Colette Fagan
Reader in Sociology, University of Manchester, UK,
and Spring 2005 Visiting Honorary Fellow,
Department of Sociology, UW-Madison

"Gender Mainstreaming in European Union Employment and Social Inclusion Policy Arenas -
A Progress Review"

Friday, 29 April 2005
12:00 p.m.
336 Ingraham

Sponsored by
The European Union Center

Dr. Colette Fagan is Co-Director of the European Work and Employment Research Centre and Reader (Associate Professor) in Sociology at the University of Manchester, UK. Her research focuses on gender relations in employment and domestic life, with particular interests in international comparative analyses and the topic of ‘time’. She has an extensive record of international comparative research funded by major international organisations, including the European Commission, International Labour Office, the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, the European Trade Union Institute and the Anglo-German Foundation, and UK grants secured from the ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

She is working on two main areas of research at present. The first is gender mainstreaming and developments in EU policy, through her role as co-coordinator (with Professors Jill Rubery and Janneke Plantenga ) of the European Commission Expert Group on Gender, Social Inclusion and Employment (EGGSIE network). The network is a team of 30 academic ‘national experts’ representing 30 European countries (the 25 EU member states plus 5 neighbouring countries). The network's remit is to contribute to the design and evaluation of the European Commission's National Action Plans (NAPs) on Employment and on Social Inclusion and to advance equal opportunities and gender mainstreaming in the policies of the European Commission.

Her second main research area at present is writing-up several related projects on working-time, work-family policies and the re-shaping of gender relations, including two books to be published by Edward Elgar in 2006 and 2007. This area of work includes a recently completed qualitative study of UK households containing young children, financed by the ESRC (with colleagues Linda McDowell , Diane Perrons, Kath Ray and Kevin Ward ), and international comparisons of national models of working-time practices, policies and preferences (financed in part by the ILO, the European Commission and the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions).

Her publications include:

  • Part-time Prospects: an international comparison (edited with Jackie O'Reilly, 1998, Routledge)
  • Women's Employment in Europe : trends and prospects (with Jill Rubery and Mark Smith, 1999, Routledge)
  • A series of articles on work-time issues including ‘The temporal re-organisation of employment and household rhythm of work schedules: the implications for gender and class relations’, The American Behavioural Scientist (2001) and ‘Gender and Working-time in Industrialised Countries’ (in J.Messenger(ed) (2004) Finding the Balance: Work Time and Workers’ Needs and Preferences, Routledge).
  • A series of reports and articles on gender mainstreaming, including the recent co-authored articles with colleagues at EWERC 'Gender equality still on the European agenda – but for how long?' Industrial Relations Journal (2003) (Rubery et al) and ‘The Ups and Downs of European Gender Equality Policy’ Industrial Relations Journal (2004) (Rubery et al).