Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Supporting The Employment Of Mothers: Policy Variation Across Fourteen Welfare States, Janet C. Gornick, Marcia K. Meyers, Katherin E. Ross

Sociology - All Scholarship

Despite their broadly similar political and economic systems, the rates and patterns of mothers' employment vary considerably across industrialized countries. This variation raises questions about the role played by government policies in enabling mothers to choose employment and, in turn, in shaping both gender equality and family economic well-being. This paper compares fourteen OECD countries, as of the middle-to-late 1980s, with respect to their provision of policies that support mothers' employment: parental leave, child care, and the scheduling of public education. Newly gathered data on eighteen policy indicators are presented; these indicators were chosen to capture support for maternal employment, …