No abstract

No abstract

France is well known for providing working parents with formal childcare arrangements and generous benefits aimed at reducing costs for families. Currently, and despite a general tightening of purse strings in the social security administration, childcare policy has continued to see increases in funding and remains a growth area in the French welfare state. Yet reforms introduced periodically since the mid-1980s illustrate clearly the growing influence employment policies are having on childcare provisions. For all the rhetoric devoted to the promotion of 'freedom of choice' for parents in the childcare sector evidence suggests a different set of priorities. In reality, the impetus to increase the number of options for the placement of children in supervised care derives from the desire to bring more mothers into the workforce while at the same time satisfying the increasing demands placed on employees through the development of flexible work schedules and in particular non-standard work hours.

This article investigates whether the recent reforms introduced in the family policies of both France and Germany are leading the two countries towards some measure of convergence. Germany has favoured dramatic changes, especially a new parental leave allowance, while France, for its part, has chosen a more gradual approach that has translated into an enhancement of its promotion of work-family reconciliation policies along with steady increases in spending related to childcare provision over the last decade. Despite a rise in its overall supply of childcare Germany still lags far behind France in this domain, a phenomenon that can be partially explained by a combination of institutional obstacles, the persistence of social norms governing childcare for under-3s, and excessive demand. We argue that the main drivers for paradigmatic change in Germany have been concerns over the consequences of declining fertility; a shortfall of qualified workers; and, the shattering of certitudes following an OECD study on childhood education. In France reforms in parental leave policies have been more incremental with, for example, mothers being encouraged to retain their links to the workforce even while on leave. But while the reforms adopted by Germany represent a radical departure from the former ‘male-breadwinner model’, mothers’ employment rates remain lower than in France and German mothers work part-time with much greater frequency than their French counterparts.

No abstract