France:
The feminisation of poverty
By Myosotis Walner
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 04:00:46 -0500
From: International Viewpoint <100666.1443@compuserve.com>
Reply-To: International_Viewpoint@compuserve.com
Full employment and stable contracts are the new utopia.
Governments and management together are welcoming back the world
of a hundred years ago, declaring that unemployment and
underemployment are necessary. The enforcement of the Maastricht
Treaty's criteria only hastens this development. And as always,
women are first in line.
Despite our clear desire to continue working, women's right to a
job is continually challenged. In any period of economic crisis,
the old reactionary cry concerning women workers who
"steal" jobs is heard again.
So far, all initiatives -hidden or up front- to create pay for
motherhood, thus excluding women from the paid workforce outside
the home, have failed to reverse our entry into the workforce.
But for how long? France's new Parental Educational Aid for
mothers who stay at home has already contributed to a worrisome
decrease in the percentage of mothers with a second child active
in the workforce, from 75 % to 45%.
In 1995, the French workforce was comprised of 11.5 million women
and 14 million men. The incredible increase in the number of
women -an additional 5 million since the beginning of the 1960s-
is the result of the growth of the service sector. But this
sector, where women have traditionally been concentrated, is
today being transformed by a wave of unemployment and
underemployment. Today in France, 10 million workers are
unemployed, under-employed, or kept out of the job market.
"Chomeuse, precaire-comme ma mere"
[Unemployed, Under-employed- Like my Mother Before Me]
Women are between 52% and 58% of the French unemployed, although
official methods of calculating these figures are suspect, since
they only take into account those who have no job at all and are
currently looking for full-time work. Moreover, women are
unemployed longer than men. In March 1994, nearly 600,000 women
had already been unemployed for more than a year, compared to
500,000 men. The situation in other European Union countries is
similar.
Sociologist Margaret Maruani accurately describes this situation
as female "hyper-unemployment"(1). The worst-affected
categories are women blue collar and clerical workers, whose
rates of unemployment are, respectively, 20.8% and 15.7%. Even
with a technical high school diploma (CAP), women comprise 15% of
the unemployed, while men with the same qualifications account
for 10%.
Young women do not escape this trend, with a 32% unemployment
rate versus 23% for young men. The unemployment rate for all
youth under age 25 is 27%.
Aside from bosses' attacks and repressive government policies
(including under social democratic governments) of deregulation
and work flexibility, we are seeing the right gain ground
ideologically on the question of part-time work. From the early
80s legislation encouraging part-time work to the 1995 Accord on
the annualisation of working hours and flexibility, the spread of
part-time work has escalated. (2) The Netherlands and Britain are
the "models" for absorbing unemployment through
generalisation of part-time jobs. Since these jobs are taken as a
last resort rather than freely chosen, women are virtually
restricted to part-time work, while only pathetic attempts are
made to provide care and services for their children. Women are
85% of the part-time workforce.
Part-time work is nothing more than part-time unemployment, a
fraction of a wage. Take-home pay is usually hardly more than
France's minimum social security payment for those without
unemployment insurance; about 2,400 F (US$ 407) per month. Young
women represent 29% of part-time workers. Young men represent
only 12%.
More than half of the women who hold part-time jobs work in the
service sector, sales, hotel and restaurant work, all the sectors
suffering most from the current recession. This, however, does
not prevent employers from pressuring them for overtime hours to
meet seasonal variations, counting on women's need to earn more.
In the public sector, although "free Wednesdays" [the
right to time off without pay on Wednesdays, when schools close
at lunch time] taken primarily by women, are certainly not being
squeezed, as in the private sector, the practice still confirms
the traditional division of gender roles. In the public sector,
women's participation in part- time work is also higher than
men's. One quarter of women in the lowest category,
"C"-grade jobs work part time, compared to only 10% of
women in the higher civil service ranks "A" and
"B.".
Temporary contracts (CDD) developed enormously in the early 90s.
By March 1995 they accounted for 70% of new jobs and 56.4% of
other new contracts. The number of temporary contracts of less
than a month's duration rose 40% between 1994 and 1995. The
number of one to six-month contracts rose 21%, while the number
of temporary contracts of more than half-a-year fell by 8%.
Although the number of cashier and miscellaneous service jobs
(held primarily by women under the age of 30) rose by 40% between
1982 and 1990, the level of unemployment in the sector is still
an above-average 17%.
The number of recorded jobs as household workers (maids,
child-care providers, cooks, etc.) dropped 13% between 1982 and
1990. This leaves a declared workforce of 180,000, dominated by
women over 40. The unemployment rate has reached 16%, a large
proportion of which represents long-term unemployment.
Sales and secretarial work are also under heavy fire. Even though
the number of job seekers under 25 in these two categories is
higher than the average, young women here are more likely to get
part-time work than young men.
In addition, young men in this sector often obtain work with a
contractual guarantee of training or retraining, while young
women are offered short-term "dole plus" contracts that
make no provision for training.
[Source: DARES Study (Direction de l'animation, de la recherche,
des etudes et des statistiques) of December 1995 on the job
situation in 84 employment categories.]
Underpaid and under-protected
Women's financial independence, already in jeopardy given wage
differentials, becomes even more precarious in a period of
unemployment.
About 2.2 million unemployed workers receive social insurance
benefits. Half get about 3,000 F ($500) per month. Four out of
five receive less than 5,000 F. However, 44% of the unemployed
receive no social insurance benefits at all. The situation is
particularly bad for young workers. In December 1995, out of a
total of 850,000 unemployed workers from 18 to 25 years of age,
550,000 were not eligible for a single welfare payment. Among the
unemployed in the 30s-age bracket, 50% of men receive no
assistance, compared to 60% of women.
Young women living apart from their family face the worst change
in their standard of living, because they are the least likely to
be eligible for unemployment insurance.
All of these factors reinforce the continuing impoverishment of
women (especially with the emergence of single-parent families,
mostly consisting of single women with children):
Lacking the means to pay for day care and school meals, women
find themselves once again responsible for raising children, and
thus less available than men for most efforts at job seeking.
Shorter hours, but under what conditions?
In a situation of unemployment and underemployment, the left
demand for a 32-hour work week with no loss in wages, with
appropriate jobs, is particularly relevant for women. The
creation of sufficient high-quality childcare centres, so that
leisure time no longer reinforces the gender division of labour
in the home, is an indispensable addition to this demand.
In practice, most agreements between French employers and unions
concerning the length of the workday have had more to do with its
reorganisation than its reduction. The result has only benefited
the employer: annualisation of working hours, flexibility,
part-time work, lower pay, and fewer employer contributions to
social insurance. The strategy towards women, sometimes carried
out by unions themselves, is obviously to encourage them to take
part-time work, a "choice" that is anything but that,
for all of the reasons discussed. Nothing less than the social
status of women is at stake. (3)
Notes
1. "Women's work in the shadow of
unemployment", in Actes de la Recherche en sciences
sociales, #115, December 1996.
2. Cahiers du feminisme 1996, #77
3. Cahiers du feminisme 1995, #71/72.
Ritorna
alla pagina iniziale del Coord.RSU
Back to the homepage of the Coordinating Committee of the RSU