Mid-Term Conference 30th September - 1st October 2010, University of Leicester

The importance of employment and labour market for the life chances of members of 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 researchers not 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 gendered 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.

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;
• Organising smaller research meetings and conferences.

For further information please go to the website of the European Sociology Association (ESA)

Conferences

• ESA RN 14 Interim Conference Leicester, 30 September-1 October 2010
• ESA 9th Conference in Lisbon, 2-5 September 2009
• ESA 8th Conference in Glasgow, 3-6 September 2007
• ESA RN 14 Interim Conference Lisbon, 6-8 September 2006
• ESA Conference Torun, 9-13 September 2005

Contacts:

• Sara Falcão Casaca, sarafc@iseg.utl.pt
• Vanessa Beck, vanessa.beck@le.ac.uk