Women, Work, and Babies: Family-Labor Market Policies in Three European Countries

Abstract

This analysis of the family-labor market policies of three European countries—Sweden, the former East Germany, and the former West Germany—contends that the major influences on such policies are the labor needs of the economic system; state-promoted notions of equality of opportunity versus equality of result; and public attitudes toward gender, motherhood, and equality. It demonstrates the contradiction inherent in policies that seek both to protect mothers and to promote equality in the workforce and the need to consider equality of result, as well as equality of opportunity, as a potential policy goal.

Genetic Counseling for Sex Chromosome Anomalies (SCAs) in Israel and Germany: Assessing Medical Risks According to the Importance of Fertility in Two Cultures

“…However, together with the fact that childlessness is normative in contemporary Germany, women who do decide to become mothers are faced with a social structure that makes mothering very difficult. This results from traditional ways of thinking about the role of women, which are still prevalent, so that it is not easy for a mother to sustain a career (Blossfeld and Rohwer 1995;Gauthier 1992;Spakes 1995). Whereas Israeli women are certainly not freed from the conflict between motherhood and a career, there are much better day care services for children under the age of three in Israel and Israeli mothers are less criticized for letting other people take care of their children when they return to work.…”