Family Policy, Perceived Stress and Work-Family Conflict A Comparative Analysis of Women in 20 Welfare States

In what ways can family policy institutions be linked to women’s perceived stress and work-family conflict? This study combines new institutional information, enabling a multi-dimensional analysis of family policy legislation, with micro data on individuals’ perceived stress and work-family conflict for 20 welfare democracies from the International Social Survey Program of 2002. By use of multilevel regression, individual- and country-level factors are brought together in simultaneous analyses of their relationships with perceived stress and workfamily conflict. Our evaluations do not lend evidence to hypotheses predicting higher stress and role conflicts in countries where family policy design offers extensive support to dual-earner families. Findings are more in line with institutionalist ideas on work-family reconciliation, indicating that family policy institutions supportive of dual-earner families counterbalance stress emanatingfamily policy legislation; perceived stress; work-family conflict; International Social Survey Program of 2002

Women's Opportunities under Different Constellations of Family Policies in Western Countries: Inequality Tradeoffs Re-examined

Women’s rising labor force participation since the 1960’s was long seen as heralding decreasing gender inequalities. According to influential social science writings this view has now to be revised; “women friendly” policies bringing women into the workforce are held to create major inequality tradeoffs between quantity and quality in women’s jobs. Unintendedly, such policies increase employer statistical discrimination and create glass ceilings impeding women’s access to influential positions and high wages. This paper re-examines theoretical and empirical bases in analysis of family policy effects on gender inequalities. Including capabilities as well as earnings in definitions of gender inequality, we improve possibilities for causal analyses by mapping institutional constellations of separate dimensions of family policies in Western countries. Reflecting conflicting political forces as well as religion, contrary to accepted assumptions of uni-dimensionality, family policies are multi-dimensional, with main distinctions favoring traditional families, mother’s employment, or market reliance. Using multilevel analyses and broad sets of outcome variables, we show that methodological mistakes largely invalidate earlier causal interpretations of major tradeoffs between quantity and quality in women’s labor force participation. Positive policy effects facilitate work-family reconciliation and combine women’s increased labor force participation with relatively high fertility. While major negative policy effects for women with tertiary education are difficult to find, family policies clearly differ in the extent to which they improve opportunities for women without university degrees.-

Swedish parental leave and gender equality - Achievements and reform challenges in a European perspective

Sweden was the first country to introduce paid parental leave also to fathers in 1974, and this legislation has since then continuously been reformed in order to bring about a more equal parenthood. This study sets out to discuss the Swedish parental leave system and identify achievements, policy dilemmas and reform alternatives in a European perspective. The structure of parental insurance legislation, with earnings-related benefits and a long leave period, is often seen as a main explanation why Sweden has been able to combine relatively high fertility levels with high female labour force participation rates and low child poverty. In the perspective of changing demographic structures in Europe, with declining fertility levels and a growing number of elderly, the strengthening of dual earner family policies, including parental insurance legislation, may mitigate macro-economic and demographic problems by increasing gender equality and decreasing the work-family conflict. Despite the positive consequences, unresolved questions exist in the present parental leave legislation. The flexibility of the Swedish system, which still has extensive transferable leave rights, has the consequence that the lion’s share of parental leave days is still taken by mothers, among other things making it difficult for women to compete on equal terms with men in the labour market. Consequently, the gender-based division of parental leave may contribute to a preservation of traditional gender roles and inequalities. Another problem in the Swedish system is the work requirement for eligibility that excludes students and others with weak labour market attachment from the earnings-related benefits, possibly inflicting on the postponement of parenthood. Raising the minimum benefit could be one solution to enable childbearing among persons with weak labour market attachment, but this would also affect the economic incentives for paid work, and thus weaken the dual earner model.Parental leave; gender equality; reform challenges

From Universalism to Selectivity: Old Wine in New Bottles for Child Benefits in Europe and Other Countries

Abstract Welfare states have been subject to a subtle and sometimes unrecognized transformation

The Generational Welfare Contract: Justice, Institutions and Outcomes

This groundbreaking book brings together perspectives from political philosophy and comparative social policy to discuss generational justice. Contributing new insights about the preconditions for designing sustainable, inclusive policies for all of society, the authors expose the possibilities of supporting egalitarian principles in an ageing society through balanced generational welfare contracts. Welfare states are largely structured around social risks that appear in distinct phases of human life, including childhood, working age and old age. By empirically analysing the causes and consequences of social policy in a large number of countries, the authors show that balanced generational welfare contracts – in which age-related social protection is more evenly distributed across different stages of life – is to the advantage of all age groups, therefore contributing to social justice and welfare state sustainability. The authors offer a combination of descriptive data analysis and statistical regressions to provide robust evidence that countries can avoid generational trade-offs in policymaking and find positive-sum solutions