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PurposeThe focus of this article is on gender justice with respect to opportunities (educational) and outcome (earnings). The main research question is whether educational opportunities are positively converted into fairness of income, and for whom and where this is the case. The importance of this study lies in the understanding that the subjective feeling of justice is a significant measure of quality of life, of the individual's subjective feeling of happiness and of the fulfilment of the goals people have reason to value.Design/methodology/approachThe study takes a micro-macro approach, combining macro-level data taken from official statistics and micro-data from the 2018 European Social Survey for 25 European countries; the authors also apply multilevel modelling to the data analysis.FindingsAt individual level the authors found gender differences in the associations between education and fairness of educational opportunities. With regard to the scope of fairness, the authors emphasise that fairness of educational opportunities and net pay in European countries is less likely to be felt by someone who has a lower educational level. Higher educational expenditures are positively correlated with fairness of educational opportunities but not with fairness of net pay.Originality/valueThis article contributes to theoretical, empirical and policy-relevant gender justice research on the link between inequalities and justice perceptions. The authors have expanded the theoretical understanding of the concept of gender justice by taking into account the role of a specific gender norm on fairness perceptions. The norm, when asked about in a gender-neutral way, is not associated with fairness of pay, but when posed as a question specifically to women, has a negative relationship with perceptions of fair pay. The empirical contribution consists in the evaluation of individual and country mechanisms from a gender justice perspective. The policy contribution consists in questioning the belief that longer paid maternity leave is beneficial for women. In countries with long paid leave available to mothers, women reported even lower levels of fairness of net pay than men.

The transformation of the Bulgarian labour market from state socialism to market capitalism has had a strong impact on the school-to-work transition of young adults. Young people's passages from education to employment have become uncertain. Today, many graduates risk not gaining ground in the labour market and facing social exclusion in Bulgaria.

A large percentage of unemployed people belong to minority ethnic groups, especially the Roma whose education and job qualification levels have remained very low and Bulgarian Turks, who live predominantly in rural areas. There are indeed important regional differences in terms of successful school-to-work transitions. The educational level of the rural population continues to lag substantially in comparison to urban residents. When it comes to gender disparities, Bulgaria may serve as an international role model. It seems to achieve higher gender equality in education and employment opportunities than many other countries.

However, little is known how regional labour and educational opportunities impact ethnic and gender disparities in school-to-work transitions. The research project aims at better understanding the mechanisms behind educational (un)success and school-to-work transition in contemporary Bulgaria, including social and ethnic inequalities as well as the relatively low gender segregation of these transitions. Conceptually, the project uses one central argument to understand school-to-work transitions. It investigates the role of the Bulgarian education system in creating social, ethnic and regional disparities in school-to-work transitions by while maintaining a relatively low level of gender segregation on the labour market.

A nationally representative school-leaver survey for Bulgaria will provide detailed data about pathways that lead young women and men from different social and ethnic backgrounds along different educational tracks to different positions in the labour market. Embedded in this survey, regional case studies of three distinct Bulgarian regions (the remote North Western region, the Blagoevgrad district in the South Western region, and the metropolitan Sofia district) will be used to analyse the consequences of differing educational offers on individual school-to-work transitions. Finally, international comparative analysis of the Bulgarian survey data with Switzerland and other European countries serves to diagnose both the strengths and shortcomings of the Bulgarian transition system.

The research project will have broader implications for Bulgarian and Swiss policy makers. On the one hand, it will reveal mechanisms to produce a more integrative education system in Bulgaria, to enable smoother school-to-work transitions, and to more effectively restructure education systems in remote areas, such as in the North Western planning region. On the other hand, Swiss policy makers will be able to learn from the Bulgarian education system, which is unique in terms of producing only little gender segregation.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore how individual and macro-level factors shape the work–life balance of young men and women across European countries.Design/methodology/approachThe paper combines macro-level data from the official statistics with individual-level data from the Work, Family and Wellbeing (2010/2011) module of the European Social Survey. The study uses multilevel modelling to explore the factors which shape the work–life balance of men and women aged 15–34 across 24 European countries.FindingsThe findings show both differences and similarities between young men and women in how education shapes work–life balance. Higher education increases the likelihood of considering work–life balance as important in work selection for men, while lower education decreases the odds of considering this balance for women. More education is associated with lower acceptance of the traditional norm, for both men and women, and less time spent on housework. Higher share of family benefits decreases the importance of work–life balance, more so for men than for women. Work–life balance is more important for men living in conservative, Mediterranean and post-socialist welfare regimes compared to those from social-democratic regimes.Social implicationsThe policy implications are to more closely consider education in the transformation of gender-sensitive norms during earlier stages of child socialization and to design more holistic policy measures which address the multitude of barriers individuals from poor families and ethnic/migrant background face.Originality/valueThe study contributes to existing literature by applying the capability approach to the empirical investigation of work–life balance. The analytical model contains three dimensions – norms about paid/unpaid work, considering work–life balance in the choice of employment and time spent on unpaid work. Through this approach, we are able to uncover the agency inequality of young people taking into account individual level characteristics, including gender, education, ethnicity and macro-level factors.

Family policies in Austria, Bulgaria, & Hungary when viewed against the background of their different socioeconomic framework conditions -- are based on concepts that are primarily geared to the family as a unity & not to the individual person. These concepts assign individual family members to different societal positions, contribute to a conservative restoration of the roles of women & men, & stabilize traditional gender hierarchies. Social spending cuts & the privatization of services are even more precarious in the transformation countries, which are additionally burdened with the economic & social costs of system change, than in Austria. In none of the three countries, though, the social & family policy prerequisites for reconciling job & family obligations are satisfactorily fulfilled. An insufficient supply of public child care facilities is an important structural obstacle in this regard. A familiarization of women, in association with an idealization of the mother role & private child care, tends to be one of the consequences. It should be noted that experiences from various countries show that it is not the amount of transfer benefits, but the opportunity for women to earn their own income in combination with a qualified public child care scheme & partnership-based family models that account for higher birth rates. Austria, Hungary, & Bulgaria are still far away from any such solutions as formulated in Scandinavian family & social policy concepts. 47 References. Adapted from the source document.

Family policies in Austria, Bulgaria, & Hungary when viewed against the background of their different socioeconomic framework conditions -- are based on concepts that are primarily geared to the family as a unity & not to the individual person. These concepts assign individual family members to different societal positions, contribute to a conservative restoration of the roles of women & men, & stabilize traditional gender hierarchies. Social spending cuts & the privatization of services are even more precarious in the transformation countries, which are additionally burdened with the economic & social costs of system change, than in Austria. In none of the three countries, though, the social & family policy prerequisites for reconciling job & family obligations are satisfactorily fulfilled. An insufficient supply of public child care facilities is an important structural obstacle in this regard. A familiarization of women, in association with an idealization of the mother role & private child care, tends to be one of the consequences. It should be noted that experiences from various countries show that it is not the amount of transfer benefits, but the opportunity for women to earn their own income in combination with a qualified public child care scheme & partnership-based family models that account for higher birth rates. Austria, Hungary, & Bulgaria are still far away from any such solutions as formulated in Scandinavian family & social policy concepts. 47 References. Adapted from the source document.

"Die Familienpolitik Österreichs, Bulgariens und Ungarns orientiert sich vor dem Hintergrund unterschiedlicher sozioökonomischer Rahmenbedingungen und politischer Kulturmuster an primär auf die Familie als Einheit und nicht auf das Individuum ausgerichteten Konzepten. Diese verweisen einzelne Familienmitglieder auf unterschiedliche gesellschaftliche Positionen, tragen zu einer konservativen Restaurierung der Rollen von Frauen und Männern bei und stabilisieren traditionelle Geschlechterhierarchien. Soziale Sparmaßnahmen und die Privatisierung von Dienstleistungen wirken in den Transformationsstaaten, die zusätzlich mit den volkswirtschaftlichen und sozialen Kosten des Systemwechsels konfrontiert sind, noch prekärer als in Österreich. In keinem der drei Staaten sind jedoch sozial- und familienpolitische Rahmenbedingungen für eine Vereinbarkeit von Beruf und Familie in ausreichendem Ausmaß gegeben. Unzureichende Versorgung mit öffentlichen Kinderbetreuungseinrichtungen ist dabei ein wesentliches strukturelles Hindernis. Familialisierung von Frauen, verbunden mit einer Idealisierung der Mutterrolle und der privaten Kinderbetreuung, ist tendenziell die Folge. Erfahrungen aus unterschiedlichen Staaten zeigen, dass nicht die Höhe der Transferleistungen, sondern die Möglichkeit eines eigenen Erwerbseinkommens für Frauen kombiniert mit qualifizierter öffentlicher Kinderbetreuung sowie partnerschaftlich orientierten Familienmodellen ausschlaggebend für höhere Geburtenzahlen sind. Von Lösungsansätzen, wie sie etwa skandinavische familien- und sozialpolitische Konzepte formulieren, sind Österreich, Bulgarien und Ungarn weit entfernt." (Autorenreferat)

'Die Familienpolitik Österreichs, Bulgariens und Ungarns orientiert sich vor dem Hintergrund unterschiedlicher sozioökonomischer Rahmenbedingungen und politischer Kulturmuster an primär auf die Familie als Einheit und nicht auf das Individuum ausgerichteten Konzepten. Diese verweisen einzelne Familienmitglieder auf unterschiedliche gesellschaftliche Positionen, tragen zu einer konservativen Restaurierung der Rollen von Frauen und Männern bei und stabilisieren traditionelle Geschlechterhierarchien. Soziale Sparmaßnahmen und die Privatisierung von Dienstleistungen wirken in den Transformationsstaaten, die zusätzlich mit den volkswirtschaftlichen und sozialen Kosten des Systemwechsels konfrontiert sind, noch prekärer als in Österreich. In keinem der drei Staaten sind jedoch sozial- und familienpolitische Rahmenbedingungen für eine Vereinbarkeit von Beruf und Familie in ausreichendem Ausmaß gegeben. Unzureichende Versorgung mit öffentlichen Kinderbetreuungseinrichtungen ist dabei ein wesentliches strukturelles Hindernis. Familialisierung von Frauen, verbunden mit einer Idealisierung der Mutterrolle und der privaten Kinderbetreuung, ist tendenziell die Folge. Erfahrungen aus unterschiedlichen Staaten zeigen, dass nicht die Höhe der Transferleistungen, sondern die Möglichkeit eines eigenen Erwerbseinkommens für Frauen kombiniert mit qualifizierter öffentlicher Kinderbetreuung sowie partnerschaftlich orientierten Familienmodellen ausschlaggebend für höhere Geburtenzahlen sind. Von Lösungsansätzen, wie sie etwa skandinavische familien- und sozialpolitische Konzepte formulieren, sind Österreich, Bulgarien und Ungarn weit entfernt.' (Autorenreferat)

AbstractThe present article investigates gender discrimination in recruitment for two male-dominated occupations (mechanics and IT professionals). We empirically test two different explanatory approaches to gender discrimination in hiring; namely, statistical discrimination and taste-based discrimination. Previous studies suggest that, besides job applicants' characteristics, organisational features play a role in hiring decisions. Our article contributes to the literature on gender discrimination in the labour market by investigating its opportunity structures located at the recruiter, job and company level, and how gender discrimination varies across occupations and countries.The analysed data come from a factorial survey experiment conducted in four countries (Bulgaria, Greece, Norway and Switzerland). Real job advertisements were sampled, and the recruiters in charge of hiring for these positions (n = 1,920) rated up to ten hypothetical CVs (vignettes). We find gender discrimination in Bulgaria and Greece and to a lesser degree in Switzerland, but not in Norway. The degree of gender discrimination appears to be greater in mechanics than in IT. Multivariate analyses that test a number of opportunity structures for discrimination suggest that mechanisms of statistical discrimination rather than those of taste-based discrimination might be at work.

Episodes of unemployment or deskilling work can signal low ability to employers and impede individuals' employment chances. In this chapter we analyse how the scarring effects of experiences of job insecurity vary across countries. We presented fictitious CVs integrated in an online survey to 1920 respondents recruiting for real jobs in five occupational fields in Bulgaria, Greece, Norway and Switzerland. Our findings show that unemployment scarring is strongest in Norway, followed by Switzerland, and is weaker in Bulgaria and Greece. Work experience in deskilling jobs as well as frequent changes of jobs (job-hopping) are also found to decrease applicants' chances. We interpret our findings with regard to different national economies (youth unemployment), employment protection legislation and education systems, arguing that these country-specific settings shape recruiters' perceptions of individuals' precarious job experience, which in turn influences their hiring decisions

Episodes of unemployment or deskilling work can signal low ability to employers and impede individuals' employment chances. In this chapter we analyse how the scarring effects of experiences of job insecurity vary across countries. We presented fictitious CVs integrated in an online survey to 1920 respondents recruiting for real jobs in five occupational fields in Bulgaria, Greece, Norway and Switzerland. Our findings show that unemployment scarring is strongest in Norway, followed by Switzerland, and is weaker in Bulgaria and Greece. Work experience in deskilling jobs as well as frequent changes of jobs (job-hopping) are also found to decrease applicants' chances. We interpret our findings with regard to different national economies (youth unemployment), employment protection legislation and education systems, arguing that these country-specific settings shape recruiters' perceptions of individuals' precarious job experience, which in turn influences their hiring decision.

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