The Politics of Work-Family Policies: Comparing Japan, France, Germany and the United States

Abstract

Postindustrial countries display a broad range of work–family policies, with Japan representing but one of many variations. Ever since the publication of Esping-Andersen’s classic The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism in 1990, political scientists have devoted considerable attention to explaining the variation in how states organize and provide services to support families. The vast majority of research has focused on comparisons among European welfare states, with Sweden generally held up as the ‘gold standard’ in terms of ideological and infrastructural support for working mothers. A much smaller literature has considered welfare states in East Asia, which are more limited in size than most of those in Europe. In The Politics of Work-Family Policies, Boling brings Japan into comparative focus not only with two carefully chosen European cases (France and Germany), but with a case not generally included in comparative studies: the US. While not central in her analysis, Sweden constitutes an implicit comparison for Boling’s four cases, allowing her to use it as a touchstone for how states can forge policies to support a dual-earner/dual-caregiver model. At the same time, she is very careful not to hold Sweden up as an example, as is often done, of what other welfare states should strive to emulate. Indeed, a great strength of Boling’s research is in explaining the difficulties that Japan, the US, and other welfare states would face in trying to be like Sweden. This is in fact the key puzzle motivating her book: why has it proven so difficult for states to enact work–family policies that support working parents and, in particular, working mothers? Boling brings to this problem a political scientist’s sensitivity to party politics, competing interests, state fiscal constraints, and the dynamics of policy-making processes across time. An additional strength of the book is her attention to variation in the structure of labor markets across the four country cases she analyzes in depth. In representing different skill regimes, Boling argues, labor markets play a critical role in structuring the opportunities and constraints women face as they try to utilize work–family policies to balance childrearing and career development. The difference in labor market institutions and skill regimes, as well as the size of the public versus private sector, has profound implications for women’s ability to move across firms and to move in and out of the labor market without suffering serious wage depreciation. Labor market institutions thus constitute a critical complement to work–family policies, influencing employers’ stake in the development and enforcement of policies, and thus affecting women’s ability to utilize policies without suffering stigmatization or career penalties.