ABSTRACT
The most frequently cited criticism of the performance of European economies is their apparent inability to create employment and raise the share of the population in employment. This growing concern with the employment performance of European economies has coincided with the continuing growth of female employment, even in periods of low or negative overall employment expansion. Yet the expansion of female employment, although widely recognised as a feature of modern societies, is still often treated as an independent social phenomenon by labour market analysts, particularly those commenting on trends at the aggregate European level. Differences in employment rates between European countries are not identified as the consequence of differences in female employment patterns and of associated differences in the organisation of the household and family economy (Rubery 1995; Rubery and Maier 1995). Even most analyses of unemployment fail to address, let alone explain, the apparently paradoxical rise in both female employment and unemployment rates. Instead debate over European employment issues remains focused around such issues as the level of labour market regulation (CEC (Commission of the European Communities) 1993a; OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) 1994a, 1994b), with little reference to other social and economic institutions which underpin variations in employment and unemployment rates.
