Work–family arrangements and the crisis in Spain: Balkanized gender contracts?

Abstract

Work-family arrangements and the crisis in Spain. Balkanized gender contracts? 2. Running title: Work-family arrangements and the crisis in Spain 3. Name of the author: Núria Sánchez-Mira 4. Institutional affiliations (work was conducted in two different institutions): Centre d'Estudis Sociològics sobre la Vida Quotidiana i el Treball (QUIT)-Institut d'Estudis del Treball (IET), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lausanne. 5. Conflict of interest statement: No conflict of interest declared. 6. Acknowledgments: This article stems from research funded by a FPU Fellowship (Formación de Profesorado Universitario) of the Spanish Ministry of Education (AP2010-0448) and has benefited from the support of the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research LIVES-Overcoming vulnerability: Life course perspectives, which is financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant number: 51NF40-160590). The author is grateful to the Spanish Ministry of Education and the Swiss National Science Foundation for its financial assistance.

Women’s Vulnerability to the Economic Crisis through the Lens of Part-time Work in Spain

“…Their marginal effects were positive and statistically significant at all time points considered. These findings are consistent with research showing how the crisis has reinforced labour market segmentation and degradation of labour standards (Muñoz de Bustillo Llorente and Pinto Hernández, 2016), triggering a significant deterioration of women's employment prospects, particularly of those in disadvantaged social strata (López-Andreu and Rubery, 2018;Sánchez-Mira, 2019). Thus, women in part-time, low-level occupations risk being exposed to increased vulnerability through dynamics of occupational polarisation, which have been found to be relevant in other countries with a stronger part-time tradition and where part-time workers are mostly relegated to secondary labour markets, such as the UK (Warren, 2015;Warren and Lyonette, 2018).…”

“…Although the article has examined general trends, future research might include a specific exploration of some intersectional factors that can trigger socioeconomic disadvantage and have important ramifications for the dynamics observed here. First, labour force segments and occupational classes, with a focus on low educated women, as the importance of processes of labour market segmentation and occupational polarisation and their effects on women's vulnerability has been highlighted by other research work (Sánchez-Mira, 2019;Távora and Rodríguez-Modroño, 2018). Second, ethnic divides, as the differentiated allocation of migrants to labour market structures has been shown by analyses on the employment trajectories of migrant women (Muñoz-Comet and Steinmetz, 2020).…”

“…Household employment is usually studied in terms of couple-level dynamics and hence approached through the employment status of partners (Sánchez-Mira, 2019). This article takes a different approach, which considers that the level and adequacy of the buffer provided by available wage-related resources in a household is related to the number of adult household members involved in paid work (Warren, 2008).…”

“…Second, although the percentage of female part-time workers has remained comparatively low despite its constant growth since 2008 (25.3% in 2014), a greater concern within the group of female part-timers is the increased share of involuntariness (from 36.5% in 2008 to 64.4% in 2014) and underemployment (from 7.3% in 2008 to 13.8% in 2014). Third, although socio-institutional arrangements still endorse familialism and the maintenance of the sexual division of labour (Lombardo, 2017), the altered conditions of the labour market due to the crisis have widely affected household employment situations and women's patterns of socioeconomic integration (Salido, 2016;Salido and Moreno, 2012;Sánchez-Mira, 2019).…”

Labor Market Discrimination – Are Women Still More Secondary Workers?

“…Although changes in factors generating segmentation are observed, the very phenomenon does not disappear. The 2008 financial crisis has resulted even in an increased segmentation (Eichhorst et al, 2017;Sánchez-Mira, 2019). The empirical studies' results show that when secondary workers lose their job, they transfer mainly to inactive persons, while primary workers -to the unemployed.…”