Second International PROMETEA Conference

List of Sessions:

Session 1: Statistical identification and methodology

The standard classifications, names of occupations and socio-professional categories (CITP), the classifications of types of education (ISCED), the classifications of work sectors (NACE) make it difficult to isolate the people having scientific and technological careers. The data specific peculiar to the scientific and technological fields (Frascati) generally do not include gender information in relation to working conditions.
The objective of this session is to compare experiences in order to suggest the adoption of common procedures which would make it possible to follow the evolution in the life and working conditions of these professionals.

Session 2: The decisions taken at different life stages

Men and women are led to take decisions on their careers at different stages of their lives. These decisions, which reflect constraints and choices, are not taken in the same way by men and women. It is particularly true when one has to decide whether or not to pursue one’s activity after the birth of a child. It is also the case when one’s partner moves on account of his or her job or when one retires. What factors may explain different choices: social pressure, discrepancies in salaries, imaginary or real career prospects (the double careers which couples, especially young ones, intend to have imply choices usually made at the expense of women)?

Session 3: Part-time work and teleworking

In Europe, part-time work is highly concentrated in a certain number of jobs and low-qualified sectors of activity and it has invaded female employment in the last thirty years. Part-time work is typically the concern of wives and mothers. It penalises them in the short term by providing them with a partial income and in the long term by hindering the evolution of their careers and reducing their pensions. Are women conducting scientific and technological careers concerned, and in what way, by this form of work?
Teleworking has often been presented as a new solution which would ensure a better and easier articulation between family and work. Although it indeed enables workers to reduce the time spent commuting, nevertheless it raises a series of questions, of not-obvious answers concerning the relations with the employer and the hierarchy (control, checking, financing of equipment), but also the type of articulation which teleworking generates. Indeed, it could lead parents, especially mothers, to have two parallel activities and make them lose personal contact with the other employees of the company, thus depriving them of information and networks. Once more the question is: does this form of work concern women and men in scientific and technological careers?

Session 4: The impact and evaluation of public and corporate tax and social policies

 

The lack of individualisation of tax and social systems induces job traps which particularly affect women, whose incomes are often lower than those of their partners. The aim is to study the effect of these systems on women’s employment.

The question of the policies evaluations will be examined. The aim is to ponder on the evaluation instruments used when policies are set up in public or private organisations: declarations of intention exist as well as the description of actions led, but it is more difficult to have a precise idea of the results of these policies.

Session 5 : Policies at balancing family and work life. Log term cost of these policies

The policies aimed at balancing family and work life usually have two very different aspects: on the one hand, the education and day-care services for young children which enable parents to go on working and, on the other hand, the controversial systems of leaves, whose immediate effect is to keep mothers away from the job market, a measure likely to eventually penalise them in their careers and retirement benefits. Our aim is to study the effects of these policies on women and men in scientific and technological careers.

The long term cost of these policies: does excluding women from the job market not imply a political choice fraught with negative social and economic consequences, both for individuals (women excluded from paid employment for a period of time) and for society in general (concentration of wealth and power in the hands of men, imbalances in pension systems…). One also has to compare the costs of these policies in terms of social welfare and retirement rights.