I have a PhD in Sociology from UCLA and MA's from ELTE University in Budapest. My research focuses on gender inequality in Central and Eastern Europe. I am seeking to understand how people in post-socialist countries negotiate their social positions in the context of ongoing social change. My next project focuses on changes in the labor market and the world of work as a result of accelerated, post-COVID digitalization and its impact on social inequalities.
Twenty-five years after the fall of the communist regimes, the gender gap in employment varies wi... more Twenty-five years after the fall of the communist regimes, the gender gap in employment varies widely across Central and Eastern Europe. This study examines the societal-level reasons for this variation and assesses the impact of different dimensions of neoliberally minded “economic development” strategies on gender inequality. We focus on Central and Eastern Europe, a segment of the world not typically addressed in the literature on gender and development. We rely on the 2008 and 2012 waves of the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions survey as well as multiple macro-level data sources to analyze the association between development indicators, labor market context, social policy arrangements, and the gender employment gap. We find that typical growth indicators, global market integration, and social policy arrangements are not at all or only weakly associated with the gender employment gap in this region. Instead, the labor market context, specifically the degree of segregation and the size of the public and service sectors, are more important for shaping women’s labor market opportunities relative to men’s at both time points. Our findings contribute to the literature on the trade-offs between job segregation and aspects of gender inequality as well as to ongoing debates within the field of “gender and development” by pointing out important variations across regions.
How does job context influence employers’ views of mothers as workers? Drawing on 51 in-depth int... more How does job context influence employers’ views of mothers as workers? Drawing on 51 in-depth interviews with employers in the finance and business service sectors of Hungary, the authors find that finance employers rely on a variety of strategies aimed at excluding mothers from entry-level professional jobs, while business services employers invest significant resources aimed at recruiting and accommodating mothers. To explain this variation, the authors suggest that employers’ views of mothers are dependent on their perception of skill requirements and knowledge/skill dynamism.
... DOI: 10.1177/000169939804100203 1998 41: 131 Acta Sociologica Tanja van der Lippe and Éva Fod... more ... DOI: 10.1177/000169939804100203 1998 41: 131 Acta Sociologica Tanja van der Lippe and Éva Fodor Changes in Gender Inequality in Six Eastern European Countries ... Tanja van der Lippe and Éva Fodor Utrecht University, Utrecht and Dartmouth College, Dartmouth ...
Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society, 2007
... to Poland, Hungary is characterized by relatively decentralized and politically weak trade un... more ... to Poland, Hungary is characterized by relatively decentralized and politically weak trade unions, which were ... state subjects played a minimal role in articulating needs from below and influencing social policy ... included the right to participate in the exercise of political power as a ...
... 21. Stack, All Our Kin, 112. 22. Philippe Bourgois, In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El... more ... 21. Stack, All Our Kin, 112. 22. Philippe Bourgois, In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 215. 23. William Julius Wilson, When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor (New York: Vintage Books, 1996). 24. ...
Using the 2008 cross-sectional wave of the Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) s... more Using the 2008 cross-sectional wave of the Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) survey and multilevel modeling techniques, this article explores the macro-level determinants of the gender-poverty gap in the ten post-socialist EU member states. In dialogue with the literature on the impact of economic development on gender inequality in Asia and Latin America, we find that fast-paced, foreign capital-led economic growth is associated with a larger gender-poverty gap in Central and Eastern Europe, while generous welfare policies, specifically higher levels of spending on pensions and family policies, are correlated with women’s lower relative destitution. These findings evaluate the impact of neoliberal style “economic development” on gender inequality in a geopolitically specific context and suggest that structural adjustment and global market integration may exacerbate women’s vulnerability even when they are well equipped with human capital and other resources to compete with men in the labor market.
Using the 2008 cross-sectional wave of the survey Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-... more Using the 2008 cross-sectional wave of the survey Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) and multi-level modeling techniques, this paper explores the impact of neo-liberal economic policies and global market integration on gender inequality in poverty in ten post-socialist European Union member states. In dialogue with the literature on the impact of economic development on gender inequality in Asia and Latin America, we find that fast-paced, foreign capital led economic growth is associated with a larger gender poverty gap in Central and Eastern Europe, while generous welfare policies, specifically higher levels of spending on pensions and family policies are correlated with women’s lower relative vulnerability. These findings evaluate the impact of neo-liberal “economic development” on gender inequality in a geo-politically specific context and suggest that structural adjustment policies exacerbate women’s vulnerability even when they are well equipped with human capital and other resources to compete with men in the labor market.
Generous parental leave policies are popular in a number of countries around the world and are us... more Generous parental leave policies are popular in a number of countries around the world and are usually seen as a sign of the ‘family friendliness’ of the state. Relying on in-depth interviews with mothers on parental leave in Hungary, we argue that the context in which the policies are implemented should be examined when evaluating their consequences. In semi-peripheral, resource poor Hungary lengthy parental leave policies turn women into an invisible ‘reserve army of labourers’. While their employment is mostly unaccounted for in aggregate statistics and political discourse suggests that their ‘job’ is to look after children, many of the women on parental leave end up doing some work for wages during the close to 5 years they spend on parental leave. However, given the rigidity of the labour market and rampant discrimination against mothers with small children, their chances of getting formal employment are small. They therefore resort to doing ad hoc, temporary, informal work, which is often underpaid and well below their qualifications. Thus generous family policies do not necessarily indicate the ‘women friendliness’ of the state and may not lead to the relatively favorable trade-off between stable public sector work and lower wages suggested recently by comparative researchers. Instead, in this specific context, which combines legacies of state socialism, a backlash against women’s emancipation before 1990 and a peripheral, vulnerable labour market, familialist policies are associated with a high degree of marginalization for women with small children in which the state is at best complicit, at worst, an active agent.
Twenty-five years after the fall of the communist regimes, the gender gap in employment varies wi... more Twenty-five years after the fall of the communist regimes, the gender gap in employment varies widely across Central and Eastern Europe. This study examines the societal-level reasons for this variation and assesses the impact of different dimensions of neoliberally minded “economic development” strategies on gender inequality. We focus on Central and Eastern Europe, a segment of the world not typically addressed in the literature on gender and development. We rely on the 2008 and 2012 waves of the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions survey as well as multiple macro-level data sources to analyze the association between development indicators, labor market context, social policy arrangements, and the gender employment gap. We find that typical growth indicators, global market integration, and social policy arrangements are not at all or only weakly associated with the gender employment gap in this region. Instead, the labor market context, specifically the degree of segregation and the size of the public and service sectors, are more important for shaping women’s labor market opportunities relative to men’s at both time points. Our findings contribute to the literature on the trade-offs between job segregation and aspects of gender inequality as well as to ongoing debates within the field of “gender and development” by pointing out important variations across regions.
How does job context influence employers’ views of mothers as workers? Drawing on 51 in-depth int... more How does job context influence employers’ views of mothers as workers? Drawing on 51 in-depth interviews with employers in the finance and business service sectors of Hungary, the authors find that finance employers rely on a variety of strategies aimed at excluding mothers from entry-level professional jobs, while business services employers invest significant resources aimed at recruiting and accommodating mothers. To explain this variation, the authors suggest that employers’ views of mothers are dependent on their perception of skill requirements and knowledge/skill dynamism.
... DOI: 10.1177/000169939804100203 1998 41: 131 Acta Sociologica Tanja van der Lippe and Éva Fod... more ... DOI: 10.1177/000169939804100203 1998 41: 131 Acta Sociologica Tanja van der Lippe and Éva Fodor Changes in Gender Inequality in Six Eastern European Countries ... Tanja van der Lippe and Éva Fodor Utrecht University, Utrecht and Dartmouth College, Dartmouth ...
Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society, 2007
... to Poland, Hungary is characterized by relatively decentralized and politically weak trade un... more ... to Poland, Hungary is characterized by relatively decentralized and politically weak trade unions, which were ... state subjects played a minimal role in articulating needs from below and influencing social policy ... included the right to participate in the exercise of political power as a ...
... 21. Stack, All Our Kin, 112. 22. Philippe Bourgois, In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El... more ... 21. Stack, All Our Kin, 112. 22. Philippe Bourgois, In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 215. 23. William Julius Wilson, When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor (New York: Vintage Books, 1996). 24. ...
Using the 2008 cross-sectional wave of the Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) s... more Using the 2008 cross-sectional wave of the Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) survey and multilevel modeling techniques, this article explores the macro-level determinants of the gender-poverty gap in the ten post-socialist EU member states. In dialogue with the literature on the impact of economic development on gender inequality in Asia and Latin America, we find that fast-paced, foreign capital-led economic growth is associated with a larger gender-poverty gap in Central and Eastern Europe, while generous welfare policies, specifically higher levels of spending on pensions and family policies, are correlated with women’s lower relative destitution. These findings evaluate the impact of neoliberal style “economic development” on gender inequality in a geopolitically specific context and suggest that structural adjustment and global market integration may exacerbate women’s vulnerability even when they are well equipped with human capital and other resources to compete with men in the labor market.
Using the 2008 cross-sectional wave of the survey Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-... more Using the 2008 cross-sectional wave of the survey Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) and multi-level modeling techniques, this paper explores the impact of neo-liberal economic policies and global market integration on gender inequality in poverty in ten post-socialist European Union member states. In dialogue with the literature on the impact of economic development on gender inequality in Asia and Latin America, we find that fast-paced, foreign capital led economic growth is associated with a larger gender poverty gap in Central and Eastern Europe, while generous welfare policies, specifically higher levels of spending on pensions and family policies are correlated with women’s lower relative vulnerability. These findings evaluate the impact of neo-liberal “economic development” on gender inequality in a geo-politically specific context and suggest that structural adjustment policies exacerbate women’s vulnerability even when they are well equipped with human capital and other resources to compete with men in the labor market.
Generous parental leave policies are popular in a number of countries around the world and are us... more Generous parental leave policies are popular in a number of countries around the world and are usually seen as a sign of the ‘family friendliness’ of the state. Relying on in-depth interviews with mothers on parental leave in Hungary, we argue that the context in which the policies are implemented should be examined when evaluating their consequences. In semi-peripheral, resource poor Hungary lengthy parental leave policies turn women into an invisible ‘reserve army of labourers’. While their employment is mostly unaccounted for in aggregate statistics and political discourse suggests that their ‘job’ is to look after children, many of the women on parental leave end up doing some work for wages during the close to 5 years they spend on parental leave. However, given the rigidity of the labour market and rampant discrimination against mothers with small children, their chances of getting formal employment are small. They therefore resort to doing ad hoc, temporary, informal work, which is often underpaid and well below their qualifications. Thus generous family policies do not necessarily indicate the ‘women friendliness’ of the state and may not lead to the relatively favorable trade-off between stable public sector work and lower wages suggested recently by comparative researchers. Instead, in this specific context, which combines legacies of state socialism, a backlash against women’s emancipation before 1990 and a peripheral, vulnerable labour market, familialist policies are associated with a high degree of marginalization for women with small children in which the state is at best complicit, at worst, an active agent.
Being any age, even such a "round number" as 60, is not a virtue but a condition. -- And yet, a l... more Being any age, even such a "round number" as 60, is not a virtue but a condition. -- And yet, a large group of my friends have put together a collection now that I passed that numerical hurdle. I am honored and humbled.
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Papers by Eva Fodor
inequality in poverty in ten post-socialist European Union member states. In dialogue with the literature on the impact of economic development on gender inequality in Asia and Latin America, we find that fast-paced, foreign capital led economic growth is
associated with a larger gender poverty gap in Central and Eastern Europe, while generous welfare policies, specifically higher levels of spending on pensions and family policies are correlated with women’s lower relative vulnerability. These findings evaluate the impact of neo-liberal “economic development” on gender inequality in a geo-politically specific context and suggest that structural adjustment policies exacerbate women’s vulnerability even when they are well equipped with human capital and other resources to compete with men in the labor market.
semi-peripheral, resource poor Hungary lengthy parental leave policies turn women into an invisible ‘reserve army of labourers’. While their employment is mostly unaccounted for in aggregate statistics and political discourse suggests that their ‘job’ is to look after children, many of the women on parental leave end up doing some work for wages during the
close to 5 years they spend on parental leave. However, given the rigidity of the labour market and rampant discrimination against mothers with small children, their chances of getting formal employment are small. They therefore resort to doing ad hoc, temporary, informal work, which is often underpaid and well below their qualifications. Thus generous family policies do not necessarily indicate the ‘women friendliness’ of the state and may
not lead to the relatively favorable trade-off between stable public sector work and lower wages suggested recently by comparative researchers. Instead, in this specific context, which combines legacies of state socialism, a backlash against women’s emancipation before 1990 and a peripheral, vulnerable labour market, familialist policies are associated with a high degree of marginalization for women with small children in which the state is at best complicit, at worst, an active agent.
inequality in poverty in ten post-socialist European Union member states. In dialogue with the literature on the impact of economic development on gender inequality in Asia and Latin America, we find that fast-paced, foreign capital led economic growth is
associated with a larger gender poverty gap in Central and Eastern Europe, while generous welfare policies, specifically higher levels of spending on pensions and family policies are correlated with women’s lower relative vulnerability. These findings evaluate the impact of neo-liberal “economic development” on gender inequality in a geo-politically specific context and suggest that structural adjustment policies exacerbate women’s vulnerability even when they are well equipped with human capital and other resources to compete with men in the labor market.
semi-peripheral, resource poor Hungary lengthy parental leave policies turn women into an invisible ‘reserve army of labourers’. While their employment is mostly unaccounted for in aggregate statistics and political discourse suggests that their ‘job’ is to look after children, many of the women on parental leave end up doing some work for wages during the
close to 5 years they spend on parental leave. However, given the rigidity of the labour market and rampant discrimination against mothers with small children, their chances of getting formal employment are small. They therefore resort to doing ad hoc, temporary, informal work, which is often underpaid and well below their qualifications. Thus generous family policies do not necessarily indicate the ‘women friendliness’ of the state and may
not lead to the relatively favorable trade-off between stable public sector work and lower wages suggested recently by comparative researchers. Instead, in this specific context, which combines legacies of state socialism, a backlash against women’s emancipation before 1990 and a peripheral, vulnerable labour market, familialist policies are associated with a high degree of marginalization for women with small children in which the state is at best complicit, at worst, an active agent.
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