Explaining Variations in Family Policy through a Gender Lens

Abstract

Abstract This chapter engages with one of the most rapidly changing areas of social policy: family policy. The chapter seeks to fill a number of crucial knowledge gaps in the understanding of family policy by examining how cross-national variation in public spending and relative generosity in a number of family policy areas—specifically early childhood education and care, employment leaves, and child-related financial support—in 22 high-income countries is associated with a range of potential explanatory factors. The chapter places gender at the fore but examines its patterning in the context of other factors, specifically structural exigencies, political factors, and key aspects of public opinion. The results confirm an overall picture of complexity but show very clearly that gender is a central part of the picture. A number of possible explanations are considered for the significance of gender in family policy development across countries. These include gender as a new “zeitgeist,” the possibility that gender might be a mediating factor between socioeconomic considerations and family policy development, and the possibility that it is not so much convergence in ideology or gender egalitarianism that is associated with family policy development as the “sweeping together” of numerous instrumental objectives (e.g., work-family balance, early human capital development) through the rubric of gender. Overall, the empirical results need to be interpreted carefully, considering the significant effects found for the socioeconomic, public opinion, and political factors, and the difficulties in measuring the associations with the available cross-national indicators.