Equal Treatment, Labor Promotion, or Social Investment? Reconciliation Policy in Finnish and Dutch Coalition Programs 1995–2016

Abstract

This article investigates government‐level intentions on work/family reconciliation policies in Finland and the Netherlands. By analyzing the coalition programs between 1995 and 2016, it traces three dominant ideas of equal treatment, employment promotion, and social investment in the reconciliation policy discourses in these countries. The content analysis shows a general tendency toward labor promotion in both countries and weak steps toward social investment have been taken. The dominant ideas seem, however, reasonably stable over time.