www.wairaka.net/ubinz/IR/FutureIncome/WomenFutureWorkIncome.html

SECURING WOMEN'S FUTURE INCOMES:
CONCERNS AND CURES

Dr Celia Briar
Senior Lecturer in Social Policy, Massey University, Palmerston North

INTRODUCTION

This paper looks at some of the current and emerging social policies which, as we speak, are creating a bleak financial future for most women. However, the paper also points to a variety of ways in which this future could be made brighter and more secure.

Underlying this discussion is the strong message that there is no cause for complacency. Policy makers at the beginning of the twenty first century appear to assume that women are becoming economically independent and on the way to being on an equal footing with men. This false assumption is supported by the gender-neutral terminology and methods of collection of data on incomes used by governments. These to a large extent hide the extent of women's lower incomes and poverty. The reality is that a high proportion of women (and their children) are suffering hardship because of systematic discrimination which policy makers are not merely failing to prevent but are actively encouraging. This paper is presented as a challenge to the current Labour/Alliance coalition government, which presents itself as being in favour of social justice to urgently begin to implement remedies of the kind described below.

WOMEN AND LOW INCOMES

For large numbers of women and their children, even in the richer nations, incomes are so low that hunger and deprivation are the result. In low income families the person in charge of budgeting and allocating food and other resources (usually the mother) worries constantly about whether there will be enough tomorrow (New Zealand Network Against Food Poverty, 2000:3). This can apply to mothers with jobs as well as those on benefits. In the USA a large scale qualitative study by Edin and Lein (1997) examined the situation of employed solo mothers and their children, and found that during the previous year a quarter had run out of food, a third had suffered forms of deprivation such as phone, gas or electricity disconnection through inability to pay bills and up to a half had not been to see a doctor when they needed to, because of the cost.

In New Zealand almost 10% of families sought assistance from foodbanks in 1998 (Hackwell, 1998; New Zealand Network Against Food Povery, 2000: 26), and there is anecdotal evidence that the majority of these were female-headed families. In addition, in a recent Palmerston North study, two thirds of clients seeking advocacy assistance after being unable to access their full entitlement to welfare benefits were women, mostly mothers with dependent children (Fenwick, Davidson and Briar, 2000).

Women's average annual income in NZ at the 1996 Census were 67% of men's. This had changed by a mere 1% since the previous Census. Even then

it is likely that the change represented growing inequality between women in a situation were a few women had done very well, rather than an improvement in the position of most women relative to men. Data on women on low incomes

WOMEN'S LOW INCOMES: CAUSES AND CURES

Women's lower rates of pay, unequal opportunities and 'crowding' into a narrow range of occupations to a considerable extent represent a legacy of the days when women were regarded as essentially 'different', when wives and mothers were regarded in policy and law as having no right to paid work or entitlement to economic independence (Nelson and Bridges, 1999:306; Briar, 1997). Despite a change in this assumption, these inequalities have still not been adequately addressed.

The narrowing of the gap between women's and men's earnings, which occurred during the 1970s following the Equal Pay Act has now long since ceased.

The cure would be to reintroduce equal pay for work of equal value (also known as pay equity or equal pay for work of equal value), which would remove the discriminatory element from hourly pay rates. However, with regard to pay equity there has been a backlash against it in the USA; and in New Zealand the first elected woman Prime Minister has made it clear that pay equity is not a priority.

It is now generally taken for granted that women's labour force participation has increased dramatically since the end of World War II (see for example, Rosewell, 1996:19-21). What is usually overlooked, however, is that women's participation in full time paid work has hardly increased at all and is still well below the male rate, whilst most of the rise in women's employment has been in part time work (Hakim, 1996: 63-5). Whilst Hakim (1996) has enraged feminists by suggesting that women have chosen low paid casual, temporary dead-end jobs (for an alternative analysis see Briar, 1992) it is important to acknowledge that the growth in women's labour force participation cannot be equated with economic independence or financial well-being, as the vast majority of part time jobs do not pay a living wage even for an individual, and certainly not for a family.

In the meantime, is is equally taken for granted that men's labour force participation rates have fallen substantially over the same time period (Rosewell, 1996:20; Hakim, 1996:62). Men have been employed for fewer years of their life span, due to more time spent in education and earlier retirement, whereas women now spend a larger proportion of their lives in the labour market. As a result, in the UK, for example, women are around half of people classified as being in the paid work force. However, the danger lies in interpreting this as meaning that women and men are close to achieving economic equality.

The reduction in male participation on the whole has had little effect on 'prime age' men - typically those married men aged 25-45 with dependent children at home. In the English speaking world, these men's hours of paid work have been substantially increasing (Schorr, 1991). Undoubtedly many men (and some women) have been pressured into extending their hours of paid work by the general intensification of full time work, linked with high levels of unemployment, which limits employees' ability to refuse overwork. Nevertheless, the unavailability of these men to take a reasonable share of domestic and child care responsibilities cannot reasonably be seen in isolation from the fact that it is the women of the same age - their wives - who 'choose' to work part time. Furthermore, women wanting a career are obliged to work the same excessive hours, which is especially difficult for mothers, and explains why so many women are remaining childless in the current environment.

Cures would include a maximum working week, so that full time employees were not overworked and fathers in particular could spend time with their families. The provision of at least 12 weeks' paid parental leave and the restoration of family benefits at a level close to the actual costs of raising children would help to ensure that family incomes did not suffer as a result. State subsidised good quality preschool and after-school care would lift a major burden of expense from families and make it financially worthwhile for mothers to be employed for longer hours. Ratification of ILO Convention 156 on Workers with Family Responsibilities would bring New Zealandwould assist in making firms more 'family friendly'.

Increasing flexibility is expected of employees generally. Steady 'standard' jobs in areas such as manufacturing have been replaced to a large extent by increasingly casual, temporary and low paid positions in the service sector. However, this should not be regarded as simply a phenomenon affecting all workers to the same extent (Walby, 2000). Discriminatory gendered workplace practices have always meant that women are more likely to be recruited into positions seen as 'suitable for women' in the 'secondary' labour market. The incursion of relatively small numbers of women into occupational areas previously seen as male preserves and into management should not distract us from the continuing intractability of gendered occupational segregation at work.

Cures would include strong affirmative action legislation, with penalties on employers for non-compliance. However, women should not have to leave jobs which they do well and enjoy in order to compete in other careers with men. Pay equity and stronger labour laws governing conditions would make 'men's jobs' and 'women's jobs' less unequal.

Unemployment is a cause of low income and poverty for women even more than it is for men, because unemployed women are less likely to receive a benefit. However, this cause of poverty tends to be hidden. In New Zealand and the UK large numbers of women who want a job and do not have one do not appear in the unemployment figures in the form in which they are most often presented (Shipley, 1982, ). This is mainly because partnered unemployed women usually do not register as unemployed because they know that they will not receive a benefit. There are no guarantees that women ineligible for benefits because of their relationship status are actually being supported. NB check if women who are on the DPB or widows' benefit are counted as unemployed now they are on 'work tested' benefits.

-Phase out the cohabitation rule, so that unemployed partnered women will register

-Publicise the 'jobless' figures more prominently, not just the registered unemployed.

This occurs for example in families where the main earner does not shere his income. It may include some 'dual earner' households where the woman is employed part time and does not earn a sufficient income to become independent if necessary.

Women's hidden poverty is hidden partly because of the increased use of gender-neutral terminology such as 'families', parents, households. The draft discussion document Towards a Code of Social and Family Responsibilities (1998) was an example of this. Eight of the eleven discussion points actually referred predominantly to women (especially mothers) but the terminology which was used disguised this. Policy makers have now generally accepted that it is wise to avoid sexist language; but the use of gender-neutral terms has become a way to conceal gendered discriminatory policies. In addition, much of the large-scale collection of data on incomes by governments, such as the HLFS, and some major international studies, such as the Luxembourg Income Study, is done in ways which hides women's lower personal disposable incomes and makes assumptions about income distribution within households which smaller survey have found to be unsubstantiated (Vogler etc; Briar, 2000)

Collection of data on personal disposable income of adults, not family or household income, as this makes too many assumptions.

A universal family benefit for main caregivers

An allowance for the caregivers of children under 5 and invalids. This should be paid irrespective of relationship status.

A Universal Basic Income

There is also an implicit assumption that in order to obtain adequate incomes, women must 'work more'. However, in almost all countries of the world, women already work longer total hours than men, yet have lower incomes because women spend approximately two thirds of their time in unpaid work whilst men average two thirds of their time in paid work (Bruyn-Hundt 1996:15; United Nations, 1995: 88; Briar 2000). The problem is that the unpaid work done predominantly by women is still not properly counted and hence not resourced. Women doing unpaid work are still officially described as 'economically inactive' (Briar, 1997:157). As long as women are doing a larger share of work that is unpaid, uncounted and unresourced and a smaller share of work that is paid (and at a lower rate) women's economic future is one of poverty and financial insecurity.

Fully include the value of unpaid work in measures of GDP, not just as satellite accounts

Examine ways of resourcing the unpaid work that is done. A UBI would be the simplest way.

At present it is simply not financially worthwhile for many mothers of young children to take paid work, because the child care costs would take most, if not all of their wages. In fact mothers are only likely to want to pay for child care of more than a few hours a week if they have an offer of work with extremely good pay and/or long term prospects. In New Zealand, although preschool education is available for many children, the hours generally are insufficient to allow mothers to earn a living wage. Day care of children at an affordable rate is not widely available.

Day care subsidised and provided more widely.

After-school care ditto

No distinction between care and education of children in terms of the quality of service provided

Women are increasingly expected to rely upon income generated from their own paid work (Briar, 1997). Existing policies have been overlaid with a superficial acknowledgement, partly as a reult of demands from women themselves, that women are 'equal' and have a right to paid work.

At the same time, however, the important social differences that continue to exist between women and men - for example the fact that it is generally women who have the primary responsibility for child care - have become understated. There is a strong assumption in the English-speaking world that women cannot have it both ways: that is they cannot simultaneously be regarded as 'equal' and 'different'. Even many feminists, particularly in the USA, accept this view. So, for example, Americans claiming to espouse 'equality' for women expect mothers to be employed full time, despite child care difficulties and the fact that they and their children are often existing below the poverty line. Some of those defending 'difference' believe that solo mothers should be allowed to remain home with their children, although there are others who do not believe in divorce. Currently those favouring 'difference' are the minority.

Economies in state welfare spending have been occurring across the Enlishspeaking world, primarily at the expense of women. This is not a new phenomenon. However, in the current context it is being couched in the language of 'independence' (from the state). At earlier periods women were denied benefits precisely because they were seen as 'dependents' (of men). It is currently becoming more difficult for women in the English-speaking world to obtain a state benefit if they do not have a male 'breadwinner' (Briar 1998). And many more women do not have a partner capable of supporting them, partly because of low male wage rates and unemployment and partly because of high rates of divorce and separation.

Welfare states were for most of the twentieth century deeply gendered. Married women were assumed to be supported by husbands and so were usually not entitled to unemployment benefits. Benefits that were paid to women reflected their position in relation to the marriage market as wives, ex-wives, widows, unmarried women and/or mothers; so that women might be eligible for child allowances (family benefit), widows' benefit or an unsupported women's allowance. Widows and unsupported mothers tended not to be 'work tested', as it was assumed that their primary responsibilities were at home. Men on the other hand were more likely to be able to claim labour market related benefits such as unemployment, sickness or invalidity benefits (Pascal, 1986; Bryson, 1995:68).

In recent years, however, mothers claiming benefits in the English speaking nations have been 'work tested' once their children reach a certain age (and that age has been progressively reduced: that is, unsupported mothers are pressured to compete and become 'independent' through the labour market in much the same way as men. Difficulties of obtaining sufficiently good affordable child care have been only partially recognised.

However, the presumption of women's financial dependence (one men) has been retained, in that the 'cohabitation rule' is still used. On the one hand 'unsupported women are expected to be 'independent' but as soon as they are suspected of having a relationship with a man they are presumed to be dependents. Here the illusion of 'equality' dissipates. Although men can also lose benfits under the cohabitation rule, this is seldom enforced. In short, women are now being penalised twice: once for the presumption of being 'equal' but also on the grounds of being 'different'.

Acknowledge that women are both equal (ie. have equal rights as workers) and different (women bear children and at present have the major responsibility for rearing them). Today's women have dual responsibilites, and need to be assisted and resourced with both. This could mean, for example, an allowance for the main caregiver of children under 5 (McDermott, Garnham and Holtermann, 1998).

CONCLUSION: THE FUTURE FINANCIAL POSITION OF WOMEN

Social and economic policies may be 'gender blind' but they are not gender neutral in their effects (Sharp and Broomhill, 1988:33). Women are being systematically short changed, both as unpaid and underpaid workers, and are being used to subsidise the rest of the economy. As we have seen, this can be addressed, but it will require systematic, concerted, long term action from any government committed to social justice and economic wellbeing.

Discrimination, whether on the grounds of gender, race class or other attributes, is dynamic : firms and policy makers shift their tactics in response to political pressure in order to maintain the status quo (Albeda, Drago and Shulman, 1997:190). Whatever future policies are advocated, extreme vigilance will be required to ensure that they deal equitably with women.

We cannot expect to wake up one day and find that women have obtained economic independence and that they and their children are financially secure. What we do now will affect our own future and that of our children and grandchildren: their patterns of work, their levels of incomes and their relationship to each other. Women earning low incomes now will have less money when they retire. Food hunger is affecting health, especially that of women and children, and this will affect their ability to earn income in the future. So we have to deal with current policies as well as attempting to set new direction. This is the major challenge. The future has already begun.

REFERENCES

Albeda, R., Drago, R. and Shulman, S. (1997) Unlevel Playing Fields:

Understanding wage discrimination New York, McGraw-Hill.

Alliance (1999) Alliance Women's Policy

Briar, C. (1992) 'Part time work and the state in Britain, 1943-86' in K. Lundy, L.P. Lundy and B.Warme (Eds) Part Time Work: Risks and Opportunities New York, Praeger.

Briar, C. (1997a) Working for Women? Gendered Work and Welfare Policies in Twentieth Century Britain London, Taylor and Francis/UCL Press.

Briar, C. (1997b) 'Myths of our time: will changes in welfare policy really assist mothers towards independence? Broadsheet, July. 214 (Winter) 53-56.

Briar, C. (1999) 'Women in APEC: the Contribution to Poverty' Women's Studies Association Newsletter 20, 1, 28-34.

Briar, C. (2000) 'In search of gender-sensitive measures of poverty, inequality and well being' Social Policy Journal of New Zealand July.

Bruyn-Hundt, M (1996) The Economics of Unpaid Work Amsterdam, Thesis Publishers.

Bryson, L. (1995) 'Two Welfare State: One for women, one for men' in A. Edwards and S. Magarey (Eds) Women in a Restructuring Australia: Work and Welfare Sydney, Allen and Unwin.

Edin, K. and Lein, L. (1997) Making Ends Meet: How single mothers survive welfare and low-wage work New York, Russell Sage Foundation.

Fenwick, A., Davidson, D. and Briar, C. (2000) Is Advocacy Helping? The effectiveness of advocacy assistance to clients of Income Support Services Massey University/ Methodist Social Services.

Hackwell, K. (1998) 'Hidden poverty-a challenge to foodbanks' in proceedings of the Fourth National Foodbank Conference, November 1998, pp2-4.

Hakim, C. (1996) Key Issues in Women's Work: Female Heterogeneity and the Polarisation of Women's Employment London, Athlone.

Hewitt, P. (1993) About Time. The revolution in work and family life London. IPP/Rivers Oram Press

Jenson, J., Laufer, J. and Maruani (Eds)(2000) The Gendering of Inequalities: Women, Men and Work Aldershot, Ashgate.

MacDermott, T., Garnham, A. and Holtermann, S. (1998) Real Choices: a Manifesto for Lone Parents and their Children London, Child Poverty Action Group.

Meadows, P. (Ed) (1996) Work out - or in? Contributions to the debate on the future of work York, Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Nelson, R.L. and Bridges, W.P. (1999) Legalising Gender Inequality: Courts, Markets and Unequal Pay for Women in America Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

New Zealand Network Against Food Poverty (2000) Hidden HungerL Food and Low Income in New Zealand Wellington, Downtown Community Ministry.

Pascal, G. (1986) Social Policy: a Feminist Analysis London, Allen and Unwin.

Rosewell, B. (1996) 'Employ,ent, households and earnings' in Meadows, P. (Ed)Work out - or in? Contributions to the debate on the future of work York, Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Schorr, J. (1991) The Overworked American: the unexpected decline of leisure

Sharp, R. and Broomhill, R. (1988) Short Changed: women and economic policies Sydney, Allen and Unwin.

United Nations (1995) Human Development Report, 1995 New York, United Nations.

Walby, S. (2000) 'Re-signifying the Worker: Gender and Flexibility' in Jenson, J., Laufer, J. and Maruani (Eds) The Gendering of Inequalities: Women, Men and Work Aldershot, Ashgate.