Governments have intervened in two basic ways on childcare: via the provision of leaves to care (usually taken by mothers) and the provision or (often only partial) financing of childcare services. ...These policy options reflect the fundamental debate on how young children should be cared for. Labour has developed both policy areas since 1997, but there is a question mark over how far mothers and fathers have a ‘real choice’ to work and/or to care. Parents' choice in this policy area is a sensitive political issue and, this article suggests, requires a careful balancing of policy instruments. Policy goals may conflict with preferences and there is also the difficult issue that parents' choices may prejudice their future welfare in a work/welfare system that is tending to assume that there will be increasing capacity for self‐provisioning.
This paper examines maternity policy legislation in Ireland and Estonia, focussing on changes and continuities. Throughout the paper we speak about maternity, referring to the physiological aspect of ...motherhood and the unique capacity of women to bear children. Very often maternity is not covered by a single policy, but it is an amalgam of various policy fields, like health, social security, and labour. These policies are all embedded in the legal framework which therefore presents a means to achieve the desired end in the society by marking the borders between the allowed and the prohibited. Even though these lines are not always followed, and may sometimes stay only on paper, they still have an impact on how the ideal state of things is perceived. They are linked to the principles upon which welfare is organised and in the case of Estonia and Ireland these have been very different. In the former, there has been the communist ideal of woman as worker and mother, and in Ireland can be seen the enduring view of woman as mother first, citizen worker second. In this paper we concentrate on the legislation since the 1920s, that is, since both countries became independent republics. We explore the critical junctures that have shaped the policy paths in both countries. Reprinted by permission of Routledge, Taylor and Francis Ltd.
O objetivo deste artigo é tratar o descompasso entre as transformações percebidas nas estruturas familiares e a forma como o Estado responde a essas questões por meio de políticas públicas ...fundamentadas em um modelo estrito e convencional de família (nuclear, formada por casal com filhos) que reafirma convenções tradicionais de gênero. Como exemplo ilustrativo desse descompasso, trabalhamos o caso das licenças para cuidado de filhos/as utilizando, para isto, as informações produzidas pela pesquisa Retrato das Desigualdades, que evidenciam o surgimento de novos modelos de arranjos familiaresThe aim of this paper is to address the gap between the actual changes in the family structure and how the State deals with these matters through public policies which only take into account a strict and conventional model of family (nuclear families, consisting of couples with children), which reaffirms traditional gender conventions. As an example of this gap, we will present the case of work leave for the care of dependents, taking into account the information produced in the research Portrait of Inequalities, that highlights the establishment of new types of family structure
Women's labor force decisions following childbirth are often pivotal in determining their later occupational attainment. This article looks at the determinants of job changing and labor force ...interruptions among employed women following childbirth, focusing on the working conditions and benefits provided by organizations. Using interviews with 324 randomly selected employed pregnant women, we modeled turnover behavior across the first year postpartum with information on family characteristics, workplace policies in the respondent's last job, and child care use. Results showed that several employer policies significantly decreased job attrition after controlling for the effects of wages, partner's income, and number of existing children- the most important being the length of leave available for childbirth and the ability to avoid mandatory overtime upon return. Supervisor and coworker social support were also effective in preventing turnover among childbearing women. Results also showed some important differences in the causes of turnover that resulted in labor force exits rather than job changes. All else equal, women who held traditional ideas about mothers' responsibilities for home and child care were considerably more likely to experience a labor force interruption following childbirth than others.
Increase in maternal employment - benefits - planning during pregnancy and influence on returning to work - childbirth - infant temperament - maternity leave - support from workplaces.
This article compares the employment patterns of women after first and second birth in Finland, Norway and Sweden during 1972-1992, focusing on the impact of parental leave and childcare programs on ...the transitions to full-time and part-time work. The results unanimously point to the great importance of the programs. Women who are entitled to a paid leave have a much higher overall employment entry rate during the first three years following birth than non-eligible women. But since mothers tend to use their full entitlement, the higher entry rates are largely concentrated to the period after leave expiry, except in Sweden where entitled mothers have higher entry rates also during the leave period. This is probably a result of the greater flexibility of the Swedish program. In all countries, leave extensions delay the return to work among entitled mothers and reduce their excess entry rate. Moreover, the Finnish home-care allowance system is found to reduce employment entry. On the whole, this suggests that very long leave entitlements and child-minding benefit programs could have negative consequences for women's career and earnings potentials and may preserve an unequal division of labour in the family. /// Cet article compare les schémas de retour à l'emploi des femmes après une première et une deuxième naissance en Finlande, Norvège et Suède dans la période 1972-1992. Il traite plus particulièrement de l'effet du congé parental et des programmes de protection infantile sur les passages au temps plein ou au temps partile. Les résultats font tous ressortir l'importance de ces mesures. Les femmes qui peuvent bénéficier d'un congé payé ont un taux d'accès à l'emploi, dans les trois ans qui suivent la naissance, supérieur à celui des femmes qui ne peuvent en bénéficier. Comme les mères ont tendance à utiliser la totalité de leurs droits, les taux d'accès à l'emploi plus élevés sont concentrés sur la période qui suit la fin du congé, à l'exception de la Suède où ils sont supérieurs pour les bénéficiaires durant toute la période de congé. Ceci est probablement dû à la plus grande souplesse du programme suédois. Dans tous les pays, les prolongations de congé retardent la reprise du travail chez les mères concernées et diminuent leur "sur" accès à l'emploi. De plus, le système finlandais d'allocation pour les mères au foyer réduit le retour à l'emploi. Au total, il semble que le droit à des congés maternels très longs et des programmes encourageant la garde d'enfants pourraient avoir des conséquences négatives sur les carrières et les revenus potentiels des femmes et pourraient favoriser la persistance d'une division inégale du travail dans la famille.
Why do Canadian mothers have lower incomes than women who have never had children? Microdata from the 1995 GSS allow examination of two hypotheses: (1) mothers have spent more time out of the labour ...force, thus acquiring less human capital; (2) higher levels of unpaid work lead to fatigue and/or scheduling difficulties. Measuring work history does little to account for the 'family gap.' The estimated child penalty is reduced by allowing for 'human capital depreciation' and controlling for unpaid work hours, but the two hypotheses together cannot entirely explain the gap. JEL Classification: J0, J3
Introduction of paid parental leave (PPL) - public funding - working parents - maternity leave - wage penalties - inequality of women - Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) ...survey - benefits and implications of paid parental leave - addressing the wage penalty effect - return to work - impact of education levels and work experience.
This paper addresses the question of whether higher governmental support for families has a positive effect on fertility by encouraging parents to have more children. The analysis is based on data ...for 22 industrialized countries and covers the period 1970 to 1990. Data are analysed using a fixed-effect econometric model with the sum of age-specific fertility rates as the dependent variable. The results show that family allowances have a positive and significant effect on fertility, while maternity leave benefits have no significant effect. Increasing the value of family allowances by 25 per cent would result in an 0.6 per cent increase in fertility level in the short run. In the long run this effect would be of the order of 4 per cent, or about 0.07 children per woman on average.
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