Let no one come and tell Emilie, 37 years old, that she doesn’t work. The young mother is “anything but unemployed”, she insists, holding her son’s shoulders, afraid that he will fall off the sofa from jumping so hard. Before the birth of Martin, 1 and a half years old, she was a caregiver in a hospital in Tourcoing, near Lille. “Going to the hospital took less energy than taking care of him and the house, it’s twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week”, she notes. She and her partner, Nicolas (they did not wish to give their names), decided that it was simpler for her to take long-term parental leave because of her working hours very early in the morning and sometimes even by night. “Nicolas is a naval engineer in the army, he is often on the move, so we said to ourselves that it was the best option. »
Gender equality is progressing (a little) in France, according to a report from the European Institute for Equality between Women and Men (EIGE) released on October 24. And yet, even today, it is almost always mothers, like Emilie, who interrupt their careers to look after children beyond the legal maternity leave of two and a half months.
According to INSEE in 2018, 96% of people who stopped working to take care of a child (or a parent) were women. In 2020, the share of mothers aged 25 to 49 called “inactive” according to INSEE (i.e. unemployed and not looking for one) increased from 12% to 17.8% in birth of the first child, 25% with two children including at least one under 3 years old and even 52.5% with more than three. Conversely, the rate of “inactivity” of fathers is decreasing. It goes from 6.2% to 5.3% with the arrival of a baby, and to only 3.5% with two children.
“The constraints of conciliation between the domestic and professional spheres rest primarily on women”summarizes INSEE in a 2022 study. The impact on employment also depends on the socio-professional environment. Thus, only 77% of workers declaring that they have “family responsibilities” are employed, compared to 93% of female executives. Even when they keep their job, more women than men reduce their working hours: 30% of mothers work part-time (regardless of the number of children), compared to only 4.8% of mothers. fathers, according to INSEE.
“Sacrificing a “feminine” job costs less”
These gaps are partly due, again, to the weight of gender stereotypes and the roles assigned to families. “ Women’s free work such as caring for children is much more evident traditionally”, summarizes Marie Sautier, sociologist, doctoral student at Sciences Po Paris and the University of Lausanne. EIGE points out that women are still expected to shoulder the majority of unpaid care and domestic work. Still according toINSEE69% of full-time mothers report doing more than seven hours of housework per week, compared to 35.3% of full-time fathers.
You have 50% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.