The University of Valencia heads a European research project to study the pay gap and the chore gap in the field of gender-based inequalities. Professors of Sociology and Social Anthropology of the UV Faculty of Social Sciences Capitolina Díaz and Carles Simó coordinate this study.
The project unites seven institutions —University of Valencia, Complutense University of Madrid, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, University of the Basque Country, Technical University of Cartagena, University of Iceland and the Norwegian Centre for Social Research—, involves 27 researchers and has a budget of €173,000.
The main goal of research, which will be developed throughout a year, is “to delve into the study of both gender wage gap and chore gap, to quantify them, to define their correlation and, ultimately, to describe the factors that contribute to overcome them, while providing social agents, companies and governments with practical tools and recommendations”, Simó explains. Concurrently, “we want to guarantee a change of attitude and a new way of thinking not so much focused on women's attitudes but on achieving a more equal conduct in men”, points out Diaz.
Different studies show that women in Europe, carrying out the same work and having the same level of education, are paid between 17% and 23% less than men. Moreover, “women carry out domestic duties and take care of the elderly, children or dependants”, clarify the professors.
This European project will consist of two fundamental strands. In the first place, the analysis of leading European surveys, such as those on wage structure, uses of time, life conditions, European society or the Labour Force Survey. Qualitative analyses will also be performed through the use of sophisticated systems of interviews to women, scheduled in Spain, Iceland and Norway.
The technical director of the European Research Projects Office of the University of Valencia (OPER), Àngels Sanchis, highlights “the few opportunities available to receive European funding for a research project in the field of the social sciences”. In fact, 232 proposals were submitted to this call and 61 projects were selected. From these, only 16 are in the line devoted to universities, and among them only 3 were finally approved, one of which is headed by Simó and Díaz. These professors “lead a group with good international contacts and a great potential in the field of community research”, according to Sanchis.
For the University of Valencia this project implies “receiving funds, for the first time, from the EEE Grants, managed by the Institute of Women's Studies and Equal Opportunities of the Spanish Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality, which opens up many possibilities”, concludes the director of the OPER.
For carrying out this study on gender wage and chore gaps at European level, the UV has set up an interfaculty research group which involves different departments and the University Institute of Women's Studies. Carles Simó, Marcela Jabbaz and Empar Aguado have joined from the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology; Josep Banyuls, Salvador Méndez, Josep Vicent Pitxer and Ernest Cano, from the Department of Applied Economy, and Capitolina Díaz, María Luisa Moltó, Nieves Lázaro and Rosario Sánchez, from the University Institute of Women's Studies.
Capitolina Díaz is a doctor in Sociology from the University of London; she has worked as a Sociology lecturer at the University of Oviedo and as a visiting lecturer at the universities of Stanford and Harvard (USA), UAM (Mexico), Moa (Cuba) and Comahue (Argentina). She is a lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology of the UV since 2012. Prior to that, she was the director of the Women and Science Unit of the Spanish Ministry of Education and Culture, a research adviser for the Spanish Representation in the EU in Brussels and General Director for Equality in Employment in the Spanish Ministry of Equal Opportunities. Her research lines focus on sociology of gender, gender-sensitive public policies and gender-neutral methodology in social research.
Carles Simó is a doctor in Demography from the University of Montreal (Quebec, Canada). He has worked as a researcher at the University of Durham (UK), at the Centre for Demographic Studies of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and at Bielefeld University (Germany). He works at the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology of the University of Valencia since 2003 through the Ramón y Cajal programme for hiring doctors. His research focuses on population information systems, divorce, family demography, life cycles and transitions, immigration and ageing. His sociological and demographic studies stand out for their inclusion of gender mainstreaming.
Last update: 4 de february de 2015 11:38.
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