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The European union working time directive : securing minimum standards, with gendered consequences
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Zbyszewska, Ania (2013) The European union working time directive : securing minimum standards, with gendered consequences. Women's Studies International Forum, Volume 39 . pp. 30-41. doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2012.02.011 ISSN 0277-5395.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2012.02.011
Abstract
Working-time regulation never focused on the promotion of equal opportunities. On the contrary, regulation of working hours has tended to reproduce gendered patterns of work. The European Union's (EU) “bifurcated” approach to different aspects of working-time regulation has been noted by feminist scholars. Picking up this critique, the author closer examines the apparent gender neutrality of the EU's foundational working-time instrument, the Working Time Directive (WTD, Directive), vis-à-vis Directives on Part-time Work and Parental Leave. Using the concept “universe of political discourse,” the paper undertakes to look “behind” the regulations, particularly the WTD, to understand more precisely the rationales and assumptions on which they rest, and their gendered consequences. Examination of the EU universe of political discourse on working time reveals that a more egalitarian approach to this area of regulation failed to develop because the EU's institutional framework, competing discourses of flexibility and security, and the political actors with the highest stakes in their respective promotion, have effectively limited or sidelined other rationales for regulation, including those of work-family reconciliation and gender equality. In the end, the legal choices made on the basis of what was politically possible at the time of the WTD's initial adoption and the political pressures surrounding its recent, unsuccessful revision, constrained those actors willing to expand the political discourse and revise the Directive in a way that was more consistent with the promotion of gender equality.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
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Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor | ||||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Law | ||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Hours of labor -- Law and legislation | ||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Women's Studies International Forum | ||||||
Publisher: | Pergamon | ||||||
ISSN: | 0277-5395 | ||||||
Official Date: | July 2013 | ||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | Volume 39 | ||||||
Number of Pages: | 12 | ||||||
Page Range: | pp. 30-41 | ||||||
DOI: | 10.1016/j.wsif.2012.02.011 | ||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
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