Recession, austerity and gender: A comparison of eight European labour markets

• Author: Hélène PÉRIVIER
• Published date: 01 March 2018
• Date: 01 March 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ilr.12032

International Labour Review, Vol. 157 (2018), No. 1

Copyright © The author 2018

Journal compilation © International Labour Organization 2018

Recession, austerity and gender:

A comparison of eight European

labour markets

Hélène PÉRIVIER*

Abstract. The collapse in GDP brought about by the global economic crisis in

200 8 affected female employment less than male employment, whereas austerity

has been particularly harsh on women, a gendered impact described in the litera-

ture as “he-cession to sh(e)-austerity”. This article analyses gendered trends in the

labour markets of eight European countries, decomposing quarterly changes in

labour participation of women and men and in employment by sector. The “he-

cession to sh(e)-austerity” scenario is not observed in all countries. Other chan-

nels through which austerity policies can jeopardize gender equality and women’s

rights are identied with reference to a typology of such policies.

The global crisis that began in 2007 deeply affected European economies

and their labour markets. Employment dropped in all countries and un-

employment rates increased dramatically, albeit to a lesser extent in Germany,

where employment remained stable (Weinkopf, 2014). The collapse in GDP

was followed rst by a short relative recovery, and then by a phase of pub-

lic policies aimed at scal consolidation. The crisis had a gendered impact on

labour markets during these different phases. Male employment took a ser-

ious hit during the recession, whereas austerity is said to have had a stronger

impact on female employment. These gendered effects are mainly explained

by the degree of sector-related sex segregation of labour markets1 combined

with the sectoral dimension of recession and of scal consolidation policies.

Men were over-represented in sectors with the highest rates of job destruc-

tion (construction and manufacturing) and austerity policies targeted sectors

* Observatoire français des conjonctures économiques (OFCE), Sciences Po; Director,

Programme de Recherche et d’Enseignement des Savoirs sur le Genre (PRESAGE); email: helene.

perivier@sciencespo.fr.

Responsibility for opinions expressed in signed articles rests solely with their authors, and

publication does not constitute an endorsement by the ILO.

1 In this article, “sex segregation” is understood as horizontal employment segregation and

refers to the gendered division of labour in paid employment. It is dened as the under- (over-)

representation of women in occupations (occupational segregation) or sectors (sectoral segrega-

tion) (Bettio and Verashchagina, 2009).

International Labour Review2

in which women were over-represented (the public sector, social services, etc.).

This process is summed up by Karamessini and Rubery (2014) in the phrase

“from he-cession to sh(e)-austerity”.

The aim of this article is to describe the forces underlying the gendered

impact of the 2008 recession and subsequent austerity policies. To that end,

changes in the labour force and employment of eight European countries

– Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the United

Kingdom – are analysed using data from the Eurostat Quarterly Labour Force

Data series (QLFD) on active population and employment by sector (at the

two-digit level dened in the “Statistical classication of economic activities in

the European Community”, or NACE). The methodologies developed in the

seminal book by Rubery (1988) are applied. The countries reviewed differ in

terms of the magnitude of the recession, their macroeconomic situation, and

their institutional environments. The analysis provides insight into the gen-

der gaps in participation and employment that occurred during the different

phases of the crisis at the macro level. Part-time employment dynamics are

taken into account by crossing the sectoral database on employment and the

database on average working time per sector available for both sexes at the

two-digit level in the QLFD. The analysis does not take account of changes in

wages, working conditions or job quality.

The panel of countries comprises various types of welfare state according

to the most common typologies (Arts and Gelissen, 2002; Esping-Andersen,

1990) and different types of gender regime (Daly and Lewis, 2000; Lewis,

199 2).

2

The social democratic welfare state is represented by Sweden. Denmark

is emblematic of the exicurity model (Gazier, 2008). The liberal model is rep-

resented by the United Kingdom. Germany and France are often presented

as corporatist models, although France differs from Germany in terms of gen-

der norms. Italy and Greece are known nowadays as Mediterranean welfare

states, with low participation of women in the labour market. Greece, one of

the European countries hardest hit in 2007, subsequently suffered an intense

public debt crisis and had to implement the most extensive scal consolida-

tion ever requested in Europe by the European Commission, the European

Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Spain is a specic case, as

female participation has skyrocketed by more than 25 per cent in the last two

decades.3 This implies that the Spanish model no longer ts into the classical

typologies of European welfare states. There is still a marked sexual division

of labour within families, however, and public policies affecting work–life bal-

ance and promoting gender equality remain underdeveloped (González Gago

and Segales Kirzner, 2014).

2 As Arts and Gelissen recognize, the outcomes of comparative research on welfare regimes

are still inconclusive and “real welfare states are hardly ever pure types and are usually hybrid cases”

(2002 , p. 137), hence the need to refer to several typologies.

3 The labour force participation rate of women aged between 15–64 years rose from

42.6 per cent in 1992 to 67.9 per cent in 2012 (Eurostat).

Recession, austerity and gender in European labour markets 3

The remainder of the article is organized as follows: the rst section de-

scribes changes in labour force growth during the crisis and sheds light on the

need to assess the interrelations between gender norms, the sexual division of

labour and labour supply in order to understand the impact of the crisis on

the workforce. The second section examines the different versions of the “he-

cession to sh(e)-austerity” scenario in the countries reviewed, underscoring

the key role played by sector-related sex segregation of employment. In both

cases, we use shift-share analysis to decompose, by gender, workforce dynam-

ics in the light of demographic trends, and changes in employment taking into

account sector-related sex segregation. The third section discusses the types

of austerity policy implemented in the eight countries and identies channels

other than sector-related sex segregation of employment through which men

and women might have been differently affected by austerity and to what

extent gender equality is jeopardized.

Labour force, gender and the global crisis

Decomposition of changes in the labour force

During the recession phase of the 2007–08 global crisis, the focus was on men

being more affected than women by unemployment and job destruction. Never-

theless, despite the fact that male employment is in general more sensitive to

business cycles, women were less sheltered than in past crises (Leschke and

Jepsen, 2011). For both men and women, the impact of the crisis was a func-

tion of the magnitude of the economic shock, the degrees and forms of labour

market exibility, and the public policies implemented during the recession.

Indeed, to limit the impact of the economic downturn on employment, some

countries relied on internal exibility (reducing working time or introducing

short-time working schemes, as in Germany), while others mostly relied on ex-

ternal exibility (such as lay-offs and job destruction, as in Spain) (Cochard,

Cornilleau and Heyer, 2010). Stimulus packages (particularly important in the

United Kingdom and Spain) were introduced to boost economic activity in

targeted sectors (notably the automobile, construction and green industries).

Finally, the austerity phase that followed these countercyclical policies was

characterized by scal consolidation aimed at reducing the public decit and

debt accumulation by different means, notably cuts in public spending

and tax increases. These policies clearly hampered the recovery and return

to economic growth; improvements in employment for both men and women

were consequently limited (iAGS, 2012; 2013).

The gendered impact on the workforce during the different phases of the

crisis highlights the structural character of the gender division of labour and

the inequalities between men and women in labour markets and more gen-

erally in societies (Christensen, 2015). The impact was felt differently in each

country for reasons related to the conguration of the labour market, the type

of welfare regime and the prevailing gender norms. In general, although the