Progress towards equal opportunities is critically dependent upon the development of a more equal and more balanced allocation of time in both paid and unpaid work. Gender divisions relating to working time arise primarily from differences in gender divisions within the household but the extent and form that these gender divisions take in the labor market are moderated or mediated by national working-time regimes. These regimes are found to be extremely diverse across Europe with very different implications for gender equality. Current interests in greater flexibility in working time are leading to pressures to changes in working-time regimes and to an increase in the extent of unsocial hours working. The strategies adopted to meet these pressures may vary by country and sector but the restructuring of working time is also likely to be influenced by gender factors and divisions. The result may be increasing differentiation by both gender and class. Progress towards equality requires a renewal of interest in reducing standard working hours and a questioning of the current assumption that increasing unsocial hours working is essential for competitiveness.Gender, Working Time, Equality, Europe,

Promoting job quality and gender equality are objectives of the European Employment Strategy (EES) in spite of a downgrading of the attention given to both in the revised employment guidelines and the relaunch of the Lisbon Process. However, advances on both of these objectives may be important complements to the employment rate targets of the EES, as access to good quality jobs for both sexes is likely to help sustain higher employment rates. While the European Commission has a broad view of the concept of job quality in practice, it relies on a selection of labour market type indicators that say little about the quality of the actual jobs people do. Using data from the 2005 European Working Conditions survey, we analyse job quality along three dimensions: job content, autonomy and working conditions. We conclude that gender and occupational status, along with other job characteristics such as working time and sector, have more influence on an individual's job quality than the country or 'national model' they are situated in. Our results also demonstrate the value of developing indicators of job quality that are both gender sensitive and derived at the level of the job rather than the labour market in order to advance EU policy and academic debate on this topic.

Supposedly emblematic of digital capitalism, the rise of the gig economy is frequently taken as a cipher for the developing deindustrialisation of western societies. It is tempting to interpret the shift of manufacturing jobs to the global south and their replacement with service sector jobs as a one-way street, leading to the demise of decent work and the rise of work characterized by precarity, low pay, low skill and a non-unionized workforce. However, the reality is inevitably more complex. In the first place, pessimism may be attributed to a rose-tinted view of the experience of former industrial employment in the global north resulting from a questionable assumption about the nature of the jobs that occupied most people in former industrial societies. Certainly, deindustrialisation is not leading to “de-working,” that is, working less for the same money. With respect to gig work, autonomy and flexibility are central to labor inducement and hence labor control. Yet at the same time, and linked to the latter, we need to explore another deep-rooted phenomenon: the persistence of work space collectivism. Our evidence derives from qualitative interviews with gig workers in the food delivery sector in a number of European countries. We highlight the extent to which couriers profess a variety of understandings of the character of platform economy labor processes. A range of narratives emerge including platform work as leisure, as economic opportunity, and as collectivist labor. Moreover, individuation, attendant upon the character of the physical labor process, did not lead in any straightforward way to individualism in social labor processes—contrary to our expectations, we in fact witnessed forms of collectivism. Collectivism is to be distinguished from “types of solidarity” described by Morgan and Pulignano ( 2020 ) whereby neo-liberalism has transformed a range of institutional forms of labor solidarities. By contrast, we are concerned with the persistence of the collective worker within the changing sociological structure of work. This echoes the earlier finding by Stephenson and Stewart ( 2001 ) that collectivism endures even when behaviourally absent and indeed even in the context of individualized working—termed “whispering shadow.” Thus, the objective of the paper is to explore the forms of actor individualism and collectivism identified in our research. Given platform apps' external control, the gig economy spatially separates workers while at the same time requiring cognition of colleagues' collective work and labor process. Notwithstanding structural processes separating workers-in-work, platforms also witness the instantiation of forms of collectivism. Deindustrialisation is neither the end to collectivism nor trade unionism. Rather than post-work, then, we explore the problematics of plus work and variant collectivisms.

journal-of-economics-equal-pay.aspx. The authors are also very grateful for the administrative support provided by Catherine O'Brien in organising the Cambridge symposium, and to Jacqui Lagrue for monitoring the submissions and manuscript revisions.

This article analyses the changing position of gender in the European Employment Strategy (EES) since its 2005 relaunch. Overall, we find a picture of mixed progress towards gender equality goals across Member States. There is evidence of the EU soft law approach leading to positive developments as the use of targets in conjunction with Country‐Specific Recommendations and Points‐to‐Watch have had some influence in promoting gender equality policies among Member States. However, the weakened position of gender mainstreaming in European‐level initiatives has led to gender being marginalised or ignored in national and EU policy responses to the crisis. The prominence of gender has declined further in the 2010 revision of the EES under the 2020 banner. This introduces new risks as the emphasis on gender equality falls further down the list of priorities in the streamlining of the Lisbon Process.

While the momentum has certainly not yet disappeared from the gender equality agenda within Europe, the impact of that agenda remains patchy. Progress within individual member states has been significant but not always steady or cumulative. At the European level more attention has been paid to the gender pay gap but policy initiatives remain weak. The loss of the equal opportunities pillar in the new employment guidelines puts this momentum at risk but the new phase still includes commitments to an integrated strategy of gender mainstreaming and equal opportunities.

Purpose This paper aims to explore the experience of self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) moving from the global South to the global North. It considers the relationship between country of origin and host country, the role of non-traditional destinations and the choices made by SIEs. Design/methodology/approach In-depth interviews were conducted with Indian SIEs and key experts to explore the motives, identities and life narratives of skilled expatriate Indians in France. Findings The results shed light on how individuals’ careers are fashioned through the intersection of identities; highlighting the interplay between country of origin and the host country as a catalyst in SIEs’ choice of destination. Furthermore, the authors demonstrate a strategic form of agency exercised through these SIEs’ choice of an unconventional destination. Research limitations/implications The intricate nature of SIE trajectories holds implications for migration theory, diaspora studies and career theory. SIEs from the Global South adopt varying strategies linked to specific host-country career offerings, often in sharp contrast with home-country opportunities. Practical implications The results inform managerial and policy-maker understandings of career motivations for mobile skilled workers moving for career and lifestyle. For countries seeking to attract talent, the findings demonstrate the roles of host-country immigration policy, country reputation and perceived career opportunities. Originality/value This study helps address research gaps in relation self-initiated expatriation from the Global South to the North. At the same time, it identifies the potential for transitional spaces and the relationship between countries, identity-formation factors and career agency. These findings on France as a transitional space – one of intermediacy and in-betweenness, where self-identity and future career projections can be re-imagined and reshaped – shed new light on how SIEs and their movements can be conceptualized.

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