Work-Life Balance in the Context of Discrimination Based on Sex.

Work-life Balance in the context of discrimination based on Sex.

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Pablo Robles Vivas

Outline of EU Employment and Social Security Law

Work-life balance in the context of discrimination based on sex.

Index

* Introduction

* General ideas and women´s rights evolution.

* Hard law analysis and conclusions

* Analysis of a case

* Conclusion.

Introduction

In this essay I am going to approach the matter of conflict in the work-life balance in Europe nowadays based on how current trends in labor markets have caused dramatic changes in the lives of people creating a new social and economic reality such as: the full incorporation of women into the world of work, the double income families, the single-parent families, the notable changes in Europe´s demography, etc., that have caused an important change in European policies going from equal opportunities policies and maternity policies to family-friendly policies, which are based in the reconciliation between work and family life, also known as work-life balance policies.

The gender factor in this matter is very important because women are and always have been claiming their equal rights in the workplace, their maternity rights, the equality on the division of responsibilities in the family life, etc. And they are primarily and traditionally the ones taking the children and house keeping responsibilities.

All these rights that women have always fought for have affected their work-life balance, therefor, in this essay we are going approach the evolution of these women´s employment rights and discuss the aim and the scope of the maternity policies and family friendly policies in the European Union.

General Ideas and women right´s evolution.

First off, i am going to clear the concepts of work-life balance and work-family conflict, which are clearly related.

Work-life balance is the comfortable state of equilibrium achieved between an employee's primary priorities of their employment position and their private lifestyle (health, pleasure, family and spiritual development/meditation). But this balance sees itself in danger when the second concept comes in, the work-family conflict; which is a type of cross-functional conflict in which the function requiring to focus in one domain (work or family) is incompatible in some aspect with the function that requires focusing in the other (family or work)[1].

As I mentioned before, organizations and institutions in the UE have implemented a variety of family-friendly organizational programs and policies based on these two concepts in an effort to help individuals face the demands of balancing work and family. These initiatives include flexible scheduling, compressed work week, telecommuting, on-site childcare, part-time schedules, job sharing, job sharing, pregnancy policies, etc. [2]

In the context of the evolution of women rights, clearly, the concept of reconciliation between work and family is central to the advancement of substantive equality in the UE agenda.

The progressive development of European integration since the Second World War has been a clear influence in European politics, and along with it, in gender politics. European institutions have played a very important role in the establishment of women´s rights in Europe.

The development of an extensive body of socio-economic rights under the umbrella of the European Community, highlights the positive role played by this organization in the development of formal equality in Western Europe.[3]

Nevertheless, with all this said, when evaluating the situation of women, not all countries can be lumped together, as the statistical differences are too large. However, the numbers do allow us to evaluate that we are dealing with a structural discrimination of women Europe-wide, since, with the exception of education success and final degree marks; women have no advantage over men in any EU country. Excepting, of course, their lifetime.

Dealing with some statistics about the situation of women in the employment market in Europe and therefore their economic participations, is much more unfavorable for women than for men. Women's employment rates lay in the 2005 EU average at 56.3 percent; and men's at 71.3 percent. The national differences here are remarkable. The highest labour force participation rate is in Denmark and Sweden with over 70 percent. The Netherlands, too, have a high rate of 67.5 percent, but are top in the league for part-time employment: 75 percent of the women there work part-time. Germany takes second place with 46 percent. The lowest labour force participation rate for women on the employment market can be found in Greece and Poland at below 48 percent, and finally, far below that, Malta at just under 35 percent. Women in Greece and Spain are particularly hard hit by unemployment, and women are two to two and a half times as often unemployed as men. The average unemployment rate for women is, as EU average, just 2 percent above that of men (8.5 in contrast to 6.7 percent, January 2007).[4]

Roberta Guerrina, in her book "Mothering the Union", outlines the main developments in the area of equal opportunities and equal rights since the signing of the Treaty of Rome, highlighting that the last fifty years have been marked by the progressive widening of the European equality agenda and how, starting from equal pay to equal work, European law now recognizes the political and economic importance of the principle and practice of equality.

But despite this improvements, the issue with this principle is that sometimes it´s more a symbolic value than an implemented value. so therefore, much remains to be done in order to implement the full scope of this principle.

Like mentioned before, one of the aims of the EU employment and gender policies is the establishment of the principle of reconciliation between work and family life.

The evolution of women´s