Flexible working patterns and equal opportunities in the European Union - Conflict or compatibility?

Employment flexibility is particularly associated with neoliberalism and deregulation and, thus, with Britain, rather than the other countries of the European Union (EU), which are more closely associated with corporatist or social democratic welfare regimes. During the 1990s, however, flexible working has expanded throughout the EU. Within EU policy discourse flexible employment represents a means of resolving the unemployment problem, increasing economic and social cohesion, maintaining economic efficiency and competitiveness and enhancing equal opportunities between women and men. The purpose of this article is to consider the extent to which flexible working is compatible with one of these objectives: equal opportunities between women and men. The article draws mainly upon a comparative qualitative analysis of flexible working in the retail sector in six European countries and concludes that while flexible working may expand employment opportunities, there is little evidence to suggest that it will contribute towards equal opportunities in any other way.