Final Report Summary - FAMINE (Families of Inequalities- Social and economic consequences of the changing work-family equilibria in European Societies) European societies witnessed a series of profound changes over recent decades, among those the emergence of new social risks in connection to globalization and labour market flexibilisation, and considerable transformation of families, in large parts originating in the changing behaviour of women. The changes in two of the classic inequality-generating institutions – the labour market and the family – have singularly been documented, the various actors involved have been identified and consequences have been studied. What has been lacking, though, is an integrated perspective systematically linking these developments to trends in social and economic inequality of European societies, and a consideration of how the effects of the mentioned changes have been mediated by institutional arrangements. This project fills this gap by investigating the changes in social and economic inequality associated with the “new work-family equilibria” in different European contexts (single countries or welfare clusters), focusing on disparities between households, genders and individuals and how they are shaped by the macro contexts.Too high levels of inequality are a menace to equity and social cohesion, for not to mention its potential in fostering the current global crisis. However, even high levels of inequality are less problematic when market-generated economic inequality is not matched with social inequality, the latter generated by (new) family arrangements and welfare systems. Therefore, to systematically consider individual (micro), family (meso) and institutional (macro) mechanisms within a dynamic, longitudinal, perspective is essential.The questions in a nutshell: how can we foster the positive combination of employment and parenthood and contribute to more equal-and-efficient societies? Which combinations of market efficiency and welfare redistribution provide the better results regarding occupational integration, low labour market segmentation, income redistribution, mothers’ employment, the inclusion of outsiders…?The project was organised in three work packages: (1) the detailed interconnections between work and family and the dynamics behind the emerging of “new work-family equilibria”: we study the consequences of labour market changes (deregulation, flexibilisation of EU labour market, the growing insider-outsider cleavage) and the impact of different forms and intensities of labour markets deregulation on national and cluster-specific labour market functionings. We showed how the impact of EU labour market deregulation “at the margins” was particularly problematic in the Southern European context, boosting higher levels of labour market segmentation, employment instability and unemployment risks especially for the young and thus coming with consequences for family formation and fertility as well as for work-family conciliation;(2) families’ capacities to compensate for increasing market risks, or rather the accumulation of risk within families and the intergenerational transmission of risks: the accumulation of insecure or poor employment within households; the accumulation of several risk on specific families such as entrapment and families poverty risks especially after childbirth etc.;(3) the consequences for social and economic inequality of the developments in employment, family formation and changing work-family equilibria in European societies. Evaluating the (social) consequences of two decades of labour market deregulatory reforms, we come to a rather critical assessment, especially when deregulation is implemented “at the margins” and in societies that are inflexible under many other aspects (labour and product market rigidity, strongly stratified educational inequalities, low social fluidity and strong stratification of opportunities). Then, deregulation increases inequality and social exclusion. In these contexts (like in southern Europe) labour market deregulation, at best, came with a honeymoon effect and flexible jobs work as entry ports only for a minority. In the long term, however, negative consequences seem to prevail, such as substitution of stable employment with insecure and short term positions, no or scarce employment creation, and increased unemployment as well as economic instability combined with negative demographic consequences in some countries. Overall, deregulation at the margins reduced the acquisition of social rights (like access to social benefits or the maturation of pension rights) for some: namely the currently young generations, creating new cleavages and huge problems for the future. We find alarming trends for the young generations in southern Europe (while much less so in other countries), who are increasingly unable to set up their own family and thus are forced to remain with their parents. Further, we find a clear tendency of accumulation of problematic employment situations among couples instead of compensation of risks. Obviously, when the accumulation of social risks prevails (the “Matthew effect”), market generated inequalities are further amplified and thus increase the overall level of social inequality. Overall – and in sharp contrast with some scenarios proposed in parts of the literature – we find that women’s’ inflow in the labour market is a great equalizer and helps families to avoid poverty (a risk that in some countries increases with the arrival of new members) especially where state and welfare support is scarce. Still too often, though, female employment comes at the costs of fertility decisions: the employment/motherhood trade-off is still a realty especially in the Mediterranean context, due to the combination of a “forced-familiaristic” societal organization and the lack of labour and social policies supporting (female) employment and equal opportunities. As is well known, in fact, family policies and labour market opportunities are important to successfully combine work and family. Yet also context specific cultural aspects are relevant for fertility and employment choices of families, and traditional family models are reinforced by the lack of welfare measure promoting women’s freedom of choice. In fact, cultural aspects turn out to be decisive for individual’s behaviour in those contexts characterized by an absence of structural (policy) support. Understanding the mechanisms behind families’ behaviours obviously helps to target interventions and family policies. The assessment of structural aspects and their interaction with context-specific cultural traits contributes to identify those policies enabling Mediterranean countries to overcome the low fertility-low female labour market participation equilibrium and fostering the dual-earner model throughout Europe. But setting up a family (having children) is a difficult task when individuals are increasingly exposed to market risks. We also find some hints of families’ decreasing capacity to face them. In some countries even to the point that childbirth becomes a poverty risk for precariously employed and mono-income families.Our work on economic inequality confirms the existing and rather constant importance of the welfare state for reducing inequality, yet with peculiar differences in the efficiency among countries and welfare models. While changes in the way “do family” did not increase the level of inequality in societies and are thus not responsible for accelerated inequality trends, the families still play a crucial role in stratifying chances and generating or reducing inequality. Highly problematic in this sense is the increase in single-headed households, while, as said, the increase in dual income households seems to contribute to a better capacity to cushion adverse events and through this possibly to more equity (or at least to less inequality within EU societies).
