Social Vulnerability and its Intersections: The role of gender in a comparative perspective

Project Information

VINe

Grant agreement ID: 747433

DOI

10.3030/747433

Project closed

EC signature date 27 February 2017

Start date 1 June 2017

End date 31 May 2019

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 158 121,60

EU contribution

€ 158 121,60

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITAT AUTONOMA DE BARCELONA
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - VINe (Social Vulnerability and its Intersections: The role of gender in a comparative perspective)

Reporting period: 2017-06-01 to 2019-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The project VINe aimed at exploring in an intersectional perspective the relationship between social vulnerability and gender in six countries in Europe. The overall objective of VINe was to contribute to the debate on social vulnerability and economic insecurity by investigating in a comparative perspective the gendered composition of vulnerable groups and how the individual risk can contribute to the exposure of household to economic insecurity. The main results of the projects underline three main aspects that have been proved relevant to explain the economic insecurity of European households: the unequal distribution of non-standard work in terms of gender and generations, the territorial fragility associated with social vulnerability and the composition of household in mediating these processes. Results have been exploited mostly in relation to the debate of dualization in Southern European countries.

In fact, the empirical evidence underlines the role played by non-standard work in Southern Europe in exposing women and their household to economic insecurity. In particular, the main issue that emerged from the analysis is the growth of involuntary part-time that has been provoked by the financial crisis of 2008/2009 and the unequal distribution of the growth of involuntary non-standard work between Northern and Southern countries. Especially, VINe has demonstrated that in the South of Europe the involuntary part-time of women is not a contingent phenomenon derived from the consequences of the crisis, but a structural consequence of the dualization process occurred in the past thirty years (Maestripieri and Leon, 2019). Furthermore, household composition and welfare regimes matters in explaining the phenomenon of economic insecurity (Maestripieri, 2018).

VINe empirical evidence is important for society as it explains one of the ways by which gender inequalities are perpetuated in labour markets. VINe results also demonstrated that this is not only an individual problem of women, but a general problem of society as the involuntary non-standard work of women exposes households to economic insecurity

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

WP1: Theoretical paper about Social Vulnerability
Connected to WP1, there is the paper is entitled “Localising risks and vulnerability” and it is co-authored with prof. Costanzo Ranci (Politecnico di Milano). The paper explores the relationship between territorial fragility and social vulnerability, in order to explore how much the territory counts in explaining the exposure to the vulnerability of women and men. Aim of the paper is to go beyond the national level, focusing on vulnerability at the regional and urban level. It relies on a systematic literature review to investigate the role of localities in determining the exposure to social risks, one of the mechanisms behind the rise of economic insecurity in Europe. Territorial fragility is intersected with other dimensions of disadvantages (age, gender), to respect the intersectional perspective of the project. Paper still unpublished.

WP2: Social vulnerability gendered profiles
Connected to WP2, there is the paper entitled “A Job of One’s Own. Does Women’s Labor Market Participation Influence the Economic Insecurity of Households?”. This paper explores the role of household composition and the women’s labour market participation in explaining the economic insecurity of families in six countries, using EU SILC microdata. This article has been published in Societies, 8(7): 1-32 (OA Journal, indexed in WoS ESCI Sociology). This paper has been particularly useful to develop the index of economic insecurity, which has then been used in the following WP3.

A second paper, Maestripieri L. and Leon M. (2019) ‘So close, so far? Part-time employment and its effects on gender equality in Italy and Spain’ is also included in the work of WP2. Published in H. Nicolaisen, H. C. Kavli and R. Steen Jensen (eds.) Dualization of part-time work. The development of Labour Market insiders and outsiders. Bristol: Policy Press, 55-85. This paper demonstrates the relevance of analysing the involuntary part-time of women in southern Europe as an innovative contribution to the dualization debate. The analysis uses microdata from the European Labour Survey (2005-2016) and it exploits the intersectional perspective (age and education) to investigate the role of household composition in determining the type of part-time accepted by women.

WP3: Intersectional profiles and economic insecurity
Connected to WP3, there is the paper entitled “The role of women’s involuntary part-time in determining the economic insecurity of households across six countries in Europe”. This paper stems from the results of WP1 and WP2, to explore in detail the role of the type non-standard employment of women in determining the economic insecurity of households. Main source of data is the Eurostat EU SILC microdata 2016. It uses multinomial logistic models and counterfactual analysis to validate its results. Paper still unpublished.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The main contribution to the state of the art is linked to dualization debate by focusing on the involuntary part-time as a specific gendered mechanism of creating dualized markets in Southern Europe and the introduction of a gender perspective in the social vulnerability debate.

The work carried during the project addressed two important societal challenges: first, gender inequalities and secondly, the issue of dualization of labour markets in Southern Europe. Both these issues are relevant for the Europe 2020 strategy and for the European Pillars of Social Rights. In particular, it offers new empirical evidence for the following objectives:
▪ Europe 2020: Employment and Social Exclusion
▪ European Pillar of Social Rights: Equal opportunities and access to the labour market, Fair working conditions and Social protection and inclusion

VINe has in this sense provided policy recommendations, available in several languages and participated in two grass-roots events (Jobless Society Forum 2018, Milano / Italy and Escola IGOP, 2019, Barcelona/Spain) to disseminate the results with relevant stakeholders.

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