Young Women, Employment and Precarity: The Face of Two Periods of Crisis in Spain (2008–2021)

Abstract

Youth employment in Spain is characterised by temporary contracts, part-time jobs, and low wages, a long-standing situation that has been further accentuated since the 2008 crisis, placing young people, especially women, in a position of vulnerability at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through different data, this article argues that young women’s working conditions have deteriorated in comparison to those of previous generations and young men, in a period in which there have been two crises that have affected youth employment. Linking the results with the main youth employment policies allows us to observe why the precarisation of Spanish youth has not been stopped.

Keywords

• precarity
• gender
• youth
• generation
• labour market
• employment policies