Part-time working women’s access to other types of flexible working-time arrangements across Europe

This chapter examines part-time working women’s access to flexitime, that is the worker’s control over their schedules such as starting and ending times, and time off work (a couple of hours during their working day) to tend to personal issues. It further examines whether this relative access varies across countries. The analysis of data from 30 European countries show that at the European average, part-time workers are more likely to get access to flexitime – showing evidence of a complimentary effect, and are as likely to get access to time off work for personal reasons as full time workers. There was a significant cross-national variance in part-time worker’s relative access to flexitime compared to that of full-time workers. Countries where part-time work is more prevalent, where strong centralied unions exist, and family policies are generous were where women generally had better access to flexitime. However, this was especially the case for full-time working women, decreasing the gap between full-time and part-time working women.