Lisbon Motiejunaite Kravchenko presentation

Parenting, Employment and Gender Roles in Russia and Sweden: 

Parenting, Employment and Gender Roles in Russia and Sweden Akvile Motiejunaite, Zhanna Kravchenko Baltic and East European Graduate School South Stockholm University College SE-14189 Huddinge, Sweden akvile.motiejunaite@sh.se zhanna.kravchenko@sh.se

Slide2: 

Gender effects of family policy Women’s decision to participate/or not on the labour market is shaped by institutional framework of social policy, social norms on redistribution of work/care duties. Research question What are the patterns of relations between a) family policy arrangements b) normative gender relations c) actual family practices?

Slide3: 

Sweden and Russia Similarities Wide participation of women in the labour market Female % of the labour force (2004, The World Bank data) Russian Federation 49% Sweden 47% Explicit family policy aimed at conciliation of waged work and care duties and Differences Sustainable democratic development in Sweden Drastic transformation of social, political, economic order in Russia during the 1990s

Questions: 

Questions Do similarities in the approach and the instruments of family policy result in similar socio-economic practices of families? How does the change in vector of economic and political system influence the transformation of gender-role attitudes?

Gender contract: 

Gender contract is a “compromise made about the gender division of labour, at work, and by implication, at home” (Gottfried 2000: 253) ‘official’ contract ‘everyday’ contract ‘ideal’ contract

Slide6: 

Gender contracts in the ’worlds of welfare’ How the principles of structuring and design of policies allow both women and men access to public benefits and services?

Data: 

Data documents and statistical indicators related to the public authority’s policy as regards creation of conditions for women engaging in wage labour (and less thoroughly, for encouraging men to participate in care)  ‘official’ contract survey data, obtained from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) on Family and Changing Gender Roles, modules II and III (for the years 1994 and 2002)  ‘ideal’ and ‘everyday’ contracts

The ’Official’ Contract: 

The ’Official’ Contract The weak male-breadwinner model The state-carer model? Woman – a worker and a carer Transformation of the ‘official contract’ during 1994-2002 Sweden: no drastic changes in the model Russia: towards the modified male-breadwinner model

The ’Ideal’ Contract: 

The ’Ideal’ Contract Factor analysis: Scale ‘Traditional Male Breadwinner Model’ (TMBM) All in all, family life suffers when the woman has a full-time job. A pre-school child is likely to suffer if his or her mother works. A man’s job is to earn money; a woman’s job is to look after the home and family. A job is all right, but what most women really want is a home and children. Being a housewife is just as fulfilling as working for pay. 2002 1994

Slide10: 

Determinants of support for TMBM (standard errors within parentheses) Notes: *=significant at 0.05 level, **=significant at 0.01 level.

Slide11: 

The ’Ideal’ vs. the ‘Everyday’ Contract ‘Ideal’: ‘Do you think that women should work outside the home full-time, part-time or not at all under these circumstances?’ ‘Everyday’: ‘Did you work outside the home full-time, part-time, or not at all...?’ OR ‘What about your spouse/partner at that time - did he or she work outside the home full-time, part-time, or not at all...?’ After marrying and before there are children. When there is a child under school age. After the youngest child starts school. After the children leave home.

Slide12: 

Pearson Correlation Coefficients between the ‘ideal’ and ‘everyday’ contract Notes: *=significant at 0.05 level, **=significant at 0.01 level. Pair-wise deletion of missing values, N varies.

Slide13: 

Conclusions ‘Official’ contract: the ‘dual-earner/state carer’ family model, but Sweden - emphasis on dual-caring and flexible work arrangements for women. ‘Ideal’ contract: Sweden: strong support for liberal family roles increased, closer to ‘official’ Russia: uniform agreement to TMBM decreased, contradicts to ‘official’ ‘Everyday’ contract: more consistent with ‘ideal’ and ‘official’ in Sweden, huge discrepancies in Russia  no choice