Introduction to Gender Studies Work and Home

Socialist „feminism“ and the post-socialist period State socialist countries: forced emancipation – the burden of the past in the ex-Eastern block Woman’s double workload (full-time work + housework) Lack of restructuring the private Discrimination in the public (often: token women) Claim: feminism: no longer needed (problems solved; „western” feminism: ridiculed, frowned upon); whereas: women: „used” After the political changes: conservative turn//emergence of second-wave feminism in the post-socialist countries too Problem: confluence of various tendencies, including backlash (argument: feminism is outdated)

Job market and employment 1 Late 1990s: Women in paid work: EU 50%; US: 60%; Hungary: 45% Between 1985 and 1999: the rate of women’s employment in the age group 15–64 In Hungary: dropped from 70.1 to 45.4%, EU: slowly, but constantly rising.

Job market and employment 2 To work? 1986: 81% of women stated that women should do some paid work (although even at that time most of them said that women should either do their paid work at home or part-time) 1995 only 66% said that women should do any work at all, out of which only 20% supported the idea of full-time work.

Job market and employment 3 between 1992 and 1999 women are employed in jobs requiring higher qualification the absolute losers, thus, are women with primary school education (so are men). after 1990: the number and proportion of women in top positions dropped drastically, although they would have the proper qualification

Job market and employment 4 Women’s presence grows in some areas: in the civil service and the services in general. 88.4% of women were employed by the state or local governments in 1998, which means in terms of social security they are in a safer position they are in a lower salary stream, which means also lower old-age pensions, and social security pensions.

Job market and employment 5 The salary gap between men and women decreased between 1986 and 1994 from 35% to 20%. Women:white-(or pink-)collar jobs, which are slightly better paid male physical workers’ wages increased less than those of women’s Current wage gap: 15.6% Reason: minimal wage the same for men and women The higher the qualification, the bigger the wage gap (university degree: 26.5%) Once unemployed, women have to face greater difficulties in gaining a job again, particularly over 40 kids' reaction to the wage gap

Inivisible/unpaid housework 11 billion hours of work in Hungary per year Women do most of the housework Value: 5,500 billion HUF 3 times more than the state support of the national health service in Hungary Women as housewives: 1990: 4%; 1999: 13.8%

Gender structure of housework

Harmonisation / conflicts of work and home

Invisible gendered employment/ promotion mechanisms Glass wall: occupational/horizontal gender segregation University of Economics: male students started to pour into economics (female students’ proportion dropped from 80.7% to 65.7% between 1990 and 1997—c.f. Nagy in Pongrácz and Tóth 34) Glass lift: likelihood of promotion E.g. schools, heads of school Glass ceiling: obstacle to reach top positions: Companies in Hungary: 34% led by women But companies with more than 250 employees: only 11% led by women Critical mass is needed (1/3)

Higher education/academia lecturers: 16,892 (incl. language and PE teachers and dormitory supervisors); women: 6528 (39%); lecturers with PhD: 3350, out of which women: 1042 (31%); “candidate”: 2388; out of which 555 women (23%) doctor of Academy at universities: 799 and colleges: 10 out of which women: 114 (13%); corresponding members of academy: 59, full members of academy: 174 out of which women: 2-2 (1.8%); 2006: 8 out of 248 (3.5%)

Global Gender Gap Index 2015

GGGI 2015 - bottom

GGGI 2015 - UK

GGGI 2015 - Hungary

Iceland (1): 0.881

Yemen (145): 0.484

UK (18): 0.758

Hungary (99): 0.672

Hungary 2016

Work and home 1 In the US, ”husbands of full-time home-makers help out for an hour and fifteen minutes a day, while husbands of women with full-time jobs help less than half as long—thirty-six minutes” (Naomi Wolf 23–4). A woman with a full-time job and a family in the US works 96 hours a week. Men „babysit” their own children. 3/3/14

Work and home 2 no symmetrical distribution of work outside the home is imaginable between the sexes as long as the distribution of housework is asymmetrical; not only in the actual sharing but also in the concept of responsibility as well; mothering to be replaced by parenting

Demographics attitude trap more recently the collapse of the „evident” relation between the traditional family model and the number of children born the more equal the family structure, the more children are born

Attitude trap: fertility rate and the traditional family model

EU gender roadmap Economic independence both for men and women Harmonisation of work and private life Equal share in decision making [...] Promotion of equality between men and women even beyond the EU

Empowerment movements Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO (Chief Operating Officer): Lean In: book and movement Sandberg’s TED podcast: Why we have too few women leaders Emma Watson, UN Goodwill Ambassador: He for She campaign opening speech

Empowering female figures: current female leaders in economy Janet Yellen: Chair of FED (Federal Reserve System) Christine Lagarde: IMF managing director Sheryl Sandberg: Facebook COO

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