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Research published in October 2004 examines women's participation in the labour market in the Lombardy region of northern Italy. The region has a higher female labour market participation rate and lower female unemployment rate than the Italian average. However, among other findings, the study indicates that labour market segregation persists in Lombardy, that female workers earn an average of 20% to 25% less than their male colleagues, and that women still face difficulties in reconciling work and family responsibilities.
A survey published in October 2004 - part of a project financed by the European Social Fund and the Lombardy regional government entitled Innovation in the promotion of a gender culture: instruments, resources, patterns- aims to provide a picture of the extent and forms of participation by women in the Lombardy labour market, comparing them with men and highlighting changes during the past 10 years and those currently in progress (see Il mercato del lavoro lombardo. Uno sguardo di genere nelle più recenti ricerche and Il mercato del lavoro lombardo. Una lettura di genere dei dati statistici, Fondo Sociale Europeo e Regione Lombardia, Gender, 2004). To this end, the research analysed labour market surveys - regional and local (above the municipal level) - conducted from a gender perspective, or focused on women’s relationship with work and the balance between work and private life, published over 2001-3. These studies were based mainly on data collected locally by employment centres. Participation was examined in quantitative terms and by means of qualitative analysis of the activity and inactivity of women. The research analysed the obstacles hindering access to, and permanence in, the labour market by women, the elements of labour market participation and exclusion, and reconciliation of work and family responsibilities. Besides labour market inclusion and exclusion, the study also examines from a gender perspective part-time work, work flexibility, the work/life balance, training and immigration.
Labour market participation
In 2002, the share of Lombard women in employment was 40.2% compared with 37.7% in Italy as a whole. Labour-market participation by women in Lombardy therefore displays patterns similar to those of the countries of northern Europe. However, analysis by age group shows that the participation rate decreases among women aged over 40 and diverges from the average EU rate. Moreover, whilst there is a reduction in differences with respect to the male labour force in the middle and younger age groups, the gender gap in employment and unemployment rates as a whole is still as wide in Lombardy as it is in the rest of Italy.
In 2003, the female labour force in Lombardy consisted of 1,720,000 women, or 41.3% of the total labour force in the region: four in every 10 people in employment were therefore women. This female participation rate is markedly higher than the Italian average, and in recent years the 'gender gap' has diminished more in Lombardy than in the rest of Italy. In short, Lombard women participate more in the labour market than Italian women as a whole, and they are more rapidly closing the distance that separates them from male participation levels.
In the decade 1993-2003, 73.4% of 365,000 new labour market entrants in Lombardy were women. The female employment rate has accelerated to an especially marked extent since 1998, with an increase that has both matched the growth rate and reduced the unemployment rate. However, despite these positive trends, in Lombardy, as in many European countries, unemployment rates are higher for women (5.2%) than for men (2.5%).
The critical threshold for female employment occurs at the age of 40, and especially from 50 onwards. Lombardy, in fact, displays a pattern of high work participation by all young-adult age groups between the ages of 25 and 44, both male (rates above 90%) and female (over 70%), and a level of employment much lower than in the rest of Europe among the 55-64 age groups (male, but especially female).
Forms of work
Segregation
Occupational segregation still persists In Lombardy, as in the rest of Italy, between men and women with the same characteristics in terms of age, educational qualification, skills, and work experience. Women are concentrated especially in certain sectors and occupations, but also in terms of working hours and type of contract. In 2001, 72% of women workers in Lombard firms and institutions were employed in the services sector, compared with 52% of males. There are still 'typically female' jobs in industry as well, especially in textiles. Other sectors in Lombardy with higher female than male employment are health, education, public administration, hotels and restaurants, public, and social and personal services. The personal services sector has particularly high levels of female employment, with a marked increase in domestic and care work, which draws on the lower-skilled strata of the female population, especially immigrants.
Occupational position and qualifications
The researchers find the situation to be more problematic as regards the other dimension of labour market segmentation - the 'vertical' one. The quantitative and qualitative growth of the female labour force has not been matched by either economic recognition or opportunities for professional development. Although women have improved their occupational positions, and although they have higher educational qualifications on average, they still find it difficult to enter decision-making posts. The majority of female employees are white-collar workers (53.6% compared to 29.4% of men), and fewer of them are blue-collar workers (27.9% compared to 37.7% among males). Finally, only 0.7% of women employees are senior managers, whilst the figure for males is 2.9%.
Pay
Another critical issue concerns pay differentials between men and women. Age, sector and occupational position being equal, female workers earn an average of 20% to 25% less than their male colleagues. The occupations where the difference is most marked are those with higher average incomes: on average, male managers receive salaries one and a half times higher that those of women with the same job grades. The differences have slightly diminished for office workers and teachers. The sectors where pay differentials are widest are manufacturing and private services.
Self-employment
The figures on female self-employment show that the incidence of this form of work (17.8% in 2001) is lower in Lombardy than in the rest of Italy (21.6%). Non-dependent work therefore accounts for less than one-fifth of total female employment in the region. In Lombardy, women still display a low propensity for self-employment or entrepreneurship, which presuppose certain conditions: a medium-to-high educational level and previous experience of dependent employment.
Part-time work
Between 1993 and 2002, part-time work in Lombardy rose from 5.7% to 9.3% of all employment, an increase slightly greater than in the rest of Italy (from 5.5% to 8.6%). The proportion of women employed part-time in Lombardy increased from 11.7% to 18.9%, whereas in the rest of the country, despite a similar initial level in 1993 (11.2%), the growth was less marked (17%). By contrast, the percentage of men employed part-time in Lombardy was lower than in the rest of Italy both in 1993 (2.1% compared with 2.5% in Italy as a whole) and in 2002 (2.8% compared with 3.5%).
In 2002, 9.3% of all those employed in Lombardy worked part-time. Of these, 82% were women. The percentage of men working part time exceeded that of women in the youngest age group (14-29) and among people aged over 50, while women were proportionally more numerous than men in the 30-39 age group and, to a lesser extent, in the 40-49 group. Educational qualification is also a significant factor in part-time work. As in the rest of Italy, a high proportion of part-time workers in Lombardy have no educational qualifications (12.1% in Lombardy and 13.5% in the rest of Italy). As regards sectors, 20% of part-timers work in manufacturing industry (women 18.8%), 17.1% in commerce (women 18.2%), 15,6% (women 16,5%) in education, health and other social services, and 13.9% (14% for women) in business services.
'Horizontal' part-time work (reduced hours on every working day) is most common in Lombardy: 70.8% of men part-timers and 83.8% of women work five or six days a week. The average amount of time worked by women over the week is around 20 hours. Only a limited number work 'long' part-time hours (30-39 hours), suggesting that the number of hours worked part-time corresponds to the hours wanted by workers to only a limited extent, and relates much more to the organisational needs of firms. In Italy, the percentage of all part-time work that is 'non-voluntary' (ie not a choice but a fall-back solution when full-time employment is impossible to find) is higher than in other EU countries (33.4% in 2001 compared with an EU average of 14.8%). In Lombardy, in 2002, 21% of people working part-time did not do so out of personal choice, and 80% of them were women. As regards moves 'from' or 'to' this type of employment relationship, neither the right to part-time work nor the right to return from part-time to full-time work exist in Italy. However, in 2002 there was an increased proportion (82.4%) of women among workers who converted their full-time contracts to permanent part-time work. By contrast, the conversion of the employment relationship in the reverse direction is generally proposed only by employers, and then infrequently.
Finally, part-time work is used mainly by companies with more than 50 employees. Its incidence in female employment is still half the European average. This limited diffusion of part-time work in Lombardy compared to the EU average is due to the low propensity of firms (except those in the services sector) to use this contractual form.
'Atypical' employment relationships
'Atypical work' is taken in the research to mean 'quasi-subordinate' work (freelancers and free professionals), temporary agency work and fixed-term contracts. In Lombardy, both temporary agency and freelance work are more widespread than the other atypical forms of employment.
In Lombardy, as in the rest of Italy, recent years have seen a greater percentage growth of freelance work among women than among men. In 2002, the percentage of temporary agency workers made up by women was 46%, compared with a national average of 40%. Women are also used more often 'in fits and starts' (a singhiozzo) - eg six-month contract extended by six months and then a break - because, the report claims, they are regarded as more easily 'blackmailed', and because they are more willing to stay at home for a certain period. It is usually women re-entering the labour market (eg after childbirth) who experience atypical employment.
Finally, women have a greater probability (around 70% more) than men to be hired on fixed-term rather than open-ended contracts.
Reconciling work and family life
One obstacle to an increase in the female employment rate in Lombardy is the difficulty faced by women in reconciling work and family responsibilities. This is demonstrated by the extremely high number of women (5,919 in 2003) who quit their jobs in the first year after childbearing. It is also illustrated by the figures on female employment in the 35-44 age group, where in 2003, the employment rate of unmarried women was close to that of unmarried men (91.4%), falling to 79.7% for childless married women, and 66.5% for women with children. Moreover, early childcare services (for children aged up to two years) in Lombardy cover only 9.7% of the potential users. These facts are seen as being due to a lack of public policies and a lack of interest among companies in work/family reconciliation measures.
Moreover, the traditional division of tasks between men and women, in the family and at work, is far from being overcome (there is persistent 'gender asymmetry' in the sharing of care tasks even among the younger age groups). The assumption of care tasks and domestic work by women makes the female labour supply rigid and causes a sort of self-exclusion from the labour market. which can be remedied only with difficulty by means of some form of 'mediation' (eg part-time work).
Skills and training
In Lombardy, there is an increasing similarity between the sexes as regards subjects studied at school, in the sense that the traditional distinction between males who study scientific subjects and females who study the humanities is diminishing. This feature is seen as being of particular importance because it signals the disappearance of the reasons for the training segregation that was very evident until a few years ago.
Foreign female workers
In recent years, the presence in Italy of an increasing number of female foreign nationals has given rise to important changes in the female component of immigration and as regards labour market participation. Lombardy is one of the main destinations for women immigrants. Work participation among immigrant women has always been greater than among native-born women. Domestic work has almost invariably provided foreign women with their first entry into employment and today overwhelmingly constitutes the 'labour market for immigrant women'. Together with Spain, Italy is the European country with the highest share of immigrant women working in the sector of domestic services and care for the elderly, partly because the welfare system is no longer able to meet the new needs of families, according to the report. Nevertheless, despite its crucial importance, the economic and social role of immigrant female workers is still little recognised due to the cultural 'devalorisation' of domestic and care work, it is argued.
Commentary
The findings of the survey show that Lombard women are more active in the labour market than their counterparts in the rest of the country, given that female employment in the region is above the Italian average. Nevertheless, the female participation rate in Lombardy is still far from the 60% set as the objective for 2010 by the EU. In fact, many women - even in a region as rich as Lombardy - are employed in furnishing the care support that the welfare system fails to provide. Young women are also at risk of exclusion as they seek to enter the labour market via a period of precarious employment that grows increasingly longer.
The study's generational analysis has highlighted two groups of women especially at risk: young women with precarious access to the labour market and in atypical jobs' and the over-40s. The former are characterised by precariousness from the moment of their labour market entry onwards, with the risk of losing rights, such as maternity leave, that once seemed established. As regards women over 40, family responsibilities are the main cause of inactivity for more than half of inactive women aged between 40 and 64. A series of targeted work/family reconciliation measures (ranging from 'favourable' working hours flexibility, to services, to the sharing of care work in the family), as well as continuing training, are seen as necessary to tackle this situation.
These various considerations should be translated into a composite system of equal opportunities policies in the labour market, whether these support participation (care services for children and the elderly, family leave, policies on working time and hours), labour market entry (counselling, training, retraining, skills upgrading) and permanence in the labour market (actions to combat occupational segregation and wage discrimination). (Livio Muratore, Ires Lombardia)