Incorporating pro-family and pro-female components into empirical welfare state classification: some new evidence for European countries

Abstract

In this paper, we attempt to incorporate an innovative and more comprehensive view of defamilization into the comparative analysis of real-type welfare state models. The study presents four empirically distinguished welfare state regimes where we consider separately both notions associated with (de)familization and (de)genderization together with other dimensions characterizing different welfare state models. In a multivariate statistical analysis framework, we examine 25 European countries using data covering the period between 2014 and 2017. Our findings suggest that whereas Southern European countries represent various welfare state models, most of the analyzed Central and Eastern European countries form a separate group. Similarly, the Nordic countries, except Iceland, belong to the same cluster. However, CEE countries and Nordic countries represent extremely divergent models in terms of the degree of degenderization, but similar in terms of family policy, the public-private mix, as well as welfare state generosity. The data also show that the extensive welfare state coexists with the state's predominance in delivering welfare provisions. Moreover, we demonstrate that neither the general size of the welfare state or its public-private mix nor a pro-family policy differentiate the socio-economic situation of women across countries studied.

Sex, breadwinner status, and perceived job insecurity: A comparative analysis in Europe

“…This led us to propose a typology that differs from traditional typologies (Esping-Andersen, 1999). Our typology is also different from that proposed by Chybalski and Marcinkiewicz (2021) since we used a mix of criteria related to public policies and women’s real-life situations, whereas their typology mostly includes criteria related to public policies and expenditures. Our typology enabled us to show that the effect of sex on perceived JI varies according to socioeconomic and gender-related contexts, and to bridge the literature on perceived JI and the literature devoted to gender ideology and national cultures.…”

“…For her part, Lewis highlighted the male-breadwinner ideology (and the female-homemaking counterpart) that underlay Esping-Andersen’s typology and suggested an adult-worker model as an alternative (Lewis, 1992). Chybalski and Marcinkiewicz (2021) provide a useful review of existing empirical studies on welfare state regimes, along with a suggested classification and the differentiating criteria (pp. 404–405): they suggest to combine characteristics of the welfare state (size and public–private mix) with pro-female dimensions, which leads to their classification of four regimes: liberal, medium-public pro-female, medium-public, and extensive public (Chybalski and Marcinkiewicz, 2021).…”

“…Chybalski and Marcinkiewicz (2021) provide a useful review of existing empirical studies on welfare state regimes, along with a suggested classification and the differentiating criteria (pp. 404–405): they suggest to combine characteristics of the welfare state (size and public–private mix) with pro-female dimensions, which leads to their classification of four regimes: liberal, medium-public pro-female, medium-public, and extensive public (Chybalski and Marcinkiewicz, 2021). This classification, however, does not include any socioeconomic factors that might be major determinants of perceived JI.…”

“…Several sources of data were used to typify the national socioeconomic and gender-related contexts, following the suggestions made by several scholars (Chybalski and Marcinkiewicz, 2021; Orloff, 1996). More precisely, the following national indicators, measured in 2014 or 2015 when available (once zero-centered), were used.…”

Does occupational gender composition affect women's chances of becoming managers? Evidence from France, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK

“…For the countries studied here (bottom of Table 1), we find that the extent of degenderization differs between Sweden and France, parental leave strengthening women's presence in the private sphere in the latter, whereas the UK's and Switzerland's policies are implicitly genderizing. Further evidence is provided by the empirical welfare-state classification by Chybalski and Marcinkiewicz (2021), which distinguishes between the defamilization and degenderization concepts – “the former being perceived as a gender-blind concept which refers to the freedom from the family ” (p. 400). Their typology is moreover based on the overall size of a welfare-state and the public-private mix in social expenditures [8].…”