Law prescribes special measures for women

Quick info
Data type	Numeric
Scale	Metric
Value labels	Not applicable in the strict sense since the scale is quasi-metric, but for coding the following values were used for orientation: Original template: 1 = the law prescribes positive discrimination (affirmative action/special measures) in order to overcome gender discrimination in employment relationships 0,5 = the law allows for positive discrimination in order to overcome gender discrimination in employment relationships 0 = the law does not allow for positive discrimination Revised template: 1 = the law prescribes special measures (e.g. affirmative action) in order to overcome structural gender discrimination, including complex forms of discrimination 0,5 = the law allows for such special measures to be taken 0 = the law does not allow for such special measures Scope for further gradations between 0 and 1 to reflect changes in the strength of the law.
Technical name	labor_posdis_gend
Category	Labour and labour market
Label	Law prescribes special measures for women
Related indicators	Law provides for equal access to employment for men and women Law provides for equal working conditions for men and women Law provides for equal access to employment concerning ethnicity/race Law provides for equal working conditions concerning ethnicity/race Law provides regulation of special measures concerning ethnicity/race Equal pay for work of equal value is legally provided for Employees enjoy right to a universal minimum wage

Measures the presence and strength of regulation to enable and mandate the active equalisation of women.

The unequal treatment of women, developed over thousands of years of patriarchy, cannot be overcome by simply banning unequal treatment. To counteract the perpetuation of socially embedded structures of inequality, a wide range of ‘special measures’ are used – both permanent measures adressing unequal treatment of men and women and temporary measures aimed at normalizing certain outcomes, such as the imposition of gender quotas in certain sectors or high positions. A distinction can also be made between means of compensating for disadvantages in specific circumstances (specific health protection such as maternity protection, care responsibilities, etc.) and preferential treatment.

Gender is not the only factor that can make it more difficult for women to enter and remain in the labour market. In many cases, gender interacts with other factors such as social class, ethnicity, racialised characteristics, disability, sexual orientation or other factors. These factors can be additive, but they can also be inextricably linked (intersectional discrimination). The strength of legal provisions for active equality can therefore be seen from whether the law merely prescribes simple equality measures, such as special measures for care responsibilities, or whether it prescribes more complex measures, such as preferential treatment or even the targeted active combating of multiple, including intersectional, discrimination.

Measures that primarily serve health protection are not to be considered.

Coding rules

The WoL is a leximetric dataset on individual employment protection. It quantifies the strength of the standard-setting, privileging, and equalising function of individual labour law (see Dingeldey et al. 2022). The scale ranges from "0" to "1" where "0" corresponds to the absence of a law prescribing special measures to overcome gender discrimination in employment, "0,5" corresponds to the explicit legal possibility to introduce special measures, and "1" to the legal prescription of such special measures. Coding instructions and description of indicators are laid down in a technical paper (Fechner/Carlino, forthcoming). For country-specific information see WoL documentation (forthcoming).

Bibliographic info

Citation: Irene Dingeldey, Heiner Fechner, Jean-Yves Gerlitz, Jenny Hahs, Ulrich Mückenberger, Worlds of Labour: Introducing the Standard-Setting, Privileging and Equalising Typology as a Measure of Legal Segmentation in Labour Law, Industrial Law Journal, Volume 51, Issue 3, September 2022, Pages 560–597, https://doi.org/10.1093/indlaw/dwab016

Related publications:

• Mückenberger, Ulrich, 1985. "Die Krise des Normalarbeitsverhältnisses - Hat das Arbeitsrecht noch Zukunft?" Zeitschrift für Sozialreform 31: 415-434; 457-475
• Mückenberger, Ulrich, and Simon Deakin. 1989. "From Deregulation to a European Floor of Rights: Labour Law, Flexibilisation and the European Single Market." Zeitschrift Für Ausländisches Und Internationales Arbeits- Und Sozialrecht 3: 153–207.
• Carlino, M., Fechner, H., & Schäfer, A. (2024). Using leximetrics for coding legal segmentation in employment law: The development and potential of the Worlds of Labour database. In I. Dingeldey, H. Fechner, & U. Mückenberger (Eds.), Constructing Worlds of Labour. Coverage and Generosity of Labour Law as Outcomes of Regulatory Social Policy. Palgrave Macmillan.

Misc

Project manager(s):
Responsible for data coding: Heiner Fechner (2018-2025)
Responsible for data editing and entry: Heiner Fechner (2024-2025), Andrea Schäfer (2021-2025), Jean-Yves Gerlitz (2018-2020)
Principal Investigators: Irene Dingeldey, Ulrich Mückenberger
Student assistants (2018-2025): Julia Bode, Jessica Bonn, Daniel Euler, Maxime Fischer, Jan-Christopher Floren, Jennifer Götte, Désirée Hoppe, Irina Kyburz, Alexandra Kojnow, Tarek Mahmalat, Karolin Meyer, Johanna Nold, Tanusha Pali, Johannes Ramsauer, Max Sudhoff, Kristina Walter, Caroline Zambiasi.

Data release:

• Version 0.001: Initial release

Revisions: The template has been revised in 2024, but coding for the completion of the revised dataset is still ongoing; values in WeSIS Version 0.001 correspond to the original template. The revision concerns primarily wording (no fundamental change in content), and furthermore the introduction of finer differentiations.

Sources

Own coding.