Press Release 29/05/2014

SURVEY ON THE RECONCILIATION OF WORK, FAMILY AND PERSONAL LIFE (CVL) 2013

Working women in the Basque Country dedicated 50% more hours per day than men to caring for minors and dependent persons

The number of people who preferred working in small companies and in the private sector increased

Women who worked outside the home dedicated 4.9 hours per day to looking after their sons and daughters below the age of 15, whilst men dedicated 3.1 hours per day, according to Eustat data. This difference was maintained in the case of caring for dependants, an activity to which men dedicated 1.5 hours per day and women, 2.3 hours.

Half of women in work, - 55.4% - as well as time spent in paid work, dedicated 5 hours or more per day to caring for their children. Furthermore, up to 17.2% dedicated the same time to the care of dependent persons. In turn, almost half of men in work - 45.1% - dedicated 2 hours or less to looking after their sons and daughters.

In comparison with data from 2010 it is apparent that the percentage of women who dedicated a large number of hours - 5 or more - to caring for their sons and daughters was maintained, whereas the percentage corresponding to dependent persons is falling.

The distribution of domestic tasks amongst employed men and women in the Basque Country was even more imbalanced: nine out of ten men -89.9%- dedicated 2 hours or less to those tasks, whilst three out of ten women -29.6%- dedicated 3 hours or more.

This uneven distribution of functions also meant that a significant percentage of women in work, almost one in six, were very unsatisfied with the collaboration offered by their spouse or partner in the carrying out of domestic tasks. On the other hand, a large majority of men in work – 73.1% - were very satisfied with the housework done by their partners.

However, it is worth mentioning that working women expressed greater satisfaction from looking after their children -57.5% expressed a high level of satisfaction - and even from household tasks - 43.6% claimed a high level of satisfaction - than employed men, who dropped in the first case to 48.5% and in the second to 39.6%.

As regards the difficulty in reconciling paid work with other aspects of daily life, one out of three people in work in the Basque Country -34.3%- stated that they have great difficulty combining work with looking after dependent individuals. This high degree of difficulty decreased and stood at 27.1% of the employed population where it concerned attending to young children and a similar percentage -24.3%- where it concerned the carrying out of personal activities.

Nearly half of employed individuals enjoyed flexible hours for leaving work

20.9% of people in work nearly always, and a similar percentage, sometimes, had to dedicate more hours to work than those established or planned.

The flexible timetable for leaving work, another supplementary solution for improving conciliation, was enjoyed by nearly half of people in work (46.4%), although to a lesser extent by women (43.8%) than by men (48.7%). As regards working from home, 7.7% of people in work worked sporadically from home and 4.2% at least half of the time.

Within the various methods that could make the conciliation of work, family and personal life easier, short-term leave was within reach of the large majority of the population in work, followed by the possibility of requesting unpaid days, possible for 58.1%. Furthermore, approximately half the workers stated that they experienced little difficulty in obtaining extended leaves of absence or a reduction in working hours.

The fear that requesting leave or reduced hours would affect career options was slightly greater amongst women than amongst men (31% and 29.7% respectively). Notwithstanding, maternity could create promotion inequalities for one in five working women, whilst just 7.4% of men were of the opinion that paternity could seriously affect them. Nevertheless, one in five employed men believed that it would be highly detrimental to their professional career to request paternity leave.

In relation to the work preferences of employed individuals by province, no considerable differences were appreciated with regards to professional status, with the percentage of workers who preferred to be salaried standing at values close to those of the Basque Country (83.3%). With regard to other aspirations, Gipuzkoa displayed a specific profile: 51.3% of the employed population in this province preferred working in a small company, 52.1% in the private sector and 15.5% preferred being self-employed. This profile contrasted with that of the employed population in Bizkaia: 58.3% would choose a large company and up to 57.6% preferred the public sector. Those from Álava, although closer to the profile of Bizkaia, were positioned between the two other provinces: 57.3% preferred large companies and 54.4% preferred the public sector.

No considerable differences were appreciated regarding preferences in professional status in comparison with 2010. However, taking company size and employment sector into account, the differences were more significant, as both the percentage of individuals who preferred to work in a small company and those who chose the private sector rose by approximately 10 percentage points.

In households where both partners worked, looking after children outside the working hours of the father or mother corresponded in 94.7% of occasions to both of them; however, the father took responsibility in just 0.4% of these cases, whereas this figure rose to 2.6% for occasions when the mother took sole responsibility.

In these same households, and in relation to looking after young children during working hours and outside school hours, in 39.6% of cases it was relatives or individuals without earnings who mainly took care of looking after children, in 37.3% of cases it was both partners who looked after children and in 10.4% of cases the care rested upon other individuals with earnings.

Where it proved necessary to care for dependent relatives, up to 31.6% of women in work dedicated 3 or more hours per day, a percentage that fell to 18.8% in the case of men.

For further information:

Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Instituto Vasco de Estadística C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.eus Tlf: 945 01 75 62 Further press releases on Survey on the Reconciliation of Work, Family and Personal Life (CVL) Databank on the Survey of Reconciliation of Work, Family and Personal Life in the Basque Country (CVL)