Comparing household employment, gender contracts and the crisis in Europe

The traditional male breadwinner household has been in terminal decline, but has the economic crisis reversed this? Theoretical approaches concerned with the heterogeneity of ‘multi-equilibrium models’ of household organisation of work predict a period of normative change increasing gender equality, while ‘balkanised gender contract’ approaches emphasise the persistence of labor market segmentation. Using EU-SILC data (2007-12), we develop a typology to compare household employment patterns within and between countries before and after the Great Recession. Where the crisis was most severe there has been a retrenchment of dual earner households, and a growth of male breadwinners caused by female unemployment. While dual earner households are better placed to counter economic adversity this is often a result of economic necessity rather than increased gender equality.