N°01 (7) / 2012 The nexT womeN’s move Magazine by FEPS - Foundation for European Progressive Studies www.feps-europe.eu/queries About Queries Isaac Newton’s famous book “Opticks” concludes with a set of “Queries”. These “Queries” are not questions in the ordinary sense, but rather rhetorical questions intended to stimulate thinking. This was Newton’s mode of explaining “by query”. N°01 (7) / 2012 About Queries Isaac Newton’s famous book “Opticks” concludes with a set of “Queries”. These “Queries” are not questions in the ordinary sense, but rather rhetorical questions intended to stimulate thinking. This was Newton’s mode of explaining “by query”. FOREWORDS 7 The Next Women’s Move Inside Ernst StetteR 9 Feminism of the 21st Century: Which Way to Go? Zita GURMAI EMANCIPATING CONTEMPORARY WOMEn - RECOGNISING VALUE OF DOMESTIC WORK 14 From Maid to Worker Helen SCHWENKEN 23 Constructing Care Markets in a Familialistic Societies Sonya MICHEL & Ito PENG 41 Who’s Gonna Care for the Aging Boomers? Migrant Women Confront The Structures of Home Care Eileen BORIS & Jennifer KLEIN 52 Domestic Workers: from Modern-Day Slavery to Equal Rights Francisca SAUQUILLO RESPONDING TO ANXIETIEs - JUSTIFYING WOMEN’S MIGRATION 66 Migrant Care Labour and European Welfare Regimes Fiona Williams 79 Gendering Anti-Immigration Politics in Europe Francesca SCRinzi 91 Domestic Work is Work – and Must Be a Decent One! Christa RANDZIO-plath 4 100 Different Legal Status, Same Name. The Perception of Migrant Women and the Representation of Their Interests within the PES “Queries” is the scientific magazine of the Foundation for European Progressive Studies. Judit TÁNCZOS The Foundation for European Progressive Studies is a European progressive political foundation, close to the Party of European Socialists (PES). As a platform for ideas, FEPS works in a close collaboration with REGAINING WOMEN’S SUPPORt - social democratic organizations, and in particular national foundations and think tanks, to tackle the challenges that Europe faces today. VANQUISHING RIGHT WING Publisher: FEPS – Foundation for European Progressive Studies EXTREMISM First published in Belgium 2012 Publishing supervisor: Dr. Ernst Stetter (Secretary General – FEPS) Managing Editor of Queries: Dr. Ania Skrzypek (FEPS Senior Research 112 Bolstering Feminist Politics Fellow) Editorial support: Judit Tánczos (Policy Advisor – FEPS) in a Time of Conservative With the financial support of the European Parliament. Ascendancy FEPS Team Kathleen BLEE Massimo D’Alema President 120 Conservative Women in the Dr. Ernst Stetter Sisterhood? Secretary General Ronnee SCHREIBER Dr. Ania Skrzypek Senior Research Fellow 130 Far Right Movements and Dr. Matthieu Méaulle Gendered Mobilization in Senior Research Fellow Charlotte Billingham Hungary Executive Secretary Andrea PETŐ Judit Tánczos Policy Advisor David Kitching DEFINING PROGRESSIVE FEMINISm - Policy Advisor INSPIRING THE NEXT WAVE Alain Bloëdt Communication and Public Affairs Advisor Gaston Simon 138 About Uses and Abuses of Financial Advisor Feminism Marie-Astrid Mukankusi Administrative Assistant Monique HALPERN Ischi Graus 149 Reinforcing Solidarity Events Organiser Designed by: RedWorks Belgium among Women Copyright © FEPS – Foundation for European Progressive Studies Ghislaine TOUTAIN ISSN 2032-9113 This magazine is published subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers’ prior consent in writing in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. FEPS Rue Montoyer 40, 1000 Brussels, Belgium Phone + 32 2 234 69 00, Fax + 32 2 280 03 83 [email protected] www.feps-europe.eu 5 The Next Women’s Move 6 Foreword Dr. Ernst Stetter FEPS Secretary General Feminist debates, alongside with the “women’s issues” they focus on, tend to be regarded as an important, but somewhat fringe thread of the ideological debate within the social democratic family. In certain realities references to gender equality became rather an issue of political correctness, than a shared belief that women’s emancipation is indispensible to achieving any societal progress. In order to break through this practice and to show the angles that should be embraced as new priorities for a progressive agenda FEPS is presenting this new issue of “Queries” – FEPS Scientific Magazine that outlines The“ Next Women’s Move”. The choice of the title is not a coincidence. It refers to the social reality in which women are “on the move” in many different ways. First of all, women moved into the labour market and they are there to stay. It is not only for their dreams about professional self-fulfillment or making a substantial contribution to the prosperity of society. It is also because reality demands that. From an individual perspective, one salary is no longer enough to financially sustain a household. Most economic analyses show that without women being active and fully participating in the labour market no recovery from the financial crisis will be possible. Secondly, since women moved out of a situation in which their focus was entirely on housekeeping and provision of care within the family, it created a vacuum. In the 1990s and first decade of the new century, social democrats created a discourse that this meant a need for finding ways in which they could “conciliate” their professional and private lives. This pledge however is not reflected in policies. The ongoing crisis and resulting austerity measures, additionally undermine current welfare states. And the ageing society adds an additional demand for care provision, which can no longer be met by public funds. The only way left seems to be resorting to the private sector. Domestic work is therefore a quickly developing sector, which however has nothing in common with the values of the social democratic movement that laid ground for the legal provisions of modern social and employment policies in Europe. It is mostly women who serve as domestic workers, and a vast majority of them are migrants. They answer to the demands of western societies, experiencing shortcomings in the labour force that would engage in care. Once the migrants are looking for seeking employment in the receiving countries, hosting populations take advantage of their desperation. Overall, domestic workers are often en- gaged without an employment contract, without decent pay, without social or health insurance. Their jobs are precarious; they remain victims of psychological and physical harassments. Since the households remain outside of any supervision, this practice of massive exploitation remains in many ways unnoti ceable. The 7 adoption of the ILO Convention 189 concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers and corresponding Recommendation is the first step to bring about change, but is by far not sufficiently resolving major issues. The “12 by 12” Campaign, which is coordinated by ITUC – International Trade Unions Confederation, points out several of these other remaining challenges. “Queries” provides academic assessments of the situation, all of which join in the conviction that this theme should become a mainstreaming issue for progressives around the globe. It is in the very core of a debate on equality; on value of labour; on a vision for the new concept of welfare provision that could replace undermined and inefficient contemporary welfare systems. Thirdly, the title “The Next Women’s Move” refers also to a growing need for progressive men and women to define their new, distinctive feminist agenda. The predicament, in which the feminist movement finds itself nowadays, shares certain communalities with the overall crisis of politics. Individualisation of the post-moder- nist society on one hand, and discrediting world of politics in general the other, are the factors that disable any attempt for collective action. What makes it even worse is that right wing (conservatives and extremists) invented “new ways” of appealing to women. The women on the top, who originate from those parties, appear modern, liberated and they carry on saying that their success was achieved by them individually because of their own skills and work. By doing so, they put in doubt any sense of collective women’s action. This must be responded to in the name of social democrats of the past generations, whose efforts paved the way for women into politics. Strengthened with this meaningful tradition, social democrats must develop therefore a new, complex and credible vision addressed to women and designed in such a way, that a new generation can identify themselves with it and work on its implementation. This 7th issue of “Queries” is launched on 8th March 2012, almost two years after issue 2 “The Next Wave of Emancipation”. As such, it reflects the recent developments of the long-established FEPS research project on gender, diversity and democracy. It echoes the discussions at the FEPS conference in the European Parlia ment on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day: “Clara Zetkin could do it. So can we!”. It benefits from studies concluded within the transatlantic project that was launched by FEPS with the support of Fondation Jean Jaurès with 3 annual events, the last of which was entitled “Restrengthening global sisterhood - Emerging women’s issues for a new global agenda”, organised in Washington D.C. in cooperation with Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars