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Supporting the employment of mothers: Policy variation across fourteen welfare states
Abstract
This article compares 14 OECD countries, as of the middle-to-late 1980s, with respect to their provision of policies that support mothers' employment: parental leave, child care, and the scheduling of public education. Newly gathered data on 18 policy indicators are presented. The indicators are then standardized, weighted, and summed into indices. By differentiating policies that affect maternal employment from family policies more generally, these indices reveal dramatic cross-national differences in policy provisions. The empirical results reveal loose clusters of countries that correspond only partially to prevailing welfare-state typologies. For mothers with preschool-aged children, only five of the 14 countries provided reasonably complete and continuous benefits that supported their options for combining paid work with family responsibilities. The pattern of cross-national policy variation changed notably when policies affecting mothers with older children were examined. The indices provide an improved measure of public support for maternal employment. They are also useful for contrasting family benefits that are provided through direct cash transfers with those that take the form of support for mothers' employment. Finally, these policy findings contribute to the body of scholarship that seeks to integrate gender issues more explicitly into research on welfare-state regimes.
... Secondly, and more importantly, macro-level factors important for women's economic outcomes, such as the presence of family policies supporting women's employment and a gender-egalitarian climate, 1 have been ignored in previous comparative research. Empirical comparative research on women in the general population has shown that gender inequalities in LFP are significantly smaller in countries with a more gender-egalitarian climate and policies encouraging the employment of women (Gornick, Meyers and Ross 1997;Stier, Lewin-Epstein and Braun 2001;Steinmetz 2012;Boeckmann, Misra and Budig, 2015). However, little is known about the importance of these institutions for immigrant women and their role in reducing gender and ethnic inequalities in LFP. ...
... Against this background, this study contributes to and expands the discussion on the role of host country' institutions on LFP inequalities of married immigrants in Europe by focusing on two comparisons: (1) differences in LFP between non-western immigrant men and women (gender inequalities) and (2) differences in LFP between non-western immigrant women and native-born women (ethnic inequalities). The focus is on married immigrants for whom family policies and the gender-egalitarian climate are expected to be most important (Gornick, Meyers and Ross 1997;Uunk, Kalmijn and Muffels 2005). We propose an explanatory framework that links cross-national differences in the policies supporting female employment and the gender-egalitarian climate with gender and ethnic inequalities in LFP. ...
... It has been shown that shorter leave provisions increase women's attachment to work and prevent them from leaving employment following childbirth, thus facilitating their labour supply (Pettit and Hook 2005;Olivetti and Petrongolo 2017). In contrast, extensive leave policies are likely to increase work detachment and human capital depreciation (Gornick, Meyers and Ross 1997;Gupta, Smith and Verner 2008). It has also been argued that extended parental leave of 16 months or more facilitates employer's discrimination against women and consequently reduces their chances of entering the labour market (Pettit and Hook 2005;Evertsson and Duvander 2006). ...
This study is related to a growing literature on the impact of a receiving context on immigrant labour market outcomes. Unlike previous comparative research, which has been primarily concerned with immigrant men, our focus is on immigrant women and the role of institutions particularly relevant to them. Using the European Union Labour Force Surveys (2011-5) augmented with country-level data, we estimate country fixed-effects models to study gender and ethnic inequalities in labour force participation across European countries. Our results underline the complexity of how family policies and gender-egalitarian contexts are related to gender and ethnic inequalities in the labour market. On the one hand, we find gender inequalities to be less pronounced in countries with more generous family policies and a higher gender-egalitarian climate. On the other hand, our results indicate that at the same time, the selected institutional characteristics are related to increased ethnic inequalities in the labour market.
... However, the influence of social context may not be solely constrained to one's religious or ethnic community but may also reflect social norms of a broader geographical context, such as that of a whole society (Uunk, Kalmijn, and Muffels 2005;Grunow and Veltkamp 2016;Steiber, Berghammer, and Haas 2016). In this context, researchers have argued that prevailing societal gender roles may provide a normative reference point on acceptable ways to combine paid work with care obligations (Grunow and Veltkamp 2016) and are likely to indirectly influence women's economic behavior by facilitating or impeding institutional support for working women and mothers (Gornick, Meyers, and Ross 1997;Uunk, Kalmijn, and Muffels 2005). ...
... Previous research among women in the general population in western countries shows that when societies rank low on traditional gender roles, women in those societies are more likely to participate in the labor market (Clark, Ramsbey, and Adler 1991;Sainsbury 1996;Crompton and Harris 1997;Gornick, Meyers, and Ross 1997;Pfau-Effinger 1998;Mandel and Semyonov 2006;Boeckmann, Misra, and Budig 2015). More recently, researchers have shown that the receiving country's norms and values are also important for immigrant integration. ...
... We, therefore, control for female unemployment rates (in the estimation of LFP), female part-time employment (in the estimation of WH), and the size of the service sector (as a percent of total employment) reported by the World Bank and measured separately for each country and survey year. A second concern is that female LFP and WH may be higher in countries with better institutional support for female employment, such as the provision of affordable childcare (Gornick, Meyers, and Ross 1997;Uunk, Kalmijn, and Muffels 2005;Steiber, Berghammer, and Haas 2016). Therefore, we control for the provision of subsidies for early childhood education and care (ECEC) as a percent of GDP reported by the OECD and measured separately for each country and survey year. ...
This article contributes to previous research on immigrant integration by examining how religiosity and gender roles in European countries influence immigrant women’s labor market outcomes. Moreover, we extend theoretical work on the importance of the receiving country’s norms and values by hypothesizing and testing whether receiving countries’ influence varies with immigrant women’s religiosity and gender-role attitudes. Using the European Social Survey data and multilevel regression models, we find that religious immigrant women participate less in the labor market and work fewer hours than nonreligious immigrant women. Immigrant women’s traditional gender-role attitudes partly explain the negative relationship between individual religiosity and labor market outcomes. While the receiving country’s religiosity is negatively related to immigrant women’s labor market outcomes, this negative relationship is significantly weaker for religious and gender-traditional immigrant women than for nonreligious and gender-egalitarian women. These findings suggest that the economic benefits of residing in countries that support female employment are limited to immigrant women who are ready and positioned to embrace gender-egalitarian norms and values.
... Indeed, motherhood strongly impacts on women's participation in the labour market as well as their workintensity ( 21 ) and one of the key obstacles to increasing female labour force participation is the compatibility of childrearing and employment. Labour supply models generally consider that the presence of children raises the value that women place on their time outside of paid work, while lowering women's effective labour market wages due to childcare costs (see Gornick et al., 1997). Women can adjust their working arrangements when they have children by taking leave, reducing the number of working hours or withdrawing from the labour market. ...
... In respect of mothers' employment decisions, Gornick et al. (1997) differentiate between public policies that i) strengthen mothers' labour force participation at the time of childbirth, ii) increase paternal involvement in childcare, iii) increase the supply or reduce the cost of non-parental childcare and iv) extend the time children are in public-funded schools. In addition, income transfer rules that may lead to benefit reductions due to earnings, policies that encourage part-time work, and marginal tax rates or tax treatment of spouses are likely to affect mothers' labour III selectivity in leave durations (Evertsson and Duvander, 2011). ...
... The educational system takes over part of the care responsibility, but in most countries school hours are part-time and generally not compat¬ible with a full-time working week. Women in countries with continuous school days tend to have higher activity rates (Gornick et al., 1997). Plantenga and Remery (2013) argue that in addition to offering a safe place where children can relax, out-ofschool services may contribute to further social and educational development. ...
... Ženská zaměstnanost a politiky zaměřené na kombinaci pracovního a rodinného života pracujících rodičů patří pro architekty sociálních států 21. století mezi priority. Stejně tak dochází na evropské úrovni k poznání, že dopady demografi ckých změn, jako je nízká porodnost a stárnutí populace, je třeba zmírňovat politikami, které jsou založené na genderové rovnosti a rovnosti příležitostí ve vztahu k zakládání rodiny a vytváření rovnocenných strategií pro kombinaci práce a péče [Gornick et al. 1997;Hobson 2006;Knijn, Kremer 1997]. ...
... Propojení politik zaměstnanosti a politik reagujících na demografi cké trendy se v sociálních systémech postavených na demokratických hodnotách odehrává na úrovni genderové rovnosti a zejména v rámci diskurzu o konceptu rodičovství [Gornick et al. 1997;Hobson, Oláh 2006;Oláh, Fratczak 2004]. Pro to, aby si pečující i rodiče, ženy i muži mohli rovnocenně zvolit míru svého zapojení do placené a neplacené práce i péče, je nutný mix politik týkajících se času (pracovní doby, času na práci, času na péči), peněz (pro nákup péče a na podporu těch, co osobně pečují) a služeb (pro děti a pro staré a nemocné) [Leitner 2003;Pfau-Effinger 2005;Bettio, Plantenga 2004;Lewis 2006: 111]. ...
... Příkladem toho je dlouhá rodičovská dovolená, jedna z nejdelších v Evropě, doprovázená nízkým rodičovským příspěvkem, doplněná téměř neexistující možností institucionální péče o děti mladší tří let ]. Tento systém vytváří nutnost volby využití rodičovské dovolené až do tří let věku dítěte, která ve svém důsledku způsobuje fi nanční závislost matek malých dětí na partnerech [Gornick et al. 1997;Leitner 2003]. Zásadním problémem je přitom fakt, že takové nastavení rodinné politiky ženám (i jejich partnerům) znemožňuje reálně volit mezi prací, péčí nebo jejich kombinací a nepřímo je nutí k více či méně dobrovolné "volbě" dlouhé rodičovské dovolené. ...
In this article the authors map the theoretical arguments on the gen-der dimension of the welfare state. They propose three integral dimensions of conceptualising the exercise of parenthood in Czech society in relation to gender equality in the labour market that co-determine the position of parents in the labour market. The authors analyse these dimensions using data from two representative sociological surveys. 1) The right to be a parent (to care for one’s child) and the right to work: the measures provided in the Czech welfare state are based on the myth that there are two separate worlds of work and care in conformity with the gender principle, even though there are no signifi cant differences between Czech men and women in terms of the value of work in their lives. 2) Equality or non-discrimination in parenthood: the right to work of mothers of young children is violated in the context of gener-ally increasing gender inequalities in the labour market. 3) The opportunity to achieve a work/life balance: in Czech society fl exible forms of employment are uncommon, working hours tend to have a fi xed start and fi nish, or there is negative fl exibility, which renders a work/life balance impossible. The way in which state policy defi nes and employers apply the conditions of parenthood in relation to the labour market and in the context of the gender structure of Czech society makes parenthood a signifi cant handicap for the social inclu-sion of women who are mothers of young children in the Czech Republic.
... Not only Esping-Andersen has found these countries to exhibit a number of differences that make it possible to conceive of them as representatives of different systems (see e.g. Krueger and Pischke 1997;Gornick, Meyers, and Ross 1997;Korpi and Palme 1998). Even though some of these researchers present country clusters that differ from that of Esping-Andersen, none of them have placed Germany, Sweden, or the United States in the same category. ...
... To fully explain why women choose -or possibly are forced -to be active or not is a question that is far beyond the scope of this chapter. 2 However, a number of researchers have convincingly shown that people's choices on such matters to a considerable extent are directed by the existence and scope of such features as the right to and length of maternity leave, state subsidised child care, and legislated job protection (Esping-Andersen 1990; Gornick, Meyers and Ross 1997;Korpi and Palme 1998). On the other hand, we have also noted that the countries have been converging regarding the sexes' labour force participation, which means that the differences between men and women are much smaller today than what they were in the mid-sixties. ...
This dissertation is a study of how work is distributed in so-called post-industrial societies. The main question it addresses is how the division of labour in complex societies is developing. That is, what occupations are increasing or decreasing their shares within the occupational structure, and how can these changes be understood?
The empirical results primarily support the proposition of a universal upgrading of the occupational structure. It is quite clear that the development in these countries is towards more jobs with higher educational requirements, which is connected to the increase in the overall educational attainment of the countries’ populations. Second, a growth of low-skill service occupations has not been identified in any of these countries. Thus, the pessimistic image of a polarisation does not receive any support in this study. Third, the shifts that have been observed in the occupational structures of these countries have occurred concomitantly with women’s increased participation in paid work. Hence, it seems as if a correlation between welfare-state regime and the occupational structure to some degree is a question about women’s economic activity.
... As other studies have demonstrated, both parental leave and day-care provision are important elements in the struggle for greater gender equality, in achieving a better balance between work and family life, and in the war on poverty (e.g. Gornick, Meyer & Ross 1997;Hatland & Bradshaw 2006;Périvier & O'Dorchai 2002;Uunk, Kalmijn & Muffels 2005). ...
... Public-sector day-care facilities have been considered one of the cornerstones of the social democratic model and the parties left of the centre, with strong support from the women's movement, spoke out for the need to expand the services in the 1960s and 1970s. Nevertheless, upon closer examination of public day-care in the five Nordic countries, very different models emerge (Gornick et al. 1997;. Denmark and Sweden led the way in this work, and have produced by far the highest volume of day-care services. ...
... Normative beliefs and policy regimes in Sweden, Denmark, and countries in eastern Europe showed the strongest support for maternal employment. By the mid-1980s, mothers in these countries were able to remain in full-time paid work with minimal career disruptions (Gornick et al. 1997;Pascall and Manning 2000). Indeed, female labor force participation was highest in the Scandinavian countries (e.g., 75% in Sweden) and in the satellite states of the Soviet Union (e.g., 78% in Estonia). ...
... Indeed, female labor force participation was highest in the Scandinavian countries (e.g., 75% in Sweden) and in the satellite states of the Soviet Union (e.g., 78% in Estonia). However, support for maternal employment in other European countries, such as West Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom was more limited or discontinuous (Gauthier 1996;Gornick et al. 1997). In these countries, the childcare burden remained predominantly on parents, resulting in more traditional gender role patterns. ...
The “motherhood earnings penalty” is a well-established finding in many Western countries. However, a divide between mothers and nonmothers might oversimplify reality given that the family life course has diversified over the last decades. In addition, whether family choices have consequences for women’s employment and earnings in later life is not well known, particularly in a comparative perspective. Using data on 50- to 59-year-old women from the Generations and Gender Programme, the British Household Panel Survey, and SHARELIFE for 22 European countries, we derive a typology of women’s family trajectories and estimate its association with women’s later-life employment and earnings. Whereas family trajectory–related differences with regard to employment were relatively small, our findings reveal a clear, long-lasting family trajectory gradient in earnings. Childless women (with or without a partner) as well as single mothers had higher personal earnings than women whose family trajectories combined parenthood and partnership. Moreover, in societies in which reconciliation of work and family during midlife is less burdensome, labor market outcomes of women following different family trajectories converge. Our findings show that women’s fertility and partnership behavior are inevitably interrelated and jointly influence employment and earning patterns until later in life. The results imply that promoting equal employment opportunities could have long-lasting effects on women’s economic independence.
... It is well documented that welfare states differ in the supply of publicly supported measures (such as child-care coverage, maternity entitlement, voluntary family leaves, flexible arrangement of working time and social tax policies) which indirectly influence women's participation in the labor market (Sainsbury 1994, Gornick et al. 1997, Korpi 2000, OECD 2001. Conservative welfare states such as (West) Germany, Austria and the Netherlands largely support a traditional male breadwinner model (or secondary female breadwinner model). ...
... There is a large body of literature examining the link between family policy and maternal employment. Over two decades ago, Gornick et al. (1997) showed how national policies to facilitate paid employmentincluding parental-leave policies, tax policies and childcare policiesare strongly related to maternal employment. Pettit and Hook (2005) focused on how state policies impact on employment rates of mothers with young children versus childless women. ...
... There is a large body of literature examining the link between family policy and maternal employment. Over two decades ago, Gornick et al. (1997) showed how national policies to facilitate paid employmentincluding parental-leave policies, tax policies and childcare policiesare strongly related to maternal employment. Pettit and Hook (2005) focused on how state policies impact on employment rates of mothers with young children versus childless women. ...
... Despite an increasing sophistication and formalization in the use of comparative methods, many important works in the comparative field employ descriptive statistics only (Laakso and Taagepera, 1979;Krasner, 1976;Macintyre et al., 1993;Korpi, 2000;Bonoli, 1997;Anttonen and Sipilä, 1996;Gornick et al., 1997;Scruggs and Allan, 2006;Deacon, 2000;Walby, 2004;Daly, 2005;Pavolini and Ranci, 2008;Alford et al., 2005;Massey et al., 1994;Mann, 1970;Black, 1970;Portes and Sassen-Koob, 1987). However, the share of research articles based on descriptive statistics within the greatest hits is decreasing over time. ...
This article maps the development and uses of the comparative method in academic research since the 1970s. It is based on an original database that we constructed for our review of 12,483 articles extracted from leading journals representing the disciplines of Social Policy, Political Science and Sociology. We proceed to a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the reported comparative research effort. We find that the comparative method became mainstream in the 1990s – following the publication of the Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism and that JESP is the most comparative journal of all. In 2020, 66% of articles published in JESP are comparative. The comparative turn has been stronger in Social Policy than Sociology and Political Science over the last three decades. We witness a rise in the use of formal techniques (case studies and comparative historical analysis, SEM/factorial techniques, cluster analysis, QCA/Fuzzy-set) and mixed-methods in comparison to descriptive analysis, and this is particularly pronounced in Sociology. Regression analysis is dominant, however the most cited comparative articles are based on case studies and descriptive statistics. Overall, we argue that the comparative method is, in essence, ‘a way of thinking’ and not simply the application of a set of disparate techniques.
... In particular, long periods of maternity leave may contribute to reinforcing gender roles in the family, and to a range of negative outcomes such as eroding women's skills and lowering their pay, and increasing the gender pay gap and gender segregation. On the other hand, if a leave period is too short, mothers might be forced back into the labour market before they are ready, or out of it if they are not ready to return (Adema et al., 2015;Deven and Moss, 2002;Gornick et al., 1997;Gornick and Meyers, 2009b;Morgan and Zippel, 2003). In terms of contributing towards women's agency, leave policies may also reinforce the maternal caring role or contribute towards a more equal sharing of unpaid childcare and of leave through paternity or parental leave entitlements, although the likelihood of this depends on the policy design, especially on the level of pay (Adema et al., 2015;Deven and Moss, 2002;Koslowski et al., 2020). ...
Since the late-1990s high income countries have taken an increasing interest in work-family policies, expanding provision of childcare and early education and reconfiguring maternity, paternity and parental leave policies to better facilitate reconciliation between employment and care responsibilities. These changes have occurred in contexts in which they represent a dramatic shift away from long-established ‘paths’ of policies towards families, underpinned by assumptions about the existence and desirability of male-breadwinner/female-caregiver family roles. This thesis investigates this expansion of work-family policies in two countries in which they represent such a shift: England and Germany. Unlike much of the comparative literature, which seeks to explain the cross-national trend of expansion, this thesis examines variation in reform and particularly why Germany underwent dramatic ‘path switching’ change compared to more moderate ‘path departure’ in England. Arguing that to understand the content of change, it is necessary to examine the ideas underpinning reform, the thesis compares the processes of reform in the two countries and the role of ideas therein. Through documentary analysis and interviews with participants in the policymaking process, it investigates how new ideas about work-family policy came onto the political agenda and how they influenced policy development. Drawing on a novel framework of ideational change, it concludes that in Germany deep ideational change took place, in which ‘background ideas’ that underpinned work-family policymaking were altered, while in England change remained at the level of problems and solutions and background ideas served to constrain change. The thesis explains this through differences in the form in which new ideas arrived on the political agenda, the political context which helped shape their reception and the way in which key political actors framed the new ideas.
... If Presser (2001) is right and individuals also prefer child-free leisure, another policy intervention to increase leisure time of parents can be an extension of school and childcare hours. Countries vary in the length of the school day and the number of school days per school year (Gornick et al., 1997;Lee & Barro, 2001). Parents who favor child-free leisure can experience an increase in leisure-time by the extension of school or childcare days and hours (assuming that this time will not be devoted to paid work). ...
Economic theories predict that with modernity and with the increase in standards of living, individuals will aspire for more leisure. However, the results of empirical studies which examined period trends in leisure time across developed countries do not confirm this presumption. The current study asks: If changes in leisure stem from ideational changes among different generations, will trends in leisure look different if examined across cohorts, or if measured differently? By integrating theoretical definitions of leisure based on literatures in economics, sociology, and psychology, this research derives three main macro-level empirical measures of leisure from various sources. These measures are used to analyze the contribution of population turnover to changes in the quantity of leisure, in developed countries, using linear regression decomposition method. Our results show an almost unequivocal increase in leisure across cohorts, across 159 country-periods, suggesting that new policies supporting domestic consumption are warranted.
... Another example with comparable information that is still being updated is the OECD Family Database (OECD, n.d.-c). Other databases are no longer kept up to date but still contain valuable data, such as the Multilinks Database on Intergenerational Policy Indicators (Multilinks, 2011), the Family Policy Database (Gornick, Meyers, & Ross, 1997), and the Comparative Maternity, Parental and Childcare Leave and Benefits Database (Gauthier, 2011). However, none of these databases have attempted to quantify the accessibility of parenting leave benefits as an important dimension of the generosity concept. ...
In order to investigate and compare welfare states or specific welfare programmes, scientists, opinion‐makers and politicians rely on indicators. As many of the concepts or objects studied are somewhat abstract, these indicators can often only be approximations. In comparative welfare‐state research, scholars have suggested several approximating indicators to quantitatively measure and compare the generosity of public welfare provision, with a special focus on cash benefits. These indicators include social spending, social rights and benefit receipt. We present these indicators systematically, and critically discuss how suitable they are for comparing the generosity of parenting leave policies in developed welfare states. Subsequently, we illustrate how the operationalisation of leave generosity by means of different indicators can lead to different rankings, interpretations and qualifications of countries. Hence, indicator choices have to be considered carefully and suitably justified, depending on the actual research interest.
... In this way, specific but recurrent situations must be considered, such as the case of single mothers. They are especially exposed to the risk of falling into a "welfare gap" caused by the combination of multiple care responsibilities and the absence of employment and income (Gornick, Meyers, & Ross, 1997). This situation often leads women to emigrate as a way to make a living, a strategy that could generate subjective suffering and social stigma. ...
Various studies have shown that since the late 20th century, Cuban migration follows global patterns of feminisation. As more Cuban women migrate during their reproductive years, fertility rates have decreased in the island, resulting in the shrinking of the youth population relative to older adults. Both the lack and unequal distribution of care services for older adults and the shrinking welfare services suggest an impending crisis; and the failure of social policy to anticipate these problems and plan accordingly further aggravates it. The result is an uneven landscape, particularly within a general context of social stratification, with some sectors and geographical areas facing greater hardships than others. In this Chapter we delve onto these issues to analyse the relationship between international migration patterns and both, population ageing and the crisis of elderly care in Cuba.
... Familistic policies encourage the families caring function and thus are assumed to support the male-breadwinner, female carer model of the family. Various researchers have built defamilization indexes, ranking and grouping countries into welfare types according to "how well" they defamilize (e.g., Bambra, 2004;Ferrarini, 2006;Gornick et al., 1997;Kroger, 2011;Lohmann & Zegal, 2016). ...
This paper argues that welfare state progress needs to be based upon support for “inclusive citizenship” – the right to care, work and earn. How welfare states care: culture, gender and parenting in Europe, Amsterdam University Press). Comparative analyses of welfare have often focused on defamilization to capture these dimensions. But inclusive citizenship requires challenging gender roles in both work (public sphere) and care (private sphere), and thus the paper argues that the concept of degenderization is a more suitable analytical tool. This paper adds to our understanding by operationalizing the concept of degenderization to compare how (far) 22 European countries degenderize. Indeed, it goes further to examine not just how much welfare states degenderize but how – whether they focus on degendering both work and care, crucial for “inclusive citizenship”. To examine how states degenderize, it uses a new way of classifying welfare states by examining policy packages using radar charts. It examines how much they degenderize against a yardstick, using the Surface Measure of Overall Performance approach. Seven welfare types were identified, but none fully supported inclusive citizenship. Indeed, the country clusters identified in this study differ from those found by previous studies, challenging commonly held views about which countries ought to be seen as key exemplars. This reflects the paper's distinctive focus on inclusive citizenship – capturing support for degendering care and work – and that it compares countries on the basis of their policy packages. It also examines how approach to and generosity of degenderization are related to gender equality outcomes.
... It is well documented that welfare states differ in the supply of publicly supported measures, such as childcare coverage, maternity entitlement, flexible arrangement of work time, and social tax policies, that influence women's participation in the labor market (Sainsbury 2008;Tonoyan et al. 2005). Conservative welfare states such as Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands largely support a traditional "male breadwinner model" or the so-called secondary female breadwinner model (Gornick et al. 1997;Korpi 2000). Priority is given to general family support showing, for example, through cash allowances for children, family tax benefits for minor children, or tax benefits for mothers staying at home. ...
European countries have faced profound changes in family structures and family forms over the last few decades. This volume provides insights from eleven European countries with varying welfare state arrangements, exploring the extent to which the intergenerational transmission of attitudes, resources and values matter with regard to the economic self-sufficiency of young people. Drawing on in-depth interviews with three generations of family members, the contributors show how intergenerational transmission happens and what the effects of these transmission processes are. The book reveals that family members serve as role models to younger family members and influence their career and educational aspirations, and that there are specific family value orientations and parental approaches which support economic self-sufficiency in younger generations.
Intergenerational Transmission of Economic Self-Sufficiency will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines including social work, sociology, psychology and political sociology.
... It is well documented that welfare states differ in the supply of publicly supported measures, such as childcare coverage, maternity entitlement, flexible arrangement of work time, and social tax policies, that influence women's participation in the labor market (Sainsbury 2008;Tonoyan et al. 2005). Conservative welfare states such as Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands largely support a traditional "male breadwinner model" or the so-called secondary female breadwinner model (Gornick et al. 1997;Korpi 2000). Priority is given to general family support showing, for example, through cash allowances for children, family tax benefits for minor children, or tax benefits for mothers staying at home. ...
This chapter discusses the intergenerational transmission of resources and work values from parents to the offspring. Semi-structured biographical interviews with ten families from Southern Germany revealed the following main transmission mechanisms: role models, parenting style, and social capital. Children viewed parents as their models and imitated the observed behaviors. The parenting style had a decisive influence on the successful child outcomes. Parents’ social networks proved to be yet a crucial factor determining the child’s success.
... It is well documented that welfare states differ in the supply of publicly supported measures, such as childcare coverage, maternity entitlement, flexible arrangement of work time, and social tax policies, that influence women's participation in the labor market (Sainsbury 2008;Tonoyan et al. 2005). Conservative welfare states such as Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands largely support a traditional "male breadwinner model" or the so-called secondary female breadwinner model (Gornick et al. 1997;Korpi 2000). Priority is given to general family support showing, for example, through cash allowances for children, family tax benefits for minor children, or tax benefits for mothers staying at home. ...
This article investigates the intergenerational transmission of work-related values, attitudes and resources in Austrian families. 17 young adults (seven in education, two self-employed, three employed, two unemployed and two working in their family businesses), their parents and their grandparents were interviewed. Besides greater ambitions for higher education, the research findings emphasise the importance of positive work images in family life through parenting styles, communication and joint activities. Different forms of supportive parenting were observed. In families where young adults gain great insights into their parents’ working life, young adults inherit clear values towards work.
... De offentlige dagpasningstilbud er blevet betragtet som en af hjørnestenene i den socialdemokratiske model, og venstrefløjens partier -staerkt bakket op af kvindebevaegelsen -talte om behovet for at udvide tilbuddene i 1960'erne og 1970'erne. Ikke desto mindre kan man observere helt forskellige modeller, hvis udviklingen af offentlige dagpasningstilbud i de fem nordiske lande undersøges nøjere (Gornick et al., 1997;. Danmark og Sverige har vaeret foregangslande og har produceret langt det højeste antal dagpasningstilbud. ...
... Der Soziologische Institutionalismus setzt demgegenüber an einem zentralen Kritikpunkt des Rational-Choice-Institutionalismus an: der Frage nach der Ausbildung und Entstehung von Präferenzen des Individuums . So führen Gornick et al . (1997) beispielsweise an, dass es nicht zwingend gesagt sein muss, dass Frauen ihre Erwerbstätigkeit beibehalten, obwohl die pflegerische Versorgung eines Familienmitglieds sich auf den ersten Blick "nicht lohnt" . Diese Abwägung ist -so hier das zentrale Argument -eben nicht allein durch eine Gegenüberstellung von Lohn und Zeit (wie es beispi ...
Culture Matters - Norms, Employment and informal Care among Older European Women
Against the background of an ageing society women aged between 50 and 65 are facing two challenges. On the one hand they are supposed to extend their working lives and on the other hand they are supposed to give informal care, conflicting the reconciliation of work and care. The study at hand uses SHARE data and explores how contextual factors of the welfare state and a country's culture relate to older women's decision to care. The results show that the familiaristic-conservative values of a society correlated with the probability of older women doing care. The implication is that “Culture Matters” in care politics.
... Thus traditional Christian democratic family policy encourages the male-breadwinner model, in which the mother is mainly responsible for the household and the father is the main money earner. As a result of these policies, female participation in the labour market is normally lower in countries with Christian democratic welfare regimes than in liberal or social democratic ones [Esping-Andersen 1990, Gornick et al. 1997, Lewis 1993, Siaroff 1994. Countries dominated by market liberal traditions (such as the UK and USA) have pursued some policies that have encouraged increased female participation in the labour market, such as anti-discrimination laws, but they have done little do provide services for working mothers, such as day-care centres, nor have they encouraged a rethinking of gender roles within the household and family [see, e.g. ...
... Family structures are partially shaped by the incentive and opportunity structures provided by welfare regimes. Welfare regimes might also directly affect job loss coping strategies through a set of family policies ranging from services to transfers and tax rules (Gornick et al., 1997;Stier et al., 2001). These policies reflect and shape gender contracts, limiting or fostering the independence of working mothers, improving the situation of single mothers, but also facilitating second earners in family households. ...
This comparative study analyzes the impact of the Great Recession on household non-employment across Europe since 2008. We use the EU-SILC (2007–2014) for a shift-share analysis that decomposes annual variations in household non-employment in 30 European countries. Investigating whether job loss is absorbed by or accumulated in households, we break down non-employment variations into changes in individual non-employment, household compositions and polarization. We find that household joblessness increased since 2008, especially in crisis-ridden countries. There is no evidence for the widespread absorption of individual non-employment in families or multi-person households. Instead, household dynamics and unequal distribution of non-employment lead to further risk accumulation within households during the crisis. Surprisingly, this pattern occurs in those crisis-ridden countries known for their traditional household structures and less accommodating welfare systems, which have relied thus far on families to absorb employment risks. The Great Recession has aggravated household disparities in joblessness in Europe.
... La recherche montre une relation entre le niveau de ces services et le taux d'emploi des mères. Plus les services publics sont généreux et universels, plus importants sont les taux d'emploi (Gornick et al., 1997 ;OCDE, 2001 (Bradshaw et Finch, 2002). Deuxièmement, on peut repérer une nette polarisation de l'emploi des mères, celui-ci étant élevé lorsqu'il s'agit de femmes ayant un niveau d'éducation élevé, alors que pour les femmes à faible niveau d'étude le taux d'emploi demeure bien inférieur (OCDE, 2001). ...
Research report for the Caisse nationale des allocations familiales on Lone parent families and social policies in Europe
... Insiders 2 The study does not include institutional arrangements that are specifically related to the labor market performance of single social groups. Most visible examples for such relationships perhaps are family policies and childcare provision regarding the employment of women (Gornick et al., 1997) and the role of the educational system for transitions into employment of labor market entrants and those with lower education (Shavit and Müller, 1998). The empirical analysis accounts for these potential confounders, but the focus of the article is whether inequality is contingent on the base setup of the labor market. ...
This article investigates the role of labor market institutions for social inequalities in employment. To distinguish institutional impacts for men and women, age groups and educational levels the analysis draws on data from 21 countries using the European Union Labor Force Survey and the Current Population Survey 1992–2012. The analysis demonstrates that there is significant heterogeneity in the relationship between institutions and employment across social groups. In line with the literature on dualization, institutions that arguably protect labor market insiders, i.e. employment protection, unionization and unemployment benefits, are frequently associated with greater inequality between typically disadvantaged groups and their insider peers. By contrast, institutions that discriminate less between insiders and outsiders, i.e. active labor market policies, minimum income benefits and centralized wage bargaining at times boost social equality on the labor market. The insider/outsider argument provides a valuable heuristic for assessing heterogeneity in institutional impacts, yet in several instances the results deviate from the expectations.
... For studies measuring the impact on child poverty see, e.g.,Bradshaw (2012),Bradshaw and Huby (2014),Immervoll et al. (2000),Sutherland and Piachaud (2001). Influence on fertility has been researched by, e.g.,Bonoli (2008),Gauthier and Philipov (2008) andWerding (2014).Gornick et al. (1997), McDonald (2006 andRay et al. (2010) study the effects of child support on work decisions and gender equity. ...
We assess the level and distribution of compensation for households with children provided by child support policies in Croatia, Slovenia and Austria. The child support policies in which we are interested include child and large family benefits, subsistence and housing benefits, and tax relief for dependent children. Using a microsimulation technique of “policy importing”, we show that the adequacy and evenness of the Croatian child support could be substantially improved if Croatia’s current policies were replaced by their Slovenian and Austrian equivalents. We propose improved versions of Verbist and Van Lancker’s (Soc Indic Res 128(3):1299–1318, 2016) indicator of horizontal equity in the sense of construction, aggregation to the population level and interpretation.
... These changes include the advancement toward greater gender egalitarianism (Inglehart & Norris, 2003), deeper understanding of the importance of father involvement within the nuclear family, and a growing interest and desire expressed by fathers to be more involved in family life (Kramer, Kelly, & McCulloch, 2015;Kramer & Kramer, 2016). These changes have led social institutions and governments to pursue different social policies aimed at encouraging the direct involvement of fathers with raising and caring for children, especially in the period immediately after a birth, with an aim to encourage bonding and attachment (e.g., Knox, Cowan, Pape Cowan, & Bildner, 2011), family resiliency (e.g., Seccombe, 2002), and mothers' participation in the labor force (e.g., Gornick, Meyers, & Ross, 1997). In this study, we examine a small part of these overarching policies and attempt to estimate if indeed the following analysis can be proven to be accurate: Korean families in which fathers take advantage of paternity leave policies enjoy greater wellbeing in the form of life satisfaction and improved family relationship satisfaction. ...
Paternity leave policies are gaining increased recognition from researchers and policymakers for being an instrumental tool that can have a positive impact on individuals, families, and societies. In this study, we estimate the effect of Korean fathers' paternity leave use on mothers' family relationship satisfaction using dyadic longitudinal data. Applying a spillover-crossover theoretical framework, we predict that fathers who use paternity leave (T1) experience a positive spillover manifested in increased life satisfaction (T2) and that this process will be mediated by an increase in their job satisfaction. In turn, this will “crossover” to positively affect mothers' family relationship satisfaction (T3). We further propose that gender role agreement will moderate this relationship. Using nationally representative longitudinal panel data from the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study (KLIPS), which follows individuals and families on an annual basis, we find that fathers' use of paternity leave is positively associated with their life satisfaction and that this is mediated by an increase in father's job satisfaction. Further, fathers' life satisfaction mediates the relationship between the use of paternity leave and mothers' family relationship satisfaction. We also find support for the moderating role of gender role agreement. We do not find any support for a direct link between paternity leave use and mothers' family relationship satisfaction. We conclude that taking paternity leave has a positive association with beneficial outcomes for fathers, mothers, and families as a whole.
... These changes include the advancement toward greater gender egalitarianism (Inglehart & Norris, 2003), deeper understanding of the importance of father involvement within the nuclear family, and a growing interest and desire expressed by fathers to be more involved in family life (Kramer, Kelly, & McCulloch, 2015;Kramer & Kramer, 2016). These changes have led social institutions and governments to pursue different social policies aimed at encouraging the direct involvement of fathers with raising and caring for children, especially in the period immediately after a birth, with an aim to encourage bonding and attachment (e.g., Knox, Cowan, Pape Cowan, & Bildner, 2011), family resiliency (e.g., Seccombe, 2002), and mothers' participation in the labor force (e.g., Gornick, Meyers, & Ross, 1997). In this study, we examine a small part of these overarching policies and attempt to estimate if indeed the following analysis can be proven to be accurate: Korean families in which fathers take advantage of paternity leave policies enjoy greater wellbeing in the form of life satisfaction and improved family relationship satisfaction. ...
Paternity leave policies are gaining increased recognition from researchers and policymakers for being an instrumental tool that can have a positive impact on individuals, families, and societies. In this study, we estimate the effect of Korean fathers' paternity leave use on mothers' family relationship satisfaction using dyadic longitudinal data. Applying a spillover-crossover theoretical framework, we predict that fathers who use paternity leave (T1) experience a positive spillover manifested in increased life satisfaction (T2) and that this process will be mediated by an increase in their job satisfaction. In turn, this will "cross over" to positively affect mothers' family relationship satisfaction (T3). We further propose that gender role agreement will moderate this relationship. Using nationally representative longitudinal panel data from the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study (KLIPS), which follows individuals and families on an annual basis, we find that fathers' use of paternity leave is positively associated with their life satisfaction and that this is mediated by an increase in father's job satisfaction. Further, fathers' life satisfaction mediates the relationship between the use of paternity leave and mothers' family relationship satisfaction. We also find support for the moderating role of gender role agreement. We do not find any support for a direct link between paternity leave use and mothers' family relationship satisfaction. We conclude that taking paternity leave has a positive association with beneficial outcomes for fathers, mothers, and families as a whole.
... The importance of maternity and childcare entitlements has been widely acknowledged by both scholars and policy-makers: evidence shows that well paid, non-transferable and flexible provisions with respect to maternity and child caregiving mitigate the "baby penalty" women face in the labour market and help reduce gender inequalities both in the household and at the workplace (Gornick et al. 1997;Mandel and Semyonov 2006;Kleider 2015;Farré 2016). Many OECD countries have embarked on a number of changes of parental leave policies in the last decades 1 , particularly in Europe, under the homogenising pressure of the European Union. ...
The generosity of maternity pay has been shown to be an important factor for mothers’ attachment to the labour market. In the UK, we can observe that the generosity of maternity leaves across universities varies greatly: some universities top up the statutory maternity pay with longer and better paid leaves, others are either less generous or only entitle academic women to the legal minimum. We want to understand why this is the case. Therefore, this article examines both theoretically and empirically how higher education employers decide about the generosity of the offered occupational maternity pay. We use a bargaining approach to model the supply and demand side of generous maternity benefits in universities with different characteristics and test the implications with a generalised negative binomial model. We find that universities’ income does not account for this variation while differences in terms of costs and benefits for employers do. Most importantly, our results show that more research intense universities with a higher previous share of female professors provide more generous maternity pay. We offer a range of explanations for these findings.
... Similarly, gender egalitarianism in western Europe is still short of that in the Nordic welfare state. For example, in the Netherlands, female employment is largely driven by parttime employment (Plantenga, 2002), and maternal employment remains relatively low in France (Gornick et al., 1997). Conversely, it could simply be that there are other factors beyond labor market gender inequality driving the preference for sons. ...
Individuals in China are much more likely than Europeans to live with their adult children during later life. In this paper, we examine the extent to which this holds true across the diverse contexts and circumstances faced by Europeans and Chinese. We use comparative data from the Survey for Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe and the China Family Panel Studies to examine cross-national differences in whom adults in later life choose to live with. We find that in rural China and among urban migrants there is a tendency to live with higher-educated children, whilst among urban Chinese and Europeans, individuals live with those with lower education levels. We also find that in Europe there is only a small preference for living with male adult children, whilst across China this preference is much stronger. However, we also note that this preference is weakest in urban China. These findings indicate strong differences in co-residence patterns between China and Europe, but also some similarities between specific subpopulations. We explain these differences and similarities using a social policy framework.
... Similarly, power mobilisation theorists, emphasising the role of partisan politics, argue that the presence and strength of left parties bring about favourable conditions for women's empowerment (Sainsbury 1999;Lambert 2008). Left-wing parties provide more support for working mothers as well as single mothers, compared to right-wing parties which are likely to promote traditional family patterns (Wennemo 1994;Gornick, Meyers & Ross 1997;Bussemaker & Van Kersbergen 1999;Huber & Stephens 2000;Ferrarini 2003). Left-wing governments are more service oriented and more gender egalitarian (Huber & Stephens 2000), support quotas for women (Verge 2013) and promote women's representation in democratic legislatures (Iversen & Rosenbluth 2008). ...
Southern Europe has seen remarkable turnarounds in female labour force participation (FLFP) over the past four decades. In Turkey, however, scores of women have yet to join the labour force. To address this ‘Turkish puzzle’, we present comparative data on women’s work in Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece (SE-4) and Turkey. Through Qualitative Comparative Analysis, we identify the factors behind rising FLFP in Southern Europe to explore the prospects for a steeper rise of FLFP in Turkey. We reveal two causal pathways to rising FLFP: (i) left party rule, or (ii) combinations of higher levels of take-up of early education and care, higher levels of tertiary education among women and larger size of service sector employment.
Variable time work is no longer abnormal in the post‐industrial economy and is accelerating due to digitisation and the COVID‐19 pandemic. Previous studies have revealed a causal relationship between working time variability and work–life balance at the individual level; however, there has been less discussion of the role of the institutional context. This study examines the interplay among childcare policy, schedule control, and its relationship with work–life balance. We conducted a multilevel analysis using the European Working Conditions Survey. The analyses revealed that childcare policy has a U‐shaped relationship with work–life balance for female variable time workers without schedule control. In contrast, workers with schedule control and male workers did not have a curvilinear relationship with the outcome. Our analyses imply that sufficient childcare intervention and its interaction with schedule control are necessary to offset the negative effect of childcare services on work–life balance.
Die Bachelor-Arbeit setzt sich mit dem Gender Pay Gap in Deutschland für das Jahr 2018 auseinander. Dabei liegt ein besonderer Fokus auf die methodische Herangehensweise der GPG Erhebung. Als Beispiel wird der GPG vom statistischen Bundesamt hinzugezogen und anhand eines SOEP-Datensatzes nachberechnet. Eine Oaxaca-Blinder-Dekomposition soll die Hypothese "H1: Der GPG-Koeffizient vom statistischen Bundesamt trifft nicht den Populationsparameter und ist nach oben verzerrt" testen. Die ermittelten GPG-Koeffizienten führen allerdings zu einer Ablehnung von H1.
p>Since the election of a New Labour Government in 1997, tackling poverty and social exclusion has been high on the political agenda and that has necessarily mean targeting the high risk group of lone parent families. Essentially, the Government has focused on paid work as ‘the best route out of poverty’; pledging to provide ‘work for those who can and security for those who can’t’ ‘to make work pay’ and to make it easier for families to achieve a ‘work-life balance’. Its strategy includes the New Deal for Lone Parents which is a voluntary programme aimed at helping lone parents move into paid work or to increase their weekly working hours to 16 or more.
First, this thesis locates the strategy of the Blair Government within its historical context. Secondly, using data collected from a small scale study of lone parents and findings from larger national studies, it explores the scope and limitations of present policy. Focusing on paid work distorts the meaning of social exclusion and diminishes the policy debate; it ignores inequalities in pay, in the workplace and in the allocation of caring responsibilities and it undermines the value of unpaid work. Delivering social inclusion demands a more holistic approach which encourages participation, accepts diversity and secures an adequate family income, thereby ensuring the full status of citizenship for all. In some cases, paid work may be key to achieving that status but to extol it either as the best or only route out of poverty serves only to exclude yet further those who, for whatever reasons, do not feel that paid work would be right for them or their families in their present circumstances.
Most parents, carers and volunteers readily fulfil their responsibilities as citizens. Accordingly, neither their marital nor their working status should prevent their families from enjoying the same rights as their fellow citizens; rights which enable them to participate fully in everyday activities of their own choice within their own communities. The data presented here show the value of self-help support and suggest that widening the policy agenda to include greater funding for such initiatives could help to reverse the trend of current policy which tends to preserve full citizenship rights for paid workers and their families.</p
There is an indisputably persistent gender gap in economic outcomes in most developing countries despite some good progress in the levels of education and skills development. This paper investigates whether cultural norms embedded in the rules of descent (or kinship systems), and traditional patterns of settlement determine female labour force participation rates in African countries. Using the so called 'epidemiological approach' that is steadily gaining ground in the culture and economics literature, it identifies the effect of culture by evaluating the variations in labour market outcomes of women from two distinct unilineal descent groups (patrilineal and matrilineal systems), and women with historically sedentary versus nomadic lineages. For identification, the urban sample of individual-level data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) is analysed using linear probability estimation (LPM). The paper finds that over 60 percent of women in sub-Saharan Africa were in the labour market irrespective of their rule of descent. However, women from nomadic cultures, have a much lower average labour force participation rate than women with sedentary backgrounds. Variations in the strength of formal institutions is found to be important in tempering the effect of cultural norms on female labour market outcomes. Strong formal institutions mediate the effect of culture and lead to improved outcomes for all culture groups. This is a particularly important effect for the nomadic group where we find that higher average values of formal institutions reverse the negative effect of the nomadic culture and produce a positive estimate for labour force participation among women of nomadic backgrounds.
The paper provides a systematisation of the debate on demographic change, focusing in particular on policies that address «new» population trends. The aim of the paper is to provide a state-of-the-art review about opportunities and constraints which affect family policies in Europe. The relationship between demographic change and measures implemented is investigated: in particular, the analysis observes the cause-effect nexus concerning the demographic change in the trend towards low and very low fertility and the sustainability of the costs of childbearing, the workload of care, the incompatibility between work and childcare. Outlining the importance of female employment and education and, therefore, the (lack of) centrality of gender equalisation for fertility decisions, the gap between preferred and realised fertility can be understood.
The paper gives an overview ofthe formation ofEstonian family policy in the periodfrom 1945 to 2000. Deeper analyses are dedicated to the most recent decade and to thefactors which have influenced family policy and the main objects of discussion. Forthat purpose statistics and interviews with policy makers are analysed. The paper comesto the conclusion that child and family policy carries traces ofhistory, different institutionsand traditions. Family policy has been classsified according to time period: 1945-1970, 1970-1990, and 1990 to present. The main characteristics of the most recentdecade's family policy include comparatively generous child benefits, a great dependencyof policy on political decisions, and the development of an initially plain andsimple children's and family policy towards a more complicated one.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to take cognisance of the work–life balance (WLB) challenges facing working women in Oman, make a review of the family-friendly policies (FFPs), related provisions in labour laws of various nations, and identify and suggest some FFP-based solutions for attracting women to private sector jobs.
Design/methodology/approach
Initially, desk research was used to review the labour laws of the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and some pioneering countries known for their workplace policies using the major electronic databases and official websites. An exploratory approach was used to understand the lived experience of participants using 46 in-depth interviews. The data were analysed and the findings were explained and contextualised in terms of the Arab culture, wider social processes and consequences related to WLB.
Findings
The interviews revealed that the majority of women in the private sector are not fully aware of the labour laws and FFPs, and are not satisfied with the existing policies, as they do not provide the right WLB. Women in the private sector demand flexible working hours, privacy at work, reduced work hours and certain other benefits akin to the government sector. Omani Labour Law needs a review of FFPs in line with the best global practices and Oman’s diversification initiatives. The provision, awareness and implementation of FFPs in the workplace are necessary to attract Omani women to private sector jobs.
Research limitations/implications
This research focusses on Oman in particular and GCC countries in general in its coverage of Omani women workers. The outcomes would be important for the specific segment but would have limited potential to generalise.
Practical implications
The study of WLB and FFPs is of interest for both academia and industry globally. In its strategic vision 2040, Oman aims to encourage, support and develop the private sector to drive the national economy. To retain and boost the socio-economic development in the post-oil economy, the success of the private sector will depend on the participation of the Omani workforce. The role of working Omani women will be pivotal, for they form a substantial part of the skilled human resources inventory.
Social implications
Women working in Oman are influenced by labour laws, organisational culture, traditional attitudes and societal values and influences. The voices of women working in the private sector indicate a great need to create awareness of existing policies, ensure their compliance and devise additional workplace policies to enable women to contribute to the labour market.
Originality/value
There is a dearth of studies examining work policies and employment of women in the context of Oman in particular and the GCC Countries in general. Even in the extant literature, the sectoral imbalance between the government and private sector has not been explored from the perspective of WLB and FFPs. This study presents a unique approach and findings in this regard.
The family policy landscape changed dramatically across and within European societies during the 20th century. At the same time, family life courses have become more complex, unstable and unpredictable. However, there are no empirical studies that attempt to link changes in family policies with increasing family life course complexity. In this study, I address two research questions: (1) What is the association between family policies and family life course complexity? and (2) Do these associations vary by the life course stage at which individuals experience family policies? Retrospective data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe are used to construct the family life courses of individuals from the age of 15 to 50, born between 1924 and 1956, from 15 European countries. I use metrics developed in sequence analysis that incorporate life course transitions and unpredictability to measure the complexity of family formation. Annual policy information from 1924 to 2008 for each country are combined to generate cohort indices for three policy dimensions: familization, individualization and liberalization. These cohort metrics express the policy experiences of individuals over the course of their lives, rather than at a specific historical time point. I find that while familization is associated with less complex life courses, individualization is related to higher levels of complexity. Furthermore, my results indicate that the levels individualization experienced early and later in the life course are linked most strongly with complexity. I conclude that family policy reforms may partially account for increasing life course instability and unpredictability across Europe.
This study investigates the relationship between maternal employment and state-to-state differences in childcare cost and mean school day length. Pairing state-level measures with an individual-level sample of prime working-age mothers from the American Time Use Survey (2005–2014; n = 37,993), we assess the multilevel and time-varying effects of childcare costs and school day length on maternal full-time and part-time employment and childcare time. We find mothers’ odds of full-time employment are lower and part-time employment higher in states with expensive childcare and shorter school days. Mothers spend more time caring for children in states where childcare is more expensive and as childcare costs increase. Our results suggest that expensive childcare and short school days are important barriers to maternal employment and, for childcare costs, result in greater investments in childcare time. Politicians engaged in national debates about federal childcare policies should look to existing state childcare structures for policy guidance.
An analysis of child care regulations in Germany, Sweden, and the United States reveals distinctive national policy styles.
A ‘social constructionist’ perspective, with its emphasis on variable problem definitions, helps to explain such differences.
However, a full understanding of regulatory differences requires attention to regulatory solutions as well. By disaggregating
the concept of regulation, we are able to demonstrate rather different rank-orderings of our three countries in their regulatory
solutions. We attribute these differences to cultural, institutional, and political characteristics of the three countries.