Domesticity and Equality in Europe
DEVELOPMENTS
European women – and European women’s groups – are beginning to question their rights, and are finding what they consider to be surprising deficiencies – especially when motherhood is removed from the equation. Europe has long been perceived as a bastion of equal rights and equal opportunity; however, Europe continues to struggle with things such as pay equality and cultural stereotypes.
Europe remains a culturally diverse place, and it is important to remember that it is comprised of different countries struggling with different challenges. For instance, Southern European States are struggling with sexist attitudes towards women; and Scandinavia is currently experiencing a backlash against women who decide to stay and work domestically within the home. Still, there are similarities, too: pay equality continues to elude most of the continent – even as the pay gap shrinks, but does not close, the further north one travels.
BACKGROUND
Europe has historically enjoyed a sterling reputation when it comes to women’s rights, particularly in assisting mothers with a very supportive government-sponsored system in place for their support. France, for instance, offers mothers perineal therapy, abdominal exercise classes, free nursery schools, generous family allowances, tax deductions for each child, discounts for large families on high-speed trains, and the expectation that after a paid, four-month maternity leave, mothers return to work. More specifically, French parents can expect a monthly allowance of €123 for two children, €282 for three children and an additional €158 for every child that follows. (After eight children, a mother can expect to receive the gold Medal of the French Family from the government, in appreciation.) In 2008 €97 billion, or 5.1 percent of gross domestic product — twice the E.U. average — went on family, childcare and maternity benefits. While not all of Europe is as generous to children-rearing households, most provide similarly impressive benefits (for example, Scandanavia’s storied paternity leave opportunities.)
However, when motherhood is divorced from women’s rights France, as well as the rest of Europe, still has a long way to go to full equality. French mothers may cash in, but France ranks 46th in the World Economic Forum’s 2010 gender equality report, behind the United States and most of the rest of Europe. Eighty-two percent of French women aged 25-49 work, but 28 percent of parliamentary seats are occupied by women. French women still earn 26 percent less than men and spend twice as much time on domestic work. A recent survey by the Pew Research Center found that three in four French people believe men have a better life than women – the highest share in any country polled. France exemplifies the problems facing many women across Europe: they have more sexual and reproductive freedom, they have bypassed men in education, and they are nearly even in the labor market – but they still fail to make it to the top of their respective career ladders. A 1998 law obliged political parties to have an equal number of men and women candidates on their party lists; however, political parties have preferred to pay fines, rather than comply with the law. Despite the passage of four equal pay laws, even childless women in their forties still earned 17 percent less than men. In France, Germany, and Poland, at least 80 percent of those surveyed said men received more opportunities for jobs that pay well than women did, even when woman were as qualified.
The share of adult women in the paid workforce in Southern Europe lags men by almost 20 percentage points, compared with 12 points across the European Union, and only 4 in Sweden. Women could be the solution to a fundamental European economic weakness: an aging, shrinking workforce. Economists at Goldman Sachs in London believe that fully closing the gap between male and female employment rates in the 16 countries sharing the Euro could lift gross domestic product by 13 percent; in Southern Europe, the gain would be 20 percent.
The pay disparity cannot be attributed to discrimination alone. There are many cultural factors that contribute as well. Women are more likely than men to choose to leave the workforce to take care of children or older parents. They also tend to value family-friendly workplace policies, and will often accept lower salaries in exchange for more benefits. While gender pay gaps can be largely explained by women’s choices, there can be no argument that those choices are skewed by sexist stereotypes and social pressures.
Women in Europe continue to shoulder the major responsibilities at home and at work simultaneously, making for a stressful and low quality of life, according to the 2010 Corporate Gender Gap Report of the World Economic Forum. One hundred percent of French women, and 99 percent of French men supported the idea of equal rights; yet 75 percent also said that men there had a better life. Compared across Europe, it is not much better. Germany reported an especially strong gap between men and women on whether enough has been done to give women equality. Of those who believe in equal rights, many German men believe their nation has made the right amount of changes for women, while many more women than men in Germany still think there is more work to be done. Among European countries, only in Russia did a majority of those surveyed say that women and men have achieved a comparable quality of life. France’s 75 percent led the list, both across Europe and the world.
ANALYSIS
A new understanding of women’s rights in Europe as being divorced from motherhood is needed for the continent to progress to full equality. Europe needs to continue to be on the leading forefront of women’s issues.
The European Union needs to do more to encourage member states to standardize women’s right across the continent, and pay equality needs to be at the top of the list in terms of quickly-achievable goals. Even if much of the pay disparity is occurring because of personal choice, the motivations – cultural, societal, gender, etc – should be fully examined in a frank and public discussion. The solutions cannot come in the form of laws alone. European culture will need to adapt to new forms of sexism that have recently been identified for full equality to be realized continent-wide.
Matthew Lamm is the former Europe Russia Regional Editor of Foreign Policy Digest.
