Making the ‘reserve army’ invisible: Lengthy parental leave and women’s economic marginalisation in Hungary

Abstract

Generous parental leave policies are popular in a number of countries around the world and are usually seen as a sign of the 'family friendliness' of the state. Relying on in-depth interviews with mothers on parental leave in Hungary, the authors argue that the context in which the policies are implemented should be examined when evaluating their consequences. In semi-peripheral, resource-poor Hungary lengthy parental leave policies turn women into an invisible 'reserve army of labourers'. While their employment is mostly unaccounted for in aggregate statistics, and political discourse suggests that their 'job' is to look after children, nevertheless many women do end up doing some work for wages during the almost five years they spend on parental leave. However, given the rigidity of the labour market and rampant discrimination against mothers with small children, their chances of obtaining formal employment are small. They therefore resort to doing ad hoc, temporary, informal work, which is often underpaid and well below their qualifications. Thus generous family policies do not necessarily indicate the 'women friendliness' of the state and may not lead to the relatively favourable trade-off between stable public sector work and lower wages suggested recently by comparative researchers. Instead, in this specific context, which combines legacies of state socialism, a backlash against women's emancipation before 1990 and a peripheral, vulnerable labour market, familialist policies are associated with a high degree of marginalisation for women with small children in which the state is at best complicit, at worst, an active agent.

Work-life Balance and Gender Regime After the Economic Transition

“…This is especially true of women with small children (Pascall and Kwak, 2005), who face the effect of a 'penalty for motherhood' in the labour market (Glass and Fodor, 2011) alongside their requirement to juggle work and private life obligations. This motherhood penalty is increased through the institution of the long period of parental leave which is typically taken by mothers (Fodor and Kispéter, 2014).…”

“…According to Szikra and Szelewa, the low level of willingness to have children can be explained by the dominance of familialism both in Hungary and in Poland (Szikra and Szelewa, 2010). It can thus be seen that, after the regime change, different forms of gender regimes became established although all countries seem to be strongly predisposed towards familialism, the policy support for which has significantly contributed to women's marginalisation in the labour market (Fodor and Kispéter, 2014).…”

Selected Gender Gap Indicators – Comparison of V4 Countries within EU Context

“…The gender inequality in economic participation and opportunities within Visegrad region have become of interest of researchers whose outcomes reflect the subindex evolution for these four countries. The subindex components like female labor force participation is reflected in uncovering discriminatory practices by employers against pregnant women and women with small children being decisive in women's decisions to postpone or forego childbearing (Mishtal, 2009), consequences of reconciling work with family care, like the negative and significant impact of motherhood reducing the likelihood of career choices in the Czech Republic (Brožová, 2015), negative impact of lengthy parental leave on chances to return to labor market in Hungary (Fodor and Kispeter, 2014), labor market discrimination of women due to their motherhood in Poland (Heinen and Wator, 2006), Czech society making parenthood a significant handicap for the social inclusion of women who are mothers of young children in the Czech Republic (Křížková and Vohlídalová, 2009). Further wage discrimination war mirrored in proving motherhood wage penalty in Czech Republic (Žofková, 2014), gender discrimination explaining about half of the wage gap across Visegrad countries (Pailhe, 2000) and further gender biased remuneration studies (Vlachová, 2014;Mysíková, 2012;Balcar, 2012;Pytlíková, 2012;Křížková et al, 2010).…”

“…Scientists studied discrimination on the labor market (Žofková, 2014;Brožová, 2006;Mishtal, 2009, Pailhe, 2000Joliffe and Campos, 2005), on consequences of reconciling work with family care (Brožová, 2015;Fodor and Kispeter, 2014;Heinen and Wator, 2006; Křížková and Vohlídalová, 2009), horizontal segregation (Picka, 2014;Piscová, 2003), gender balance in the field of remuneration (Vlachová, 2014;Mysíková, 2012;Balcar, 2012;Pytlíková, 2012;Křížková et al, 2010) and vertical segregation (Křečková, 2013;Křečková Kroupová, 2009;Piscová, 2003). Relationship of gender gap, competitiveness and…”

Expanding Understanding of Motherhood Penalty: How Gaps in Family Policies Contribute to Gaps in Old-Age Earnings in Russia

“…The Russian case presents an interesting dynamic between the structure of the family policies and old-age pensions given that Russia remains one of the last developed states with the lowest female retirement age, still at 55 years. The literature on postcommunist Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) fits the region in the broader family policy context of developed democracies (Gal and Kligman, 2000;Fodor, 2007, 2011;Szelewa and Polakowski, 2008;Fodor and Kispeter, 2014;Javornik, 2014;Blum, 2016;Razzu, 2016;Roosalu and Hofacker, 2016;Cukrowska-Torzewska, 2017;Fodor and Glass, 2018). In the past, socialist governments pursued full employment of mothers by funding paid maternity and parental leave, governmentsubsidized childcare and subsidies for families with children (Rudd, 2000;Haney, 2002;Cook, 2007;Rivkin-Fish, 2010).…”