Lessons from the Netherlands on work life balance.

1
Lessons from the Netherlands on work life balance.
Work
Family

• Susanna Lloyd Kay Standing
• Liverpool John Moores University

2
Overview

• Based on ESF project.
• Evaluates issues of work, life balance in the UK
  and Netherlands.
• Is there something we can learn from how WLB is
  approached in the Netherlands, or does this
  approach just reinforce gender divisions?

3
Work Life Balance

• Having a family, participating in the labour
  market (Pillinger, 2001).
• Modern life - stress and misbalance between work,
  care and leisure (Ester et al, 2002).
• People should not have to choose between pursuing
  a career
• (the way people express themselves, form social
  interactions,
• main source of material resources) and their
  family life
• (whether, when and how many children they have,
  and
• spending time with these children) (OECD, 2002)
• Getting the right balance/ Best of both worlds
  (Plantenga, 2002)

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Why is work life balance an issue for women?

• Changes in the labour market
• Globalised 24/7 society
• Atypical working hours
• Flexible? Childcare VS Employer led
• Institutionalised overtime
• Womens participation in the labour market
• Increase entry latter half of the 20th century
• The rise in dual earner families
• Renegotiation of care and domestic
  responsibilities
• Conflicting demands of family and paid work
• Succeed, progress VS. family time

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Why is work life balance an issue for women?

• Caring responsibilities
• Gendered towards women
• Bulk of childcare and domestic tasks (Gershury,
  1997)
• Not valued (Land, 1999)
• Fragmentation of labour force participation
• Child care facilities
• Acute shortage, affordable
• Set hours
• Strong influence labour market decisions
• Effects participation and progression
• Key barrier lone parents, low income.

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Project Aims

• To assess the impact of UKfamily-friendly
  policy/workplace flexibility.
• Awareness availability take-up attitudes.
• Potential to alleviate the work-care conflict
  for women alleviate the childcare barrier.
• To investigate the lived experience of
  work-life balance for women.
• Explore the ways in which childcare persists as a
  barrier to employment progression.
• To identify examples of good practice from the
  Netherlands.

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Methods

• Mainly qualitative
• Face-to-face
• Telephone interviews
• Focus groups
• Women in London, the Southeast and the Northwest
  of England.
• Policy makers, academics, trade unions in the
  Netherlands.
• Life history interviews.
• Secondary analysis of large-scale quantitative
  data LFS, Time Use Survey Household Panel
  Survey etc.

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• Why the Netherlands?
• Netherlands - reduction and reorganisation of
  working time, to achieve equality and sharing of
  work and family life (Pillinger, 2001).
• World leader in part-time work (Van der Heijden,
  1998).
• Combination Model

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Employer-provided family benefits.

• Care and Work law- balance between employment and
  care responsibilities - flexible working time,
  able to work part-time, leave.
• Child- illness
• Emergency.
• Relative illness.
• Parental Leave.
• 16 weeks paid leave - paid by government, toped
  up by employers
• 6 months entitled to work only half hours, 75 of
  original wage (OCED, 2003).
• Adjustment of working hours - request to work
  more or less hours.
• Taken with maternity/paternal leave.
• Developing and improving childcare facilities.

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Part time jobs in the Netherlands

• ¾ of 2 million jobs since 1983 have been part
  time.
• Majority have gone to women.
• 42 jobs are part time (highest in Europe)
• Sharing work and family life.
• Reinforces gender divide?
• Job ghetto part time and low wage
• Gendered culture
• Breadwinner
• Parenting
• Social model of the mother being the main carer
• Gender wage gap
• Trapped in jobs with no career progression.

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• Because talking at the school gate one of the
  mums I know through
• nursery who is now going to the same school as my
  son, she said is
• going to have to give up work because her company
  arent open to
• her working part time. So she is actually going
  to give up, resign and
• find something else. So it is in their interest.
• It gives you a sense of identity. Being at home
  with small child never
• appealed. As much as I love, them, but I wanted
  to be part-time
• because I wanted to still be working but I wanted
  to spend time with
• the children.
• (Lilly 34 yrs, North Hampton, 2 children 3yrs
  and 4yrs, Computer Programmer IT support 21
  hours).

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• And then you get all the snide comments that
  make you think you
• arent doing your job properly
• due to Helens childcare issues
• I think if you work shifts or you wanted, you
  were a lower level
• there is probably more opportunity but I find
  there is nothing in
• there is just nothing on my level, everything I
  do a search for part
• time B4 there is nothing there.
• .and a friend of mine came back as a B6 but she
  just realised you cant do the job part time at
  that level.
• (Wendy 40yrs, North Hampton, 2 children 3yrs and
  7yrs Assistant analyst 21hrs ).

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Gender, Work and Care

• Contradicts?
• Women wanting to care
• Problems with labour market
• Trapped, progression
• Flexibility
• Care valued feminine

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Work Life Balance

• Having a family, participating in the labour
  market (Pillinger, 2001).
• Modern life - stress and misbalance between work,
  care and leisure (Ester et al, 2002).
• People should not have to choose between pursuing
  a career
• (the way people express themselves, form social
  interactions,
• main source of material resources) and their
  family life
• (whether, when and how many children they have,
  and
• spending time with these children) (OECD, 2002)
• Getting the right balance/ Best of both worlds
  (Plantenga, 2002)

15
Part time jobs in the Netherlands

• ¾ of 2 million jobs since 1983 have been part
  time.
• Majority have gone to women.
• 42 jobs are part time (highest in Europe)
• Sharing work and family life.
• Reinenforces gender divide?
• Job ghetto part time and low wage
• Gendered culture
• Breadwinner
• Parenting
• Social model of the mother being the main carer
• Gender wage gap
• Trapped in jobs with no career progression.

16

• Because talking at the school gate one of the
  mums I know through
• nursery who is now going to the same school as my
  son, she said is
• going to have to give up work because her company
  arent open to
• her working part time. So she is actually going
  to give up, resign and
• find something else. So it is in their interest.
• It gives you a sense of identity. Being at home
  with small child never
• appealed. As much as I love, them, but I wanted
  to be part-time
• because I wanted to still be working but I wanted
  to spend time with
• the children.
• (Lilly 34 yrs, North Hampton, 2 children 3yrs
  and 4yrs, Computer Programmer IT support 21
  hours).

17

• And then you get all the snide comments that
  make you think you
• arent doing your job properly
• due to Helens childcare issues
• I think if you work shifts or you wanted, you
  were a lower level
• there is probably more opportunity but I find
  there is nothing in
• there is just nothing on my level, everything I
  do a search for part
• time B4 there is nothing there.
• .and a friend of mine came back as a B6 but she
  just realised you cant do the job part time at
  that level.
• (Wendy 40yrs, North Hampton, 2 children 3yrs and
  7yrs Assistant analyst 21hrs ).