1. Annual RECWOWE Integration Week Utrecht. June 2009 T03.22 Job Quality and Tensions Between Work and Private Life Tensions between work and private life in Spanish dual-income couples Sandra Dema Moreno University of Oviedo (Spain)

2. Tensions between quantity and quality of jobs: Implications from the gender perspective Women’s access to the labour market has increased in a continuous and sustainable way, however it is still lower than men’s. Women labour conditions are worse than men’s: low quality and low paid jobs. The household and caring work in many ways condition the presence of women in the labour market.

3. Tensions between work and private life in Spanish dual-income couples Processes and tensions that appear in dual-income couples when trying to reconcile job and family/personal life Strategies that couples use to solve the identified tensions. Relation between these tensions and the Spanish welfare regime.

4. Methodology Qualitative methodology: International Project “Couples, money and invidualization” 48 In-depth interviews to Spanish couples: – 16 couple interviews – 32 individual interviews Couples with and without children Newly created relationships and consolidated couples Two age groups: from 20-39 and from 40-60 Comparative case study approach + team analysis

5. Spanish society: some changes in gender relations Spanish society: some changes in gender relations Women’s access to education and greater involvement in politics Women’s access to paid work (but still lower rates than EU average. 75% of women work full-time). –Spanish women’s activity rate: 51.2%. Spanish men’s activity rate: 75.2% –EU women’s activity rate: 56.3%. EU men’s activity rate: 71.3% Sharp decrease in birth rates. New family models and democratization of family values Dual-income couples: –In 1992: 33% of Spanish households –In 2000: 45% of Spanish households Welfare regime: familism

6. ‘Hard choices’ or ‘Structural ambivalence’ Women have to choose between their work and their partner/family. Both choices imply a trap: –Family first? –Work first?

7. An example of ‘hard choices’ or ‘structural ambivalence’: The case of Fátima and Fernando Fatima when finishing her degree moves to another town to do her training and she obtained a good, stable job. Fernando, her boyfriend at that time, moved to live with her and tried to find a job, but since he couldn’t he went back home within a few months. Fátima prizes maintainin g her partner over her job Fernando places his career over his partner

8. Women who place building their own autonomy over their life in a couple: The case of Lidia and Luis Some women place their financial independence first: –Lidia decided to go away to look for a job. The separation caused a conflict in the couple. Luis moved to live with her. After a period of time they returned to their home town together

9. Men and ‘hard choices’ Men are not usually confronted by problematic choices. Whatever they choose, they do not damage their independence. When there is a tension between the family and themselves it is generally solved by placing men’s interests before those of the family.

10. Publications Janet Stocks, Capitolina D í az Mart í nez and Bj ö rn Hallerod (Eds) (2007): Modern Couples Sharing Money, Sharing Life. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire and New York, Palgrave Macmillan. Sandra Dema Moreno (2009): “ Behind the Threshold of Negotiation: Financial Decision-Making Processes in Spanish Dual-Income Couples ”. Feminist Economics 15(1):27-56.

11. Annual RECWOWE Integration Week Utrecht. June 2009 T03.22 Job Quality and Tensions Between Work and Private Life Tensions between work and private life in Spanish dual-income couples Sandra Dema Moreno University of Oviedo (Spain)