- University of Leeds
School of Sociology & Social Policy
Circle
Room 12.40
Leeds LS2 9NL
UK
Jana Javornik
University of East London, Sociology and Social Policy, Faculty Member
- University of Iceland, Social Sciences - Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, Department MemberUmeå University, Sociology, Department Member, and 2 moreadd
- Comparative Welfare Systems, Welfare State, Social Security in former easter european countries, Post-Socialist Societies, Social Policy, Human Development, and 28 moreWork Family Balance, Welfare State Change, Division of Domestic Labour, Gender and Development, Comparative Social Policy. Welfare State Research. Sociology of Work. Migration and care, Assessment and Measurement, Central and Eastern Europe, Typology, Urban Sociology and Social Policy, Comparative Social Policy, Childcare policy, Flexible work arrangements, Work-Family Conflict, Work-family balance and conflict, Family policy, Child and Family Policy, Comparative Public Policy, European Social Policy, Postsocialism, Post-Socialism, In-depth Interviews, Qualitative Research, Qualitative Research Methods, Mixed Methodologies, Quantitative and Qualitative Mehtods, Mixed Methods, Meta-Analyses, and Ecologyedit
- Associate Professor of Comparative Social Policy, Director of the Noon Centre for Equality and Diversity in Business,... moreAssociate Professor of Comparative Social Policy, Director of the Noon Centre for Equality and Diversity in Business, BSc Sociology Programme Director
External affiliations:
June 2013 onwards - Centre for International Research on Care, Labour & Equalities (CIRCLE), School of Sociology & Social Policy, University of Leeds.
Former posts:
2013-2016: BSS WCGT Fellow, University of Leeds
2011-2013: Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Sociology (Welfare State Studies Programme), Umeå University, Sweden.
2001-2011: Senior Policy Adviser, Slovenian Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development (Department for Social Welfare and Social Development).
1998-2011: Detached national expert to the European Commission and the Stability Pact Gender Task Force; involved in a series of the World Bank, ILO, UNDP, UNIFEM and European Industrial Relations Observatory funded projects, exploring equal opportunities and social (policy) change in pEastern Europe.
Research interests:
My research contributes to comparative welfare state research. I explore in particular work-family policies and the role of the state as a social policy player in care/employment solutions in diverse contexts, focusing on Eastern and Northern Europe.
Writing on the following issues:
1) Work-family interface and work-family policies
2) Methodology for comparative analysis of work-family policies
3) Maternal employment
5) Gender roles and parenting
6) Well-being and sustainabilityedit
To determine biological (sex and age), socioeconomic (marital status, education, and mother tongue) and geographical (region) factors connected with causes of death and lifespan (age at death, years-of-potential-life-lost, and mortality... more
To determine biological (sex and age), socioeconomic (marital status, education, and mother tongue) and geographical (region) factors connected with causes of death and lifespan (age at death, years-of-potential-life-lost, and mortality rate) in Slovenia in the 1990s. In this population-based cross-sectional study, we analyzed all deaths in the 25-64 age group (N=14 816) in Slovenia in 1992, 1995, and 1998. Causes of death, classified into groups according to the 10th revision of International Classification of Diseases, were linked to the data on the deceased from the 1991 Census. Stratified contingency-table analyses were performed. Years-of-potential-life-lost (YPLL) were calculated on the basis of population life-tables stratified by region and linearly modeled by the characteristics of the deceased. Poisson regression was applied to test the differences in mortality rate. Across all socioeconomic strata, men died at younger age than women (index of excess mortality in men excee...
Research Interests:
The recent decision by Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer to take “limited parental leave” once she gives birth to twins invoked a strong reaction about “proper” motherhood. What seems to have annoyed the public most is that she will... more
The recent decision by Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer to take “limited parental leave” once she gives birth to twins invoked a strong reaction about “proper” motherhood. What seems to have annoyed the public most is that she will take too little time off and says she will remain “dedicated to both [her] family and Yahoo”.
Mayer is breaking the social norm by managing her family and work as most male CEOs do: by leaving childcare to others. Although more companies are starting to offer shared parental leave, only a few CEO dads opt to care for children full time. But men are judged differently when it comes to parenthood.
Mayer is breaking the social norm by managing her family and work as most male CEOs do: by leaving childcare to others. Although more companies are starting to offer shared parental leave, only a few CEO dads opt to care for children full time. But men are judged differently when it comes to parenthood.
Research Interests:
Following Labour's significant reforms to childcare policy, under the Coalition there has been a combination of gains and losses for parents, with the implications of some impending changes not yet fully known. Ostensibly, more free... more
Following Labour's significant reforms to childcare policy, under the Coalition there has been a combination of gains and losses for parents, with the implications of some impending changes not yet fully known.
Ostensibly, more free childcare and early education (ECEC) offers an appealing solution and take-up of the universal entitlement is high. However, this demand-priming approach and its funding streams are too complex, inefficient and unsustainable. These has led to a shortage of supply of both pre-school and school-age care (with critically low provision for disabled children and those in rural areas), mismatch between service and work hours. The key failings of UK childcare policy are its prohibitively high costs (second highest in the OECD), equivalent to a regressive tax on mothers’ labour supply, reducing financial returns from their employment and increasing their reservation wage, and the linking of funding to parents being in paid work; these not only limit families’ choice and force parents to craft their own solutions, but also leave many families disadvantaged. It has been well established that the economic and social conditions of childhood frame the possibilities in later life and we argue that strategically investing in universal quality childcare will yield significant returns.
Ostensibly, more free childcare and early education (ECEC) offers an appealing solution and take-up of the universal entitlement is high. However, this demand-priming approach and its funding streams are too complex, inefficient and unsustainable. These has led to a shortage of supply of both pre-school and school-age care (with critically low provision for disabled children and those in rural areas), mismatch between service and work hours. The key failings of UK childcare policy are its prohibitively high costs (second highest in the OECD), equivalent to a regressive tax on mothers’ labour supply, reducing financial returns from their employment and increasing their reservation wage, and the linking of funding to parents being in paid work; these not only limit families’ choice and force parents to craft their own solutions, but also leave many families disadvantaged. It has been well established that the economic and social conditions of childhood frame the possibilities in later life and we argue that strategically investing in universal quality childcare will yield significant returns.
Research Interests:
Childcare is likely to be a key battleground for the UK’s 2015 general election. Promises to entice female votes? Perhaps, but these policy commitments affect us all. To put the UK’s childcare cost crisis in perspective, it’s worth... more
Childcare is likely to be a key battleground for the UK’s 2015 general election. Promises to entice female votes? Perhaps, but these policy commitments affect us all. To put the UK’s childcare cost crisis in perspective, it’s worth looking to how other countries, many of them Nordic, have forged ahead with making universal, quality childcare a priority.
Research Interests:
New provisions allowing parents to share parental leave come into force in October and December this year. These will be available to parents in England, Scotland and Wales who will give birth to or adopt a child after April 5 next year.... more
New provisions allowing parents to share parental leave come into force in October and December this year. These will be available to parents in England, Scotland and Wales who will give birth to or adopt a child after April 5 next year. It seems that employers are still not catching on but they need to prepare for this change in the rules if it is going to work.
Research Interests:
This article offers a methodology to reveal the latent constructs which underlie policies on parental leave and childcare services. It is constructed to uncover the state assumptions about social organisation of childcare and gender roles... more
This article offers a methodology to reveal the latent constructs which underlie policies on parental leave and childcare services. It is constructed to uncover the state assumptions about social organisation of childcare and gender roles in a country-comparative perspective. Legal regulations are central to this analysis, and combinations of policy components take centre stage. An index of state de-familialism is proposed and its analytical potential tested on eight post-socialist EU states. Grounded in Leitner’s (2003) conceptualisation of familialism, it gauges three policy types: (1) Slovenian and Lithuanian supported defamilialism incentivises women’s continuous employment and active fatherhood, (2) explicit familialism in Hungary, Czech Republic, and Estonia supports familial childcare and reinforces gendered parenting, and (3) implicit familialism in Poland, Slovakia, and Latvia leaves parents without public support. These groups share core characteristics with developed welfare-state regimes. This methodology has the potential to discredit claims of post-socialist exceptionalism and allows researchers to test new hypotheses.
Research Interests:
Le socialisme d’État a façonné l’héritage institutionnel des États membres de l’Union européenne post-socialistes. Il a non seulement permis à l’emploi des femmes de faire un bond important, mais aussi fait largement évoluer le rôle de... more
Le socialisme d’État a façonné l’héritage institutionnel des États membres de l’Union européenne post-socialistes. Il a non seulement permis à l’emploi des femmes de faire un bond important, mais aussi fait largement évoluer le rôle de l’État dans la famille. La recherche sur les régimes d’État-providence a donc tendance à traiter les pays post-socialistes comme un ensemble, unique et homogène. Cet article s’efforce de proposer une vision plus nuancée en analysant le passé socialiste de ces pays. Il montre que ces pays avaient adopté des modèles de socialisme distincts, entérinant et légitimant des politiques familiales et une répartition des rôles entre les genres différentes. Tous ne sont pas sortis de l’ère du socialisme d’État avec le même héritage ni avec la même expérience collective de l’organisation sociale de l’accueil des enfants et de l’emploi des femmes. Cette contribution invite par conséquent à poursuivre le débat sur « l’héritage socialiste commun » et sur le régime de protection sociale post-socialiste distinct.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
"This article explores mechanisms linking family policy to work–family conflict, work demands and gender. The conflict construct has dominated survey-based work–family research; however, both the individual actor and the societal context... more
"This article explores mechanisms linking family policy to work–family conflict, work demands and gender. The conflict construct has dominated survey-based work–family research; however, both the individual actor and the societal context have been conspicuously absent. In qualitative interviews, including established instruments of work–family conflict, we studied how perceptions of work–family conflict were linked to strategies and use of policy entitlements among working parents in Sweden and Slovenia, two countries with policies promoting the dual-earner family. Our findings imply that such policies contribute to ‘have-it-all’ aspirations, but collide with practical realities, including norms related to work, parenthood and gender. In Sweden, policy tools and work demands appeared more decisive, especially for women’s conflict, whereas in Slovenia, informal care by extended family was important. Based on the analysis, we propose a typology of strategies and perceived conflict that can help develop research on work–family conflict, especially from a comparative perspective." http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/tpp/frs/pre-prints/content-PP_FRS_005
Research Interests:
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At the end of the second millennium an extensive social engineering experiment was conducted in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia in the countries emerging from socialist systems that are commonly known today under the label... more
At the end of the second millennium an extensive social engineering experiment was conducted in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia in the countries emerging from socialist systems that are commonly known today under the label "societies in transition" or "post-socialist ...
The Slovenian National Human Development Report, prepared by the Slovenian Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development (UMAD), focuses on general human development trends in 2002-2003, with special attention paid to health and the... more
The Slovenian National Human Development Report, prepared by the Slovenian Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development (UMAD), focuses on general human development trends in 2002-2003, with special attention paid to health and the health care system. The ...
Research Interests:
The focus of this book chapter is on public childcare system in Slovenia, where it has played a significant role in female employment since state socialism. Long-term developments, recent policy changes in the national-local governance... more
The focus of this book chapter is on public childcare system in Slovenia, where it has played a significant role in female employment since state socialism. Long-term developments, recent policy changes in the national-local governance and urban variations will be analysed.
The developments in the publicly-funded childcare system in Slovenia are addressed in two ways. (i) The policy analysis focuses on the national policy context, i.e. the type of governance; actors in childcare provision; political and financial support for public childcare, including the impact of the current crisis. It will investigate the reconfiguring of childcare services, looking at changes in how they are delivered, organised, financed and allocated. (ii) The impact of such changes in territorial differentiation terms is analysed looking at three municipalities: Ljubljana (the capitol and the miniatured state), Slovenske Konjice (the municipality which in the 1970s started the infrastructural 'revolution' in the delivery of childcare services) and Zreče (small municipality with prevailing rural areas and metal industry that has traditionally employed the vast majority of the local population).
The chapter covers service allocation; the relation between national and local authorities; needs assessment and service delivery re-design; funding constraints and welfare retrenchment - restructuring of the system; public-private partnership (outsourcing/concessions, for-profit).
The developments in the publicly-funded childcare system in Slovenia are addressed in two ways. (i) The policy analysis focuses on the national policy context, i.e. the type of governance; actors in childcare provision; political and financial support for public childcare, including the impact of the current crisis. It will investigate the reconfiguring of childcare services, looking at changes in how they are delivered, organised, financed and allocated. (ii) The impact of such changes in territorial differentiation terms is analysed looking at three municipalities: Ljubljana (the capitol and the miniatured state), Slovenske Konjice (the municipality which in the 1970s started the infrastructural 'revolution' in the delivery of childcare services) and Zreče (small municipality with prevailing rural areas and metal industry that has traditionally employed the vast majority of the local population).
The chapter covers service allocation; the relation between national and local authorities; needs assessment and service delivery re-design; funding constraints and welfare retrenchment - restructuring of the system; public-private partnership (outsourcing/concessions, for-profit).
Research Interests:
"Access to paid employment has conspicuous economic, political, cultural and social implications, for both personal autonomy and gender equality. Eight most advanced post-socialist countries that entered the European Union in 2004 have... more
"Access to paid employment has conspicuous economic, political, cultural and social implications, for both personal autonomy and gender equality. Eight most advanced post-socialist countries that entered the European Union in 2004 have boasted comparatively high full-time employment rates for women since the socialist period. However, the proportion of women who withdraw from paid employment when they care for pre-school children differs significantly among these countries. Why women’s employment rates drop so sharply subsequent to childbirth in some of the post-socialist countries, but not the others. This chapter seeks to answer this question by exploring childcare policies. The main research question is whether, and how, these policies shape mothers’ employment in the eight countries.
The author first analyzes the emancipatory potential of national policies on childcare leave and formal childcare service provision between 2000 and 2008, in order to determine whether or not childcare policies provide options for carers to engage in paid employment. It finds that among eight post-socialist countries Slovenia and Lithuania create conditions for women’s continuous employment, while Hungary, the Czech Republic and Estonia provide financial incentives for women to retreat from the labour force for a longer period after childbirth, whereas parents in Poland, Slovakia and Latvia are left nearly without public support.
Drawing upon maternal employment data, the author finds evidence in favour of the childcare policies explanation. In countries with gender-neutral leave of moderate duration and affordable, adequate and accessible formal childcare services the employment rates for mothers with pre-school children are significantly higher than in other countries. Educational attainment and the income needs of households suppress rather than rival the childcare policies explanation, and the unregulated service markets and day care by other family members account for mothers’ employment in countries with limited state support.
"
The author first analyzes the emancipatory potential of national policies on childcare leave and formal childcare service provision between 2000 and 2008, in order to determine whether or not childcare policies provide options for carers to engage in paid employment. It finds that among eight post-socialist countries Slovenia and Lithuania create conditions for women’s continuous employment, while Hungary, the Czech Republic and Estonia provide financial incentives for women to retreat from the labour force for a longer period after childbirth, whereas parents in Poland, Slovakia and Latvia are left nearly without public support.
Drawing upon maternal employment data, the author finds evidence in favour of the childcare policies explanation. In countries with gender-neutral leave of moderate duration and affordable, adequate and accessible formal childcare services the employment rates for mothers with pre-school children are significantly higher than in other countries. Educational attainment and the income needs of households suppress rather than rival the childcare policies explanation, and the unregulated service markets and day care by other family members account for mothers’ employment in countries with limited state support.
"
Research Interests:
Following Labour's significant reforms to childcare policy, under the Coalition there has been a combination of gains and losses for parents, with the implications of some impending changes not yet fully known. Ostensibly, more free... more
Following Labour's significant reforms to childcare policy, under the Coalition there has been a combination of gains and losses for parents, with the implications of some impending changes not yet fully known.
Ostensibly, more free childcare and early education (ECEC) offers an appealing solution and take-up of the universal entitlement is high. However, this demand-priming approach and its funding streams are too complex, inefficient and unsustainable. These has led to a shortage of supply of both pre-school and school-age care (with critically low provision for disabled children and those in rural areas), mismatch between service and work hours. The key failings of UK childcare policy are its prohibitively high costs (second highest in the OECD), equivalent to a regressive tax on mothers’ labour supply, reducing financial returns from their employment and increasing their reservation wage, and the linking of funding to parents being in paid work; these not only limit families’ choice and force parents to craft their own solutions, but also leave many families disadvantaged. It has been well established that the economic and social conditions of childhood frame the possibilities in later life and we argue that strategically investing in universal quality childcare will yield significant returns.
Ostensibly, more free childcare and early education (ECEC) offers an appealing solution and take-up of the universal entitlement is high. However, this demand-priming approach and its funding streams are too complex, inefficient and unsustainable. These has led to a shortage of supply of both pre-school and school-age care (with critically low provision for disabled children and those in rural areas), mismatch between service and work hours. The key failings of UK childcare policy are its prohibitively high costs (second highest in the OECD), equivalent to a regressive tax on mothers’ labour supply, reducing financial returns from their employment and increasing their reservation wage, and the linking of funding to parents being in paid work; these not only limit families’ choice and force parents to craft their own solutions, but also leave many families disadvantaged. It has been well established that the economic and social conditions of childhood frame the possibilities in later life and we argue that strategically investing in universal quality childcare will yield significant returns.
Research Interests:
Access to paid employment has conspicuous economic, political, cultural and social implications, for both personal autonomy and gender equality. Eight most advanced post-socialist countries that entered the European Union in 2004 have... more
Access to paid employment has conspicuous economic, political, cultural and social implications, for both personal autonomy and gender equality. Eight most advanced post-socialist countries that entered the European Union in 2004 have boasted comparatively high full-time employment rates for women since the socialist period. However, the proportion of women who withdraw from paid employment when they care for pre-school children differs significantly among these countries. Why women’s employment rates drop so sharply subsequent to childbirth in some of the post-socialist countries, but not the others. This chapter seeks to answer this question by exploring childcare policies. The main research question is whether, and how, these policies shape mothers’ employment in the eight countries.
The author first analyzes the emancipatory potential of national policies on childcare leave and formal childcare service provision between 2000 and 2008, in order to determine whether or not childcare policies provide options for carers to engage in paid employment. It finds that among eight post-socialist countries Slovenia and Lithuania create conditions for women’s continuous employment, while Hungary, the Czech Republic and Estonia provide financial incentives for women to retreat from the labour force for a longer period after childbirth, whereas parents in Poland, Slovakia and Latvia are left nearly without public support.
Drawing upon maternal employment data, the author finds evidence in favour of the childcare policies explanation. In countries with gender-neutral leave of moderate duration and affordable, adequate and accessible formal childcare services the employment rates for mothers with pre-school children are significantly higher than in other countries. Educational attainment and the income needs of households suppress rather than rival the childcare policies explanation, and the unregulated service markets and day care by other family members account for mothers’ employment in countries with limited state support.
The author first analyzes the emancipatory potential of national policies on childcare leave and formal childcare service provision between 2000 and 2008, in order to determine whether or not childcare policies provide options for carers to engage in paid employment. It finds that among eight post-socialist countries Slovenia and Lithuania create conditions for women’s continuous employment, while Hungary, the Czech Republic and Estonia provide financial incentives for women to retreat from the labour force for a longer period after childbirth, whereas parents in Poland, Slovakia and Latvia are left nearly without public support.
Drawing upon maternal employment data, the author finds evidence in favour of the childcare policies explanation. In countries with gender-neutral leave of moderate duration and affordable, adequate and accessible formal childcare services the employment rates for mothers with pre-school children are significantly higher than in other countries. Educational attainment and the income needs of households suppress rather than rival the childcare policies explanation, and the unregulated service markets and day care by other family members account for mothers’ employment in countries with limited state support.
Research Interests:
The article analyses public parental leave in eight northern European countries, and assesses its opportunity potential to facilitate equal parental involvement and employment, focusing on gender and income opportunity gaps. It draws on... more
The article analyses public parental leave in eight northern European countries, and assesses its opportunity potential to facilitate equal parental involvement and employment, focusing on gender and income opportunity gaps. It draws on Sen's capability approach and Weber's ideal-types to comparative policy analysis, and offers the ideal parental leave architecture, one which minimizes the policy-generated gender and class inequality in parents' opportunities to share parenting and keep their jobs, thus providing real opportunities for different groups of individuals to achieve valued functionings when they are parents. Five new policy indicators are created to assess leave against the ideal architecture, employing benchmarking and graphical analyses to analyse countries' public policies from 2015. The method considers two sources of opportunity inequality: the leave system (as the opportunity and constraint structure) and the socioeconomic and cultural contexts (as the conversion factors). It produces a nuanced and comprehensive overview of national leave policies, visually representing policy across countries. It challenges a policy-cluster idea and demonstrates that public leave policies in northern Europe are far from homogenous; they diverge not only in the degree to which they create real opportunities for parents across gender and income groups but also in the policy dimensions through which these opportunities are created. These findings suggest that family policies do not fit neatly the established welfare state types or the Nordic-Baltic divide, and that considering policy capability ramifications beyond gender warrants further research.
Research Interests:
State socialism undeniably shaped institutional legacies of post-socialist EU member states; not only had it produced an extraordinary leap in terms of female employment, it also heralded significant change in the role of the state in the... more
State socialism undeniably shaped institutional legacies of post-socialist EU member states; not only had it produced an extraordinary leap in terms of female employment, it also heralded significant change in the role of the state in the family. Therefore, post-socialist countries are often homogenised and treated as a single country cluster in the welfare state regime research. This paper attempts a more nuanced assessment via analysis of their socialist past. It demonstrates that countries adopted different models of socialism, endorsing and legitimizing different family policies and gender roles. It shows that countries departed state socialism with mixed legacies and collective experiences about social organisation of childcare and female employment. This paper thus invites perspectives for further academic debate about the “common socialist legacy” and distinct “post-socialist” welfare regime.
Research Interests:
This study addresses the developments in the publicly-funded childcare system in Slovenia in two ways. (i) The policy analysis focused on the national policy context, i.e. the type of governance; actors in childcare provision; political... more
This study addresses the developments in the publicly-funded childcare system in Slovenia in two ways. (i) The policy analysis focused on the national policy context, i.e. the type of governance; actors in childcare provision; political and financial support for public childcare, including the impact of the current crisis. It investigates the reconfiguring of childcare services, looking at changes in how they are delivered, organised, financed and allocated. (ii) The impact of such changes in territorial differentiation terms is analysed looking at the Municipalities of Ljubljana, Slovenske Konjice and Zreče. Data comes from national documents, legal regulations, statistical sources, and information provided by national and local policy-makers and pioneers of public childcare network design in state socialism. The paper shows that whilst public childcare is the responsibility and is largely financed by local municipalities, the state regulates and monitors the service standards. Childcare service is a legal duty of the municipality, but has been high on the political agenda of the three selected municipalities, enjoying significant support of the local administration. The most critical and greatest variability across the state is in service affordability, something which the state, providers and local municipalities have repeatedly been requested to act upon by the national Court of Audit. Given the comparable high-quality service provision across the public providers across the state, variability in prices and service hours are often reported as problematic and critical by the working parents.
Research Interests:
Comparative research routinely employs a small number of indicators to compare family policies across countries. Government expenditure, participation of children in public childcare or length of parental leave are internationally... more
Comparative research routinely employs a small number of indicators to compare family policies across countries. Government expenditure, participation of children in public childcare or length of parental leave are internationally recognised policy indicators. However, they have been subject of academic controversy and are less adequate predictors of gendered policy incentives. This paper, therefore, theoretically and empirically explores and discusses how varieties of state de-familialism could be more fully captured in a cross-country perspective. It offers a methodology to reveal the latent constructs which underlie policies on parental leave and childcare services, to uncover the state assumptions about social organisation of childcare and gender roles in a country-comparative perspective. Legal regulations are central to this analysis, and combinations of policy components take centre stage. An index of state de-familialism is proposed and its analytical potential tested on eight post-socialist EU states.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This study addresses the developments in the publicly-funded childcare system in Slovenia in two ways. (i) The policy analysis focused on the national policy context, i.e. the type of governance; actors in childcare provision; political... more
This study addresses the developments in the publicly-funded childcare system in Slovenia in two ways. (i) The policy analysis focused on the national policy context, i.e. the type of governance; actors in childcare provision; political and financial support for public childcare, including the impact of the current crisis. It investigates the reconfiguring of childcare services, looking at changes in how they are delivered, organised, financed and allocated. (ii) The impact of such changes in territorial differentiation terms is analysed looking at the Municipalities of Ljubljana, Slovenske Konjice and Zreče. Data comes from national documents, legal regulations, statistical sources, and information provided by national and local policy-makers and pioneers of public childcare network design in state socialism. The paper shows that whilst public childcare is the responsibility and is largely financed by local municipalities, the state regulates and monitors the service standards. Childcare service is a legal duty of the municipality, but has been high on the political agenda of the three selected municipalities, enjoying significant support of the local administration. The most critical and greatest variability across the state is in service affordability, something which the state, providers and local municipalities have repeatedly been requested to act upon by the national Court of Audit. Given the comparable high-quality service provision across the public providers across the state, variability in prices and service hours are often reported as problematic and critical by the working parents.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This paper offers a methodology to reveal the latent constructs which underlie policies on parental leave and childcare services. It is constructed to uncover the state assumptions about social organisation of childcare and gender roles... more
This paper offers a methodology to reveal the latent constructs which underlie policies on parental leave and childcare services. It is constructed to uncover the state assumptions about social organisation of childcare and gender roles in a country-comparative perspective. Legal regulations are central to this analysis, and combinations of policy components take centre stage. An index of state de-familialism is proposed and its analytical potential tested on eight post-socialist EU states. Grounded in Leitner’s (2003) conceptualisation of familialism, it gauges three policy types: (1) Slovenian and Lithuanian supported defamilialism incentivises women’s continuous employment and active fatherhood, (2) explicit familialism in Hungary, Czech Republic, and Estonia supports familial childcare and reinforces gendered parenting, and (3) implicit familialism in Poland, Slovakia, and Latvia leaves parents without public support. These groups share core characteristics with developed welfare-state regimes. This methodology has the potential to discredit claims of post-socialist exceptionalism and allows researchers to test new hypotheses.
Research Interests:
State socialism undeniably shaped institutional legacies of post-socialist EU member states; not only had it produced an extraordinary leap in terms of female employment, it also heralded significant change in the role of the state in the... more
State socialism undeniably shaped institutional legacies of post-socialist EU member states; not only had it produced an extraordinary leap in terms of female employment, it also heralded significant change in the role of the state in the family. Therefore, post-socialist countries are often homogenised and treated as a single country cluster in the welfare stateregime research. This paper attempts a more nuanced assessment via analysis of their socialist past. It demonstrates that countries adopted different models of socialism, endorsing and legitimizing different family policies and gender roles. It shows that countries departed state socialism with mixed legacies and collective experiences about social organisation of childcare and female employment. This paper thus invites perspectives for further academic debate about the “common socialist legacy” and distinct “post-socialist” welfare regime.
Research Interests:
Comparative research routinely employs a small number of indicators to compare family policies across countries. Government expenditure, participation of children in public childcare or length of parental leave are internationally... more
Comparative research routinely employs a small number of indicators to compare family policies across countries. Government expenditure, participation of children in public childcare or length of parental leave are internationally recognised policy indicators. However, they have been subject of academic controversy and are less adequate predictors of gendered policy incentives. This paper, therefore, theoretically and empirically explores and discusses how varieties of state de-familialism could be more fully captured in a cross-country perspective. It offers a methodology to reveal the latent constructs which underlie policies on parental leave and childcare services, to uncover the state assumptions about social organisation of childcare and gender roles in a country-comparative perspective. Legal regulations are central to this analysis, and combinations of policy components take centre stage. An index of state de-familialism is proposed and its analytical potential tested on eight post-socialist EU states.
Research Interests:
This paper explores the role of family support in daily lives of Slovenian working parents. It reports the complexity involved in juggling work with family, the barriers posed, and the strategies used to avoid, or overcome the tensions.... more
This paper explores the role of family support in daily lives of Slovenian working parents. It reports the complexity involved in juggling work with family, the barriers posed, and the strategies used to avoid, or overcome the tensions. It focuses on instrumental aid and support in family domain, and explores whether, and how family, workplace and state support interact in daily routines of dual-earner families. Data comes from in-depth interviews with 20 working mothers and fathers, gathered over 2011-13, and draws on other sources to reinforce conclusions. Findings are consistent with the notion that family is important source of support, with spouses and grandparents being the strategic role partners in coordinating two domains. Analysis further supports theoretical claims that support sources are complementary, but also reinforcing and substitutive.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Work-family conflict has been a dominant construct in survey-based work-family research and is often depicted as a special case of stress produced by modern dual-earner societies. However, both the individual actor and the societal... more
Work-family conflict has been a dominant construct in survey-based work-family research and is often depicted as a special case of stress produced by modern dual-earner societies. However, both the individual actor and the societal context expressed, e.g., in family policies have been conspicuously absent from this research. This study uses qualitative interviews (n=37) to investigate how parents in Sweden and Slovenia perceive and manage work-family conflict. The two countries are strikingly similar in terms of family policies and dual-earner practices (e.g., employment rates of mothers of small children) and the samples have identical structures (male and female employees in five occupations, all with pre-school children and a working spouse).
The findingssuggest that parents’ decision-making is deeply embedded in the institutional context, providing both practical solutions and normative messages. In both countries, interviews reflect a context presenting dual roles as synergistic rather than conflicting, by establishing an ideal of combining work and family, even when children are small. Fundamental decisions related to occupation and fertility are made with little consideration of work-family conflict.
Regarding the implications of those decisions, however, differences appear both between and within countries. Although both countries provide a generous period of gender-neutral parental leave, its usage differed. In the Slovenian sample, leave was predominantly used by mothers and in one block, thus post-poning work-family conflict for about a year. However, there is a ‘care gap’ for children under 3, which is filled mainly by grandparents and after that, grandparents continue to be involved in the work-family puzzle. In the Swedish sample, parental leave was used flexibly by both parents in order to juggle work-family demands over longer period of time.
Both samples point to the importance but also the limitation of family policies in solving work-family conflict. In particular, public day care does not allow for two full-time schedules. In Slovenia, this is due to push factors (low availability, high costs, restriction on hours). In Sweden, prevailing perceptions of child wellbeing and family affinity urge parents to minimize day care hours. The strategies used are mainly part-time, schedule flexibility and making strategic use of the partner (e.g, taking ’shifts’ at home ), while grandparents are very peripheral. In contrast, the right to request part-time is rarely used in Slovenia and fathers are perceived as secondary caregivers.
The mean level of work-conflict was similar in the two samples, for both men and women. At the same time, there was a large variation within each country, related to the character of work as well as to gender. In particular, the tools for work-family reconciliation provided by policy (work hour reductions, right to leave to care for sick children) could not be effiently used when work demands were high. Finally, women in both samples felt more responsible for finding ’family friendly’ solution and made greater accomodations to this end – yet, they perceived more work-family conflict than men.
The findingssuggest that parents’ decision-making is deeply embedded in the institutional context, providing both practical solutions and normative messages. In both countries, interviews reflect a context presenting dual roles as synergistic rather than conflicting, by establishing an ideal of combining work and family, even when children are small. Fundamental decisions related to occupation and fertility are made with little consideration of work-family conflict.
Regarding the implications of those decisions, however, differences appear both between and within countries. Although both countries provide a generous period of gender-neutral parental leave, its usage differed. In the Slovenian sample, leave was predominantly used by mothers and in one block, thus post-poning work-family conflict for about a year. However, there is a ‘care gap’ for children under 3, which is filled mainly by grandparents and after that, grandparents continue to be involved in the work-family puzzle. In the Swedish sample, parental leave was used flexibly by both parents in order to juggle work-family demands over longer period of time.
Both samples point to the importance but also the limitation of family policies in solving work-family conflict. In particular, public day care does not allow for two full-time schedules. In Slovenia, this is due to push factors (low availability, high costs, restriction on hours). In Sweden, prevailing perceptions of child wellbeing and family affinity urge parents to minimize day care hours. The strategies used are mainly part-time, schedule flexibility and making strategic use of the partner (e.g, taking ’shifts’ at home ), while grandparents are very peripheral. In contrast, the right to request part-time is rarely used in Slovenia and fathers are perceived as secondary caregivers.
The mean level of work-conflict was similar in the two samples, for both men and women. At the same time, there was a large variation within each country, related to the character of work as well as to gender. In particular, the tools for work-family reconciliation provided by policy (work hour reductions, right to leave to care for sick children) could not be effiently used when work demands were high. Finally, women in both samples felt more responsible for finding ’family friendly’ solution and made greater accomodations to this end – yet, they perceived more work-family conflict than men.
This article attempts to inform continuing debates about the purpose and effects of composite indexing in social policy analysis. It discusses advantages and shortcomings of concepts in this tradition and pays explicit attention to the... more
This article attempts to inform continuing debates about the purpose and effects of composite indexing in social policy analysis. It discusses advantages and shortcomings of concepts in this tradition and pays explicit attention to the methodological challenges and decisions that concern case selection, concept formation, the role of counterfactuals, establishing of measurement validity, and multi-method design. Drawing on disaggregated policy data, it develops an integrated analytical concept and illustrates how data provided by national regulations instead of, for example, aggregate data on policy delivery can be adopted for the operationalization. It demonstrates how using such data enables us to integrate the Central and Eastern European EU member states in the corpus of comparative welfare state typologies – an attempt which has gained little methodologically substantiated attention in comparative studies so far. A policy analysis of childcare policies in eight post-socialist EU member states between 2000 and 2008 is performed, in order to provide insight into whether policy clusters are similar to those identified within the “welfare regime” framework. The results show that the full state support of maternal employment and equal parenting is a long way off. Slovenia and Lithuania display the highest overall performance with more coherent gender logics, whereas Poland, Slovakia and Latvia perform rather poorly. The remaining three privilege male breadwinner/female caregiver family model.
Relative to Western capitalist countries, the socialist states were distinguished by comparatively high full-time employment of women since the early socialist period, i.e. since the 1950s. Much of the earlier literature argues that state... more
Relative to Western capitalist countries, the socialist states were distinguished by comparatively high full-time employment of women since the early socialist period, i.e. since the 1950s. Much of the earlier literature argues that state socialism eroded the bonds of family life and that its childcare policies freed women to join the labour force – and on a full-time basis (e.g. Van der Lippe and Van Dijk 2001a: 5). Early scholarship on transition from socialism to capitalism presupposed an increase in traditionalism in attitudes, practices and policies, and argued that the ideological climate would push women into traditional relationships, out of the labour force. Moreover, an ‘anti-feminist sentiment’ thesis argued that, given the opportunity, women in the post-socialist countries would opt out of jobs to stay home with their children (e.g. Einhorn 1993; Gal and Kligman 2000; Pascall and Kwak 2005).
The empirical evidence for such theses is scarce. However, a considerably more compelling trend can be identified when narrowing the focus to employment patterns of women in the phase of “active motherhood in [their] biographies” (Pfau-Effinger 2004a: 2): employment rates for women aged 25-49 without pre-school children have, between 2000 and 2008, contrasted sharply with the employment rates for women with children under 7. Whilst the former have been similarly high among the eight post-socialist countries, the latter ranged from the lowest 30 per cent in Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, to about 90 per cent in Slovenia. This shift in employment practices among women with children deviates from the pattern of total female employment in a cross-country perspective, and seems at odds with the re-traditionalization thesis which argues that trends in mothers’ employment would be similar among these eight countries. The puzzle is what accounts for such behavioural change among women with young children and those without.
This paper aims to show whether, and how, the current trends in care/work integration practices have been influenced by the historical-institutional developments during the period of state socialism. I will argue that a longer scan produces a picture of continuity, and indicates that treating these eight countries as one single group (as often the case in the earlier literature) masks an interesting and nuanced story. I will show that state socialism put these eight countries on different paths, and that the social inheritance continues to exert a powerful effect on their social practices in the contemporary post-socialist period
The empirical evidence for such theses is scarce. However, a considerably more compelling trend can be identified when narrowing the focus to employment patterns of women in the phase of “active motherhood in [their] biographies” (Pfau-Effinger 2004a: 2): employment rates for women aged 25-49 without pre-school children have, between 2000 and 2008, contrasted sharply with the employment rates for women with children under 7. Whilst the former have been similarly high among the eight post-socialist countries, the latter ranged from the lowest 30 per cent in Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, to about 90 per cent in Slovenia. This shift in employment practices among women with children deviates from the pattern of total female employment in a cross-country perspective, and seems at odds with the re-traditionalization thesis which argues that trends in mothers’ employment would be similar among these eight countries. The puzzle is what accounts for such behavioural change among women with young children and those without.
This paper aims to show whether, and how, the current trends in care/work integration practices have been influenced by the historical-institutional developments during the period of state socialism. I will argue that a longer scan produces a picture of continuity, and indicates that treating these eight countries as one single group (as often the case in the earlier literature) masks an interesting and nuanced story. I will show that state socialism put these eight countries on different paths, and that the social inheritance continues to exert a powerful effect on their social practices in the contemporary post-socialist period
Work-family conflict has been a dominant – not to say, the dominant – construct in survey-based work-family research and is often depicted as a special case of stress produced by modern dual-earner societies. However, it can be argued... more
Work-family conflict has been a dominant – not to say, the dominant – construct in survey-based work-family research and is often depicted as a special case of stress produced by modern dual-earner societies. However, it can be argued that research on work-family conflict has limited, and possibly distorted, our understanding of how work and family are combined.
We see two important caveats:
* First, the construct of work-family conflict does not capture role conflictas discussed in the theories – that is, as competing pressures from two spheres. In contrast, we argue that indicators measure the ’residual’ conflict which remains after strategies to deal with these pressures have been employed. As a result, important variations in choices and constraints are missed, and potentials for interventions may be misconstrued.
*Second, research on work-family conflict has largely ignored the competing hypothesis of role expansion.
Our point of concern is the strong domination of the conflict perspective in describing work-family interactions. The rivalling hypothesis of role expansion - claiming that the combination of dual roles in paid work and family is a source of wellbeing rather than stress - was formulated already in the 1970´s, and has gained new interest in recent years when a variety of constructs have been proposed to describe positivework-family interactions. However, this hypothesis has been largely ignored in research on work-family conflict.
Our paper argues that such theoretical and empirical divide has hampered our understanding of the challenges as well as benefits of the dual-earner family. The importance of merging the role conflict and the role expansion perspective is demonstrated by our large-scale quantitative study of 15 European countries (Grönlund&Öun 2010). Based on European Social Survey 2004, we found that role conflict (i.e. work-family conflict) and role expansion (measured as well-being and life satisfaction) may go hand in hand. However, the conflict-expansion nexus appears to vary both with gender and with national social policies. Moreover, the findings indicate that predictors commonly associated with work-family conflict – for example, long work hours and high workload - produce both conflict and well-being.
Second, perceptions of conflict are conflated with actions producing or reducing conflict. Research on work-family conflict is based on theories of role conflict and role strain (e.g. Goode 1960). In their seminal article, Greenhaus & Beutell (1985) define work-family conflict as ”a form of interrole conflict in which the role pressures from the work and family domains are mutually incompatible in some respect, that is, participaton in the work (family) role is made more difficult by virtue of participation in the family (work) role” (ibid 77). This conflict is very much a product of individual actors. In role strain theory, Goode (1960) points out that people take actions to make their role systems maneagable. The individual ”must move through a continuous process of role descisions and bargains by which he attempts to adjust these demands and reduce role strain to some bearable proportions” (ibid 495).
In empirical research, this actor perspective appears to have been lost. Recently, researchers have pointed out that the prevailing construct does not capture role conflict as it was theoretically depicted –that is, as simultaneous pressures from two spheres. Instead, it measures work-family interference, which is the daily experience of strain or stress related to the work-family interface (Carlson &Grzyvacs 2008). Thus, reported levels of work-family conflict mirror the stress that remains after individual strategies to resolve the problem of competing pressures have been employed.
If work-family conflict is regarded as a ’residual’ conflict, empirical findings appear less puzzling. For example, although theory implies that role conflict would be high in dual-earner families with preschool children, several empirical studies find no relation between children and work-family conflict. Similarly, most studies find no gender difference in work-family conflict, although it is widely recognized that women adjust their involvement in paid work precisely to avoid this conflict. Studies reporting a higher conflict among women with egalitarian gender attitudes, or in a gender-equal society such as Sweden, or among service class women with considerable power resources may be better understood if we consider that individuals employ work-family balancing strategies; that those are aimed at balancing conflict and expansionrather than just reducing conflict and that they are formulated within specific contexts.
To further our understanding of these issues, we have conducted a qualitative study comprising five European countries representing different welfare regimes. In each country, we have interviewed men and women in five occupations, all parents with dependent children. Based on our preliminary empirical findings, this paper expands our arguments and provides suggestions for further research.
Paper by Anne Grönlund, Jana Javornik, Ida Öun
We see two important caveats:
* First, the construct of work-family conflict does not capture role conflictas discussed in the theories – that is, as competing pressures from two spheres. In contrast, we argue that indicators measure the ’residual’ conflict which remains after strategies to deal with these pressures have been employed. As a result, important variations in choices and constraints are missed, and potentials for interventions may be misconstrued.
*Second, research on work-family conflict has largely ignored the competing hypothesis of role expansion.
Our point of concern is the strong domination of the conflict perspective in describing work-family interactions. The rivalling hypothesis of role expansion - claiming that the combination of dual roles in paid work and family is a source of wellbeing rather than stress - was formulated already in the 1970´s, and has gained new interest in recent years when a variety of constructs have been proposed to describe positivework-family interactions. However, this hypothesis has been largely ignored in research on work-family conflict.
Our paper argues that such theoretical and empirical divide has hampered our understanding of the challenges as well as benefits of the dual-earner family. The importance of merging the role conflict and the role expansion perspective is demonstrated by our large-scale quantitative study of 15 European countries (Grönlund&Öun 2010). Based on European Social Survey 2004, we found that role conflict (i.e. work-family conflict) and role expansion (measured as well-being and life satisfaction) may go hand in hand. However, the conflict-expansion nexus appears to vary both with gender and with national social policies. Moreover, the findings indicate that predictors commonly associated with work-family conflict – for example, long work hours and high workload - produce both conflict and well-being.
Second, perceptions of conflict are conflated with actions producing or reducing conflict. Research on work-family conflict is based on theories of role conflict and role strain (e.g. Goode 1960). In their seminal article, Greenhaus & Beutell (1985) define work-family conflict as ”a form of interrole conflict in which the role pressures from the work and family domains are mutually incompatible in some respect, that is, participaton in the work (family) role is made more difficult by virtue of participation in the family (work) role” (ibid 77). This conflict is very much a product of individual actors. In role strain theory, Goode (1960) points out that people take actions to make their role systems maneagable. The individual ”must move through a continuous process of role descisions and bargains by which he attempts to adjust these demands and reduce role strain to some bearable proportions” (ibid 495).
In empirical research, this actor perspective appears to have been lost. Recently, researchers have pointed out that the prevailing construct does not capture role conflict as it was theoretically depicted –that is, as simultaneous pressures from two spheres. Instead, it measures work-family interference, which is the daily experience of strain or stress related to the work-family interface (Carlson &Grzyvacs 2008). Thus, reported levels of work-family conflict mirror the stress that remains after individual strategies to resolve the problem of competing pressures have been employed.
If work-family conflict is regarded as a ’residual’ conflict, empirical findings appear less puzzling. For example, although theory implies that role conflict would be high in dual-earner families with preschool children, several empirical studies find no relation between children and work-family conflict. Similarly, most studies find no gender difference in work-family conflict, although it is widely recognized that women adjust their involvement in paid work precisely to avoid this conflict. Studies reporting a higher conflict among women with egalitarian gender attitudes, or in a gender-equal society such as Sweden, or among service class women with considerable power resources may be better understood if we consider that individuals employ work-family balancing strategies; that those are aimed at balancing conflict and expansionrather than just reducing conflict and that they are formulated within specific contexts.
To further our understanding of these issues, we have conducted a qualitative study comprising five European countries representing different welfare regimes. In each country, we have interviewed men and women in five occupations, all parents with dependent children. Based on our preliminary empirical findings, this paper expands our arguments and provides suggestions for further research.
Paper by Anne Grönlund, Jana Javornik, Ida Öun
Relative to Western capitalist countries, the socialist states were distinguished by comparatively high full-time employment of women since the early socialist period, i.e. since the 1950s. Much of the earlier literature argues that state... more
Relative to Western capitalist countries, the socialist states were distinguished by comparatively high full-time employment of women since the early socialist period, i.e. since the 1950s. Much of the earlier literature argues that state socialism eroded the bonds of family life and that its childcare policies freed women to join the labour force – and on a full-time basis (e.g. Van der Lippe and Van Dijk 2001a: 5). Early scholarship on transition from socialism to capitalism presupposed an increase in traditionalism in attitudes, practices and policies, and argued that the ideological climate would push women into traditional relationships, out of the labour force. The scholars argued that liberalism would spur severe cuts in national childcare policies; lacking extensive public subsidies the public childcare provision would plummet, child care would be re-familialized, and women would be driven off the labour markets to engage in (cheaper) family care work (e.g. Pascall and Lewis 2004: 375-7; Pascall and Kwak 2005: 29). On the other hand, an ‘anti-feminist sentiment’ thesis argued that, given the opportunity, women in the post-socialist countries would opt out of jobs to stay home with their children (e.g. Einhorn 1993; Gal and Kligman 2000; Pascall and Kwak 2005). Thus, they argued, a new awaking – compelling women to substitute one type of life for another, i.e. to retreat from the labour force and stay home with their children – would not be perceived as ‘redomestification’ of women. Einhorn (1993) goes further and argues that “it is understandable that the double burden of the past, and the difficulties of the present combine to make women favour staying at home or working part-time or from home”. Taken together, this scholarship anticipated that women would have returned in droves to domestic lives during the 1990s.
The empirical evidence for such theses is scarce. I found that a significant decline in female employment rates in the early years of the 1990s was a tidal wave. Namely, between 2000 and 2008, the employment rates for women in full-time jobs were, on average, still higher (at about 80 per cent and over) than in other countries of the European Union, with practically no cross-country variation, and with fairly narrow gender gaps in employment (Eurostat 2005, 2010). This empirical evidence indicates that women in eight most advanced post-socialist countries did not retreat from the labour force, but have continued to engage in paid employment on a full-time basis.
However, within the broad category of ‘female employment’ something else is going on: I found a considerably more compelling trend when I narrowed my focus to employment patterns of women in the phase of “active motherhood in [their] biographies” (Pfau-Effinger 2004a: 2). On the one hand, the employment rates for women aged 25-49 without children under 7 were similarly high among the eight post-socialist countries. But, this trend contrasted sharply with the employment rates for women with children under 7; these ranged from the lowest 30 per cent in Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, to about 90 per cent in Slovenia. This shift in employment practices among women with children deviates from the pattern of total female employment in a cross-country perspective, and seems at odds with the re-traditionalization thesis which argues that trends in mothers’ employment would be similar among these eight countries. The puzzle is what accounts for such behavioural change among women with young children and those without.
This paper explores the puzzling phenomenon of a wide cross-country variation, and shed clarifies (1) what has shaped it, and (2) whether or not the current trends in care/work integration practices have in any way been influenced by the historical-institutional developments during the period of state socialism. The paper shows that the socialist period produced extraordinary leap in terms of female employment, which in turn dismantled the male breadwinner family model (if it ever existed) and heralded significant change in the role of the state in the family. A longer scan has produced a picture of continuity, and indicates that treating these eight countries as one single group masks an interesting and nuanced story. It also shows that state socialism put these eight countries on different paths, and that the social inheritance continues to exert a powerful effect on their social practices in the contemporary post-socialist period.
The empirical evidence for such theses is scarce. I found that a significant decline in female employment rates in the early years of the 1990s was a tidal wave. Namely, between 2000 and 2008, the employment rates for women in full-time jobs were, on average, still higher (at about 80 per cent and over) than in other countries of the European Union, with practically no cross-country variation, and with fairly narrow gender gaps in employment (Eurostat 2005, 2010). This empirical evidence indicates that women in eight most advanced post-socialist countries did not retreat from the labour force, but have continued to engage in paid employment on a full-time basis.
However, within the broad category of ‘female employment’ something else is going on: I found a considerably more compelling trend when I narrowed my focus to employment patterns of women in the phase of “active motherhood in [their] biographies” (Pfau-Effinger 2004a: 2). On the one hand, the employment rates for women aged 25-49 without children under 7 were similarly high among the eight post-socialist countries. But, this trend contrasted sharply with the employment rates for women with children under 7; these ranged from the lowest 30 per cent in Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, to about 90 per cent in Slovenia. This shift in employment practices among women with children deviates from the pattern of total female employment in a cross-country perspective, and seems at odds with the re-traditionalization thesis which argues that trends in mothers’ employment would be similar among these eight countries. The puzzle is what accounts for such behavioural change among women with young children and those without.
This paper explores the puzzling phenomenon of a wide cross-country variation, and shed clarifies (1) what has shaped it, and (2) whether or not the current trends in care/work integration practices have in any way been influenced by the historical-institutional developments during the period of state socialism. The paper shows that the socialist period produced extraordinary leap in terms of female employment, which in turn dismantled the male breadwinner family model (if it ever existed) and heralded significant change in the role of the state in the family. A longer scan has produced a picture of continuity, and indicates that treating these eight countries as one single group masks an interesting and nuanced story. It also shows that state socialism put these eight countries on different paths, and that the social inheritance continues to exert a powerful effect on their social practices in the contemporary post-socialist period.
Women tend now to be seen both as primary carers and as individuals responsible for earning for themselves, their children, and their pensions. Moreover, mothers’ employment has become a more pressing necessity for the majority to protect... more
Women tend now to be seen both as primary carers and as individuals responsible for earning for themselves, their children, and their pensions. Moreover, mothers’ employment has become a more pressing necessity for the majority to protect against falling living standards and insecurity. The prevalence of work as a source of welfare entitlement makes labour market participation more compulsory. Therefore, labour force participation is of crucial importance to women’s economic and social rights - access to an independent income, and thus the prevention of their dependence.
This paper argues that childcare policies (i.e. policies on parental leave and formal day care) ostensibly reflect whether, and how, the states support mothers in paid employment as well as challenge the gender-specific parenting. The varieties of familialism literature provides the theoretical foundations for this research and offers perspectives of how the states use childcare policies differently to challenge, or reinforce the conventional gender division of labour – and in so doing shape mothers’ employment. This paper explores the intersection of state, market and family and how this has shaped the scope of women’s choices and employment opportunities in eight most advanced post-socialist countries that entered the EU in 2004, focusing on the period between 1950 and 2008. It shows that the states have differed in their policy priorities and goals – that is, in the extent to which they have considered the uneven capacity of mothers to invest in paid employment. Drawing upon detailed policy characteristics this paper presents compelling cross-country variations and shows that broadly similar states countries divide up into three (recognizable) policy clusters, which represent three types of familialism in the field of child care: de-familialism, explicit familialism, and implicit familialism. The paper indicates that despite variations within clusters, variations between clusters are greater. Such differences emphasize the need for a more dynamic model of welfare state typology, and enhance the interpretative capacities of the ‘varieties of familialism’ strategy of deconstructing welfare regimes, in order to address the question of how welfare regimes relate to women in different roles.
This paper seeks to locate the institutionalization of contemporary childcare policies by putting the relationship between maternal employment and the state into a historical perspective – that is, by extending policy analysis to the periods both before and after the collapse of state socialism. On the one hand, it analyzes whether or not the developments during state socialism, i.e. between the 1950s and the late 1980s, shed new light on social practices in the contemporary post-socialist period. It shows that the socialist period produced extraordinary leap in terms of female employment, which in turn dismantled the male breadwinner family model and heralded significant change in the role of the state in the family. However, although the eight countries pursued similar programmes of the socialist revolutionary transformation of institutional order in that period, mothers’ employment and social organisation of care have been constructed around a contrasting set of normative fundamentals – maternal ideology competed with the duty of labour to different extent in different socialist countries (also Pascall and Manning 2000: 245). The eight countries show significant variation in the (oppressive) use of state as well as in the state intervention via social policies. On the other hand, this paper extends the study to the period after 1990 and finds that the eight countries experienced long periods of relatively stable policy arrangements between the 1950s and 2008, with moments of dynamism and reform between 1989 and the second half of the 1990s. Overall, this paper challenges earlier theses about a resurgence of patriarchal order, ascendancy of neo-familialism, and women’s retreat to domestic life in these countries. Instead, it argues that intra-group diversities are symptoms of larger, more sustained differences, and thus challenges the dichotomy between the ‘socialist past’ and the ‘post-socialist present’ as well as the thesis about the re-traditionalization of cultural norms and gender-role values.
In sum, this paper argues that historical legacies and institutional arrangements play an important role in how countries deal with gender roles, and indicates that the social inheritance continues to exert a powerful effect on contemporary social practices in the eight countries: their states either rely on households to produce care (i.e. familialistic policies) or, instead, acknowledge the importance of the wider society, particularly at the collective level (i.e. the de-familialistic policies). Putting the policy review in a historical perspective this paper contributes to a further academic debate about the continuity and path dependence in childcare policies and offers some perspectives for further research that could derive more generalizations about the stability/change in the varieties of familialism.
This paper argues that childcare policies (i.e. policies on parental leave and formal day care) ostensibly reflect whether, and how, the states support mothers in paid employment as well as challenge the gender-specific parenting. The varieties of familialism literature provides the theoretical foundations for this research and offers perspectives of how the states use childcare policies differently to challenge, or reinforce the conventional gender division of labour – and in so doing shape mothers’ employment. This paper explores the intersection of state, market and family and how this has shaped the scope of women’s choices and employment opportunities in eight most advanced post-socialist countries that entered the EU in 2004, focusing on the period between 1950 and 2008. It shows that the states have differed in their policy priorities and goals – that is, in the extent to which they have considered the uneven capacity of mothers to invest in paid employment. Drawing upon detailed policy characteristics this paper presents compelling cross-country variations and shows that broadly similar states countries divide up into three (recognizable) policy clusters, which represent three types of familialism in the field of child care: de-familialism, explicit familialism, and implicit familialism. The paper indicates that despite variations within clusters, variations between clusters are greater. Such differences emphasize the need for a more dynamic model of welfare state typology, and enhance the interpretative capacities of the ‘varieties of familialism’ strategy of deconstructing welfare regimes, in order to address the question of how welfare regimes relate to women in different roles.
This paper seeks to locate the institutionalization of contemporary childcare policies by putting the relationship between maternal employment and the state into a historical perspective – that is, by extending policy analysis to the periods both before and after the collapse of state socialism. On the one hand, it analyzes whether or not the developments during state socialism, i.e. between the 1950s and the late 1980s, shed new light on social practices in the contemporary post-socialist period. It shows that the socialist period produced extraordinary leap in terms of female employment, which in turn dismantled the male breadwinner family model and heralded significant change in the role of the state in the family. However, although the eight countries pursued similar programmes of the socialist revolutionary transformation of institutional order in that period, mothers’ employment and social organisation of care have been constructed around a contrasting set of normative fundamentals – maternal ideology competed with the duty of labour to different extent in different socialist countries (also Pascall and Manning 2000: 245). The eight countries show significant variation in the (oppressive) use of state as well as in the state intervention via social policies. On the other hand, this paper extends the study to the period after 1990 and finds that the eight countries experienced long periods of relatively stable policy arrangements between the 1950s and 2008, with moments of dynamism and reform between 1989 and the second half of the 1990s. Overall, this paper challenges earlier theses about a resurgence of patriarchal order, ascendancy of neo-familialism, and women’s retreat to domestic life in these countries. Instead, it argues that intra-group diversities are symptoms of larger, more sustained differences, and thus challenges the dichotomy between the ‘socialist past’ and the ‘post-socialist present’ as well as the thesis about the re-traditionalization of cultural norms and gender-role values.
In sum, this paper argues that historical legacies and institutional arrangements play an important role in how countries deal with gender roles, and indicates that the social inheritance continues to exert a powerful effect on contemporary social practices in the eight countries: their states either rely on households to produce care (i.e. familialistic policies) or, instead, acknowledge the importance of the wider society, particularly at the collective level (i.e. the de-familialistic policies). Putting the policy review in a historical perspective this paper contributes to a further academic debate about the continuity and path dependence in childcare policies and offers some perspectives for further research that could derive more generalizations about the stability/change in the varieties of familialism.
The paper is a methodological discussion focused on the measurement of childcare policies, in particular on the possibilities of how to characterise policies on childcare leave and formal day care service provision, while efficiently... more
The paper is a methodological discussion focused on the measurement of childcare policies, in particular on the possibilities of how to characterise policies on childcare leave and formal day care service provision, while efficiently managing their complexities in a cross-country perspective over time. It describes my approach to assessing childcare policies in eight most advanced post-socialist countries (joining the European Union in 2004), in order to explore their relationship with the employment rates for women with pre-school children. First, I extracted information on the relationship between the policies and female employment from the theory, and created an independent variable list of the most critical policy aspects with the highest explanatory potential for the shape of maternal employment. Second, I extended the list to the review of available empirical evidence. I argue that there is a forceful theoretical argument for restricting the potential explanatory policy variables for the evaluation study to the policy aspects used in this study. Using a set of twelve policy components I found that treating the post-socialist states as one single group has incorrectly influenced scholarship and has hidden a much more interesting and nuanced story about the degree of state familialism in these countries.
This study builds on the premise that policies on childcare leave and public childcare service provision generate dis/incentives for women to engage in paid employment and dis/incentives for men to participate in care. This thesis has not... more
This study builds on the premise that policies on childcare leave and public childcare service provision generate dis/incentives for women to engage in paid employment and dis/incentives for men to participate in care. This thesis has not yet been tested for the most advanced post-socialist countries. To approach this relationship, a closer examination of childcare policies and employment rates for women with pre-school children was made, in order to analyze whether policies and maternal employment also go hand in hand in eight post-socialist countries that joined the EU in 2004.
To examine childcare policies in these countries, national policy programmes are analyzed. I draw attention to more detailed policy characteristics that received insufficient attention in earlier comparative research. Drawing from earlier studies, I evaluate the two policies along twelve policy aspects: (i) total length of leave time, (ii) income support payments during leave, (iii) job protection during leave, (iv) flexibility of leave provision, (v) parental entitlements, and (vi) daddy-quotas. Public childcare service provision was also evaluated along six aspects, reflecting (i) availability of services, (ii) their affordability, and (iii) quality of service provision.
To examine childcare policies in these countries, national policy programmes are analyzed. I draw attention to more detailed policy characteristics that received insufficient attention in earlier comparative research. Drawing from earlier studies, I evaluate the two policies along twelve policy aspects: (i) total length of leave time, (ii) income support payments during leave, (iii) job protection during leave, (iv) flexibility of leave provision, (v) parental entitlements, and (vi) daddy-quotas. Public childcare service provision was also evaluated along six aspects, reflecting (i) availability of services, (ii) their affordability, and (iii) quality of service provision.
I have constructed three policy indices: the leave index, the childcare index, and the composite index of policy on care, which reflects a configuration of the two policies. The comparative analysis is centred on policy programmes – that... more
I have constructed three policy indices: the leave index, the childcare index, and the composite index of policy on care, which reflects a configuration of the two policies. The comparative analysis is centred on policy programmes – that is, on legal prescriptions and rules that set the minimum/maximum of what is possible and available to parents of very young children. The paper discusses my approach to assessing policies in a cross-country and temporal perspective, and using the indices in the statistical analysis of the relationship between policies and maternal employment.
Shared Parental Leave one year on, and why parents are reluctant in sharing it
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Why parents in the UK don't share parental leave
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Why parents are not using Shared Parental Leave
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It’s been almost a year since SPL was introduced in the UK, promising to bring radical change to the way mothers and fathers divided up work and childcare
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Contributed research for the newspaper article on Shared Parental Leave in the UK
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New rules on gender equality in the workplace come into force on Sunday. But for many they make little financial sense
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Childcare is likely to be a key battleground for the UK’s 2015 general election. Promises to entice female votes? Perhaps, but these policy commitments affect us all. To put the UK’s childcare cost crisis in perspective, it’s worth... more
Childcare is likely to be a key battleground for the UK’s 2015 general election. Promises to entice female votes? Perhaps, but these policy commitments affect us all. To put the UK’s childcare cost crisis in perspective, it’s worth looking to how other countries, many of them Nordic, have forged ahead with making universal, quality childcare a priority.
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New provisions allowing parents to share parental leave come into force in October and December this year. These will be available to parents in England, Scotland and Wales who will give birth to or adopt a child after April 5 next year.... more
New provisions allowing parents to share parental leave come into force in October and December this year. These will be available to parents in England, Scotland and Wales who will give birth to or adopt a child after April 5 next year. It seems that employers are still not catching on but they need to prepare for this change in the rules if it is going to work.
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Giving families new flexibility in how to balance leave between parents sounds great – but the evidence says fathers are unlikely to take more time off work.
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Over the past few years the UK has introduced some significant changes in childcare policy that may mark a fundamental reorientation in the policy outlook. New shared parental leave, enacted by the Coalition Government in 2014 and... more
Over the past few years the UK has introduced some significant changes in childcare policy that may mark a fundamental reorientation in the policy outlook. New shared parental leave, enacted by the Coalition Government in 2014 and analysed in this paper, aims to help working parents reconcile work+care and to ‘enable working fathers to take a more active role in caring for their children and [for] working parents to share the care of their children’ (Modern Workplaces Consultation: Government Response to Flexible Parental Leave Proposals, 3 November 2012). The involvement of both parents in childcare was defined as ‘shared parenting,’ with the aim of promoting such practice to dismantle the gendered division of work (Javornik 2014). Here, the Government clearly focused on heterosexual couples.
The Children and Families Act, of which the new Shared Parental Leave regulation is a major feature, is a well-meant piece of legislation, intended to give parents more job security and more control over family life. The policy also aimed to 'create a new, more equal system which allows both parents to keep a strong link to their workplace' - by men spending more time caring. Shared parenting is expected to reduce the gender opportunity gaps, i.e. 'the “gender penalty” that women suffer from taking time out of the workplace with their children’. In this paper, we aim to explore whether shared parental leave is in fact likely to challenge gender inequality through shared parenting.
The new legislation purports to bring equality into the workplace and the home, however, the government has not created a new right here – it is merely allowing parents to split an existing right, making the chances of parents (voluntarily) sharing leave slimmer. Second, it creates a right only to the statutory minimum leave and pay. The Achilles heel of this intervention is that it doesn't apply to occupational schemes. Thus in many workplaces an incentive for the mother to take leave remains.
We argue that the new law is unlikely to encourage more fathers to take parental leave – it appears to provide parents with new rights and choice over how the leave is taken, but in practice, 'the discretion remains with the employers' (Javornik, 2014a; Mitchell 2015). We support this by examining the eligibility, the statutory remuneration and the need for maternal consent to access leave. Using a recent employment tribunal example, we show how legal uncertainty over possible use of anti-discrimination law (to challenge father's exclusion from occupational maternity leave schemes) abounds. We explore the concept of indirect discrimination in this context, and use concepts from the field of social policy to consider whether excluding fathers from occupational schemes can be objectively justified in the context of social norms moving towards greater equality in shared parenting
The Children and Families Act, of which the new Shared Parental Leave regulation is a major feature, is a well-meant piece of legislation, intended to give parents more job security and more control over family life. The policy also aimed to 'create a new, more equal system which allows both parents to keep a strong link to their workplace' - by men spending more time caring. Shared parenting is expected to reduce the gender opportunity gaps, i.e. 'the “gender penalty” that women suffer from taking time out of the workplace with their children’. In this paper, we aim to explore whether shared parental leave is in fact likely to challenge gender inequality through shared parenting.
The new legislation purports to bring equality into the workplace and the home, however, the government has not created a new right here – it is merely allowing parents to split an existing right, making the chances of parents (voluntarily) sharing leave slimmer. Second, it creates a right only to the statutory minimum leave and pay. The Achilles heel of this intervention is that it doesn't apply to occupational schemes. Thus in many workplaces an incentive for the mother to take leave remains.
We argue that the new law is unlikely to encourage more fathers to take parental leave – it appears to provide parents with new rights and choice over how the leave is taken, but in practice, 'the discretion remains with the employers' (Javornik, 2014a; Mitchell 2015). We support this by examining the eligibility, the statutory remuneration and the need for maternal consent to access leave. Using a recent employment tribunal example, we show how legal uncertainty over possible use of anti-discrimination law (to challenge father's exclusion from occupational maternity leave schemes) abounds. We explore the concept of indirect discrimination in this context, and use concepts from the field of social policy to consider whether excluding fathers from occupational schemes can be objectively justified in the context of social norms moving towards greater equality in shared parenting