Gendering European Working Time Regimes

Abstract

The standard approach to regulating working hours rests on gendered assumptions about how paid and unpaid work ought to be divided. In this book, Ania Zbyszewska takes a feminist, socio-legal approach to evaluate whether the contemporary European working time regimes can support a more equal sharing of this work. Focusing on the legal and political developments surrounding the EU's Working Time Directive and the reforms of Poland's Labour Code, Zbyszewska reveals that both regimes retain this traditional gender bias, and suggests the reasons for its persistence. She employs a wide range of data sources and uses the Polish case to assess the EU influence over national policy discourse and regulation, with the broader transnational policy trends also considered. This book combines legal analysis with social and political science concepts to highlight law's constitutive role and relational dimensions, and to reflect on the relationship between discursive politics and legal action.

Welfare as flourishing social reproduction: Polish and Ukrainian migrant workers in a market-participation society

“…Following Poland's 'shock therapy', unemployment rose to 10.2% in 1998 and 19.1% in 2004, including 39.6% youth unemployment (Mrozowicki et al, 2016;Plomien, 2009). Although unemployment has been declining since the mid-2000s to EU's lowest levels, the thrust of regulations towards labour market flexibility, including part-time, fixed-term and other 'non-standard' employment, 'activated' women, older and younger people, but in low-waged and insecure work (Mrozowicki et al, 2016;Plomien, 2009;Zbyszewska, 2016). Ukraine has not achieved comparable levels of activation, despite labour market policy reforms attempted since 2007, with insecurity and informality affecting 35-40% of the workforce (Adamczyk, 2016;Muzychenko, 2018).…”

A matter of time? Institutional timescapes and gendered inequalities in the transition from education to employment in Australia

“…Time is recognised as a critical dimension for understanding inequalities between men and women. For instance, scholars have studied how national 'working-time regimes' affect not only the time worked, but also the time left for other activities (Fudge, 2011;Zbyszewska, 2016). 'Working-time regimes' refers to the regulation of paid work time (annual hours, daily work limits, vacation time, flexibility, higher hourly rates for non-standard work schedules) (Lewis, 2009;Zbyszewska, 2016).…”

“…For instance, scholars have studied how national 'working-time regimes' affect not only the time worked, but also the time left for other activities (Fudge, 2011;Zbyszewska, 2016). 'Working-time regimes' refers to the regulation of paid work time (annual hours, daily work limits, vacation time, flexibility, higher hourly rates for non-standard work schedules) (Lewis, 2009;Zbyszewska, 2016). Combined with family policies such as childcare or paid parental leave, these factors influence workforce participation by making it more (or less) possible for parents to share the load and to reconcile the demands of work and family (Rubery et al, 1998;Williams, 2001).…”

Constructions of Families in the Legal Regulation of Care

“…The role of the family in maintaining these imbalances in unpaid care work has been underlined in the literature (Dalla Costa & James, 1972;Silbaugh, 1996;Ferguson, 2016). Other research indicates that gender norms also affect household care organisation and time allocation to child-rearing (Breen & Cooke, 2005;Zbyszewska, 2016;Lassen, 2021). Although, as Vera Lomazzi, Sabine Israel and Isabella Crespi note, "these arrangements (…) are not simply the result of individual preferences, but of the interplay of individuals' values, partners' negotiations, structural factors, and institutional opportunities" (Lomazzi, Israel & Crespi 2018).…”