Rense Nieuwenhuis » EU

Directions of thought for single parents in the EU

Rense Nieuwenhuis — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 06:29:01 +0000

I’m very happy to introduce my new publication “Directions of thought for single parents in the EU” in Community, Work & Family Journal. The paper started off as a plenary address at the high-level conference “Europe for Gender Equality? Taking Stock – Taking Action” , organised by Finland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The address, and now the paper, combines insights from my own research as well as that from many others. It is now peer reviewed and available open access, and it is intended to initiate discussion.

The policy note highlights contemporary research on single parents, and reflects on its implications for social policy developments in the European Union. Three directions of thought are developed regarding single parents’ resources, employment and social policies. The aim is to expand the scope of choice among policy alternatives for policy makers. Three main points are addressed:

The rise of shared residence urges us to reconsider the gendered nature of single parenthood, considering how to support separated fathers to be involved in their children’s life.
Employment can come with all kinds of advantages, but earnings are often inadequate for single parents to guarantee a poverty-free existence.
With respect to redistributive social policies, single parents’ economic position can be heavily affected by policies that are not specifically designed for single parents, or even for families with children.

Taken together, these point bring into focus, analogue to gender mainstreaming, the importance of mainstreaming family diversity.

Trends in Women’s Employment and Poverty Rates in OECD Countries

Rense Nieuwenhuis — Tue, 12 Nov 2019 12:37:25 +0000

Although employment growth is propagated as being crucial to reduce poverty across EU and OECD countries, the actual impact of employment growth on poverty rates is still unclear. This study presents novel estimates of the association between macro-level trends in women’s employment and trends in poverty, across 15 OECD countries from 1971 to 2013. It does so based on over 2 million household-level observations from the LIS Database, using Kitagawa–Blinder–Oaxaca (KBO) decompositions. The results indicate that an increase of 10% points in women’s employment rate was associated with a reduction of about 1% point of poverty across these countries. In part, this reduction compensated for developments in men’s employment that were associated with higher poverty. However, in the Nordic countries no such poverty association was found, as in these countries women’s employment rates were very high and stable throughout the observation period. In countries that initially showed marked increases in women’s employment, such as the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Canada, and the United States, the initial increases in women’s employment rates were typically followed by a period in which these trends levelled off. Hence, our findings first and foremost suggest that improving gender equality in employment is associated with lower poverty risks. Yet, the results also suggest that the potential of following an employment strategy to (further) reduce poverty in OECD countries has, to a large extent, been depleted.

Triple Bind has impact on EU public policy making

Rense Nieuwenhuis — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 08:00:22 +0000

Our forthcoming book The triple bind of single-parent families: resources, employment and policies to improve well-being (co-edited with Laurie C. Maldonado) is having an impact on public policy already. As part of the Peer Review on ‘Single mothers facing poverty: Providing adequate financial, material and social support for sustainable social integration’ (organised in Genk, Belgium, on 5th and 6th October), I was commissioned as independent expert to author a thematic paper based on the findings in our book. The thematic paper, my presentation, and many contributions from other national experts are now online.

Peer Reviews in social protection and social inclusion foster open discussion and mutual learning. Each Peer Review meeting is hosted by one country, in this case Belgium, which presents a selected good practice (e.g. a programme, policy reform, institutional arrangement). The practice in focus here was the < href="https://www.mi-is.be/nl/miriam">MIRIAM project (website in Dutch). Peer reviews are attended by experts from the European Commission, peer countries and relevant stakeholders who provide feedback.

The impact of the Triple Bind on the outcomes of this peer review is clearly visible in the key learnings messages, as formulated on the EU Commission’s website:

Single parents disproportionally face a ‘triple bind’, including the combination of inadequate resources, inadequate employment and inadequate policies to secure well-being. However, although there are clearly challenges that are unique to single-parent families, much of their needs are common to other types of families as well. Thus, policies and institutions that support families with children and those in the labour force were also found to be of particular importance to prevent poverty faced by single parents.
Measures targeting (poor) single parents result in the most effective poverty reduction as long as adequate levels of redistribution are ensured. Targeted (means-tested) benefits need to address the issue of inadequate take-up, and avoid stigma/shame around accessing benefits/support.
Social inclusion of mothers beyond monetary support is essential, including employment and social connections. However, employment does not protect single mothers from poverty, as there are a number of risk factors related to precarious employment, low wages and less favourable employment conditions that may affect them. Thus, employment policies and policies that ensure work-life balance, are an inherent part of a desirable policy mix.

The book will be available early March this year, from Policy Press. Stay tuned for more exciting news soon!

Seminar on Making work pay

Rense Nieuwenhuis — Tue, 24 May 2016 05:34:17 +0000

I will be presenting my paper on “Has the potential for compensating poverty by women’s employment growth been depleted?” on Wednesday, at a seminar on Making Work Pay. This is the same paper as I presented last week. Instead of presenting it to an academic audience, however, this seminar is organised by Social Situation Monitor, which is an initiative on behalf of the European Commission that:

carries out policy-relevant analysis and research on the current socio-economic situation in the EU on the basis of the most recent available data
examines major issues which are features of the situation or affect it with the aim of providing evidence on which to base policy-making across the EU.

It will be interesting to see what kind of questions and comments the paper attracts at this stage, which is much more policy-oriented compared to last week’s academic seminar. For those who missed it, the abstract of our paper reads:

Although employment growth is propagated as being crucial to reduce poverty across OECD countries, the actual impact of employment growth on poverty rates is still unclear. [Results show that] the increase in women’s employment has had a significant impact on poverty trends. […] However, in the Nordic countries no such poverty reducing effect was found, as in these countries womens employment rates were very high and stable throughout the observation period. In countries that initially showed marked increases in women’s employment, such as the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Canada, and the United States, the initial increases in women’s employment rates were typically followed by a period in which these trends levelled off.

Hence, our findings suggest that the potential of following an employment strategy to reduce poverty in OECD countries has, to a large extent, been depleted.

The paper is available here and isjoint work with Wim van Lancker, Diego Collado and Bea Cantillon. The program of the seminar is available online.