Italians’ use of time during the economic crisis: implications for the gender division of labour

ABSTRACTPopulation ageing has led many countries to be concerned about the ‘economic burden’ of elders, and several have adopted the active ageing paradigm to reform policy. However, gender differences that moderate the effect of active ageing have been little considered. As in other nations in the European Union, Swiss federal authorities use the active ageing paradigm to reshape ageing policies, including the provision of incentives to seniors to remain in the labour market. At the same time, many recent and proposed changes draw on the assumption of gender equality, even though actual parity has not yet been demonstrated. We know little about how gender shapes retirement in Switzerland, other than in relation to financial inequality between women and men. Qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews conducted with Swiss retirees (N = 15) shows how men and women describe this time of life differently. All respondents characterised retirement as a time of freedom; but the meaning of such freedom diverged for men and women, reflecting the gender division of labour, which is further shaped by class. We discuss the implications of this difference for the gendered consequences of active ageing policies.

Download Full-text

Will a Basic Income Do Justice to Women?

Analyse & Kritik ◽

10.1515/auk-2001-0108 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 23 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Ingrid Robeyns

Keyword(s):

Social Policy ◽

Division Of Labour ◽

Basic Income ◽

The Real ◽

Policy Measures ◽

Gender Division Of Labour

AbstractThis article addresses the question whether a basic income will be a just social policy for women. The implementation of a basic income will have different effects for different groups of women, some of them clearly positive, some of them negative. The real issues that concern feminist critics of a basic income are the gender-related constraints on choices and the current gender division of labour, which are arguably both playing at the disadvantage of women. It is argued that those issues are not adequately addressed by a basic income proposal alone, and therefore basic income has to be part of a larger packet of social policy measures if it wants to maximise real freedom for all.

Download Full-text

Fostering Entrepreneurship at the Spanish University

Gender and Diversity ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-6912-1.ch051 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 1011-1040

Author(s):

Inmaculada Pastor-Gosálbez ◽

Ana Isabel Blanco ◽

Adelina Rodríguez ◽

Ana Acosta ◽

Paloma Pontón ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Division Of Labour ◽

Gender Inequalities ◽

University System ◽

Participation Of Women ◽

The Creation ◽

Spanish Universities ◽

The University ◽

Freelance Work ◽

Gender Division Of Labour

In this chapter we discuss the policies for fostering entrepreneurship at Spanish universities and how these policies may be related with the low participation of women in university spin-offs. Using our results from the first part of the EQUASPIN project1, we also discuss the effects of the gender division of labour on the creation of freelance work within the specific framework of knowledge-transfer companies. We also present some of our findings with regard to gender differences in both the creation of spin-offs and the role of the university system in the production and reproduction of gender inequalities.

Download Full-text

Sex in School

Gender, Health, and History in Modern East Asia ◽

10.5790/hongkong/9789888390908.003.0003 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Jen-der Lee

Keyword(s):

Sex Education ◽

Division Of Labour ◽

Sexual Differences ◽

Republican China ◽

Moral Landscape ◽

Early Republican ◽

And Gender ◽

Visual Materials ◽

Anatomical Information ◽

Gender Division Of Labour

Nearly two hundred volumes of physiology and hygiene textbooks, together with governmental and other materials, are investigated in this chapter to illuminate the intricacies in drawing the moral landscape pertinent to sex education in early republican China. Frequent revisions of official directives testify to the fast changing political and intellectual arena of China. Shifted emphases between reproductive functions and puberty sexuality exemplify the professionals’ uncertainties in getting to the early teens. Pedagogical publication boomed and writers experimented on both textual and visual materials. Bio-medicine was flagged as entrance to learning one’s own body, but a healthier nation promoted in the New Life Movement eventually relied on the individual’s self-discipline not necessarily required of scientific erudition. Some may have found secretion system more useful than anatomical information to integrate physiology, psychology and pathology into the mechanism of sexual differences, so much so that a gender division of labour was proposed to fulfill both personal responsibilities and to echo contemporary political rhetoric. Not all endorsed such elaboration, however, and the zigzag between sexual differences and gender equality became a noteworthy parallel to the tug-of-war between sexuality and reproduction.

Download Full-text

Migration, Modernization, and Social Change

Dhaka's Changing Landscape ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190121112.003.0008 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 249-279

Author(s):

Rita Afsar ◽

Mahabub Hossain

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Social Change ◽

Gender Roles ◽

Labour Market ◽

Division Of Labour ◽

Actual Situation ◽

Attitudes And Practices ◽

Women's Higher Education ◽

Attitudinal Changes ◽

Gender Division Of Labour

Chapter 8 unlocks the inter-relationship between migration and modernization by analysing attitudinal changes associated with urban living such as attitudes towards gender division of labour, women’s higher education, and participation in the labour market, to generate broader understanding on women’s empowerment. It also assesses whether, how, and to what extent gender and generational relations are redefined and impacted in relation to migration. It does so by analysing gender roles, attitudes, and aspirations regarding major institutions and practices including marriage, divorce, dowry, and inheritance that govern gender relations. It presents the actual situation of the members of these families on each of these accounts to examine whether there is consistency between what they think and what they practice. In this process, it identifies the factors that are conducive towards progressive attitudes and practices, and those which impede progress, the key determinant of qualitative changes and a migrants’ prospects for a better future.

Download Full-text

The Hassle of Housework: Digitalisation and the Commodification of Domestic Labour

Feminist Review ◽

10.1177/0141778919879725 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 123 (1) ◽

pp. 8-23 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Ursula Huws

Keyword(s):

Social Relations ◽

Social Reproduction ◽

Public Services ◽

Division Of Labour ◽

Online Platforms ◽

Domestic Labour ◽

Second Wave ◽

New Strategies ◽

Feminist Strategy ◽

Gender Division Of Labour

This article revisits materialist second-wave feminist debates about domestic labour in the context of digitalisation. Using a differentiated typology of labour, it looks at how the tasks involved in housework have undergone dramatic changes through commodification, decommodification and recommodification without fundamentally altering the gender division of labour in social reproduction, drawing on recent research on the use of online platforms to deliver social reproductive labour via the market in a context in which reproductive labour sits at the centre of an intense time squeeze. It reflects on the implications of the commodification of domestic labour for feminist strategy. The author points to the inadequacy in this context of traditional feminist strategies—for the socialisation of domestic labour through public services, wages for housework or labour-saving through technological solutions—concluding that new strategies are needed that address the underlying social relations that perpetuate unequal divisions of labour in contemporary capitalism.

Download Full-text

Ralahine: An Irish Owenite Community (1831–1833)

International Review of Social History ◽

10.1017/s0020859000110697 ◽

1991 ◽

Vol 36 (3) ◽

pp. 377-411 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Vincent Geoghegan

Keyword(s):

Economic Crisis ◽

Division Of Labour ◽

Institutional Arrangements

SUMMARYThis article is a study of the Owenite community established in Co. Clare, Ireland from November 1831 to November 1833. It examines the role of economic crisis in Ireland in stimulating interest in Owenite solutions. It analyses the differing motivations of the various actors (landowner, Owenite reformer, the peasantry) in joining the venture. It examines the sources of the community's stability – economic, sociological, and cultural. It argues that the community was destroyed by the contradictory roles of its founder, Vandeleur, who was both owner and President. In the process a detailed description of the community is provided, covering matters such as institutional arrangements, the division of labour, wages and benefits, gender relationships, and religion.

Download Full-text