A WOMAN’S WORK IS NEVER DONE: WOMEN’S WORKING HISTORY IN EUROPE

Long before the home office was invented, working at home was already commonplace for one group within society: women.

Even today, unpaid and care tasks at home are still often perceived as women’s work – or not appreciated for the hard work it is. In order to discover the reasons behind today’s inequalities in the workplaces of men and women, this blog takes a closer look at women’s work history in Europe.

When we look back at the history of work, there is often a bias towards work performed by men.

Women have been historically depicted as housewives, engaging in crafts or occupied as mothers. Although this might have been accurate for parts of European societies in the past, it only accounts for wealthy elites. Until industrialisation, the majority of Europe’s population worked in agriculture, and women were just as involved in working on farms as men.

The industrial revolution changed women’s working lives greatly.

Working in shifts for a salary and in locations such as a factory, office or shop became part of modern life. Young, unmarried or working-class women especially moved to cities to work in the growing industries. Education played a major role for women entering the workforce, with an increasing percentage of girls attending school during the 20th century.

As they earned less than men and were not unionised , employers often considered women to be attractive workers. At the same time, women worked in their homes, for example in piecework , where they were only paid for each completed piece, or in assembling pieces such as copper coils .

Thus, women carried a double burden : they had to take care of children, elder family members, and the household – work that was not paid and hidden in private spaces. And they contributed to the family’s income with their paid work. As these jobs were often located at home, part-time, casual or even illegal, records on female work are not as reliable and well-documented as men’s labour .

Until industrial, urban work became normal, men had been idealised as the sole providers for the family. As more women entered the workforce, women became idealised as a counterpart to men. The married woman, taking care of her family and the household, not engaging in paid work, became the social ideal – although most female biographies were different.

As legislation developed to regulate women and children’s working hours and ban them from especially dangerous tasks, the role of men as sole wage earners was gradually reinforced during the 19th century.

These ideals were considered normal by the turn of the 20th century: women were perceived as the opposite sex, weaker and of finer nature than men, with natural abilities in care work. As mothers and wives, the private home sphere became their domain; the public sphere belonged to men.

In contrast to these ideals, women were needed in the workforce, especially in times of war. Still, these cannot be seen as emancipatory .

Jobs in temporary factories for weapons or other materials needed in the battlefields meant working in dangerous circumstances, for low wages and in many nations, women’s service to their nations was rapidly neglected after both World Wars – and they were driven out of their employment after the men came back.

After World War II, the situation for women in Western and Eastern Europe was quite different.

Whereas some nations such as Germany experienced a wave of conservatism, where women were expected to fulfill roles as housewives and mothers, there was also a progressive movement with women entering the workforce with more and more equal rights, for example in Scandinavia. In the new political systems in Eastern Europe, women were formally equal to men and expected to work in paid employment.

In all cases, the home was still often perceived as the domain of women and all household tasks from child-rearing to cleaning and cooking as women’s work. They continued to carry the double burden – with paid and unpaid, visible and invisible work.

Resulting from the difficult heritage of work circumstances for women, even today, there are still striking inequalities for women at the workplace.

In 2018, women in the European Union earned an average 16% less than men. Nevertheless, if including unpaid work, they work six hours longer than men. More than half of women have experienced workplace harassment or sexual violence. 73% of Europeans say that women spend more time on household and caring tasks than men. Women are promoted less, in part because they tend to take more career breaks to care for children or family members. Because of this life-long gender discrimination, women face a higher risk of poverty in old age, receiving pensions that are a third smaller than men.

So although a lot has changed for women at work, there’s still a lot to be done in order to achieve equality, at work, at home and beyond.

Autor: Larissa Borck, Swedish National Heritage Board. Źródło artykułu: Europeana Foundation. Licencja CC BY-SA 4.0.
Definicje i przykłady zdań pochodzą ze słownika Cambridge Dictionary.

VOCABULARY

commonplace /ˈkɒm.ən.pleɪs/ – happening often or often seen or experienced and so not considered to be special;
powszechny, pospolity

perceive /pəˈsiːv/ – to come to an opinion about something, or have a belief about something;
postrzegać

inequality /ˌɪn.ɪˈkwɒl.ə.ti/ – the unfair situation in society when some people have more opportunities, money, etc. than other people;
nierówność (niesprawiedliwa sytuacja)

bias /ˈbaɪ.əs/ – the action of supporting or opposing a particular person or thing in an unfair way, because of allowing personal opinions to influence your judgment;
stronniczość, uprzedzenie

depict /dɪˈpɪkt/ – to represent or show something in a picture or story;
przedstawiać, obrazować

account for sth /əˈkaʊnt fɔːr/ – to form the total of sth; to be part of sth;
stanowić część lub przyczynę czegoś

shift /ʃɪft/ – the period that a person is scheduled to work, or a group of workers who work during the same period of time;
zmiana (w pracy), dyżur

unionise /ˈjuː.njə.naɪz/ – to form a labor union, or to organize workers into a labor union;
jednoczyć (się), tu: w kontekście związków zawodowych

piecework /ˈpiːs.wɜːk/ – work for which the amount of pay depends on the number of things finished rather than on the time spent making them;
akord (system wynagrodzenia)

copper /ˈkɒp.ər/ – a chemical element that is a reddish-brown metal, used especially for making wire and coins;
miedź

coil /kɔɪl/ – a length of rope, hair, or wire, arranged into a series of circles, one above or outside the other; a twisted length of wire through which an electric current travels;
zwój, kłąb

burden /ˈbɜː.dən/ – something difficult or unpleasant that you have to deal with or worry about;
ciężar, brzemię, obowiązek

labour /ˈleɪ.bər/ – practical work, especially when it involves hard physical effort;
praca (zwykle fizyczna), robota

sole /səʊl/ – being one only; single;
jedyny, wyłączny

counterpart /ˈkaʊntəpɑːt/ – a person or thing that does the same job or has the same function as a person or thing in a different organization, etc.;
odpowiednik (osoby, instytucji)

legislation /ˌledʒ.ɪˈsleɪ.ʃən/ – a law or set of laws suggested by a government and made official by a parliament;
ustawodawstwo, legislacja

wage /weɪdʒ/ – a particular amount of money that is paid, usually every week, to an employee, especially one who does work that needs physical skills or strength, rather than a job needing a college education;
godzinówka, płaca, zarobki

reinforce /ˌriː.ɪnˈfɔːs/ – to make something stronger; if something reinforces an idea or opinion, it provides more proof or support for it and makes it seem true;
popierać, wspierać, wzmacniać

emancipatory /iˌmæn.sɪˈpeɪ.tər.i/ – giving people social or political freedom and rights;
emancypacyjny

neglected /nɪˈɡlek.tɪd/ – not receiving enough care or attention;
zaniedbany

drive sb out – to force someone or something to leave or stop doing something;
wypędzać, wypierać, usuwać

progressive /prəˈɡres.ɪv/ – developing or happening gradually;
stopniowy, postępujący

heritage /ˈher.ɪ.tɪdʒ/ – features belonging to the culture of a particular society, such as traditions, languages, or buildings, that were created in the past and still have historical importance;
dziedzictwo

striking /ˈstraɪ.kɪŋ/ – very unusual or easily noticed, and therefore attracting a lot of attention;
uderzający, ogromny, rzucający się w oczy

harassment /ˈhær.əs.mənt/ – behaviour that annoys or upsets someone;
nękanie, molestowanie, prześladowanie

promote sb /prəˈməʊt/ – to raise someone to a higher or more important position or rank;
awansować kogoś

pension /ˈpen.ʃən/ – an amount of money paid regularly by the government or a private company to a person who does not work any more because they are too old or have become ill;
emerytura