The Modernisation Process Through the Perceptions of Work–Family in Spain and Great Britain

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the work–family conflict as perceived by working parents in two European countries, Spain and Great Britain (GB). Using data from the International Social Survey Programme, ISSP 2002, we examine the factors that explain the high level of conflict in the two countries, for both men and women. Whereas sex, age and having children at home impact the level of conflict in Spain, education level as a proxy for class is more relevant in the GB. The contrasting perceptions of the work–family conflict in the two countries may be taken as indicators of each country's stage in what has been called the ‘modernization process’. This study seeks to understand the relationship between the level of ‘modernization’ and the perception of a high level of conflict in the attempt to reconcile the work–family conflict, focusing on the process of ‘individualization’ on the one hand and measurement of ‘the perception of the level of conflict by sex’ on the other.¹

1. Individualization: process by which people come to take responsibility for their identity. It consists in transforming human ‘identity’ from a ‘given’ into a ‘task’ – and charging the actors with the responsibility for that task and for the consequences (also the side effects) of their performance (Beck and Beck-Gernsheim 2002).

The study argues that the difference between these high levels of conflict is explained by variables that refer to ascribed status in Spain (a pro-traditional model) but to acquired status in GB (a non-interventionist model) indicated by the influence of education level as a variable resulting from a person's effort.

Key words:

• perceived conflict in reconciling work and family life
• gender
• comparative perspective
• modernisation

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank my colleges Rosemary Crompton, Clare Lyonette, Mercedes Fernández, Rafael Gobernado, Francisco Sánchez Benedito and Carlos Gamero for their valuable suggestions on this paper. I wish to also thank the editor and reviewers that contributed to improve the last version of this article. This research was funded by: The Ministry of Employment and Social Affairs (FIPROS 62/2006) and The Ministry of Science and Innovation (PSI 2009-01937).

Notes

1. Individualization: process by which people come to take responsibility for their identity. It consists in transforming human ‘identity’ from a ‘given’ into a ‘task’ – and charging the actors with the responsibility for that task and for the consequences (also the side effects) of their performance (Beck and Beck-Gernsheim 2002).

2. The text refers alternately to the United Kingdom (UK) and Great Britain (GB) because the ISSP 2002 refers to GB but some other data were only available for the UK.

3. A low level of conflict signifies equality, as confirmed among countries belonging to social democratic regimes.

4. Esping-Andersen (1990) provides an alternate classification to that of Gauthier (1996). The latter is recommended for studies of women's situation in society. Kamerman (2000) argues that a solid social policy covering institutions that attend to citizens and their children's needs has a direct effect in strengthening the labour market and specifically influences improvement in women's position on it.

5. Hereafter, ‘conflict’ indicates the conflict involved in harmonising work and family life.

6. The following section explains in greater detail how we have measured these.

7. There are few observations from the highest levels of conflict in the initial gradation. We conclude that people know and feel that they suffer conflict but that the conflict is more complex if people are in an extreme situation. Gamero (2007) proceeds similarly in studying job satisfaction and kinds of contract in Spain.

8. Given the complexity of comparing this variable across countries, we used variable v205, ‘R: Education II, highest education level’, to facilitate comparison. This variable provides information that has been consolidated for the countries considered here.

9. Reconciliation policies in Spain begin in 1996, with the agreement to develop the Integral Family Support Plan. Among the measures for reconciliation, we find the Law for Work-Family Balance 39/1999). This law includes the main proposal of the European directive (Council Directive 96/34/CE), which establishes the parental licence as an instrument for reconciling professional and family life and for promoting equal opportunity and treatment of men and women; the Organic Law of Equality between Women and Men (2007); the Law for the Promotion of Personal Autonomy and Attention to Dependency (2006); and the Organic Law of Education 2/2006. For a long time, the UK ranked among the last European countries in development of family policies. Before 1997, no model for work-family balance existed, and responsibility for care was considered a family matter. Starting in 1997, the government began to intervene in promoting work–family balance. Since then, the UK has developed a Family Policy that has increased substantially the expenditure on initiatives for care of minors and support for employees. The British model, distinguished for its long workdays for men and short workdays for women, has been resolving conflict through petitions instead of through the legal system. The Labour Party has promoted job flexibility. By 2004, the Government seemed to have settled on making provision for the parental care of children during the first year and investing in childcare to facilitate (women's) labour-market participation and children's early learning once children reach age three. The Law of 2006 is based on equal treatment, but in practice it leads to women assuming care tasks and abandoning or decreasing their activity on the labour market. The work–family balance continues to be a topic of purely private choice.

10. As the data in this analysis were taken from a 2002 survey and thus gathered about 10 years ago, we assume that changes have occurred since then, due among other reasons to legislative reform.

11. The report cited shows that women in Spain begin to have children on average around age 31, when their labour activity is greatest (of women 25–34 years of age, six of every 10 women work).

12. One could conclude that the conflict is expressed in delaying the age of marriage and having children, among other behavioural patterns among the young population today. In Spain, the average age for having one's first child is 31 (Instituto Nacional de Estadística, INE 2010).

13. By this age, people have probably organised the work- and family-related aspects of their lives.

14. While the effects of the economic crisis in Spain and GB on this conflict are interesting, a discussion of this topic is beyond the scope of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marta Ortega Gaspar

Marta Ortega Gaspar is Professor of Sociology at the University of Malaga, Spain. She was recognised with the Extraordinary Economy Faculty PhD Award and the Honorific Mention ‘European Doctorate’ of Málaga University in 2008. She is specialised in family issues, comparative research on gender and care; and family policies. She has taken part in several National Projects about gender and care; social networks and social support. She was visiting researcher at City London University (2007) and at the Population and Ageing Institute (University of Oxford, UK, 2013). Her present research focuses on elderly and New Technologies; the crisis and the work–life balance. Her latest book is Los cuidados de los hijos y el género (2011).