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RESEARCH NETWORK: GENDER RELATIONS IN THE LABOUR MARKET AND THE WELFARE STATE

General information about the Research Network

The importance of employment and labour market for the life chances of the members in the European nation states and in the developing common labour market of the European Union is undisputed. The specific and discriminated situation of women is an important reason to study the complex interrelation of the societal and labour market situation (not only) of women.

Workshops on "Gender Relations and the Labour Market" were organized at both the First and the Second European Conferences of Sociology and both times the workshops attracted great interest among European sociologists. During recent years much comparative research projects on these issues has been carried out and there exist several research groups in the different European countries. However, more communication is needed between reserachers not at least to focus comparative research on crucial gender issues such as the changing gender composition of the labour force and the development in patterns of female employment, new forms of employment, growing part-time work, gender segregation in the labour market, the changed condition for social citizenship, social exclusion and unemployment in a gender perspective, and the influence of state and labour market policy on men's and women's social conditions. In this context analysis of EU employment policy and its consequences for equal opportunities of women are also an important research issue. In discussing topics it is necessary to include - still more - researchers from the new member states of the European Union as well as those from the Eastern European societies.

Future Activities of the Network:

• Initiating and intensifying comparative research with the aims of clarifying theoretical explanations and providing more empirical based material for political strategies to improve women's disadvantaged/discriminated situation in the emerging European labour market;
• Establishing research groups and reinforcing contacts between researchers;
• Organizing smaller research centered meetings and conferences.

Coordinators
Margareta Kreimer
Department of Economics
Karl-Franzens-Universitaet Graz
Universitaetsstrasse 15
8010 Graz
Tel : ++43 316 380 3456
Margareta.Kreimer@uni-graz.at

Sara Falcão Casaca
SOCIUS - Research Centre on Economic Sociology and the Sociology of Organizations
Sociology Unit, Institute of Economics and Business Administration (ISEG-UTL)
Rua Miguel Lupi, 20
1249-078 Lisboa
Tel: ++351213925935
Fax: ++351213925940
sarafc@iseg.utl.pt

Vanessa Beck
Centre for Labour Market Studies
University of Leicester
7-9 Salisbury Road
UK – Leicester LE1 7QR
Tel: +44 116 252 5991
vanessa.beck@le.ac.uk

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