Change in work-family reconciliation policy in France and the UK since 2008: the influence of economic crisis and austerity

The paper provides a comparative investigation into public attitudes to family policies. It shows that citizens’ support for family policies is diverse across different welfare regimes with respect to four countries belonging to distinct regimes: the United Kingdom, Germany, Norway and Slovenia. Using qualitative data, we unpack the ways individuals view the need for family policies, the rationale they use to explain their support for family policies and for imposing restrictions on access to family policies – ie. why, for whom and under which conditions. We find that social rights narratives are common in Norway; a social investment logic is prevalent in Germany and Slovenia; while in the United Kingdom, the dominant view is closer to the work-central individualised responsibility narrative of neoliberalism. In addition, we find differences across regimes in which family policies should target. In the United Kingdom and Germany, the focus is much more on providing support to activate parents, while in Norway and partly Slovenia, the focus is on providing well-being for children. The findings show that despite some convergence in family policies across Europe in recent times, we still find clear diversity in what and for whom family policies are for, its rationale largely embedded in the larger institutional normative structures of the welfare state. The results not only contribute to the literature on the relationship between public attitudes and welfare institutions, but also point towards shifting ideas about the role of family policies in the context of societal change.

Section: Family Policy and A Conditionality Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

What and whom are family policies for? Unpacking the meaning of citizens’ support for family policy across Europe

Rakar¹,

Chung²,

Zimmermann³

et al. 2022

“…In this regard, previous research employed work-family reconciliation policy based on the welfare regime and analysed the causality between the level of family policy (mostly expenditures), and labour market outcomes. These studies' results commonly pointed towards higher effects of (public) day care services, but lesser impacts from family allowance, on female labour market participation rates (Ray, Gornick, & Schmitt, 2010;Stadelmann, 2008;Windebank, 2017). On the other hand, Kang (2020) examined the moderated effect of work-family reconciliation policy on the gender wage gap in the welfare and production regimes.…”

Section: Previous Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Accordingly, immigrants from developed countries were excluded in the analysis since their labour market status is hardly penalised with respect to natives (see Ballarino & Panichella, 2013, 2017Khattab & Johnston, 2013, 2015Kogan, 2007;Modood & Khattab, 2016). The developed countries included the EU-15 and EFTA (Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, Lichtenstein), alongside North America and Oceania (US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand).…”

Section: Data and Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A comparative study of eight European countries: how life course events affect female migrant labour market integration under the perspective of welfare and production regimes

Lee

2022

This article analyses how life course events including education, citizenship, marriage status and having children would affect female migrant labour market integration. This is put in terms of employment status and job quality under the perspective of welfare and production regimes. To investigate different institutional effects, countries representative of these regimes’ typologies, such as the UK and Ireland for liberal market economies/liberal welfare states, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden for coordinated market economies (CME)/social democratic welfare states, alongside Germany and France for CME/conservative welfare states, were employed. European Social Survey data are adopted within a linear probability model, alongside a nested model aggregating life course events. Through these, migrant penalty is analysed regarding labour market outcomes with respect to natives. Among the life course events, education and citizenship acquisition showed a particularly strong impact on migrant penalty, while marriage and having a child did not significantly affect migrant penalty.

“…Parents enrol their children because they need to work or to prepare them socially for a life outside the domain of privacy and family or both (West et al, 2020). As many examples around the world show, childcare services are designed to provide services and care focused on families’ needs (e.g., Campbell-Barr and Coakley, 2014; Prentice and White, 2019; Windebank, 2017). The expression “early childhood education and care” identifies both education and care and therefore masks their complex interaction (Staab, 2010; Ellingsæter et al, 2017) and hides the dimension of discipline.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The state role in civilising childcare – comparing policy intentions with childcare in Brazil and Denmark

Møller,

Lotta,

Thomazinho

et al. 2023

It has become universal to claim a relationship between social cohesion and quality public childcare. The more we invest in our children, the better the return later in life. We explore how childcare is used to strengthen social life by comparing the state role in civilising childcare as described in policy and educational guidelines. At one level, we find that policy intentions are framed by the idea of using childcare to reduce inequalities between people and social groups, and at another by the idea of civilising children to adapt to existing social structures. The analysis unfolds these two sets of intentions by showing how pedagogical ideas of child development become linked to the ways two very different states – Brazil and Denmark – formulate and organise ECEC policies as well as using childcare to bridge between people and social groups, and to civilising children to adapt to existing social structures.