Gender Equality through policy Flashcards
How does generous childcare help women’s employment rates? give citations/stats
public provision of childcare is work facilitating - reduces the caring responsibilities for women and so they can become employed
OECD, 2024 - found that in Sweden where there are higher levels of defamiliialisation, employment rates are high at approx 80% compared to Italy where employment is much lower due to higher familisation
Grover (2005) - found that the expansion of childcare in the UK through the NCS significantly improved employment rates in mother’s, especially in lone mothers
Landivar et al , 2021 - found that mothers living in US states with cheaper childcare were more likely to be employed
While generous childcare can be inclusive and work facilitating, what are possible limitation? citations
Pavolini and Van Lancker, 2018
The Mathew Effect
Disadvantaged children are less likely to be able to access childcare due to cost/transport/accessibility etc than more advantaged children
This creates class differences in employment as lower income women are less likely to be employed as they have to stay at home to care for children
How does generous maternity leave benefit women? citations
Adams et al, 2016 - easier to return to work instead of facing discrimination for being a mother in the hiring process, as shown by the discrimination found by
California’s leave programme increased mothers work probabilities by 18.3% - showing maternity leave can increase emplyment
How does generous maternity leave negatively impact women?
too much leave can be work reducing for mothers:
too hard to get back into work such as adjusting to changes, losing contacts and harder to keep work relevant skills
Evertsson and Duvander 2011 - found that long maternity leaves of 16+ months in Sweden meant the women were less likely to be promoted once they returned to work
Costa Dias et al. 2016 - found that after having a child the gender pay gap increased each year due to the experience lost after having the child causing them to fall behind male counterparts
This is despite evidence being found by the TUC (2016) that men with a child were being paid 21% more than men without - even with individual variables controlled for
How does generous men’s leave impact women positively?
240 days each patent has in Sweden - 90 of which are reserved for each parent and can’t be transferred
IFAU (2010) found that every month a father took of paternity leave in Sweden, the mother’s income increased by 7 %
Budig et al 2016 - found that women’s wage penalty per child decreased for each week of additional paternity leave that was taken
However, in someplace such as Germany and the Uk take up is still low. Clifton-sprigg et al 2024 found take up in the UK of eligible fathers was only 2-4%
