Abstract
This paper examines the relevance of two interpretations of defamilisation (“freedom of the family” and “freedom of women from the family”) to the search for effective measures for strengthening women's participation in the paid labour market. Based on these two interpretations, two types of defamilisation measures (care-focused and women's economic) are identified. Two defamilisation indices are developed respectively covering twelve countries. The importance of the two types of defamilisation measures in assisting women to access employment are discussed from two angles. The input angle refers to the extent to which countries are committed to the provision of these defamilisation measures. The output angle is about the relationship between these defamilisation measures and the degree of women's participation in the paid labour market. Through conducting these analytical tasks, this paper also contributes to the examination of the relationship between types of welfare regimes and the provision of defamilisation measures.
Highlights
Since Esping-Andersen (1990) presented the ‘three worlds of welfare capitalism’ thesis based on the examination of the labour market decommodification of 18 members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation Development (OECD), studies of comparative social welfare have been dominated by his work and the criticisms of it
There is a search for effective measures that could create favourable conditions for women to take part in the paid labour market (Chzhen, 2010; Daly, 2011; Korpi, 2000, 2010; Kroger, 2011; Leitner, 2003; Lohmann and Zagel, 2016; Thévenon, 2013). This paper continues these discussions. It focuses on examining whether and how the two different interpretations of defamilisation presented by Bambra (2007) (‘the freedom of family’ and ‘the freedom of women from the family’) is useful in guiding the search for effective measures for strengthening women’s participation in the paid labour market
In building the care-focused defamilisation index, this paper focuses on three key dimensions of the provision of formal child care services - affordability, quality and coverage of formal child care services
Summary
Since Esping-Andersen (1990) presented the ‘three worlds of welfare capitalism’ thesis based on the examination of the labour market decommodification of 18 members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation Development (OECD), studies of comparative social welfare have been dominated by his work and the criticisms of it. It focuses on examining whether and how the two different interpretations of defamilisation presented by Bambra (2007) (‘the freedom of family’ and ‘the freedom of women from the family’) is useful in guiding the search for effective measures for strengthening women’s participation in the paid labour market. A number of studies indicate that there are variations between countries of different worlds of welfare regimes in using defamilisation measures to assist women to access paid work (Bambra, 2007; EspingAndersen, 1999; Korpi, 2000; Kroger, 2011). Norway and Sweden are in the high women’s economic defamilisation group which is characterised by their high Michon’s combined maternity leave scores and lengthy compensated maternity leave duration
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