Social Policy and Gender Divisions of Domestic and Care Work in France.

FRANCE; EUROPEAN Union countries

A number of cross-national comparisons of gender divisions of paid and unpaid labour have highlighted the mismatch which exists in France between on the one hand a narrow gender employment gap due to the full-time and continuous nature of women's employment, supported by extensive state-provided or subsidised childcare, and on the other hand, the persistence of an unexpectedly traditional gender division of domestic and care work. This results in high levels of work–life conflict for French women, and particularly for mothers. In much social policy analysis, the question of how policy might influence the extent to which domestic and care work is shared within the couple has been largely overlooked in favour of discussions of how the state facilitates and encourages the employment of mothers of dependent children. This article therefore focuses on why and how state policy in France, whilst being successful in bringing women and particularly mothers into the labour market, has not brought about a fairer gender division of unpaid domestic and care work in the home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plusieurs comparaisons internationales des divisions sexue´es du travail re´mune´re´ et non re´mune´re´ ont accentue´ la disparite´ qui existe en France entre l’inte´gration tre`s de´veloppe´e des Franc¸aises dans le marche´ de l’emploi d’un coˆte´ (l’emploi fe´minin en France tend a` eˆtre a` plein temps et sans interruption graˆce au soutien de l’Etat de la garde des enfants). Et la persistance d’une re´partition du travail domestique et des soins qui est plus traditionnelle, de l’autre. Ceci a comme conse´quence des niveaux e´leve´s du conflit entre le travail et la vie prive´e pour les femmes franc¸aises, et en particulier pour des me`res de famille. Dans beaucoup d’analyses de la politique sociale, les fac¸ons dont la politique pourrait influencer le partage du travail domestique et des soins au sein du couple ont e´te´ en grande partie ne´glige´e en faveur de discussions de la fac¸on dont l’e´tat facilite et encourage l’emploi des me`res de jeunes enfants. Cet article se focalise donc sur les raisons pourquoi et les fac¸ons dont la politique sociale en France, tout en ayant re´ussi a` inte´grer lesme`res de famille dans le marche´ du travail, n’a pas encourage´ une division plus e´galitaire du travail non re´mune´re´. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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