Implementing Equal Pay Policy: Clash Between Gender Equality and Corporatism

Abstract

More often than not gender equality policies are good on paper but fall foul of politicized implementation processes. The reasons behind this are becoming a key area of investigation for feminist scholarship on the implementation of gender policies. This article analyzes the barriers to implementing gender equality policies in a corporatist regime. Focusing on the 2007 nurses’ industrial action in Finland, the article considers the case of “Nancy the Nurse,” which aimed at negotiating higher wages for nurses. Our findings suggest that the corporatist regime effectively prevented the implementation of gender equality policy, thus upholding the status quo and maintaining current wage relativities.

A special fund for gender equality? Institutional constraints and gendered consequences in Swedish collective bargaining

“…These findings support the argument of Saari et al. (2019) that research should direct greater attention both to the rules and practices that condition bargaining, and also to how seemingly neutral practices can have negative consequences for gender‐equality bargaining.…”

“…The importance of institutionally entrenched barriers is demonstrated in a recent study of a gender‐equal pay initiative in Finland targeting nurses (Saari et al., 2019). They conclude that while corporatism in practice is flexible, it is nevertheless highly gendered, stating that

Institutions can be stretched just far enough to aim at reaching better, fairer, more gender‐equal outcomes, yet still resist until the rubber band returns to its original equilibria, one that serves to illustrate the stability of inequality (Saari et al., 2019, p. 21).

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“…Institutions can be stretched just far enough to aim at reaching better, fairer, more gender‐equal outcomes, yet still resist until the rubber band returns to its original equilibria, one that serves to illustrate the stability of inequality (Saari et al., 2019, p. 21).…”

Egalitarian inequality: Gender equality and pattern bargaining

“…The aim of this article is to study the dynamics of the persisting gender pay gap in a highly segmented labor market, where the portion of feminized work remains valued lower than those dominated by men with comparable levels of education. Drawing on previous literature (Koskinen Sandberg & Saari, 2019; Saari et al., 2019; Skjeie et al., 2019; Skjeie & Teigen, 2003; Teigen & Skjeie, 2017), this article introduces the concept of egalitarian inequality . This concept encapsulates the acknowledgment but also abdication (Danieli, 2006) of the gendered nature of the Norwegian wage formation system displayed in the official commission reports in question.…”

“…Studies on how wages are set through institutional coordination have largely ignored the gendered nature of such institutions but have sought to better understand the circumstances and power relations that lead to more egalitarian wage‐setting structures in Nordic countries more broadly (Ibsen, 2015; Traxler et al., 2007). A more recent strand of literature focuses on the gendered impact of corporatist interest representation (Koskinen Sandberg & Saari, 2019; Saari et al., 2019), but has not yet examined the specific wage‐setting institution of pattern bargaining, which is pivotal to corporatist market structures.…”