Brief 7 Western Europe

Brief 7 The crisis’ impact on women’s rights: sub-regional perspectives

The Impact of the Crisis on Women in West Europe

By Wendy Harcourt1

Preamble

T

his series of briefs entitled The crisis’ impact on women’s rights, published by the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), includes sub-regional perspectives on the impacts seen to date of the current crisis on women and women’s rights as well as those likely to come. These sub-regional analyses are a key input from women activists and analysts to inform development debates and decisions that are being made to respond to the crisis. The series also includes a cross-regional and global analysis.

We know that women are at the center of the fallout from the current crisis, which itself combines interlocking crises: a global economic recession, the devastating effects of climate change, and a deepening food and energy crisis. All of this is compounding the increasing poverty and inequality in different parts of the world, as well as the impacts of the HIV and AIDS pandemic. At the same time, traditional power relations among international players are shifting, the so-called ‘middle income countries’ with the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) assuming greater power (Brazil and China have become creditors of the United States, and important investors in the International Monetary Fund, and all of them hold some of the most important sources of reserves of the world). The current situation, a result of aggressive free-market capitalism pursued in the past decades, calls into sharp question dominant—and 1 Wendy Harcourt, Australian born feminist researcher and activist living in Italy since 1988, is Editor of the internationally renowned journal Development and Senior Advisor at the Society for International Development, Rome Italy. Since January 2009, she is working as a part-time professor at the European University Institute in Florence, as a team member of the European Report on Development. She is an active member of Women in Development Europe, the European Feminist Forum and Feminist Dialogues. Wendy has written extensively in the area of globalisation, alternative economics and gender, reproductive rights and health, culture and communications and has just completed a book on Body Politics in Development published by Zed Books in June 2009. www.wendyharcourt.net

The Systemic crisis’ impact on women: sub regional perspectives

even many of the so-called alternative—models for development. The crisis is not new for most of the developing countries that have struggled with crises in the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and beginning of 2000’s. This crisis, however, reached global proportions when it impacted hegemonic economies and their role in global arenas and put in evidence the interconnectedness of the diverse realities of countries in this globalized world.

This systemic crisis poses a huge challenge for governments, donors and every development practitioner, activist and policy-maker to reinvent the system in the long term, and reduce the negative impacts in the short and medium terms. In this sense, as many have said, the crisis also represents a historic opportunity to be bold, creative and attempt to right the wrongs of neoliberal development. As the crisis is now a driving force behind many development choices and processes (from the global to the local), and will shape approaches to development for years to come, the role of women and gender equality as a central goal must not be further overlooked. This is not simply because women are among those most negatively impacted by these crises, but also because they are key development players in most communities around the world, as well as relevant and vital actors in proposing effective approaches to mitigate the impacts of the crisis and expand the fulfillment of human rights, environmental sustainability and development commitments around the world. The exclusion of women, gender equality and women’s rights as central to these processes is unacceptable and should be used as an indicator of the seriousness of proposed responses.

In preparation for the United Nations (UN) High Level Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development (New York from June 24th to 26th 2009), several women’s rights groups expressed their concerns about the impacts of the crisis on women’s lives2 and their rights and the limitations of the actual responses to the crisis implemented or proposed so far. The Women’s Working Group on Financing for Development, of which AWID is a member, has been very active and committed to promoting the UN’s pivotal role as the legitimate space to address the crisis from a truly inclusive multilateral perspective.3 AWID is committed to engaging with and supporting collective initiatives to influence this process, as well as building alliances with actors from other social movements. Solutions that have been defined by the same actors who produced this financial and economic meltdown are unacceptable. Responses to the crisis must emerge from broad processes where both government and civil society engage in dialogue that is both enriching and makes decision-making more responsive to people’s needs and the fulfillment of human rights. Both civil society and governments from all countries of the world, including low-income countries, should be central actors included in this global policy dialogue process. Multilateral venues under the UN are the most inclusive and balanced spaces existing in the international system, and the only spaces with clear mechanisms for the participation of developing countries and civil society actors.

2 See the statement: The G20 committed to save the global economy at the cost of women, November 17, 2008, 11th AWID International Forum, from http://www.awid.org/eng/Enjeux-et-Analyses/Library/LE-G20-DECIDE-A-SAUVER-L-ECONOMIEMONDIALE-AUX-DEPENS-DES-FEMMES/(language)/eng-GB 3 Women’s Working Group on Financing for Development, Statement from the Second Women’s Consultation convened by the WWG on FfD in New York from April 24-26, 2009 from http://www.awid.org/eng/About-AWID/AWID-News/A-call-for-structural-sustainable-gender-equitable-and-rights-based-responses-to-the-global-financial-and-economic-crisis

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The Impact of the Crisis on Women in West Europe

Whatever the proposals and responses that emerge from such high level processes - they must be informed by analysis on how these trends are playing out in communities and how the impacts are differentiated among women and men and across different sectors. Allocation of resources for these responses must also be implemented in a way that takes into account the gender dynamics at play, and ensures that key social development sectors, such as health or education, are not the ones to be defunded for the sake of economic growth and financial stability.

The very social development achievements that have been made in the last two decades, as limited as they are, are currently at stake, if the focus of responses to the crisis is only economic growth and a return to ‘business as usual’. In this sense, women’s rights and gender equality commitments made by governments and other actors, such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the 1995 Beijing Platform of Action, the Millennium Development Goals must not be trade-offs in the definition of responses to the crisis.

It is in that spirit, that the authors of the briefs included in this series accepted the challenge to explore answers to the following questions: • Considering the diversity of situations in which women live, what are the main challenges for women in your sub-region in the context of the current crisis?

• Can you identify concrete actions or initiatives (responses to the crisis) that have already had either negative and/or positive impacts on women’s lives?

• Are women’s groups in your region experiencing increased discrimination as a direct or indirect result of the financial crisis?

• If stimulus packages are not inclusive of human rights and gender equality perspectives then are there any alternatives so that these packages are reshaped in order to include gender and rights dimensions?

• If the governments of the region/sub region (or regional bodies) have not set up any stimulus packages or measures yet: what do you expect will be the impact of not tackling the crisis in a timely way at the national and regional level?

• What are potential future impacts on women in your region in the context of a global recession? Which are the most outstanding weaknesses of the region in regards to the economic crisis?

• The UN Stiglitz Commission4 and the G20 are trying to identify international initiatives to reduce the impact of the crisis on development. Do you think these global initiatives consider challenges confronted by women, and how to help women in your region face the crisis?

The sub-regional analyses presented in this Series are an initial attempt to contribute to identifying challenges, potential responses and proposals from a women’s rights perspective, that builds on the different realities and impacts the crisis is having on different regions of the world. The analyses also aim to contribute to grounding responses to the crisis in gender equality and women’s rights and promoting a profound transformation for a more inclusive and democratic international system. Various regions raised common areas of concern that reflect common challenges for women’s rights around the world.

4 See the Women’s Working Group on Financing for Development Statements on the Stiglitz Commission from http://www.awid. org/eng/Issues-and-Analysis/Library/Women-s-Working-Group-on-FFD-Contributions-to-the-Stiglitz-Commission/(language)/ eng-GB and the Stiglitz Recommendations from http://www.un-ngls.org/spip.php?page=cfr

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The Systemic crisis’ impact on women: sub regional perspectives

A lack of gender equality perspectives in the stimulus packages or policy responses to the crisis at the national level seems to be commonplace, as well as how women are particularly affected because of their strong participation in the informal economy, and the non-recognition of their unpaid and reproductive work, as well as the high levels of discrimination and inequality they face. Amongst other important issues raised, these common findings call for a new understanding of the role of the state and how it affects women in particular through the care economy (in relation to the key reproductive roles that women play which sustain the current economic system at their peril), but also in terms of advancing the decent work agenda. When the role of the state was reduced, several of the social functions previously performed by the state healthcare, caretaking and education - were absorbed by women across regions, usually in addition to their paid work. Thus, women have disproportionately shouldered the burden of the consequences of state reduction, particularly as they relate to the fulfillment of economic and social rights (such as housing, health and education).5 If a post-neoliberalism era is emerging, the new international system should build on community, national, regional and global experiences of development actors, and on historic women’s rights agendas. These longstanding struggles should be reinterpreted and communicated broadly to promote alternative thinking around responses to the crisis.

Today we call for holistic responses to the systemic crisis. In doing so, our own efforts (amongst women’s movements and organizations) for building alternative discourses and influencing the international system must be grounded in different kinds of knowledge (informal and formal).

Our alternative discourse should also be based on a holistic/cross-cutting approach, ensuring full space for the voices of the most excluded groups.6

Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID)

Copyright ©Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), October, 2009 Authors: Wendy Harcourt Coordination: Cecilia Alemany Edition: Natalie Raaber and Rochelle Jones Proof- Reading: Karen Murray Production: Michele Knab Graphic design and layout: Miriam Amaro (sicdos.org.mx)

5 HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE STRATEGY MEETING: To follow-up efforts on Aid Effectiveness, gender equality and the impact of the crisis on women, 6-7 August 2009, New York, Edited by Cecilia Alemany (AWID).

6 HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE STRATEGY MEETING: To follow-up efforts on Aid Effectiveness, gender equality and the impact of the crisis on women, 6-7 August 2009, New York, Edited by Cecilia Alemany (AWID).

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The Impact of the Crisis on Women in West Europe

Summary Wendy Harcourt’s paper first discusses what is being said and predicted in West Europe about the financial crisis and its impacts on women. The paper looks in particular at paid work, precarity, care, migration, government accountability and the growing social unrest throughout West Europe. It reflects briefly on the importance of the EU and in particular the discussion of the crisis in the wake of the European Parliamentary elections. The conclusion looks at the possibilities of a more gender responsive policies for collective wellbeing that revalues care work and would take on board feminist analysis of the political economy.

Introduction The current financial crisis has raised considerable concerns within West Europe.7 Though it is still too early to measure the actual impact, there is deep concern about the worsening of gender gaps and social inequalities across the board and in particular for those already on social and economic margins such as the young, the elderly and migrant women.

What is certain is that the impact of the financial market’s collapse on women’s situations whether as workers or carers - is receiving far less attention than the loss of men’s jobs. As the European Women’s Lobby states: We can see a gendered pattern in the way the credit crunch is being discussed and exposed. Those sectors of the economy that are receiving far greater media attention are male dominated: primarily the construction and the car industry – while retailing and the services sector, predominately female (and also sectors where the representation of migrant workers is high) are being given less attention (European Women’s Lobby 2009).8

As an advocacy group monitoring the EU response to the financial crisis, the European Women’s Lobby warns that the European Recovery Plan, adopted in December 2008, remains “gender neutral.” The plans for a social Europe do not take up the need to invest in care, community-based services, education, health, including sexual and reproductive health, gender budgeting and in promoting women’s political leadership (European Women’s Lobby 2009).

At the same time, the crisis has thrown up opportunities to put feminist and gender equality strategies on the public policy agenda. As German feminist researcher Christa Wichterich writing for Women in Development Europe (WIDE) states: “The crisis can be utilized as an opportunity to democratize economic relations and re-embed the economy into social relations and into sustainable relations with nature (Wichterich 2009).”

This essay examines the crisis and its impact on women in West Europe by looking more closely at what is both predicted and feared with the crisis and what opportunities it appears to raise for a stronger feminist agenda in West Europe. In this analysis it is important to recognize that West Europe is a subset of Europe. At least initially, the global economic crisis is having much harsher impacts in the transition countries of former communist 7 This essay looks at the group of countries in Europe that are traditionally considered West Europe most of which are members of the EU: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain Sweden, United Kingdom and Switzerland. The following European countries mostly in the East are not considered as they are looked at in another essay in this AWID series: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, Republic of Macedonia, Republic of Serbia and Turkey.

8 See also the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly Working document which raises these concerns to the European Parliament on 4 May 2009, http://assembly.coe.int/ Documents/WorkingDocs/Doc09/EDOC11891.pdf)

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The Systemic crisis’ impact on women: sub regional perspectives

Europe when compared to the economically stronger capitalist countries in the West. That said, within the West there are still marked differences. The impact and responses in southern west Europe and northern Europe are diverse due to political, cultural, social and economic factors. The UK and Iceland stand out as being the most immediately hit, with interesting results for women. In Iceland, for example, the first openly lesbian leader in Europe, Prime Minister Social Democrat Johanna Sigudardottir, was elected in April 2009 on a leftist social and economic reform platform.

1. The nature of the crisis By now we know we are facing the worst economic crisis since the 1930s. Most commentators in the major European newspapers, webcasts and journals also acknowledge the systemic nature of the crisis. References to Keynesian theory and policy, once anathema to neoliberal governments, are now commonplace. All European governments are criticizing capitalist greed in the financial market and accepting that there is a need for massive government spending to cushion the collapse along with re-regulation to prevent future crises. There has been a bailing out of large banks and various support given directly and indirectly to large companies, especially to the automobile and construction industry.

The bail-out by European states has focused on the functioning and competitiveness of national economies. Notably, states are not pouring money into all of the existing financial system – they are bailing out the banks not the homeowners (Harvey 2009). Dutch feminist researcher Gisela Dutting (2009) comments: “The crisis has shaken the belief in the free market, but …the only change is that the national state [has acted] as the vehicle to allocate national tax money to bankrupt banks and other transnational corporations. As European states are transferring the money, the costs and risks are left for the general public and more precisely, for the tax-payers.”

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It is certainly a major shake up as financial experts vie with each other to propose solutions. International financial economists, such as Randy Wray (2009), suggest that Euroland must restructure, placing greater fiscal authority in the hands of the European Parliament (which should increase its spending from about 1% of Euroland GDP to 15%) in order to restore European and, thus, global growth. He sees this as part of a new economic paradigm for Europe that would lead to greater social justice, employment and price and currency stability.

Such expectations, however, appear bound to be unrealized. Debt - which states are creating in the rescue of banks and industries - is leading to cuts in social expenses, a reduction in public services and privatization of public goods and institutions (Women’s Working Group on Financing for Development, 2009). All of these have major implications for European women who will be expected to fill in the gaps.

The focus by European governments on the financial crisis and its impact on the real economy fails to tackle the deep inequities amongst capital and labour, paid labour and unpaid care work, which is mainly provided by women. Whereas the financial market and real economy are defined as productive and value-adding processes, it is assumed that childcare and natural cycles of the environment are outside of economics and do not create value. The solutions to the crisis continue to promote the interests of capital and the market principles of competition, efficiency and profit rather than the interests of men and women citizens for provision and care.

Solutions that do not take into account provision and care are bound to fail. As Wichterich (2009) points out: Industrial and financial value creation is based on a thick layer of social regeneration, care work and social safety nets on the one hand and the regenerative power of nature on the other. The capitalist valorisa-

The Impact of the Crisis on Women in West Europe

tion process constantly appropriates those social and natural performances, without remuneration or by mercilessly underpaying for personal services such as care for the elderly – work allegedly considered of little productivity.

UK economist Natisha Kaul in a matter-of-fact critique of the crisis states that it should be no surprise that the system has collapsed. The ongoing financing of the economy has literally been able to create value out of nothing in many cases. And so, Kaul states: The fragility of a house of cards shouldn’t be a surprise. The sad fact is the impact of these financial trades on businesses, livelihoods and jobs … those who cause them aren’t the ones hit most by the effects of the job losses. It is the workers in sectors such as construction and manufacturing and council workers with their pensions that take the fall (Kaul 2009).

She calls this “economic violence” - the violence caused by spurious economics when people “lose their jobs and livelihoods, when they witness massively divergent rewards for work, when they see an endless perpetuation of inequality around them. Such involuntary unemployment in the long run leads to social breakdown and community fragmentation” (Kaul 2009).

2. Responses to the crisis Throughout Europe, the failure of the state to take up its responsibilities to its citizens and the increased level of economic violence has been met with strong protests by civil society (trade unions, the women’s movement, social reform movement, environment and migrant movements). These have included demonstrations of formal and informal workers in France, strikes by Italian and German teachers and violent protests in Greece at the reforms and anti-crisis policies which have reduced working hours and failed to provide support for those who have lost jobs and security.

The major concern being raised by women’s groups in Europe is that existing inequitable trends in Europe, including gender inequalities, will simply deepen and worsen around conditions of work, care, migration, environment, xenophobia and political accountability..

Work High on the European agenda is how to maintain and improve social protection and social inclusion. The social and economic security of women and men are under threat with a “new poor” emerging - many of whom are in precarious work.

A few words about precarity Precarity refers to the widespread condition of temporary, flexible, contingent, casual, intermittent work in postindustrial societies. Precarity was introduced by the neoliberal labour market reforms that have strengthened the management clout and power of employers since the late 1970s. Precarity, first spoken about in the 1990s in Europe, refers both to the “pink collar” workers (mainly women) working in retail and low-end services (e.g. cleaners and janitors etc.) under constrictive but standardized employment norms; and to young people entering the information economy of European capital cities. In West Europe, between a quarter and a third of the labour force now works under temporary and/or part-time contracts, particularly in the UK, Holland, Spain and Italy.

The emergence of this “new poor” is reflected by a notable change in the demographic of protests taking place - with unionized forms of struggles no longer at the forefront. Protests against precarity have been held in France, Spain and Italy, breaking away from traditional union representation and social-democratic 7

The Systemic crisis’ impact on women: sub regional perspectives

compromise. In Italy, the actions against precarity held on Mayday 2009 for example included non-organized workers in the fashion and communication sectors, many of whom were women not previously involved in politics (Mattoni and Doerr 2007).9 The street protests are mirrored by advocacy statements, blogs and concerns raised on websites. These have largely focused on decent work, social insurance and social infrastructure investments. Women’s advocacy groups have underscored the need for gender budgeting and fiscal stimulus packages, as well as the need to build economic systems that measure unpaid and paid work as a basis for policy making where gender equality and women’s empowerment are starting points (WIDE 2009).

A social platform at EU and national levels is coming together calling for policy coherence between the EU Active Inclusion Strategy, the European Employment guidelines and the Flexicurity10 principles. This campaign - entitled “Towards a European society that cares for all” - focuses on the issue of care in the context of EU policies, additional care needs in an ageing society, the specific issues for particular target groups (e.g. disabilities, mental health, community care, women as primary care givers, domestic migrant workers) and funding mechanisms.11 As this campaign underscores, the increased precarity of work and reduction in social protection - particularly for poorer segments of the population - has major gender implications throughout Europe.

On average 58.3% of women are employed compared with 72.5% of men, a depressing picture given that over 59% of graduates are women. According to Eurostat estimates based on the Structure of Earnings Survey (European Commission 2008), there are considerable differences in the gender gap between European countries, with the pay gap ranging from less than 10% in Italy and Belgium to more than 20% in the Netherlands, Germany, United Kingdom and Greece and 8

more than 25% in Austria. This figure needs to be put together with different working patterns which are marked in Italy and Greece where female employment is low. A high pay gap is related to a highly segregated market, such as in Finland, and/or the high number of women in part-time work (e.g. Germany, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Austria and Sweden).

Growth in labour market flexibility during restructuring of the European economies along neo-liberal lines in the 1980s and 1990s has made paid work a continuous struggle. Women have not had access to stable, long term employment with a decent salary and adequate working conditions even if they have entered the paid labour market in large numbers.

According to The Europe Gender Budgeting Network,12 European women earn much less than men for work of equal value and do about 75% of unpaid care work. They also estimate that women are at greater risk of poverty than men in 17 out of 25 member states.

Women’s work is increasingly found in parttime work or in short term contracts for low wages. In sectors such as education and 9 The essay is being completed in Rome May 29 with the city paralyzed by thousands of mostly young men and women under the slogan ‘No Global’ marching in the centre of the city protesting at precarity the response of the Italian government, the G8, mistreatment of migrants and cuts in education and loss of jobs particularly in the car industry.

10 The European Commission (2006) describes flexicurity as the balance between labour market flexibility and security for employees against labour market risks. The Commission’s interpretation of flexicurity involves replacing the notion of job security, a principle that dominated employment relations until recently, with that of ‘protection of people’. The flexicurity model, first implemented in Denmark by the social democratic Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen in the 1990s, is a combination of easy hiring and firing (flexibility for employers) and high benefits for the unemployed (security for the employees). Perceived as a new way of viewing flexibility, flexicurity represents a means whereby employees and companies can better adapt to insecurities associated with global markets.

11 See the Social Platform website www.socialplatform.org 12 The European Gender Budgeting Network has 86 member organizations in 20 countries see their Website http:// www.infopolis.es/web/GenderBudgets/egbn.html

The Impact of the Crisis on Women in West Europe

nursing - traditional work for women in countries like the UK and Italy - pay has been reduced along with working hours and benefits. Presently, it is clear that short-term contracts are not being renewed and that many permanent jobs have changed to short-term contract jobs. There is also considerable pressure to reduce wages and many workers have been forced to accept pay-cuts due to the crisis.

Initial figures emerging from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) suggest that women are not the first to lose paid work in the crisis, as many women are found in the education, social work and health sectors, sectors that remain predominantly state-funded in Europe.

The first job losses have been in the banking sector, the car industry and the construction sector which are predominantly male. Proportionally, however, women have lost more jobs than men in the manufacturing sector.

The ILO states that in 2008 “working poverty, vulnerable employment and unemployment [began] to rise as the effects of the economic slowdown spread. With the deepening of the recession in 2009, the global jobs crisis is expected to worsen sharply. Furthermore, [it can be] expected that for many of those who manage to keep a job, earnings and other conditions of employment will deteriorate (ILO, 2009: 25).”

The predictions for the labour market in 2009 and beyond are that employment situations for women will deteriorate (ILO 2009:32). However, in general, female unemployment causes less concern than male unemployment in the press and among policy makers working with the assumption of the male family wage earner.

Male unemployment will impact families and gender relations, increasing tensions in the household and care work of women. The unemployment rate in the EU has increased by 1 point to 6.7 %, a sharp divergence from earlier trends. Concern has been raised about the increase in youth unemployment and it is

predicted that in places like Italy and Spain where tertiary education is more or less free - there will be an increase in higher education enrollments. The use of unpaid internships, job training and/or job experience will escalate with even less guarantee of employment at the end of the training period.

Care crisis What is becoming known as the ‘care crisis’ has come under greater discussion in Europe. UNRISD based researcher Razavi (2009) underlines that care must not be seen as an adjunct to productive work, but as the center of human life - as necessary as productive work and indeed what makes our lives liveable and enriching through our networks of care and relationships. Along with others working on care, Razavi proposes that the physical, emotional and relational needs of humans should frame the limits within which other concerns such as economic growth, employment and institutional organization are addressed.

Balancing care and paid work is a concern noted in the EU gender equality programme strategies, with an emphasis on the need to balance paid and care work when promoting women in the labour force or in decisionmaking positions such as in parliament. While there are major differences across Europe, the average gap in employment rates between women and men is narrowing from 17.1% in 2000 to 14.2% in 2007. However, when looking at the employment rate of women and men with children under 12, this gender gap doubles. The employment rate of European women falls by 12.4% when they have children, but rises by 7.3% for men with children.

The EU states that this situation reflects the unequal sharing of care responsibilities and the lack of childcare facilities and work-life balance policies. Although part-time and other flexible working arrangements may reflect personal preferences, the unequal share of domestic and family responsibilities leads more women than men to opt for such ar9

The Systemic crisis’ impact on women: sub regional perspectives

rangements. Quoting Eurostat Labour Force Survey in 2006, more than 6 million women in the 25 to 49 age group say they are obliged not to work or to work only part-time because of their family responsibilities (European Commission, 2009).

A social and economic assumption in Europe is that women will undertake unpaid work such as organizing most of the child care, household work, community work and increasingly caring for the elderly as the numbers of elderly increase and there are no accessible and affordable care provisions. The strategy for the middle classes in Europe is to employ migrant women so that care responsibilities and tasks are shifted to them. However, once the formal economy contracts, these arrangements may change: as working women lose their jobs and take back these care responsibilities, they may find it unnecessary to employ a migrant woman or find themselves unable to pay for migrant women. According to a major Italian newspaper, Italian women are now taking up non-contractual domestic service and cleaning jobs, work that was, until now, considered to be officially for migrants (Corriere della Sera 9 May 2009).

With EU enlargement, there has been a major increase in migration as accession has opened up possibilities for travel and work.

Migrant women’s work has largely been informal, flexible, low paid, often illegal and an extension of traditional “housework,” like cleaning and caring work or sex work in the pleasure industry.

Xenophobia Increased social unrest across Europe – visible through strikes and demonstrations - is not only a result of the financial crisis, dismay at government corruption, the loss of faith in the political elite and concern for rising unemployment, but also a rise in xenophobia. Fortress Europe is now becoming a reality, as less jobs and harder times are leading to clashes among various groups of migrants 10

and indigenous Europeans, including Roma.

The gender dimension to these fears is pronounced with public anger and fear of young men and women portrayed as victims of backward cultures.

Accountability There are many issues that are now being discussed as the crisis is leading to cuts in provisions for hospitals, schools and other services. The right to be cared for and to care for others, the roles of service provider and recipient, the issue of care in the context of EU policies, additional care needs in an ageing society, the specific issues for particular target groups (e.g. disabilities, mental health, community care, women as prime care givers, domestic migrant workers) and funding mechanisms for these provisions are all now on local government agendas as they prepare for greater precarity and impoverishment of women.

The roll-back of the European welfare state and the neo-liberal reforms in all European countries have meant diminished social provisions of all kinds, including in public transport (which has, as a result, become more expensive), increased user fees in national health care systems and a general decrease in social benefits (Fagan & Hebson 2006; Pestieau 2006).

The push to marketization even in North Europe where the welfare state has been very strong has led to far less public accountability to citizens as many services have been taken up by private companies, including transnational companies. Democratic checks on these services have also shifted to the private sector, where maximizing profit and efficiency have been the driving force rather than the rights of citizens. Electricity, communications, health, transport and education services as well as local administration services (e.g. passport services) have been privatized in the name of efficiency. There has been little attempt at transparency or scrutiny of such services.

The Impact of the Crisis on Women in West Europe

Gender budgeting One of the mechanisms for greater accountability and democratic control over the economy has been gender budgeting. The call for gender budgeting can be found in the EU commitment to gender mainstreaming in the Amster-

dam Treaty 1999 (Articles 2 and 3). Article 3(2) of the Treaty13 stipulates that equality between men and women must be promoted in all EU activities and that the Community shall aim to eliminate inequalities. To overcome these disparities, some EU governments have begun to take on gender budgeting.

Gender Responsive Budgeting Pioneered in Australia in 1994, gender responsive budgeting (GRB) refers to the analysis of actual government expenditure and revenue on women and girls as compared to men and boys.1 Gender budgets are not separate budgets for women; nor do they aim to solely increase spending on women-specific programs.2 Rather, as pointed out by Debbie Bundlender, “gender responsive budgeting is about ensuring that government budgets and the policies and programs that underlie them address the needs and interests of individuals that belong to different social groups. Thus, GRB looks at biases that can arise because a person is male or female, but at the same time considers disadvantage suffered as a result of ethnicity, caste, class or poverty status, location and age.” 3 Therefore, GRB helps governments decide how policies need to be adjusted and where resources need to be reallocated.4 The idea of gender responsive budgeting and gender responsive budgets developed out of a growing understanding that macroeconomic policy can contribute to narrowing or widening gender gaps in areas such as incomes, heath, education and nutrition and make the living standards of different groups of women and men better or worse.5 GRB initiatives are intended to provide a mechanism by which governments – in collaboration with lawmakers, civil society groups, donor and other development agencies – can integrate a gender analysis into fiscal policies and budgets.6 Amongst other things, GRB promotes transparency and accountability – by, for example, detailing how money allocated for women is actually spent – and makes women’s work, which is often invisible, economically visible.7 GRB also highlights how revenue collection and changes in tax structure can impact women differently than men.

Gender Responsive Budgeting written by Natalie Raaber, AWID 1 UNIFEM GRB http://www.gender-budgets.org/content/view/46/112/ 2 UNIFEM GRB http://www.gender-budgets.org/content/view/46/112/ 3 Bundlender, D. (2006) “Gender Responsive Budget Intiatives Brochure” 4 See UNIFEM GRB http://www.gender-budgets.org/content/view/46/112/ and Leadbetter, Helen “Gender Budgeting,” available at www.onlinewomeninpolitics.org/pfma-gender-budget.pdf 5 Budlender, D. et al. (2002) “Gender Budgets Make Cents: Understanding gender responsive budgets,” The Commonwealth Secretariat, January 2002.

6 Budlender, D. et al. (2002) “Gender Budgets Make Cents: Understanding gender responsive budgets,” The Commonwealth Secretariat, January 2002.

7 UNIFEM GRB http://www.gender-budgets.org/content/view/46/112/ 13 See http://europa.eu/bulletin/en/9901/p202001.htm 11

The Systemic crisis’ impact on women: sub regional perspectives

Gender budgeting has been introduced as a strategy to promote gender equality in macroeconomic and budgetary policies; contribute to the quality of public finance; and assist in setting standards for how to revalue care through public provisions. The current crisis is a moment to underline the importance of restructuring public finance according to gender equality considerations - increasing accountability, participation and transparency of budgetary policy processes. The West European countries that have undertaken gender budgeting at national or sub-regional levels are Austria, Finland France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Norway, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.14 3. The role of the European Union

12

led by a male governor, while the workforce of the banks’ key decision-making bodies are dominated by men (83% compared with 17% women) (European Commission 2009).

As a potential institution that can respond to the crisis and its impact on women, the EWL, along with many other women’s groups, is campaigning to bring more women into the European parliament (as Euro pe goes to vote on June 5 and 6, 2009).15 Though one might question the power of the European Parliament to challenge both European state and private sector interests, it is certainly one place where women are more present and issues around women’s work, both formal and informal care, social security and gender mainstreaming for women’s empowerment are on the agenda.

Collective Well-being

The European Union is one of the major economic and political players in Europe and globally and, along with the US, a driving force in promoting corporate interests and the neo-liberal agenda. During the crisis, the EU has proven unwilling to impose fundamental reforms of the financial system or regulatory systems for the finance industry in Europe.

Instead, Europe is demanding further liberalization and deregulation of financial markets and aggressively pursuing policies to open up emerging markets for EU companies, by promoting new, ambitious Free Trade Agreements as the way out of the current crisis (Wichterich 2009).

The crisis has revealed the depth of the underlying tensions and inequalities in Europe. These are affecting labour relations and the unresolved issue of the care crisis as well as deepening precarity, impoverishment and lack of political accountability. Europe is also faced with shifting trends in migration and growing insecurity and unrest. All of these issues have major implications for women’s lives in Europe, though the true impact is yet to be seen.

In order to close the gender pay gap and address the lack of women in decision making positions (both as managers and as politicians), the European Women’s Lobby (EWL) working with European Parliamentarians - is campaigning to bring more women into decision making positions. According to the EC Report on Gender Equality women make up only 31% of the European Parliament’s 736 MEPs, 24% of national parliaments and 25% of national government officials. The central banks of all 27 member states are

14 The Italian provinces of Piemonte and Modena are now reorganizing their public spending along gender sensitive lines with some early success. The gender initiative in Andalusia, Spain has enjoyed major political backing and has successfully established the G+ programme where money is allocated to public services strictly along gender responsive guidelines. Switzerland has undertaken a study to see who bears the cost in crisis which could be very useful at this moment. The EU has also undertaken a feasibility study on gender budgeting within the Eureopan Commission. See http:// www.gender-budgets.org/content/blogcategory/0/145/5/15/ for examples of gender budgeting in Switzerland and Nordic Countries 15 For more on the campaign see EURActiv http://www.euractiv.com/en/socialeurope/eu-wide-campaign-seeks-eliminate-gender-pay-gap/article-179938)

The Impact of the Crisis on Women in West Europe

It is important to be careful, however, not to be drawn into the sense of fear and depression being whipped up by the press and politicians. This leaves us vulnerable and disempowered. Rather, we must be informed and able to understand the depth of the crisis at both the macro and micro levels. We can question the dominant economic logic by bringing in our own knowledge and awareness, based on a feminist analysis of economics, care and power relations. Feminist solutions could lead to real economic, social and political transformation in the long term.

Wichterich, for example, proposes that a crucial building block of a solidarity-based and justice-oriented economic regime would be a “redistribution and revaluation of waged labour and care labour, of production and reproduction”. She sees this as:

The cornerstone for an economy which gives preference to provision for all and cooperation over growth, competition and maximizing profit and puts the economy as well as democracy back on its feet: it would plan, regulate and decide about the division of labour, markets, well-being and [social] development from the bottom up, in a decentralised and genderjust manner (Wichterich 2009).

It is important to bring together a feminist analysis of what is happening at the micro level with the macro level, breaking down the technical myths of current economic models.

We can do this by applying a feminist analysis of intersectionality of class, race, gender, sexuality and ethnicity in politics and economics.

Here, it is very important that we understand how interlinked the global is with the local.

The financial crisis is not somewhere beyond us but found precisely in the changes happening in our every day lives. That which occurs in differing corners of Europe impacts women’s lives elsewhere and vice a versa. As citizens of a very powerful economic player, Europeans also have the responsibility to hold

Europe accountable for collective wellbeing in both Europe and in other places. It has been well documented that women, through their advocacy work within their own places and through their networking transnationally, have challenged global neoliberal economic systems (Harcourt and Escobar 2005). Working within their own places, women have connected with others through networking approaches - both formal and informal - to challenge gender discrimination in relation to work, health, sexuality, security, the right to pleasure and rest and the need to care for community and environment. Transnational feminism has worked for women’s right to social, economic and cultural wellbeing globally, regardless of where one is located (Harcourt 2009).

Feminist solidarity is very important in taking up responsible positions as Europeans having the courage to change our lifestyles and expectations. In order to survive the crisis a continued dialogue about the different ways the crisis is impacting different women is imperative. As is to strategize across towns, provinces, countries and sub regions in Europe to mediate the most detrimental effects, learning from each other and supporting those that are suffering the most.

Women are adept at working for local placebased changes but also at building a strong network beyond their own place. In Europe, working across EU borders is critical to maintain and improve all European women’s social, economic and political positions. There are different strategies in which to accomplish this, from sharing analysis to supporting more women in European spaces such as the European Parliament. The crisis will no doubt throw up more informal networking and alliance building among women’s movements concerned with social and economic justice.

It could well mean moving more consistently into formal political decision making spaces in order to change them. It certainly means challenging and changing the rules and being in a position to shift the ethics/paradigm within which economics is embedded.

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The Systemic crisis’ impact on women: sub regional perspectives

4. Conclusion The crisis exposes the neo-liberal market economy’s failure to ensure sustainable, just, needs and rights-based development. The search is now on among activists and economists to lobby governments to renegotiate economic rules, regulations and social contracts for new ways of organizing production and trade, consumption, care and social security. The hope is that popular coalitions will be forged amongst different citizen and civil society groups, building a new agenda that takes us beyond the crisis.

It also means being aware that this is a painful and difficult time and we need to support each other as we experience change. Such support for marginalized poor women in Europe, many of them migrants, could mean the

difference between tipping over the edge and enduring. It is important to expose false fears about migrants, making visible the underlying causes and links between economic policies and migration and forging mutual interests in order to dissolve the current climate of fear and dissatisfaction. We need to ensure that there is a revaluing of care work and ethics that involves a move away from individual consumption and economic greed as the social and economic drivers toward collective well-being and responsibility for others. It is therefore important to utilize entry points we currently have into economic and political institutions in order to push for gender budgeting and gender responsive approaches to the crisis. In this way, men and women are in positions to build political change that can overcome systemic economic and social inequalities.

References Corriere della Sera (9 May 2009) “Le italiane che tornano a fare le colf,” available at www.corriere.it/cronache/ Dütting, Gisela (2009) “Feminists in Europe Responding to the crisis” Development ‘Beyond Economics’ Volume 52 no 3 (in production) European Commission (2006) “Employment in Europe,” available at http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/key_ en.html European Commission (2008) “Eurostat Key Figures on Europe 2009,” available at http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa. eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KS-EI-08-001/EN/KS-EI-08-001-EN.PDF2009 European Commission (2009) “Equality between women and men,” Brussels, 27 February 2009, available at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:52009DC0077:EN:NOT European Women’s Lobby (2009) “Women and the Economic Crisis- An opportunity to assert another vision of the world?,” available at www.womenslobby.or Fagan, Colette & Hebson, Gail (eds) (2006) “Making work pay; debates from a gender perspective; a comparative review of some recent policy reforms in thirty European countries,” European Commission, Group of experts on Gender, Social Inclusion and Employment, Luxembourg.

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The Impact of the Crisis on Women in West Europe

Harcourt, Wendy (2009) Body Politics in Development London: Zed Books.

Harcourt, Wendy & Arturo Escobar (eds) (2005) Women and the Politics of Place Bloomfield CT: Kumarian Press.

Harvey, David (2009) “The Crisis and the Consolidation of Class Power,” 13/15 March 2009, available at http:// davidharvey.org International Labour Organisation (2009) “Global Employment Trends for Women 2009” Geneva: ILO. Kaul, Nitasha (2009) “The Economics of Turning People into Things” Development ‘Beyond Economics’ Volume 52 no 3 (in production).

Mattoni, Alice & Nicole Doerr (2007) “Images within the precarity movement in Italy” Feminist Review 87, 130– 135.

Pestieau, Pierre (2006) The welfare state in the European Union Oxford: OUP. Razavi, Shara (2009) “From Global Economic Crisis to the Other Crisis” Development ‘Beyond Economics’ Volume 52 no 3 (in production).

Wichterich, Christa (2009) “Re-embedding the economy in social relations and sustainable relations with nature; Feminist remarks to ongoing debates on neoliberal capitalism and crisis,” translation from German by Barbara Specht, March 2009, available at WIDE, http://www.wide-network.org/index.jsp?id=422 Women in Development Europe (2009) “Women’s organizations call for structural, sustainable and gender-sensitive responses to the crisis,” available at http://www.wide-network.org/index.jsp?id=443 Women’s Working Group on Financing for Development (2009) “A Call for structural, sustainable, gender equitable and rights based responses to the global financial and economic crisis,” Released during the Second Women’s Consultation, UN, New York 27 April 2009.

Wray, Randy (2009) “Minsky, the Global Financial Crisis, and the Prospects Before Us” Development ‘Beyond Economics’ Volume 52 no 3 (in production).

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The crisis’ impact on women’s rights: sub-regional perspectives

SUBREGIONAL BRIEFS Brief 1 Latin America Social and Gender Impacts of the Economic Crisis.

By Alma Espino & Norma Sanchís

Brief 2 Caribbean The Impact of the Crisis on Women in the Caribbean.

By Rhoda Reddock & Juliana S. Foster

Brief 3 Asia The Impact of the Crisis on Women in Developing Asia.

By Jayati Ghosh

Brief 4 Pacific Islands The Impact of Crisis on Pacific Island Women: A Snapshot.

By Karanina Sumeo

Brief 5 Central Asia The Impact of the Global Crisis on Women in Central Asia.

By Nurgul Djanaeva

Brief 6 Western Africa The Global Financial Crisis and Women in West Africa: Developing Impacts and the Implications of Policy Responses.

By Dzodzi Tsikata

Brief 7 Western Europe The Impact of the Crisis on Women in West Europe.

By Wendy Harcourt

Brief 8 Eastern Europe The Impact of the Crisis on Women in Central and Eastern Europe.

By Ewa Charkiewicz

Brief 9 United States of America Impact of the Crisis on Women in the United States of America.

By Rania Antonopoulos and Taun Toay

Brief 10 Eastern Africa The Impact of the Crisis on Women in Eastern Africa.

By Zo Randriamaro