurs homologues français. Les Suédoises ajustent aussi davantage leur offre de travail à celle de leur conjoint. La présence d’enfants d’âge préscolaire réduit l’offre des travail des femmes dans les deux pays, mais les mères françaises ont plus tendance à se retirer complètement du marché du travail après une naissance. Cette différence s’explique par un système de congés parentaux plus souple en Suède qui ménage davantage de possibilités de réinsertion sur le marché du travail tenant compte de la présence de jeunes enfants dans le couple. En revanche, après l’âge de trois ans, les modes de garde collective de la petite enfance, qui concernent les trois quarts des enfants dans les deux pays, jouent plutôt dans le sens d’une meilleure parité hommes/ femmes dans l’offre de travail. En France, plus les femmes travaillent et plus la répartition des tâches domestiques est égalitaire, surtout si elles ont un niveau de formation élevé. La contribution des pères français aux activités parentales restent cependant moins élevée que celle des pères suédois. [eng] The Labour Supply and the Breakdown of Domestic and Parental Activities within the Couple: a Comparison between France and Sweden . . The division of labour between spouses in French and Swedish couples remains traditional overall and is developing along the same lines. In both countries, women spend more time on domestic and parental activities and less time on professional activities than the men. However, this finding calls for a more detailed study from the point of view of each country’s economic, institutional and societal contexts, especially to assess the extent to which these differences promote or hinder a more equal division of remunerated activities and domestic and parental tasks between spouses. The more detailed analyses show the division of labour to be more inequitable for French couples than for Swedish couples. The Swedes spend more time on domestic and parental activities than their French counterparts. Swedish women also adjust their labour supply more to that of thei...

Over the last decades, the life course approach has developed into a major research paradigm. The notion of life course provides a common field of research and a heuristic conceptual device aiming at studying individuals trajectories over time. In its modern version, the life course approach can be said to represent a major innovation in our understanding of complex social phenomena, making time, context and process core theoretical dimensions of social behaviour. Most of the research using this approach has stressed the extent to which social structures and individual factors shape the life course of individuals and has focused on the developmental consequences of alternative life trajectories. One of the main features of the life course approach is therefore to recognize the crucial role time plays in our understanding of individual behaviour and structural changes in society. The second important dimension of the life course approach is its attempt to take a holistic view, in that the analysis no longer focuses on isolated specific events, phases or demographic groups as being discrete and fixed but considers the entire life as the basic framework for empirical analysis and policy evaluation. The link between individual trajectories on one hand and historical period, social structures, as well as human agency on the other is also at the core of the life course paradigm. The notion of life course posits therefore that life trajectories are constituted by a palette of sequences of events that are both individually and socially 1. This article is a summary of a report written on behalf of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Dublin) (2004) A new organisation of working time throughout working life. Dominique Anxo and Jean-Yves Boulin were the coordinators of a research team composed by researchers from different countries and institutions: Colette Fagan (Manchester University, UK), Saskia Keuzenkamp (Social and Cultural Plan Bureau,constructed. The main objective of this cross-country comparative paper is to analyse to which extent the design of national welfare state regimes shape households' patterns of labour market integration over the life course. An analysis of the various national regulatory frameworks, with special focus on institutional opportunities and/or barriers to combine paid work with other social activities, is provided. Special attention is also given to companies' human resource and time management and whether human resource strategies encompass a life course perspective. By linking the specificity of the various regulatory and social protection systems to the country's current patterns of labour market integration the authors not only examine the impact of the overall institutional framework on time allocation over the life course but, also the extent to which the current working time options actually affect the sustainability of the social protection systems. Finally, in the conclusion, some policy implications are suggested with a special focus on the...