Childcare policy in the European states: limits to convergence

Abstract

In the 1970s childcare provision and policy varied markedly between European Community member states. A number of subsequent developments including the growing numbers of working mothers and single-parent families, shifts in national welfare and labour market policy priorities, developments in European Union (EU) childcare policy and the impact of feminism might be expected to have encouraged convergence. This article uses available comparative data to demonstrate both the extent and the limits of convergence in practice. It suggests possible reasons for the limitations to convergence including the limited impact of feminism and of EU childcare initiatives, national variations in women's working patterns and lone motherhood and especially in the resilience of policy orientations embedded in different kinds of welfare regime.