The economic crisis and changes in work–family arrangements in six European countries

Abstract:

Over the past decades, there has been a substantial increase in female labour force participation, and the number of dual-earner and female-earner households has risen throughout western countries. However, the recent economic crisis has caused large losses in employment for both women and men, potentially yielding unexpected consequences for the evolution of work–family arrangements.

This article carries out a comparative analysis of the relationship between the 2008/2009 economic crisis and work–family arrangements in Europe. Using data for six countries from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions, this article fills a gap in the literature by addressing three issues: (1) whether work–family arrangements have changed from before to after the beginning of the economic downturn in countries with different gender and welfare regimes (Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Sweden and the United Kingdom), (2) whether changes in work–family arrangements have occurred at different levels of the social strata and (3) whether couples have moved from dual-earner to male- or female-breadwinner.

The results indicate changes in work–family arrangements in those countries worst hit by the economic crisis, Greece and Spain, where dual-earner and male-breadwinner households have decreased and no-earner and female-main-earner households have increased. Moreover, the results show that in these two countries, all social strata – proxied through women’s level of education – have been affected by the crisis. In contrast, only moderate changes in work–family arrangements among all women can be observed in countries less hit by the economic downturn.

The findings for the two southern European countries are troubling, as the increases in no-earner and female-breadwinner households point to worsening economic conditions throughout the population and to a halt in the process that for several decades had been leading to more equality in the distribution of employment between genders.