Who cares? Changing patterns of childcare in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

This article compares childcare provisions in the new member countries of the EU. It takes into account two pillars of childcare policy: publicly provided childcare services and parental leave provisions. In the analysis, the fuzzy set ideal types approach is utilized. In contrast to the studies conducted so far, this article stops treating the region of Cental and Eastern Europe as a monolith and demonstrates the existence of cross-country variation of childcare policies within the region. Furthermore, the difference is systematized by identifying four clusters of childcare policy. These are : explicit familialism, implicit familialism, female mobilizing and comprehensive support types. The countries are clustered as follows: the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia in the explicit familism policy model; Estonia and Latvia in the female mobilizing type policy; Lithuania and Hungary pursuing the childcare policies typical of the comprehensive support model; and finally the childcare policy in Poland resembles characteristics of the implicit familism model.

Gender inequality and the ‘East-West’ divide in contraception: An analysis at the individual, the couple, and the country level

“…At the same time, these findings should not distract our attention from the enormous heterogamy among countries in both regions (Szelewa and Polakowski 2008) as large variations in terms of contraceptive patterns can be identified (Appendix 1). We conclude that women's status at the individual and couple level are important predictors for contraceptive use and division, but that diverging patterns between NWE and CEE in non-use, and traditional and male methods are particularly linked to varying levels of country-level gender inequality.…”

“…This resulted in a trend of men working full-time and women working varying employment arrangements, ranging from housewife, to part-time or full-time employment. In CEE, social policy during the Soviet period stimulated women to join the labor force by introducing highly developed and affordable childcare services, and generous systems of state support for maternity and family (Szelewa and Polakowski 2008). However, few efforts were made to encourage men to do their share at home, and policy continued to be based on male-centered concepts of society and the family, and aimed at making a maledominated society function better (David 1999).…”

“…However, few efforts were made to encourage men to do their share at home, and policy continued to be based on male-centered concepts of society and the family, and aimed at making a maledominated society function better (David 1999). The collapse of the regime has led many women to return to the private sphere, among others because of a backlash in the provision of public childcare (Ma 2010, Szelewa andPolakowski 2008). Nevertheless, recent empirical evidence shows that female employment rates in CEE countries are still similar to those in NWE countries (UNDP 2015).…”

What is Your Couple Type? Gender Ideology, Housework Sharing and Babies

“…Consequently, one would expect gender ideology to lean towards the more egalitarian and liberal end of the scale. However, these socialist policies have undergone drastic revision in the transition period since the 1990s, reverting in the direction of the male breadwinner model (Robila 2004;Szelewa and Polakowski 2008). Moreover, the structural changes following the collapse of the socialist regimes were not accompanied by a shift to less traditional values in these societies, and this contributed to their fertility decline (Spéder and Kapitány 2014).…”

Welfare States and Care Arrangements: Care Time Mix Approach and Its Application to Japan and Korea

“…Yet we face critical questions, such as whether the growth of a paid care economy through outsourcing care decreases the family's contribution to the unpaid care economy. Studies have highlighted that welfare states both familialise and defamilialise care, with crossnational variances (Leitner, 2003;Szelewa and Polakowski, 2008) suggesting answers to the question are not straightforward. Another question is the possibility of differences within the family if we compare men and women.…”