Work time. Leisure time. On women's temporal and economic well-being in Europe

Abstract

In the study of work time, a wealth of influential ideas has emerged about the potentially damaging impact of too many hours in the labour market on the rest of peoples' lives, as well as about the negative economic ramifications of short hours working. The paper focuses on the temporal and economic well-being of female employees in Europe, stimulated by the importance of work time in debates over time poverty and work life integration. It asks whether women in shorter hours jobs are happiest with their time for paid work and leisure, but also what might the lower wages from reduced hours working mean for women, particularly those in low-level occupations. The paper shows first that although working fewer hours contributes to women's satisfaction with their time in many countries, it is long full-time hours that have the strongest (negative) relationship with women's temporal well-being across Europe. Second, the paper demonstrates the damaging impact of working in low-level occupations – both part-time and full-time – on the economic well-being of women's households. It stresses the importance of a combined work time and occupational class approach in the ongoing analysis of women's working lives.

En el estudio del tiempo de trabajo, han surgido muchas ideas influyentes acerca del impacto potencialmente negativo de demasiadas horas en el mercado laboral sobre la qualidad de vida de la gente, así como acerca las ramificaciones económicas negativas de los trabajos a tiempo parcial. El paper se centra en el bienestar temporal y económico de las empleadas femeninas en Europa, estimulado por la importancia del tiempo de trabajo en debates sobre pobreza de tiempo y integración vida/trabajo. El paper pregunta si mujeres en trabajos con horas más cortas están más contentas con su tiempo para el trabajo y el tiempo libre, pero también lo que significa el sueldo más bajo para esas mujeres, especialmente aquellas que trabajan en ocupaciones mas umildes. El paper demuestra, primero, que aunque trabajar menos horas contribuye a la satisfacción de las mujeres con su tiempo en muchos países, son las horas largas de los trabajos de jornada completa que tienen el más fuerte impacto (negativo) sobre el bienestar temporal de las mujeres en Europa. Segundo, el paper demuestra el impacto negativo del trabajo en ocupaciones de bajo nivel – ambos a tiempo parcial y de jornada completa – sobre el bienestar económico de las mujeres. Enfatiza la importancia de un enfoque combidado sobre tiempo de trabajo y clase occupacional para el análisis de la vida laboral de las mujeres.

Keywords:

• time poverty
• economic well-being
• work-life
• class

Palabras claves:

• pobreza de tiempo
• bienestar economico
• trabajo/tiempo libre
• clase

Acknowledgements

This research was co-funded by a grant of the European Commission under the Transnational Access to major Research Infrastrucutures contract HPRI-CT-2001-00128 hosted by IRISSC/ I at CEPS/INSTEAD Differdange (Luxembourg), and by the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Nottingham. The author is very grateful for the support from the team in Differdange. Thanks also to the very useful suggestions made by the journal's editor and references.

Notes

1. Work life discussions are still criticised for artificially separating and making distinct the domains of work and life, implying that work is not part of life and that it is inferior to it (Lewis et al., 2007; Ransome, 2007; Warhurst, Eikhof, & Haunschild, 2008).

2. Though Holley, Jain and Lyons (2008) show that ‘travel to work time’ can be analysed both as work and non-work practices.

3. Due to sample size restrictions, it was not possible to further disaggregate ‘part-time’ across all countries.

4. In most countries, there were very similar mean hours for those in part-time clerical/manual and part-time higher levels jobs.

5. As well as noting the hard work inherent in much leisure (Boon, 2006; Juniu, Tedrick, & Boyd, 1996; Stebbins, 2004; Yee, 2006)