genderwise: the role of men as agents of change in reconciling work and family life. european...
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Genderwise: The role of men as agents of change in
reconciling work and family life. European project co-funded by the EU 1St Transnational
WorkshopFocus Theme - Socialisation and education – 17-20 May, Barcellona
Socialisation and Education: The Keys to Achieving True Equality
Sara Moreno ColomDepartment of Sociology
Autonomous University of [email protected]
1st To explain the need to promote change in the social and
cultural norms of welfare societies in order to offer an environment that fosters work-family reconciliation.
2nd To define a conceptual framework and propose indicators that enable action to be taken from a local scale.
The goal of this paper is twofold:
This paper is organized in five sections:
1. Framework of reference on European Union
gender policies
2. The gender mainstreaming strategy and
work-family reconciliation policies
3. Some empirical evidence
4. Socialisation and education: The challenge
5. Action possibilities
1. Framework of reference on European Union gender policies
Three major stages in the design and planning of gender policies within the European setting:
Non-discrimination policies
Equal opportunities policies
Gender Mainstreaming strategy
What can be said about the impact of reconciliation policies?
Legal regulation about reconciliation has a ceiling: that of cultural resistance The orientation of these policies have focused on making it easier to perform domestic work and care work without taking into account their unequal distribution between men and women.
Two consequences to this inequality:
1. It affects women’s chance to participate in the job market,
2. It has negative repercussions on men’s commitment to domestic work and care for dependent persons.
So…… it seems necessary to abandon the idea that women are
the only ones who have problems combining their work and personal lives; this leads the stress to shift to men as agents of change.
2. The gender mainstreaming strategy and work-family reconciliation policies
A paradigmatic example…
… can be found in Scandinavian countries. Since the legal guarantees and female influx into the workplace have not
been enough to overcome the cultural resistances to the change in gender rules and values.
How can we explain this situation?
The differential socialisation of gender is one of the basic explanatory mechanisms of the current inequalities
between men and women.
How can we observe these inequalities?
It’s difficult to observe empirical evidence of this differential socialisation based on gender; however, its consequences
are easy to tally.
2. The gender mainstreaming strategy and work-family reconciliation policies
More women than men aged 20 to 24 had completed at least upper secondary education: 80% of women compared to 74,6% of men
More women than men studied humanities and arts: 65,6% women compared to 34,4% men
Fewer women than men studied science, maths and computing: 37, 3% women compared to 62,7%
The male employment rate is higher than the female: 71.2% of men are employed, compared to 56.3% of women.
The unemployment rate is the inverse: 9.6% of women are unemployed compared to 7.6% of men.
Workplace segregation (both vertical and horizontal) endures, as does gender-based salary discrimination.
3. Some empirical evidence
Women work much more in public enterprise and the services sector and occupations related to caring for people.
Men predominate in private enterprise and technical and technological occupations.
The female part-time employment rate is higher than the male rate: 32.6% for women versus 7.3% for men.
Part-time work is more frequent among women with children, while for men the percentage remains steady.
Women aged 20 to 49 with children under the age of 12 have a lower employment rate, from 75% to 60%.
Men aged 20 to 49 with children under the age of 12 maintain the same employment rate.
3. Some empirical evidence
Gainful work/study Domestic work Total work Meals and personal care Free time
women men women men women men women men women men
Belgium 2:07 3:30 4:32 2:38 6:39 6:08 2:43 2:40 4:50 5:22
Germany 2:05 3:35 4:11 2:21 6:16 5:56 2:43 2:33 5:24 5:52
Estonia 2:33 3:40 5:02 2:48 7:35 6:28 2:08 2:15 4:36 5:28
Spain 2:26 4:39 4:55 1:37 7:21 6:16 2:33 2:35 4:29 5:17
France 2:31 4:03 4:30 2:22 7:01 6:25 3:02 3:01 4:08 4:46
Italy 2:06 4:26 5:20 1:35 7:26 6:01 2:53 2:59 4:08 5:08
Latvia 3:41 5:09 3:56 1:50 7:37 6:59 2:10 2:10 4:09 4:48
Lithuania 3:41 4:55 4:29 2:09 8:10 7:04 2:22 2:25 3:49 4:50
Hungary 2:32 3:46 4:58 2:40 7:30 6:26 2:19 2:31 4:38 5:29
Poland 2:29 4:15 4:45 2:22 7:14 6:37 2:29 2:23 4:36 5:25
Slovenia 2:59 4:07 4:58 2:40 7:57 6:47 2:08 2:13 4:29 5:34
Finland 2:49 4:01 3:56 2:16 6:45 6:17 2:06 2:01 5:30 6:08
Sweden 3:12 4:25 3:42 2:29 6:54 6:54 2:28 2:11 5:04 5:24
U K 2:33 4:18 4:15 2:18 6:48 6:36 2:16 2:04 5:04 5:32
Norway 2:53 4:16 3:47 2:22 6:40 6:38 2:08 2:02 5:51 6:03
Structure of use of time by women and men aged 20 to 74 - hours and minutes per day
3. Some empirical evidence
The theoretical frame
Theoretical underpinning states that women’s and men’s status in the household realm conditions their
participation in the job market.
So women find themselves immersed in a twofold-presence system in which they accumulate work and family responsibilities in an attempt to
reconcile work, family and personal lives.
This system serves to highlight the shortcomings in real equality and shows the gap between the socially accepted discourse and people’s everyday reality.
3. Some empirical evidence
The key…… socialisation and education, are the keys to bridging
this gap separating formal equality from real equality.
For the problem…
the vast majority of reconciliation policies have been limited to facilitate women’s entry into the job market
they have done this without to encourage men to participate in the household realm.
and without bearing in mind the differential effects of the socialisation process.
So…… emphasising this process is crucial to ensuring the
role of men as agents of change in reconciliation work and family life.
4. Socialisation and education: The challenge
Some theoretical concepts…
The gender perspective recalls that inequalities between men and women are the result of a different socialisation process based on gender and thus that they do not arise from innate biological differences.
Socialisation is the process by which people become aware of the norms and values needed to participate in society, while they simultaneously develop their own skills.
Primary socialisation takes place during childhood in the closest family and social setting, while secondary socialisation comes from people’s interaction with institutions through education, the media, etc.
From the gender perspective, primary socialisation is when individuals acquire the basic elements of their gender identity, while secondary socialisation confirms and legitimises the adoption of that identity and adherence to pre-established gender roles.
4. Socialisation and education: The challenge
Some theoretical concepts…
Gender roles and stereotypes are the pillars of gender socialisation. Through them, boys and girls are
assigned the norms, roles, expectations and social spaces for male and female identity.
The collective patriarchal imaginary attributes qualities to men and women that are inherent to their sex and that entail different ways of living and thinking in their everyday lives.
As a result, from an intergenerational standpoint, socialisation for production is a male characteristic and socialisation for reproduction is the backbone of female life.
4. Socialisation and education: The challenge
Which are current trends?
Behaviour patterns are changing more quickly amongst girls than boys.
Girls have broader, more diverse and contradictory life plans than boys, while for boys, their life plans remain focused on full availability for work.
Amongst the young generations, boys and girls share the social imaginary of equal opportunities.
Equal access to university degrees thus makes them believe this.
4. Socialisation and education: The challenge
4. Socialisation and education: The challenge
However, once they enter adulthood, many women discover that there is a hidden facet behind this imaginary:
First, they will come upon not formal yet real difficulties when choosing certain professional options. Sexist discrimination in school does not result in lower educational attainment, rather in a devaluation of professional options.
Secondly, when they acquire affective stability, they will most likely take on greater responsibilities for household-family work than their partners.
What is the consequence?
Females’ dual adherence, both productive and reproductive, will lead them to live in a permanent system of twofold presence
However, they could scarcely imagine such system
And it will condition their lifetime: in their workplace and their personal lives.
4. Socialisation and education: The challenge
How can we explain this paradox situation?Hidden curriculum:
refers to the entire set of norms, attitudes, expectations, beliefs and practices that are unconsciously taught in institutions and in the hegemonic culture.
explains the lack of awareness as to the transmission of the patriarchal culture’s implicit norms and values.
highlights the importance of social relations as a factor explaining the process through which gender is socially constructed.
The consequences…
… of this hidden curriculum results in the different ways boys and girls organise experience, structure spaces, articulate time, establish relations and perform tasks.
4. Socialisation and education: The challenge
The family realm…
… is where the socialisation process begins… and the attitudes of the father and mother can mediate the traditional gender roles in their children’s construction of
identity
Some indicators:
Behaviours and responsibilities that are taken on by and attributed to the different members of the household. Different treatment of children according to their sex, conveyed through games, clothing, activities and chores assigned to them. Intergenerational relations through which the traditional gender roles and stereotypes are reproduced. The language used to communicate within the household. The use and distribution of household space.
5. Action Possibilities
The educational realm…… can be regarded as one of the most egalitarian realms of
socialisation.
… should be borne in mind that it still values and considers important certain knowledge that are rooted in an androcentric tradition.
… so gender roles and stereotypes are conveyed and consolidated.
… so discrimination has changed form but not content
Some indicators: Schools where there are boys and girls are not coeducating schools because it’s necessary to explicit a bread with identifying school content and maleness.
The influence of the presence and absence of men and women teachers according to the educational level and subjects.
The preponderance of the male model and androcentric contents in school subjects.
The language used to communicate inside the classroom.
The use and distribution of school space.
The organisation and dynamisation of schools.
The underlying values that are conveyed in games and extracurricular activities.
5. Action Possibilities
Informal education
Informal education refers to non-academic education in values and other knowledge offered and received outside school.
It is usually transmitted through entities, associations and organisations that provide free-time activities, sports or training for children.
One of the clearest examples of the importance of informal education in the reproduction of gender roles and stereotypes is the segregation found in sports.
As is obvious, this realm is not impervious to the hidden curriculum, and here the same factors should be borne in mind as in the realm of education.
5. Action Possibilities
The media… … is one of the main socialisation institutions in western
society as it plays a key role in creating, modifying and eliminating values and ways of thinking and living.
… Many different studies prove its influence in the process of child socialisation and lambaste advertising as one of the realms where sexism is most often conveyed.
Some indicators: The use of stereotyped language. The presence and absence of stereotyped images of women, along with violent and pornographic images. Gender sensitivity in programming policies. The coverage of women in the news. The number of women working in the communications sector, the positions they hold in terms of decision-making. Women’s access to the new information and communication technologies.
5. Action Possibilities
Possible avenues of action in the local dimension:
Promoting campaigns that make the social importance of domestic work and care work visible, as well as the need to redistribute these
tasks amongst women and men.
Promoting awareness workshops for local agents aimed at questioning the socially attributed roles.
Promoting the use of non-sexist language in the public administration.
Promoting coeducational projects that include women’s wisdom throughout history into the
school curriculum and provide resources for publishing teaching materials.
5. Action Possibilities
Possible avenues of action in the local dimension:
Fostering the spread and exchange of coeducational inter-school experiences.
Locally promoting the organisation of centres to coordinate non-sexist education.
Promoting training for teachers and educational administrators as agents for advancing coeducation.
Designing ethical code guidelines for the media.
Encouraging research into the image of women in the media.
Easing women’s local access to the new information and communication technologies.
5. Action Possibilities
Genderwise: The role of men as agents of change in
reconciling work and family life. European project co-funded by the EU 1St Transnational
WorkshopFocus Theme - Socialisation and education – 17-20 May, Barcellona
Socialisation and Education: The Keys to Achieving True Equality
Sara Moreno ColomDepartment of Sociology
Autonomous University of [email protected]